Inciteful video. Seems like Billups is having the Blazers run more, which is probably why Winslow looked so good against LAL. If we continue to push the pace, Winslow is a solid rotation player, imho.
interesting, from what I have seen of Winslow so far just with his D/passing I can see hiin being a rotation off the bench guy. The two consecutive yrs in Miam when he played 66 and 68 (2017/2018) games he shot 37.5 and 38% from 3 and avg 26-27 mpg. If he can shoot 35% from 3 with his other skills IMO he is already better than the Roco we had and a solid rotation guy. What amazed me is apparently he had a "hip replacement" - I have never heard of a player still playing in the NBA with a "replacemet", surgeries yes but not a replacement!
I don't know if that was very enlightening? He didn't fit with Miami's slow paced offense; then they tried to put him into roles that he wasn't talented enough to handle? If the guy is right, then yes, maybe he would thrive best if his role is simplified. Play defense, rebound, get out on the break, and shoot open threes? I was surprised watching him so far that he seems to make some bad decisions despite how long he has been in the league; so yes, maybe limit his need to make decisions?
I posted this in another thread; probably more appropriate here: about Keon Johnson..... Since he is a short guard, it seems he is not an asset that we want to keep long term. So I would want to see the team do whatever they can this season to develop him as an asset that other teams would find attractive. Work with him a lot and when he looks ready, play him a lot. Try to put him into situations where he can succeed.
short guard? here are his combine stats and a few comments" " Listed height: 6-5 Actual height: 6-4.75 (1) Height w/o shoes: 6-3.5 (2) Weight: 184.8 (3) Body fat %: 4.40 (4) Hands: 9.0 inches (5) Standing Reach: 8-1 (6) Wingspan: 6-7.25 A few notes: His height checks in just fine — the average NBA player is 6-6 an 50 percent of NBA SGs measure between 6-4 and 6-5. He’s a full inch shorter than Moses Moody and the same height as James Bouknight. Not real sure why they measure players without their shoes. Freeze tag? 184.8 makes Keon the third-lightest SG at the combine. Tied for sixth-smallest body-fat percentage of the entire draft class. Hand size is middle-of-the-road for this class. He can palm a ball — not sure if this matters outside of that. So far, his weight is the only real outlier, and while it seems a bit light comparatively, he’s just 19 and will surely fill out. And if he doesn’t, it’s no biggie. Y’all remember the jokes about Kevin Durant not being able to bench 135 pounds? Nah, you probably don’t because it didn’t matter. So I’m not worried there. But his 8-1 standing reach has some practical application concerns. Johnson’s standing reach is the fifth-shortest in the draft and lowest figure of any SG (next lowest after him is Springer at 8-3 — a two-inch difference). His wingspan, 6-7.25, also falls on the narrow end of the spectrum for this draft class, though not as starkly as his reach. There’s only three non-PG players who have shorter wingspans, but SG/SF AJ Lawson’s is a half-inch shorter and several guys come in somewhere between 6-7.25 and 6-8.25, meaning Keon isn’t off the norm by that much. It’s important to consider the real-life implications of these measurements: grabbing rebounds, getting a hand up contesting a shot, blocking shots, getting a fingertip on the ball in passing lanes, so on and so forth. I’ll say it’s encouraging that Keon was one of the leaders for Tennessee in pass deflections last season and showed prowess grabbing steals as it indicates he’s maybe not so limited by his limited reach. His strikingly-quick first step and 48-inch max vertical definitely help there, too, but I’m sure there’s concern about if those traits will translate to the League where he won’t have such an inherent athletic advantage.
Are you talking about the 2 games so far with the Blazers? Playing with new teammates without barely any practice? That seems to happen every time for the first few games after a mid-season trade.
Wingspan and length are advantages but they aren't the end-all, be-all that some people want to make them out to be. First, Johnson not only has a phenomenal top-percental vertical, more importantly he gets off the floor quickly. Like GB3, he has bounce. Second, THE biggest attribute someone needs to be an above-average defender is to be able to stay attached to whomever you are guarding. Lateral quickness, will, scouting and knowledge of your opponent and all eight other people on the floor and quick reflexes are the components to that, many of which can't be measured. Getting through screens is part of that, too, but, one doesn't necessarily need to be powerful to be good at that. First, there are the ability to make one's self small. There's wiry strength. And then there's the ability to keep the guy you're guarding from being able to use the screen properly by staying in front of them, denying their angles and having the lateral agility to recover if they take the straight drive as an alternative move. Also, being able to stay attached makes it tough for the player you're defending to get the ball unless they move well out of their sweet spot and it typically will run an extra couple of seconds off the shot clock if that player's team is bound and determined to get them the ball.
Dame's having to change - we've already seen it. But yes, Dame has preferred to play at his own pace in the past.
It's funny now I look at every player on the roster as if we keep Dame and try to win it all soon or if we trade Dame and start a rebuild. If Dame stays and we are legitimately trying to contend then Winslow is a really cool 9th or 10th player in a rotation throughout his career he can make the long ball if it is wide open at an effective enough level that he can't be totally left alone out there and then there is the fact that he defends well all over the court and makes the right pass. That's with Dame, if Dame gets traded then he's either a good role playing seventh or eighth option or if we are starting over with a youth rebuild he's valuable as a seventh or eighth spot on the roster depending on who our young stars are. As far as Keon, the subject of the thread goes, I think he's cool to develop outside the rotation if Dame is staying, I think he's a good trade piece to a team that values him or he's a great prospect to develop in the rotation if we're doing a youth rebuild. I honestly think everything has to be viewed in this way right now because if Cronin is the GM the plan is to rebuild around Dame but if the GM changes to an outside executive at the end of the season, everything changes.
I think the roster and playing style Billups wants isn't necessarily meant to fit with Dame. CJ is gone. Stotts is gone. That era is over.
Let's say we trade Dame for Ben Simmons. Nothing more than that. We don't need a youth rebuild if we trade Lillard for a younger All Star. I would prefer try to do that than receive a "package" of good/average players and draft picks. We might not be contenders, it might not make the team any better than it has been, but at least we won't stink. It's not fun to go see games when the arena isn't even half full.
Ben is a horrible option to trade Dame for since they already have Kyrie. The most likely trade for Dame if we get a new GM or Cronin gives up on the idea is Jaylen Brown plus picks and possibly other young players. That won't make us better at the end of next season than we were last season but it does give us a better ceiling, just not a contending ceiling. Ant, Brow, Nas, FRP, Nurk, FRP plus whatever more we get for Dame would have a higher upside... a title upside than even though Dame and what we have right now including the picks doesn't likely have a title upside.
I seriously doubt Boston would trade Brown for Dame. It doesn't make much sense for them IMO. And they certainly wouldn't add good draft picks and young prospects. There's an 8 year difference in age between Dame & Tatum even if Boston was willing, I think you're stretching your imagination a lot to see a Brown + Ant roster as a contender while a Dame roster isn't I'll say again, Portland's problem over the last 7 seasons is that they had a worthy 1st option but no worthy 2nd option to go with him. Trading away that 1st option for a 2nd option doesn't solve the riddle, even if you look thru rose colored glasses and see Ant as a worthy 2nd option. He's not there yet. Having a pair of arguable 2nd options is not better than a 1st and 3rd option (if it was then Boston would be a contender right now...but they ain't). And while it's all difficult, it's going to be a lot harder to land that 1st option than it is to land a 2nd option if you believe that Boston would trade Brown for a scoring PG, and you believe Ant is an elite one (which would have to be the case if you see Brown + Ant with "title upside") or will be there soon, then Boston should see that too. So then trade Ant in a S&T with one of the lottery picks, plus filler for Brown
Higher ceiling and lower floor. You have to keep that in mind. Look where New Orleans is now. I don't want the lower floor. I don't care about contending if it means sucking for 3-5 years. I'd rather make the playoffs.
If I'm Boston, I'm not trading for a "maybe" elite scoring PG-- even with a lottery pick attached--but I'm absolutely willing to trade my all-star SG for a hall-of-fame level PG, and pair two all-NBA talents together.
