Well.... I mean..... we have three years of watching him. He hasn't shown much on defense. And both Dame/CJ have said they want to do better on defense, but they never really backed it up on the court. Defense is a frame of mind. I just hope that Chauncey can get to him and that Stotts didn't damage him permanently.
CJ was putting up All-Star numbers. Frankly, I think the title All-Star doesn't carry much weight. There have been plenty of guys who got the nod that don't deserve the gravitas that it comes with.
sure...that's a good point too because that was the playoffs Portland got swept by the Pels. But let's be clear: the reason for that sweep was a failure of the offense, not the defense (although I guess you could say that Nurkic could not defend AD). but the Pels exploited Portland's Achilles Heel that other teams, notably the Warriors have exploited: that being that when the ball was taken out of Dame's hands, the Blazer offense collapsed. CJ could not make the other team pay for the Dame-centric defense, and he couldn't run the offense well enough, nor did it have other weapons effective enough. that's where large servings of hope come in: 1) Will Simons be better at being the outlet option than CJ was? Will he be better at initiating the offense? Is he talented enough, unlike CJ, to consistently punish an imbalanced defense twisted toward Dame? I think the early returns are positive. Simons seems to have better court vision than CJ (at least he does when driving right), he seems to dribble less and make quicker decisions. And his perimeter game is much more like Dame than CJ's (although his dribble-drive game is too much like CJ's...get to the damn foul line Ant!) 2) is Billups, as a coach, better equipped to design a defense that covers for the Dame/Ant pairing than Stotts was at designing a defense that covered the Dame/CJ pairing? Will the Billups motion offense be harder to defend than the 'iso-heavy-Dame-save-us!' offense of Stotts? 3) finally, and perhaps most important: Does Cronin really have a plan? Will he be able to add the players between now and the trade deadline next season, that complements the Dame/Ant pairing enough to make that pairing viable? I think with Nurkic-Hart-Winslow-lottery pick(s)-TPE's he has a pretty nice start when I look at that extremely objective and logical list of extremely intelligent and insightful questions I generated out of my extremely gifted colon, I'm more hopeful now than I was at any time over the last 7 seasons. Bow down to my colon man
Yeah, but how many times have we seen our players go to another team and play better D because of their coach. Patty Mills is the best example. A small guard who immediately played better D when he got to SA under Pop.
I would actually be interested in 'how many times'. If it takes a coach of Pop's caliber, there might not be too many examples.
The second all star to pair with Dame may already be on the roster. Look at Phoenix. They didn't have an all star until they started winning, and players matured. Booker makes the game as an injury replacement for a couple and is finally in now on the coaches vote. They have CP3 in now with Ayton and Bridges maturing and on the cusp of all stardom. I personally thought Nurk should have been an all star by now. I think CJ really hurt Nurks game and he resented him. When you continually walk the ball up, waste the shot clock and only pass it down low to the big guy when you are unable to get your contested shot off and he has little time to operate, you are not endearing yourself to the big guy. I always thought that by walking the ball up the court, the guards were just making it easier for them to chuck up a shot, contested or not. When you run, all the teammates are in a position to finish or have a mismatch. Start winning at a high level, properly utilize Nurk and Ant with Dame and they can be the next Suns. And yes, the Suns traded for CP3, but he was considered washed up and on a bad contract. The Suns gave up little for him. One last thing, remember that it takes longer for big guys to mature and develop. Hopefully Nurk is now there. He is thriving with this new group in a small sample size, but the change in his attitude, for the positive is obvious, and infectious.
That is where I hope the Blazers get to. Having players with the defensive abilities of CP3, Bridges and Ayton with that type of length and youth from the last two.
I will never understand how that "gather" step by Ant isn't a travel. Dame's sidestep, pound dribble looks a lot cleaner.
I had the same thought. I was looking at that clip frame-by-frame to see if it was. Looks like hand is off the ball while the left foot is off the ground, then the foot comes down and the hand hits the ball simultaneously. Then two steps on the sidestep. Looks sketchy in real-time, but I have to call it legit.
it's legal, he's put in a lot of work to get that footwork clearly, but still looks odd to me. Steph/Kyrie/Harden have that move down to a science. (tatum does it a lot too, but his looks a bit more clunky cuz of his height).
obviously, mj and kobe were on whole other levels, but watching this reminds me of watching Kobe’s emulations of MJ.
Same. I had to rewatch it a few times. I think it's because it's just one step with his right foot, plants then lands with his left and shoots. I think that's why. My eyes have decieved me before but that's what I... Gathered. Ha!
The funny thing though was that Kobe even tried to emulate Jordan's persona. Ant and Dame are very very different in terms of personality. Ant might replicate Dame's offense, but I'm not sure if I see him becoming the leader that Dame is.
I don't think he wants to be the leader Dame is. I imagine he still views Dame as the leader, and has no interest in usurping his role.
