It is possible to get 25/18 from the center position this year. I thought Eubanks was tremendous, and really glad they kept him. I just believe Jusuf has found himself, for real, and maybe The Beast will never be as bad as it once was, but I think instead, he may be a better Basketball Player.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Keon Johnson made Anfernee Simons expandable at some point should he start at 2 guard. It won’t be too long until we have a thread discussing which one the Blazers should keep & which one the Blazers should trade.
that would be a very good situation for the team assuming Ant is playing well, could give them some solid trade possibilities, if Keon improves that much then he would have more value because of his rookie contract
That seems very unlikely to me, I think people are taking fr granted how smooth and capable ant is. Players that can manipulate the defense as he does are not common.
I've stated my take on the starting unit elsewhere, but here goes again. Starters Dame, Hart, Little, Grant, Nurk with Ant as the 6th man who leads the team in MPG. STOMP
I also think this is the best course of action. With Dame and Ant, Little is probably the best fit because he’ll just have to find his fit on offense and not command shots. At the same time, Hart at the 3 off the bench would give us a Ant/Payton/Hart lineup off the bench where Hart could be an adequate 2nd or 3rd option on offense. It also makes sense to have one hustle guy in Little starting, then have the other hustle guy in GPII off the bench. I don’t imagine Little and GPII ever playing many minutes together.
It would be hard to justify trading him if he averages north of 20ppg on similar efficiency to last year, which is what I imagine him doing.
I guess we'll find out. I really like Walker, but I see people here think he'll be starting on opening night, so if that makes me down on him, ok. I'm fairly confident teams would prefer Walker taking semi-contested jump shots vs Dame/Ant beating them. But maybe I'm way too high on Dame and way too low on Walker.
I get this logic, but there is near 0% chance Ant comes off the bench to start the season. I assumed the poll was asking us to predict who will start, not who we want to start.
I think it all just comes down to if Nas can shoot the three anywhere close to as consistent as Hart. Both guys are really good defenders and obviously Nas has the upside of being longer, stronger and more athletic but Hart just knows how to play on both ends. So whoever is hitting that outside shot when Dame gets them the ball in camp and preseason will be starting.
If Jabari Walker starts, and Sharpe shows any promise, it's time to prioritize Ant / Sharpe / Little / Walker for the future.
