maybe he will add more to his game or improve the current skill set, but i dont think he will take a leap statistically playing with dame, nurk & grant id like to see more balanced scoring, hopefully dame gets to be a difference maker, rather than having to carry the team
he can certainly get better; he's only 23 "leap"...? I don't know about that; not if you're gauging him by the last 27 games when he averaged around 23.5 points and 5.5 assists in 35 minutes. But then, he was basically it. He had the freedom to go high usage and he had the ball in his hands all the time. That's not going to happen with Dame, Drant, Nurkic, and Hart around. Hopefully he settles into a semi-CJ role that doesn't include CJ's over-dribbling and tunnel vision. If he does, while he might not make a big statistical leap, he might have a big impact and remove some of the burden from Dame
He's going to be playing a lot of time in bench units and shot 48% on catch and shoot 3s last year so being able to get more spot up looks because he has more talent around him might not hurt him as much statistically as you imply.
That spot up shooting. Teams will not be able to leave him on the floor. What I'm looking for is the direst effect playing on the road seemed to have on him. He was really really good at home but faltered on the road. Great players play well on the road. Role players very rarely produce in another teams gym.
I was specifically talking about his 27 game stretch when Dame was out. Statistically, in that stretch, he averaged 23.4 points & 5.8 assists with a usage rate around 28%. As a starter, in 30 games, he averaged 22 & 5.5 with a 27% usage. He also had a TS% of .600 as a starter I do not see how he can make a big leap from those numbers. Those are better than CJ ever produced, and unless the Blazers are struck by massive injuries, with Dame-Grant-Nurkic-Hart, Simons will be hard-pressed to come close to that 28% usage rate. Now, if your baseline is he season average, when he was about a half-time starter, of 17 & 4, then yes, he should increase those numbers quite a bit. But that's not really taking a leap as much as changing a role
If we can get 22/5.5 from Ant with all the guys back, I'd be super happy. He is the one thing about this season I'm excited to see.
I was watching Ant's catch and shoot motion and he looks a whole lot like Pete Maravich with that stroke...some Steph Curry mixed in too...he has a really, really quick release
The assists will be interesting this year. As long as the team numbers are adequate I don't care where they come from. Between Dame, Ant, Nurk, Hart, and Gp2 they are all capable. Not sure about Grant, but the backup PFs, like Winslow and Watford, could help as well.
22/5/5 is a fairly lofty goal. only 12 players put up these stats last year: LeBron James Giannis Antetokounmpo Kevin Durant Luka Doncic Ja Morant Nikola Jokic Stephen Curry Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Paul George Pascal Siakam Brandon Ingram James Harden
Playing next to Dame, Ant needs to work on his Reggie Miller / JJ Reddick impression. He needs to move constantly off the ball so Dame can find him for assisted 3s. If he does that, the Blazers are going to be super-dangerous. The place where CJ was really spectacular was at creating shots for himself from nothing. The place Ant can be spectacular is by being a target of assisted 3 points. This is where he can be an even better back-court mate to Dame than CJ was.
I don't think rebounds were part of the equation; I assumed he meant 22 points and 5.5 assists. Still, 5.5 apg for Ant seems pretty high to me. He barely reached that (5.8) in his 27-game breakout.
