1. He may never play again. He has a condition called terminal injuryproneness. 2. Do we WANT him playing, given that he is (a) comparatively old for the roster, (b) unlikely to be here next year, and (c) possibly competent and thus a threat to our tanking?
Only possible good thing about Simons injury is it could push Sharpe to do more and IF this team has any shot at anything now and specially the future his growth will be the key. I know Sharpe is still a little raw but he has shown signs and not just talking about his dunking that he could be a superstar in the league and sooner we know if this could be the case the better. The old saying of pressure turning coal into a diamond applies to Sharpe cause Dame needs help sooner rather then later so time to put some extra pressure on the kid. I would hate to see Sharpe get crushed by putting too much on him BUT as I said this team needs another star or better since NeO and co have kind of pushed this team into the corner so the time is much sooner then later and that is a fact.
The response was in regards to Gary Trent Jr. In his second year he shot 41.8% from 3 on 268 shots over 60 games. If Walker could improve his 3 point shooting and bring what he brings on defense and rebounding the Blazers will have them a gem. Now on the other hand if you could shoot 40% for $100 bucks a game we could find a spot for you to play. I'm sure you could be a gem also.
The pressure needs to be put on Dame and his teammates to get Sharpe the ball, not so much on Sharpe. There have been multiple times where Sharpe is barely defended on the baseline or where he cuts to the hoop in futility while our guards with their tunnel vision glasses don't seem to have any inclination or understanding how to throw a simple pass to him. Instead, they wait for Grant to be standing still and well-defended away from the hoop to show their "play making" skills. It's so sad watching it happen. Here is an example. Sharpe cut to the hoop and the Memphis defender #7 didn't move from his spot. Simons of course waited for Grant to get stationary and threw him the ball. Grant drove to the basket and missed the shot near the hoop.
Ok. But where is the passing lane? Someone being open doesn't always mean they can be passed to. Not seeing the space for a pass here.
Doncic would have spun a bounce pass down the right side of the key, curling back into Sharpe's waiting hands! CP3 would have led him to the rim, somehow getting the defenders focused elsewhere with a look-away. I don't disagree with your point, though. It's just, I can't even remember the last time we had passing creativity at the PG position. Andre Miller, probably?
He’s probably better off running open gyms with NBA players over the summer. Even if he spent an entire summer working out with Dame who works out with guys like Mikal and Dort for a summer, we should see a world of difference.
I’m sure it just has to do with getting reps. I’ve been watching a lot if Rafael Barlow’s draft prospect vids lately and he said something really interesting. He talked about a story where he ran into Adebayo and asked why Portland picks Zach over him, because Adebayo does everything we need. And Adebayo said Portland probably didn’t watch much of his high school tape, because he’s always shown he could do those things, he just had to sacrifice because he played at Kentucky. Rafael says high school tapes really showcase a player’s skill and college tapes really show if the player can play in a specific system, and that’s really stuck with me. If you watch Walker’s HS tape, so much of it is him shooting 3’s, and his college tape is where we see his nose for the ball and smarts/hustle. Maybe it doesn’t even happen next year, but eventually he should be a good shooter. And so far, he’s shown us he is pretty good at doing the little things like rebounding. He’s gonna be a solid 3-D guy.
That's a risky approach. Relying on HS tape would have someone like Little going top-5. Skills against minimal competition and small audiences don't tell you much. Everyone in the league has them, but not everyone can perform under pressure.
I searched on youtube for "in game" dunks from the FT line, and it seemed that of them were of taller players and even LeBrons didn't look as easily done as what Shaedon did. (BTW: The intro music for this is NSFW. So probably best to view this on mute or at home) vs One thing to take note of, albeit he didn't take "off from the FT line", he also only started running at 3/4 court, which most of the dunks in the video (that were dunk contests) took off from the entire court. And you also will note that unlike most of the guys who dunked, he wasn't at full extension with his arm and wasn't gliding on his way down/barely made it. Just insane the leaping ability and athleticism of him
Ths ignores the 2nd point which was that they can play in a system in college, we all know that Nasir's college career was not great.... Add injuries to cause problems with his individual play....
Watching what Sharpe does with his starters minutes through the rest of the season is probably the only reason I'll watch (aside from, of course, Dame Greatness). I think there's a pretty good chance Ant has seen his last day as a starter in Blazers uni.
Oh I see what you’re saying now. Like Adebayo played well at Kentucky, but his high school tape proved he could do more. This was where I thought Duren would be a great nba player. He showed stuff in high school that he wasn’t able to at Memphis
seems like most are assuming Chauncey will start Sharpe. He very well may. But he also may not if Grant is back. He might go with Dame-Thybulle-Reddish-Grant-Nurk/Eubanks and keep Shape's rotational role the same I wouldn't like that decision but for the most part it seems coaches are conservative about changing rotations
I read it as an either/or, not a combination of the two tapes. The example was Bam's college tape being underwhelming, and we didn't draft him because we either overlooked his HS tape, or placed too little emphasis on it. Saying his college tape showed him being capable of playing in a system is a bit of a cop out (the original source, not by you), as the whole reason he was overlooked by many teams in the draft is that he didn't show much of what he was capable of. That's rather indistinguishable, other than in hindsight, from players who turned out to not be particularly good after HS.
I think he will be benefit as much coming off the bench and asked to be aggressive scoring and putting it on the floor going to the hoop. He needs to improve his handle with dribble drives or pull ups, he'll get more opportunity off the bench.
