Since Ant is a high-quality catch and shoot guy who also scores both midrange and now gets to the hoop, that’s a quality asset. As a 2ndary initiator if not a true PG, good. Not good at D So he has value and is locked into a very reasonable contact based on production. He’s certainly not a solution at guard for just any team. He’s also not someone that returns scrubs. The hole remains at forward. Ant’s a starter and even Nurkic is a deft starting center. 15th best at least. With Dame, Scoot and Shaedon, Ant is odd man out. I don’t see a whole of argument unless Scoot signs, they wait for 30 days, and then add his contract to Ant or Nurk. Voila! New starting forward!
NBA catch & Shoot eFG%: Damian Jones 84.2 Chris Paul 78.5 Luke Kennard 78.4 Gary Payton II 75.9 Jalen Brunson 71.9 Bojan Bogdanovic 69.0 Damion Lee 68.8 Yuta Watanabe 68.6 Day'Ron Sharpe 67.9 Tyrese Maxey 67.6 Jrue Holiday 66.9 Shaedon Sharpe 66.7 Jae Crowder 66.3 Malcolm Brogdon 66.1 Danny Green 65.6 Michael Porter Jr. 65.6 Mike Conley 65.4 Aaron Holiday 65.3 Al Horford 65.1 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 65.0 Alec Burks 64.7 Jevon Carter 64.3 Zion Williamson 64.3 Darius Garland 64.2 Devin Booker 64.2 Gary Harris 64.2 Corey Kispert 64.0 Jordan Nwora 63.9 Joe Harris 63.8 Goran Dragic 63.7 Sam Hauser 63.7 Andrew Wiggins 63.5 Kevin Porter Jr. 63.3 Donte DiVincenzo 63.2 Usman Garuba 63.2 Cam Thomas 62.7 Isaiah Joe 62.7 Buddy Hield 62.6 James Harden 62.6 Patrick Williams 62.5 Kevin Durant 62.4 De'Anthony Melton 62.3 Grayson Allen 62.3 Josh Green 62.3 Devin Vassell 62.1 Cameron Johnson 61.9 Georges Niang 61.9 Stephen Curry 61.9 Anthony Edwards 61.8 Spencer Dinwiddie 61.8 Taurean Prince 61.7 Kyle Anderson 61.6 Cory Joseph 61.5 O.G. Anunoby 61.5 Garrett Temple 61.4 Kawhi Leonard 61.4 Keegan Murray 61.4 Norman Powell 61.4 D'Angelo Russell 61.3 Shake Milton 61.3 Zach LaVine 61.3 Christian Wood 61.1 Lauri Markkanen 60.9 Robert Covington 60.7 Doug McDermott 60.6 Kenrich Williams 60.6 Austin Reaves 60.4 Jamal Murray 60.4 LaMelo Ball 60.3 Will Barton 60.3 Nikola Jokic 60.2 Trey Murphy III 60.2 Desmond Bane 60.1 Landry Shamet 60.1 Franz Wagner 60.0 Josh Hart 59.9 Quentin Grimes 59.9 Gary Trent Jr. 59.8 Keita Bates-Diop 59.8 Klay Thompson 59.8 Seth Curry 59.7 Thomas Bryant 59.7 Tyrese Haliburton 59.7 Bogdan Bogdanovic 59.6 Jayson Tatum 59.5 Brandon Ingram 59.3 George Hill 59.3 P.J. Tucker 59.3 Caris LeVert 59.2 CJ McCollum 59.1 Terance Mann 59.0 Royce O'Neale 58.9 Torrey Craig 58.9 Anfernee Simons 58.7 that's a lot of players with a better percentage on catch & shoot. I guess it may depend on the definition of high quality
True, but few are at his level of volume. Seth Curry and Klay Thompson are towards the bottom of that list as well and I'm guessing most people would prefer them as catch-n-shoot players over most of the people on that list. For example, Josh Hart is above all 3 of them. Almost invalidates the list from that perspective.
Not that I think there's enough minutes, but I would love to see Shae start with Dame and Ant n Scoot come in off the bench.
Not to speak for Rastapopoulos, but for me I feel like this thread might be an interesting way to discuss Ant in a theoretical manner. If this team is trying to contend, how Ant is used (either as a member of the team or as a trade piece) is important because every win will matter this year. Imho, the line that separates a happy Dame from a Dame that demands a trade is the 6th seed. I think he'll be unhappy if he has to play into the playoffs. Only 6 games separated the warriors at 6 from the Mavs at 11. So we need to get the most our of our best players. To make this happen, Ant has to start next to Dame. Putting him on the bench hoses our fragile little ecosystem. But if we're not contending we can be a little more experimental. In that situation maybe we try out something like blazerkor suggested and start the youngins and make Ant the sixth man. Or if the cupboard is really bare in our front court we go crazy and try out a four guard lineup just to get these guys on the court. Just go nuts with the different lineup ideas and guess which ones would benefit Ant and which ones would waste his "talents"
it makes for a shorter list. I don't think it changes the picture much though player - FGA/game - eFG% Simons - 5.7 - 58.7% Luke Kennard 3.7 - 78.4 Bojan Bogdanovic 4.2 - 69.0 Damion Lee 3.2 - 68.8 Tyrese Maxey 3.6 - 67.6 Shaedon Sharpe 2.0 - 66.7 Michael Porter Jr. 6.0 - 65.6 Al Horford 5.3 - 65.1 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 3.9 - 65.0 Gary Harris 3.9 - 64.2 Corey Kispert 4.8 - 64.0 Joe Harris 4.0 - 63.8 Sam Hauser 3.9 - 63.7 Andrew Wiggins 5.2 - 63.5 Donte DiVincenzo 4.4 - 63.2 Isaiah Joe 4.3 - 62.7 Buddy Hield 6.0 - 62.6 Kevin Durant 3.7 - 62.4 De'Anthony Melton 4.0 - 62.3 Grayson Allen 3.7 - 62.3 Devin Vassell 5.3 - 62.1 Cameron Johnson 5.5 - 61.9 Georges Niang 4.6 - 61.9 Stephen Curry 5.3 - 61.9 O.G. Anunoby 4.7 - 61.5 Kawhi Leonard 3.2 - 61.4 Keegan Murray 5.9 - 61.4 Norman Powell 3.5 - 61.4 D'Angelo Russell 3.9 - 61.3 Zach LaVine 3.2 - 61.3 Christian Wood 3.5 - 61.1 Lauri Markkanen 7.0 - 60.9 Doug McDermott 4.0 - 60.6 LaMelo Ball 5.5 - 60.3 Trey Murphy III 5.8 - 60.2 Desmond Bane 3.7 - 60.1 Landry Shamet 3.5 - 60.1 Quentin Grimes 5.0 - 59.9 Gary Trent Jr. 4.7 - 59.8 Klay Thompson 8.7 - 59.8 Bogdan Bogdanovic 5.3 - 59.6 Jayson Tatum 4.6 - 59.5 Brandon Ingram 3.3 - 59.3 CJ McCollum 4.6 - 59.1 Royce O'Neale 4.7 - 58.9 Anfernee Simons 4.9 - 58.7 Kevin Huerter 4.8 - 58.6 Tim Hardaway Jr. 6.2 - 58.6 Coby White 3.9 - 58.4 Reggie Bullock 4.9 - 58.3 I don't know what the minimum cutoff would be. But if you use that gauge then you need to come up with some adjustment for opportunity. Simons was 27th in the NBA in FGA. Catch and shoot was 29% of his shots. Might need to compare that rate to other players, not just raw volume
If the team gets a very good forward then it's fine to trade Ant. But we shouldn't dump him for a poor return if the Dame situation is up in the air. It would be stupid to accept less value for Ant, need to trade Dame in a few months, then see Ant lead the league in scoring elsewhere.
Seriously. Look at what is being talked about for Lillard. Simons gets the Blazers a pork chop maybe. In-N-Out burger?
Since when is 3 point shooting and the ability to get his own shot off the dribble as the end of the shot clock the same skill? Both of those attributes are important and he does both very well. STOMP
The question of course is who do they think is a very good forward? Who do you think is not a very good forward? (That has been discussed) In my mind, DDR is good enough to make the trade, but I would not say he is a very good fit with Grant. I would also settle for Collins as I think he can be a better rebounder than he has shown in the last couple of years. He did average around 10 boards/game a few years ago. Simmons, I would roll the dice for. He is still a very good defender. The Toronto guys are better but seem more difficult to obtain....at least for now.
John Collins' career has gone south the last couple of years. He's in bad need of an address change. I think he'd have a renaissance with Dame and the Blazers. His contract is not out of whack either. The potential is there. For what ever reason, Trae Young was in love with Clint Cappela.
A lot talk about his talent, and people in the ATL have said good things, but he was flat out mediocre when Collins and Cappela didn't play , and he got more minutes. I follow the League very closely . Just don't see enough in him. Rather have Collins because the ability is there. Young just seemed to have blinders on when it came to getting him involved. Not sure Coach Mac didn't hurt Collins as well.
obviously lower on the list. Since topic was Ant I kind of stopped once I got to Ant's spot on the list I'd say, besides catch & shoot you'd need to look at spot-up play stats as well, as catch-n-shoot and spot-up are similar and probably have some overlap
I agree, but the problem with Atlanta is they don't seem to have much of a need for Ant as much as teams like Toronto, Chicago, or the Nets. Not sure what their biggest need is, but with Young, Bogdan, and Murray...why add Ant. A 3 team trade would be needed
Simons is 23 years. I think all the assumptions here are that he doesn't improve. Lillard improved a ton after 23 years old, probably having his best season at 32 years old. I'm instead going to assume that Simons keeps improving when thinking about him.
