I suspect Simons is the one Cronin was shopping to get Dame that "vet" he wanted. So they obviously are not liking what they would get in return for Simons. There are plenty of minutes to go around at guard if they do a 3 guard rotation. Simons may blossom without Dame and increase his trade value.
Yeah, but Ujiri is out of his fucking mind. Overvalues his players more than anyone in the league. Not to mention, Anunoby and Siakam don't make sense here if we are rebuilding. That Siakam would just had back to Toronto next year.
The interesting thing to me about Simons is that he became good friends with Dame, yet Dame pretty much sold him out, wanting him traded for a vet. I wonder what Simons thinks of all this drama.
Ant's going to start, Sharpe will start, Scoot will either come off the bench or push Sharpe up to the 3, and Ant is going to average at least 25/game. He'll have 4 months to show that he's either part of this team's future or a desirable asset for another team. I'll be rooting for him.
IMO that's mythology Ant has been in the NBA for 5 seasons. Teams know he's 6'3 with little versatility. They know he's a defensive sieve. They know he's not 3&D or a 2-way player. They know his salary. There is no mystery. And Ant's value won't go up if he's averaging 25 points on a bad team by being the #1 option than when he averaged 21 on a bad team as the #2 option the reason's Ant's value is low won't change by him increasing his usage and channeling MeJ
Of course it could increase his value if he is showing you that he can create offense. People know he shoots well, the problem is that we only saw him as a lead guard for 20-30 games. If he can repeat his performance from that time - or get closer to it - there is a much bigger sample size that makes sure he is not just a slightly over-paid one way shooter.
That would be awful. He definitely shouldn't start and would be best to come off the bench behind Shae and Scoot.
what if he can't consistently create offense as you seem to be assuming? here's what I was saying: the factors that keep Ant's value low are not going to change if he averages a 3 or 4 more points and a 2 more assists he's an undersized SG that may only have the versatility of a tweener-guard, and tweener-guard value is in the toilet. He's a SG with no ability to play wing on offense, or guard wings on defense. In fact he's terrible at defense so he has very limited versatility, no 3&D value, and no 2-way value. The NBA knows he can score and the league knows he's a relatively good shooter. Nothing will be revealed by him shooting 20 times a game rather than the 17 he shot last season
Not entirely true FREE FOOD Anfernee can help the Blazers score 100 points, and fans can get free nuggets at Micky D's.
No reason to trade him. Especially now. But he certainly shouldn't be starting. That doesn't effect his value.
I'll play a little devil's advocate on that and say that the Blazers should want to get a couple of vets that could be leaders regardless of the timeline. I don't think doing things like OKC and Houston have done or are doing where you want a bunch of young guys to figure it out together typically works out. Philly tried that with The Process, too, and it eventually allowed them to amass a lot of talent but they stunk for years more than they probably needed to, too, and they still can't seem to figure it out in the playoffs. Unless you want to pick up Lowry and use him as an effective player-coach, a guy like Anunoby would act as a stabilizer who would balance the positional roster. After a couple of years, you can move off him if you like, but he's still only 25.
Hoping he comes off the bench for a year. I do see Sharpe playing some 3 in his future, but I prefer he play against guys his size or smaller. I also feel like Ant will average 25 a game, on solid efficiency too, with two years at a $25m, which is a bargain for a 25ppg scorer. I don’t think he’s part of the team’s future—you can’t have 3 guys like Ant, Scoot, and Sharpe, and have one guy come off the bench. Even if he averages 26ppg on good efficiency, I wouldn’t keep him. Packages start looking a lot better if he becomes the Ant without Dame those 11 games last season. He had a down year shooting the ball. Given his normal efficiency from 3, he could’ve been averaging 24ppg. With no expectations and a managable $25m/yr the next 2 years, I’m fine waiting for a good offer. We aren’t in a rush to get rid of him.
