Exclusive Vote - Would you prefer Brandon Miller or Amen Thompson over Scoot?

Not exactly correct here.
Dame just completed his 10th year. As a 10-year veteran, the max salary is the same as the Designated Veteran max contract (or 35% of the cap).

Dame wanted the extension last year to lock in the future earnings (by being a designated veteran). If he did not sign that contract, he would have hit the FA this summer and most likely have gotten the exact same contract amount. The only difference is/was the risk of him getting hurt last season.

 

Damn I can’t believe Haynes would share Dame’s business like that

 

Dame gets shit endorsements in Portland. He goes to NY 3 years ago he gets way more cash than the 30>35% supermax bump. I strongly disagree with your conspiracy theory Dame had some sinister money angle to this.

 

another food fight I'm glad to not be engaged in

 

The endorsement argument might make sense in the macro, but if Dame decided that he was going to stick it out until he got that extension, I don't think one or two years with Portland endorsements would have made a drastic difference financially.

I'm not saying that Dame definitely stuck around for the money. I'm just saying that there was a significant financial reason TO stick around.

 

Almost certainly correct.

But he wouldn't be living under any bridges here in Portland...

 

Sinead O' Connor, Prince.

 

Eason started the game on him

The first bucket he blew by him, yup … although who knows where the help defense was supposed to be.

The second one is an example of what I said… He hit a tough mid range jumper… I’d say that’s far from “torching him”.

And once again, 4 blocks and 3 steals.

Direct question: Does that NOT signify some sort of defensive prowess? Yes or no?

 

Summer.

League.

 

Its an asisnine claim.

 

So let me go this straight:

Amen’s defensive stats = Summer league

Scoot’s offensive performance = Future superstar (even though it’s summer league)?

 

The overall stats are less important than watching for specific things. How did Amen do defending Scoot? How did Scoot do when he was matched up with good defenders like Eason?

How many of those blocks or steals were against trash players? We have tons of garbage players who will be in the G League next year. Overall stats are pretty worthless. We want to see certain things so that's why I'm watching players to see what kinds of moves they have. How do they defend? What kinds of passes are they making?

 

My eye test tells me that Amen has amazing tools but he is still very raw when it comes to actual NBA game. A lot of what he got was based on his amazing individual gifts. Scoot, in comparison, seems much further along at understanding the NBA game and reading and reacting to it in real time. Sure, he uses his natural gifts where he can - but you can also see that he was anticipating things as they were developing and using a counter-move on the fly. That's a great tool that not all super athletic guys ever develop - and I am not saying that Amen will not - because I am a big fan of his as well - but there are no guarantees.

Scoot's decision making and understanding seems to be a lot further along that Amen's. That's not saying that Amen will not get there or maybe even surpass Scoot one day, it could happen, but I was a lot more impressed with Scoot's decision making than his athletic abilities. He looked like a great starting point to either a more athletic Chris Paul type player or a smarter Russel Westbrook type player. That's very exciting, for sure.

 

Scoot is also a leader. He's vocal. He has charisma and gravitas.

Amen looks like a quiet kid.

 

Uh, yeah, and that’s why I posted a guy who I know you agreed with (The Ringer) saying Amen looks good on defense. Wasn’t about the stats. Obviously you could have a different take, but so far, you’re pretty much the only person who didn’t leave Amen’s summer league game impressed with his defense.

I can tell you at least 1 of the blocks was on Scoot. How many times did Scoot block Amen?

And Scoot was matched up against G leaguers too.

But my overall point is what you just proved. You’ll devalue anything Amen did good and pump up everything Scoot does and then say “summer league” when it’s about Amen, but “summer league” doesn’t apply to Scoot suddenly.

 

I like how Ryen Russillo said summer league can only confirm opinions.

 

I was really impressed with Scoot not forcing shots at the rim and instead making some *beautiful* passes to open shooters.

 

Agree, early in the game he went into the defense and I was yelling at the TV - only for the ball ending up with an open 3 by someone. He can read the defense better than many so called NBA point guards already, which is very encouraging.

The biggest thing I took from the little we saw of him, he does not look like a rookie PG, especially not a 19 years old rookie PG. It looked like a Russel Westbrook move, but ended like a CP3 move.

 

Dude, we get it. You LOVE Amen Thompson and we're going to hear about him ALLLLLLL SEASON. I think he has potential. I think he's going to struggle next season against NBA competition.

You have been bashing on Scoot since before the draft. My point was that when Scoot was matched up on him, he had no problem being able to get past him or score.

You know what Scoot has that Amen does not have? Leadership. Personality. Gravitas.

The absolute worst thing we could do is replace Damian Lillard with another wall flower kid. Just put him up there with the gregarious twins... Simons and Sharpe. They both do so much talking.