I absolutely hate that we're going to be super undersized again..... The answer is to trade Simons. Or he needs to be okay coming off the bench.
I don't think you bench him anyway. They need to figure out how to match his pace of play and he needs to figure out how to play aggressive defense with under a foul per quarter.
Yeah you don't bench Scoot if you want to keep Ayton happy. Scoot was really cooking with Ayton before he got hurt.
Who cares if he's okay with it or not. The only focus this franchise should have now is maximizing the development of Shae, Scoot, and Ayton. Anything that gets in the way of that needs to be removed. I think moving Simons has been the obvious move for a while now. Let Brogdon come off the bench and anchor the 2nd unit.
I agree Simons should be moved. But not as a fire sale. He's a valuable player and we need to get value in return.
I think both are very fair points. Well, I’ll say Shae’s play so far has made me more optimistic that he can play SF, if anything. I actually like the idea of Shae having to guard the best wing every night. You could always sub in Brogdon and Camara for Ant and Shae eventually, and maybe Ant and Shae can start the 2nd quarter with Camara, Walker, and Williams.
Yeah, I was thinking that as well... If you could trade Ant and Grant for a 3 or 4 who is younger and better than Grant... Damn...
You don’t move Ant for anything less than a starting level wing, and it has to be a long term piece. Otherwise, the previous 6 years of investing in his development would’ve been all for a 1st or whatever.
Yeah, to me that is very high on the To Do list for the offense. At the least, it becomes another wrinkle in the offense the other team has to worry about. At it's most, the Scoot to Ayton connection could become a very-difficult-to-defend two-man game that is a key component of the offense.
I'm watching the Toronto feed of the Blazers game, and they mentioned a couple of neat details: Dr Shae is the leading scorer of the 2022 class. (Also Brogdon is 2nd leading scorer in the league off the bench as of 10/30??)
I love that the microphone caught Scoot yelling to Ayton after his sweet lob oop "LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO DA!!!!!".
Are PF's wings? Cause I'd love for us to have a young PF and also move off of Grant. I'd love to get someone like Jabari Smith Jr. I know he's not available, but a young PF with upside.
The Blazers should trade Simons for Lauri Markkanen. He is the one that the Blazers need to be contenders.
Lauri Markkanen is the ideal energetic 2-way player that would be the right PF who makes swish3s and allow Ayton to flourish. The rebounding with those 2 on the floor would be at the top of the NBA!
Undersized is fine if you compete and don't get beat off the dribble. The problem is the Blazers consistently got beat off the double for years and couldn't get through a screen. Sharpe is defending threes just fine. Simons has another gear in him defensively and defended Kawhi well on opening night. At times it felt like Dame defended SFs better than PGs. Would be criminal not to see what Scoot/Ant/Sharpe could become together. At least give them the chance to prove it wrong work with those three.
Somebody who got access to Basketball Reference or similia can please find how many players 20 years old or younger averaged: 20 ppg 5 rpg 3 apg In a season? Thanks!
