How do you not look at this and see a massive asset? In our shit offense, any play that can get us to 1.2 points per possession is a Godsend. Come on, Chauncey.
Blazers are averaging 1.16 points/shot. Now, that's shots, not possessions although I don't think there would be any significant difference. So, yeah, 1.20 ppp is probably a slightly better return than 1.16 points/shot but it's also kind of relative. last season, the Blazers averaged 1.33 points/shot, but most of that was due to Dame averaging 1.55 points/shot. The Blazer offense absolutely sucks this season. Ranks dead last in the NBA
I still don't think this coaching staff is good at using bigs. Guards & wings, guards and wings. What do we do with the big guy? Have him set a pick for guards and wings. Maybe step out and launch some 3's. {facepalm}
DA's stats are impressive for rebounds and steals. Needs more touches. But I do agree teams are crowding the paint because of shitty overall POR shooting. Can't get enough space to feed it to him reliably, at least not against JJJ, a terrific defender.
Billups is putting Ayton right smack dab in the middle of the court. Of course he's going to get hounded by defenders. The Blazers have a bunch of time to practice this week. Hopefully they can find better angles for Ayton to operate offensively. There's a scoring component to DA that Portland hasn't unlocked. I would say most fans had Ayton's scoring going up, increased touches in Portland. His career usage rate & attempts are down ~35% to begin this year.
Ayton is blowing up his rebounding average. Steals are there, blocks are there. He's probably in line for some All-defense street cred atm.
I see the guards looking for DA a lot. There's never a good passing angle. He's basically doubled at all times.
DA won't be double-teamed if he's out by the 3-point line, which is where he was in Phoenix to begin a lot of possessions. Also, I hate the Blazer offense where we try to throw the ball to our guy who is motionless and the defender is waiting for the ball. Saw that many times with Dame and Jerami Grant last season. For all the talk about running and lobs and having "fun," Billups offense is in fact an ugly, blunt instrument. If we are waiting for slicing and dicing, it'll have to be with different players and/or a different coach.
Why aren't the Blazers using Ayton like this in the offense? Nobody is going to double-team Ayton if he's at or outside the 3-point line. Ayton should be one of the mainstays of the offense IMO. Sharpe and Ayton could be deadly together, as long as Ayton starts the possession way out of the paint and roams around waiting to catch a pass from Sharpe. Make the other team's big man commit to stopping Sharpe then throw a HIGH pass to Ayton over the defense. Is this not something Billups works on over and over in practice?
Well hopefully Scoot can pass like CP3 but CP3 makes it look so easy. At the moment we don't have a CP3.
i say give it a full month of playing games together and i think it will be there, not saying scoot will be CP3 in a month (god could only wish) but i think the synergy will be there by then, these guys need real game time together before i feel like we can use ayton like this. We haven't even had a big like this since aldridge probably so we rarely schemed for it. I really hope chauncey makes it a point to work on it though if he isn't already.
I think that's because he's played in the flow, which his fine. But the Blazers need a go-to guy, but if Ayton was utilized like a guy you throw the ball to and he creates his own, his FG% would be far lower. All of his efficiency is context dependent, all the way down to his good finishing numbers being even more impressive because he won't try to get to the rim if there's a defender around him and will instead settle for that mid-range floater/push shot. Blazers gotta design more sets that get him to his spots though. Instead they're treating him like he's Nurkic. This offense looks the exact same as it did last year.
I love the motion into screens and variations of double screens that Monty would utilize that would open up DeAndre rolls more than just a basic pick n roll or handoff. Wish Chauncey would run more of this.
Shaedon lobbed one to Ayton in 1st or 2nd game, and the "potential assist" went in the hoop. Nice shot Sharpe !!
Disregarding his offense, DA has been a bright spot. The good so far: - 13rbg (3 orpg) - great. - Recorded 1+ steals in 6/8 games and 1+ blocks in 6/8 games, the two games in which he didn’t record a block or steal are coincidentally the same. - 2spg - 71% shooting between 16ft and the 3pt line - WOW
he's only attempted 7 of those....made 5. Career mark from that distance is 39%; 47% last season as for the blocks and steals: his career mark is 1.7 and the last 2 seasons it was 1.4. He has 23 so far this year. It's encouraging that he's doing so well in some of these numbers but I'd think they aren't sustainable in the long run
