the podcasters are loving life. Fantasy teams don't count missed shots. Launch that sucker, boo-yah. Ant had 4 assists and 1 rebound. He's not a ballhog.
Ant is trying to find his rhythm again. 6/13 from 3 tonight, around 12 3PA is what I want Ant at this year. I don’t expect 6 makes every night, but the threat of it makes a world of difference for the spacing. The guy’s just played in his second game all season and looked better on defense than we’ve ever seen him, but I’m not surprised that some of you are clinging onto the 10/27 lol.
I hated Simons next to Dame, but we really need his outside shooting right now. Worst case, Ant averages 26+ and becomes a legitimate trade chip. His defense looks a bit better this year? Really had me raising an eyebrow in that first game. I've never seen him play defense like that.
It's less box score to me than him disrupting the actual flow of offense. The team ran better with Scoot managing the ball than Ant. It's the same complaint I've had with certain times with Grant and Brogdon. He's a fine player but he doesn't fit the identity we're trying to build.
I’ll have to watch again, but I don’t remember THAT many possessions where we was holding a ball for a prolonged amount of time that resulted in him chucking up a shot. A looot of his misses were within the flow of the offense that were bunnies. The last missed 3 he threw up with 2 seconds left wouldn’t have changed the game, we were down 4, and he didn’t care. Conversely, I remember a couple possessions of players not finishing, and Ant setting up guys like Reath to get to the line (something that won’t show up on the stat sheet). I remember writing in the game thread some time in the second quarter that his passing has been good and he was playing within the flow, with somebody replying to acknowledge he indeed was passing the ball well. There’s so many nuances to that 10/27, that it isn’t even fair to say for a player who has played in his second game of the season. He easily could’ve also been 15/26. He drew like 1 shooting foul all game, didn’t look to get to the rack like he did in the first game.
I really want to see if they can find a way to run a three guard rotation with those three. I don't want Sharpe at the 3. The biggest question would be defense with Scoot-Ant, and running the offense with Ant-Sharpe. And I have real questions about who fills in if you trade Ant. Do you need roll players to back up PG and SG? Probably the cheapest and best option. Unlikely to find someone that can play 1 and 2 and is big enough to defend both, and would be happy as sixth man. Keep Brog?
I would not waste your time. It did not happen. The offense was fun to watch last night until the end. Every Blazer fan I was texting said the same. It is only on this board where ISO talk is an obsession. Ant made some tough shots last night to keep us in it, and he missed a couple late that would have won it. It happens. The problem I saw was the lack of options on offense late when the Warriors double-teamed Ant. He was able to get rid of the ball without a turnover to Camara (Twice) but the next pass needed to go to Shae. But I don't blame Camara for shooting it as he was open. If we had Ayton, Grant, and Brogdon on the floor to help, things would have looked different.
Why am I not surprised someone went back to pull up this thread, some of you guys are cringe just pointing out negative things over and over without talking about the positives.
Ant in his two games back: 29.0/3.0/6.0 (3.5to) on .417/.435/1.00 Most national pundits thought he would be around the 24-25ppg mark on low shooting splits anyways. He’s just coming back. Ant is good enough at shooting that around 40% on the 10 3PA should be sustainable for him. I fully expect him to get back on track with his 2P% and getting back on track of improving his FTA. Defensively, he looked like he had more good moments than bad moments live. He didn’t do anything special as a playmaker, he just made the right passes. I’m excited to see where he ends up at the end of the season, if this is the worst Ant we’ll be seeing.
That’s true. At that point, you’d think Ant’s efficiency will also climb without having to shoulder the load on offense.
It fascinates me how the offense can be dead last in adjusted ORTG and AST% and bottom five in RIM% and 3P% but getting a shot-maker back "messes up the flow"... What flow? What identity are we building on offense exactly?
I actually didn’t see that defense in the first game, but that was awhile ago. I’ve seen in the last two games. Ant had a couple bad defensive possesions against Luka, but also some really good ones where Luka missed. He also stood his ground and barely moved when Powell was trying to back him down. The crowd around me was audibly impressed with it, shame it ended in Powell finding someone cutting to the basket, because Ant put in a great effort on that one possession.
at the end of this Mavs game, Billups ran 100% uncut freestyle non-structured offense. It was advanced City League pickup basketball. Drive kick shoot. If the Mavs trap Ant, spread out and shoot 3-pointers?? How did the Mavs break the doubles? Wow, look, Dallas made a ladder and attacked the hoop. Basic fundamental offense that goes m.i.a. during Billups ball.
Did you just disregard the difference in personnel? Are you talking about Lively and Powell when you say made a ladder and attacked the hoop? Our only 7’0 guy in the game was a shooter.
that's how Dallas broke the traps. There are other ways to take advantage of a double team. Blazers did a Simons pocket pass to Jabari. Difficult but effective, it actually worked. There's triangles, there's give & go's, there's all kindsa stuff to take advantage of a double team. I honestly only saw 1 "play" one time. Everything else was chuck roast.
It’s just really hard for me to be critical of him right now given everything that’s against him. For 1, he was injured for like 20 games. 2, his starting PF and C have both been absent in those games. 3, the players he has around him aren’t good enough to do much yet. You mention the pocket pass to Jabari actually working, I can remember a couple of times in the 4th where Jabari got the pass and didn’t know what to do with it. You’re entitled to be critical of him, I just won’t. I see too many good things going on right now with Ant to worry about “stalling the offense”. He hasn’t been up to this point.
