Game Thread 2023-24 Game #25 - BLAZERS VS WARRIORS - DECEMBER 17, 2023 - SUNDAY - 6:00 PM PST - ROOT

We kinda did luck into to Toumani. If Cronin knew how good he was but decided to draft Murray and/or not trade a future 2nd to pick him, he's an idiot.

Regarding Ayton, I agree. There is pretty much zero chance he'll be making $30m/year when this team is good enough to contend. If he is, that means he got a lot better than he is now, which would be awesome too!

 

I'm upset with you!

 

Jay Allen doesn't work for the Blazers or even cover them anymore.

 

We'll probably never know exactly what the deal is, but I know Billups pubically expressed frustration with Sharpe because they would go out of their way to put him in advantageous positions and Sharpe would more or less refuse to be aggressive and take advantage. If that's how Billups feels (it somewhat matches up with what I see), then I can understand why he's not putting a ton of effort to get him the ball in those positions.

I find it hard to believe any of the coaches or front office guys want anything but for Sharpe to be THE GUY

 

Hindsight is nice but he averaged 18/10 on a team with other high usage guards. Expecting him to slightly outplay that is not as ridiculous as you are intimating. He is underperforming by every standard. And that's unexpected.

 

I'm not as low on him as you, but I am bummed that he's not producing at a consistent level or near what he's skillset suggests he could.

 

GSW goes up by 22 points with 10:14 left in the 3rd quarter. Ant proceeds to score or assist on 15 points to cut the lead to single digits.

GSW goes up by 11 points with 4:30 left in the 4th quarter. Ant proceeds to score 10 points to cut the lead to 1 point, giving us a chance to win the game.

Ant has 7 assists in this game. Second to Curry and CP3 with 8 each.

But this dude is awful, let’s trade or bench him.

 

oh thank god ... see, the Blazers are making some real progress towards the future.

 

Ant isn't awful. The TEAM has ben awful since he came back. At least more awful than they were before.

 

I think the problem (on defense) has been DeAndre. Ant is playing both ends very hard.

 

I'm sure.

And yet it's undeniable that he's very willing to look for his offense when certain guys aren't playing. I'm speculating that it might not be an issue with the coaches. The issue might be more along the lines of stronger or more aggressive personalities in the locker room marking their territory in Shaedon's mind.

 

I'm honestly trying to understand what you're getting at.

I'm confident you don't want Ant at PG.
I can't tell if you want Brogdon at PG or not.

 

That was the good. Him going at least 5 no-pass possessions late in the 2nd quarter led to a big deficit and his teammates were left standing around not doing anything and getting completely out of rhythm. Those 5 possessions led to 2 missed shots, 2 turnovers and a charge. It was brutal. 1-on-5 while COMPLETELY ignoring his entire team. And you could visibly see the defensive effort go down as 4 of 5 players on the Blazers were being asked to stand around on offense and then have to just play defense on the other end.

Ant can be brilliant offensive talent, but the Blazers defense has visibly suffered since he came back and Shaedon has basically disappeared because he ends up standing in the corner on possession after possession.

 

I don’t think he’s going to be seeing that kind of money again. But by the time the guards are ready to compete, he won’t be here.

 

If we have to surround Sharpe with a bunch of G-League guys for him to be aggressive, that's a problem because we're never going to contend with Sharpe and a bunch of G-League guys.

Dame didn't wait for the approval of LMA, Batum, and Matthews.
Roy didn't wait for the approval of Z-Bo and Miles

If he's going to be an all-star for this club, Sharpe needs to be willing to assert himself with other good players on the floor.

 

It's not up to us whether Ant gets traded. He's an exciting scorer on a decent contract. That front office phone might ring, and if there's draft picks on the other line, then Cronin can't say no. 1 good Blazer has to go to make room for more rookies. It's not like Jody Allen is going to pay luxury tax for this Blazers farm system team.