Game Thread 2023-24 GAME #53 - BLAZERS VS WOLVES - FEBRUARY 13, 2024 - TUESDAY - 7:00 PM PST - ROOT

Camara would have played more if the refs didn't suck. They need to let Toumani smack people around... that's his job.

 

He's historically been an awful defender. Not sure I'd blame his ankle for it unless he's been playing with an ankle injury for 5 years.

 

Chad doesn't look at the standings. The Clippers have been playing exceptional ball, and shooting slumps are rare. Tonight was a normal outcome for a bad Blazers team.

 

Ayton shooting 11 for 12 and cleaning up the defensive glass with 14 of his 16 boards coming on that end.

 

This team won't have any success until they either bench or trade Ant and put the ball in Scoot's hands.

 

I'm very happy to see Scoot get the opportunity to build some confidence without having to be at the top of the opponents scouting report and face teams #1 defender(s). Perfect situation for the young rookie!

 

sure but he's been better this season than the sieve he was this game.

 

Burkhardt on the radio just being cheery as cherry syrup. Telling us how much he liked the way the Blazers battled. Ignoring the Timberwolves chewing up the Blazers like that famous Duran Duran song.

 

I thought the Blazers played well all things considered.

 

As anticipated, I watch all of his made field goals and I would assign Simons responsibility for 3.33 of Edwards' 16 made field goals. Meaning 79% of Edwards field goals were scored on 7 different Blazer defenders outside of Simons.

 

I know you're an Ant fan, and I don't know how the Ant vs Ant debate started, and don't really care, but the Simons played terrible defense tonight, as he has done for most games this season and in his career

 

Lots of half efforts where he gets switched and then just gives up. Wasn't doing that earlier this season.

The effort is always there with Scoot and Brogdon. Even outmatched, effort will get stops. But Ant has just been giving up on defense a bit too much for my liking.

 

I'm a fan of everyone on the team. Ant's defense was not good tonight. That can also be said about a majority of the players who got minutes. This team has been poor defensively when Ant has sat out games as well. Anyone who implied Simons was the reason for Edwards going off tonight, in this game thread, is not being objective. Just because Ant has been a poor defender for his career, doesn't mean we should now over-exaggerate the responsibility he has for an opposing player having a good night.

I'm someone who really wants Scoot to be the man for this franchise down the road, but it appears to me that some people want Scoot to succeed so badly that they are attempting to discredit Simons as a way to artificially prop up Scoot and/or justify why he should have an even higher usage rate.

I don't think my breakdown, with video evidence, should bother anyone who wants to be objective about the team and their players. The results were the results, I'm indifferent to who it favors, I just want the narratives to be supported by the facts.

 

as I said, I don't know how the Ant vs Ant argument started and don't really care; it's a weird tangent

it's pretty clear, at least it's clear to me, that Ant is the worst defender in the rotation. That matches the eye test and it certainly matches the stats

 

Well, you responded to a post about it, so you're kinda in it now!

I have no objections to anyone who says Ant is a minus defender. I haven't looked into the claim the Ant is the worst defender in the rotation, but if that is the case, I'm fully ok with that being the result. I would be a little surprised if Ant was the worst defender by a wide margin, given we appear to have a bunch of not so great defenders.

 

Funny that you decided to interject when you admitted you didn’t know how the debate started (and didn’t care), when how the debate started is pertinent to this conversation.

The debate started when a poster said that Minnesota was constantly hunting Ant to switch on Edwards to exploit the matchup and that Ant was getting cooked. That was simply not the case. Ant switched onto Edwards twice in the 1st half and Edwards scored 2 points on one of those switches.

No one was arguing that Ant was a good defender.

 

Thank you. And I'm not trying to bash on Scoot or anyone else by pointing out that Edwards scored 79% of his fields goals against players other than Simons. Edwards is an awesome player, who had a great game, I tip my cap to him.

 

mostly, I responded to a video...write with a crayon too

 

I participated in the discussion and changed it a little...that's allowed you know