Well, the team sucks. Who is to blame? Who is not good enough? How can we improve the roster and the future of the team? If the Blazers just won a title and posters were complaining about Simons and Cronin and Billups and Grant and others, I would agree it's just madness. But this team is horrible on the court and it lacks many bright spots on the roster for four or five years from now. I like Ant and think he can be a good player on a good team, but there's no reason to act like he's too talented to give up and/or he doesn't have holes in his game.
Absolutely no one is saying he doesn't have holes in his game. And no one is saying he can't be moved.
If people are going to bash Ant, at least come with common sense. Is Ant is a good defender, no. Average at best right. Is he our best 3 point shooter? Yes clearly. He is 6th in 3 pointer made per game, and in todays NBA, you need that, that's the way the game is going. Bad defense can be masked too. Is Curry a good defender? What about Kyrie and Luka who just made it to the finals? What about Tyrese Haliburton? Jalen "tiny man' Brunson? The scapegoat and bashing is not fully warrant on Simons imo. Ant was not the reason our offense sucked as well. Fingers can be pointed at coaching, at Scoot for how poor he played offensive at times, and for the product we put on their most times which was trash. The only thing I can agree with, is Ant, Sharpe and Scoot, one might need to go, EVENTUALLY. Not now, Scoot isn't ready clearly. If we can get a good return for Ant, I'm down for it. But not one of the garbage suggestions on here for Ant, and that Orlando package is pure trash. This draft is also pretty shitty.
Then what are you saying Ant is above criticism over? "Whipping boy" indicates that someone is being unfairly targeted... in this case, I took that to be Ant being disproportionately blamed for the team overall being bad. What level of criticism/eagerness to trade him to improve the team would not cause you to feel the frustration that seemed to be in your post?
You saying Ant is bad basketball for 30 minute a game and people stand around and watch him doing nothing half that time is your narrative. Based off all the games I've logged over the years this would be a wild outlier. I don't have the data to disprove your narrative, but I would bet a lot of money that it is false. And if your narrative is false, then it blows up everything else.
A player as talented as Ant from this draft would be FAR more valuable to us than Ant is. Ant's talent isn't the problem. So yes, I absolutely agree.
I don't think I've really ever complained about Ant before. Aside from saying I think it's time to move off of him.
No one is above criticism. Yes, that is exactly what has happened, he gets disproportionately blamed for the team being nad when they have intentionally tanked at the end of the last 3 seasons, and for the lack of development from our younger players, and for any salary cap issues. I have no problem trading him if it helps improve the team. The problem is most proposals do not.
Yeah, just making the statement since there seems to be a feeling like I'm a Simons hater. Not necessarily from you. I'm not. He seems like a good kid. He's just not the kind of player I want to have penciled in if I'm starting a team from scratch. And that's pretty much what we're doing. I'd rather have a lotto pick. And a good well rounded vet for salary matching purposes.
I don't think Anferee is really a bad chucker. He shoots about the league average TS% while the rest of the team is well under. He doesn't take as many shots per 36 as Damian. If you look at the numbers: as to what area the Blazers were terrible at, and which players were terrible at that metric, you'll see it's the Blazers surrounding cast and their poor shooting percentages which was the culprit. You can not like Ant, but it wouldn't be addition by subtraction of he left. Not with this team as is anyway...
Simons job as PG is to make his teammates better. Players should be better when he's on the court with him. Dame made his teammates better. Nearly everyone had career years in Portland. Ant doesn't do that.
I didn't say it would be addition by subtraction if he left. I've said many times that we need to get a good return. And never once have I said that I don't like him. Again, he seems like a nice guy.
Ant gets more blame than anyone on the team. The Blazers aren't horrible because of Ant. Pretty obvious they were horrible all the games he missed. I think some of us fans just get turned off by fellow Blazer fans picking a scapegoat and singling them out repeatedly. It was CJ for years, then Stotts, then Meyers, then Nurk. Now it's Ant. In a few years it'll probably be Sharpe. The Blazers aren't terrible because of any one player, even though there is a constant vocal group of fans that target one player.
I don't care about the wins right now. Or how capable the team is right now. I care about teamwork and doing the little things. That's where you start building a great team, IMO. And you have to build that from the ground up. Gotta move off of the guys who don't do that, IMO. But you're right. It's not Ant's fault that the team is bad. Not yet.
If Scoot turns into a good PG it would probably be good to trade Simons as a roster balance move. Scoot might be good...but become good, but right now, he sucks.
