Game Thread 2024-25 GAME #35 - BLAZERS @ PISTONS - JAN 6, 2024 - 4:00 PM - CHARGE - KUNP - BLAZERVISION

had a nice pregame chat with former Blazer legend Jarrett Jack. Said he will always have a special place in his heart for RipCity!

 

Is he on the bench in Detroit?? Always liked him. He was super cool when me and my wife met him at fan fest way back when

 

Not joking. Blazers only made 3 of 5 attempts. Pistons made 19 of 22 attempts.

 

Was an observable issue while at UConn

 

Nope. People in here said they were elite, so that can’t be the case

 

He looks very Nurk-like with his tendency to just toss stuff toward the rim when he gets the ball near the basket instead of setting himself and taking it strong.

 

Good loss, if there is such a thing.

 

Clingan didn’t look this bad before his injury, so I’m guessing he’s not playing healthy right now. I hope, anyway.

 

24, 9 and 7 for a potential playoff team as a 6’6” PG.

Pipe dream for the Blazers to obtain a player like that

 

Rookie wall time for Clingan. You include a knee injury (what did we expect) and you have what you have.
A big plodding center that isn’t very mobile trying to finesse shots around the rim.
He will help them tank.

 

But I'm pretty sure the Blazers went to the rim more than Detroit - heard a stat on the pregame that we are 3rd in the league at attempts near the rim (partly because we can't shoot from deep). There's no way we shouldn't have had more than 5 FTAs. Ant's last made shot, deep 2 on the side, should absolutely have been an and-1.

 

Yeah, in this instance I’m probably wrong. I was busy yesterday so only saw bits and pieces of the game.

 

I think the two things Shae needs that will determine his ceiling are becoming more consistent knocking down open 3s (and just shot selection out there) and playing to contact.

For a guy who is capable of taking and making tough midrange shots and attacking the rim so hard, I think he shoots like 3 FTs per game. He's still not at the stage of bumping beaten defenders to get to the line at least and then counting on his strength and athleticism to get a good shot up. He's playing like it's on the playground and the guy isn't going to call the foul.

He's shooting about 80% from the line. Don't try to avoid defenders in the restricted area. Draw the contact. Get to the line.

 

If Scoot had just a slightly below average game last night instead of an absolute stinker, the Blazers probably win.

He's kind of got me to a point where I'm willing to give him a mulligan for that, though. He's been solid the past few games. You need more than solid from a former No. 3 pick, but I'll live with solid right now. I think he's been good on D. In fact, I honestly wouldn't have doubled Cunningham backing Scoot into the post, which gave them some open corner 3s (because we don't rotate to the corners). I'd take my chances on Scoot's strength making Cunningham eat up too much of the shot clock trying to back him down.

 

Scoot only played 17 minutes. He needs 40 minutes where he can learn from mistakes and play better as the game goes on.

 

He made at least 40 minutes worth of mistakes last night. There's no guaranteeing he's learning anything.

 

that's because he's young, and energetic. When I make 40 minutes worth of mistakes it takes me a week

 

No he didn’t. And he only took 2 shots. He still hasn’t been given the team to run where he manage the game and manufacture wins. And if we lose the games, it doesn’t matter because we’re tanking. He should be starting and playing 40 minutes.

 

The number of shots he took is meaningless. Not every mistake is taking a bad shot. Some mistakes are not taking a shot. Some mistakes are turning the ball over before anyone could take a shot.

You're creating this false narrative like he hasn't started games and hasn't played 30 minutes in games.

You're also operating under the ridiculous notion that playing and failing has a good chance of making you better. As someone who has played, coached and covered basketball at all levels for more than 40 years, I'm going to tell you straight up that assumption's totally incorrect. Sometimes throwing a player into the deep end of the pool and having them fail destroys their confidence and a player that has a chance loses that chance.

The whole tanking argument is messed up, too. For all you know, Anfernee Simons might be part of this team after the tank is done and Scoot won't be. Not playing Ant because you're trying to lose -- which, also, BTW, doesn't guarantee you a top three pick -- is ludicrous, and trading a young guy like Ant because you want to lose when he could be part of the core of the team if/when it's ready to contend again is equally nonsensical.

If you watched the game last night and thought he didn't have a really, really bad game, then I just don't know how much good basketball you've ever watched. It was pretty evident.