If we were just going to draft a kid who can’t shoot why not the taller and better defender player? Fuck
The Sharpe and Clingan picks seem pretty good, most of his trades have sucked, but the Damian Lillard one...the biggest move of his career was pretty good (since we ended up with Deni/Camara/Pick/Swaps) But you really should be hitting on top picks and trading of stars. And his FA signings have been flat out stupid (Grant/Thybulle). If he botches the pick in this loaded draft, I'm done with him.
Tonight shows what this guy can do when he's got the right mindset... or at least when he's hot and has the right mindset.
I'm glad Scooter shot well tonight. If his reading my critical posts is what it takes, then I'll just have to keep writing them. Seems to be working.
I don't want to take all the credit for his finally getting one game right. A couple of other posters have been working on his resistance to hard work, too.
Super impressive game by Scoot. Curious what we will see the next game. I really don't like Scoot/Ant starting as a duo at all. But I guess on the positive side the spacing and playmaking Ant can provide does help take some pressure off Scoot. The team is horrific defensively - just look at the Nets against us then losing by 60 last night. But we don't really care about defense. Got about 3 weeks until the trade deadline, would be nice if Scoot and the other youth get larger roles after that time. I want to watch the Blazers youth on this roster - not the $100 million+ worthless vets that Cronin spent the last few years acquiring.
I think Scoot's already shown himself to be a very good defender. I can't think if a guard we've had that navigates screens as well as he does. He's physical, he doesn't get pushed around. He anticipates well, gets steals and blocks shots. I think he's light years ahead of Shaedon and Ant as a defender. Fouling was an early problem for him but he's significantly cut down the number of dumb fouls he gets and now he can stay on the floor for more than 30 minutes. You can criticize Scoot for a lot of things. I don't think his defense is something one can credibly criticize him about.
His defensive awareness is not there. Misses assignments all the time. Still 5th on the team in fouls per/36. But overall, I agree he's better than the other guards when he's guarding 1:1, and he sometimes has nice anticipation. Still neutral to negative on most nights but definitely trending up.
Agree, his awareness is not all the way there ... yet, but that's emblematic of his game as a whole. Defensively, he anticipates better than a lot of our vets. I don't think the fouls/36 is a super indicator ... he's getting better and he's often drawing one of the more challenging defensive assignments.
Now if we only can get him to work on the left mindset. He would have had 41 if he just went up strong with his left hand on the one second half layup instead of shooting it right hand inside-out like he does too often.
I’ll take as much from this game as I will from his next 5 pt /5 turnover game. I expected BOTH types of those games when he was drafted. I’m still giving him a few seasons.
