Should the Blazers add 3pt shooting before opening night?

Yang might be fine to sit on the bench to start the year or just play the games Rob rests. Thybulle I'd think should get more minutes - especially if he is hitting 3s.

Eventually there will be injuries. So we don't need to limit to 240 minutes.

If you look at our top11 players last year from Starters to Jabari Walker in minutes played they averaged over 280mpg

 

Rob will at the least sit out all B2B.

 

I would say that is highly debatable. So, who do you think was better?

Certainly not Thybulle or Walker, who both had a better percentage but made fewer than thirty 3s all season.
Ant made 215 last year. The next closest was Toumani with 135, and his percentage was only 1% higher, while taking mostly wide-open
shots. The other option would be Grant and Deni, but they also shot about the same (.365 vs .363) with many fewer makes.

Much like Shae, Ant struggled last year with shot selection, but someone on the team has to take the tough shots. I would not go by just his stats when determining who was the best 3pt shooter on the team.

 

over the last 3 seasons, since Grant, became a Blazer, he has shot .390 on three's. Over the same time, Simons shot .374. Yeah, Simons had a higher volume but Grant attempted well over 300 a season, so there isn't really any significant sample size skew.

 

I think Ant's very mediocre shooting last season on huge volume didn't make our three point shooting better. I guess you can say the same about Jerami, my fingers are crossed that he'll gone soon but if not I just hope he takes better shots than he did last season.

Yes, the season before last season Ant was our second best three point shooter behind Jerami but did so on even higher volume making him a far less effective three point shooter than Jerami that season... technically Malcolm shot better than both of those guys and none of them played a ton of games.

I guess what I'm saying is if it were this time last season and we had just traded Ant away for a total non shooter then I could see a NEED to get one or a couple three point specialists but we already saw last season that we did well with lineups that had competent but not elite three point shooting.

I'm not saying I'm against adding three point shooting, I just don't see any reason for urgency until we see how this team shoots as constructed.

Also, we didn't trade Ant for a non shooter we traded him for Jrue whose 37% career three point shooting average is only 1.1% worse than Ant's. Yeah Ant did put up a lot more vlue over the last three seasons than Jrue ever has but I don't know if losing a chucker coming off of his worst season in his last five is a reason to NEED to add more three pont shooting.

 

Yep. We have until the trade deadline to assess shooting improvements in the youth to then target someone if needed.

 

I agree with what you are saying here. I was just pushing back on Ant not being our best 3pt shooter. There was absolutely no one else on the team I would rather have had taking a 3 in crunch time than Ant. To me that is more important than what any stats might suggest.

 

You're right as far as taking a game winner in a must win game... we just haven't had one of those while Ant was that guy. I get what you're saying though and again, I agree with you.

 

Well if today was opening day, wouldn’t we have the worst 3 point shooting team in the league? So I guess the answer to you question depends on what you are expecting from this season.

 

POR would be predicted to be very bad from long. Unless Scoot and Shae suddenly become the Splash Bros 2.0

 

Grant will be our three point weapon. He aint going anywhere...

 

I guess the plan is not to shoot so many 3s. Or at least it should be. Play tough defense, create more turnovers, run the floor, and attack the basket. Kick it out to wide-open players. Essentially only taking quality 3pt shots.

I would imagine this would increase their 3pt percentage even if it decreased their points made from deep. I think most of us have become bored with passing around the perimeter, that results in a contested 3pt attempt.

 

Seth Curry would be nice add, I didn’t understand why we let him go.

 

couldn't afford him

 

Yeah I liked having him here. We had no way to match the $8 million contract that Dallas gave him though.

At this point though were about a decade too late, he's 35. See thats a good example of a player I'd prefer we instead get a worse shooter but at least someone who has potential to be better than horrific on defense.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

In agreement here, I would continue to build on the defensive identity and build our shooting up organically. And I, like you, would rather just bank on Grant getting back to his normal shooting splits in a year we are trying to compete.

Scoot (30)/Jrue (18)
Shae (32)/Jrue (12)/Thybulle (4)
Camara (32)/Avdija (14)/Thybulle (2)
Grant (28)/Avdija (20)
Clingan (28)/Williams-Yang (20)

Obviously, you trade Grant as soon as he builds any kind of value or if Avdija just cannot get into a rhythm off the bench. But assuming Grant and Holiday get back to their usual shooting averages, I would rather wait to find shooting to replace Grant’s salary in a trade or by waiting until next draft to find cheap shooters.

 

The answer to this should be yes for all 30 teams.

 

The answer to this question depends on what the team is trying to do this season. Win or lose. I dont know still.

 

I hope the team tries to win 100% each game. Can't stand not trying, playing scrubs, or sitting our youth when they can win. There were winnable games we benched Sharpe Deni late last season.

I'm fine with making roster moves that don't maximize wins though. Roster moves should be to build long term.