Bazemore, Hezonja, Little vs. Curry, Harkless, Aminu

And we could be 1st.

The skill of our guards nuetralizes the deficiencies of Stotts offensive system, but it wears them out. The offensive system also completely breaks down at times against elite, agressive defense. Its not about "We ranked X last season". Id rather get easier shots than hard ones, even if both go in.

 

Relax, you will have plenty of time to evaluate him as a Blazer, which is what's important. Fresh starts are often times what a player needs.

 

What does my sleep have to with anything? Weird comment.

Same argument: Young, Europe, skills, bad teams. Nothing based on what hes actually sone in the NBA. Funny how 4 years gets written off and thrown out the window.

Also, Orlando isnt a bad situation... theyre an average NBA team. He had s osso me talented players around him to make his life easier. Didnt work. He shot terribly on open shots last year so I dont know how you can blame his team for those.

 

Agreed, but a contending team shouldnt be counting on a fresh start magically turning a player whos been garbage his whole NBA career into something useful. Its funny how the people defending him refuse to acknowledge hes even been bad.

 

Hezonja's 3 years in Orlando they won 35, 29, and 25 games. I'd say that's fairly bad.

 

He hasn't been "garbage". He's averaged close to 9 and 10 points the last couple years in very limited time (approx 20+ minutes) and 2 years ago his shooting was pretty decent with 44% from the field and 34% from the 3.. I'm reserving any judgement until he actually plays for us as that's all that matters to me.

 

Okay, 2 years ago he was simply below average instead of garbage.

Nik Stauskas 2.0.

 

But it wasnt a bad culture and its not like how it was with the Knicks. He had Vucevic, Gordon, Oladipo, Ibaka, and Tobias Harris at different times during his tenure there. People are reaching for excuses.

 

same can be applied back that you are reaching for reasons not to like him and give him a chance. I don't know why that is so hard for you

You say 2 years ago, he was below average and not garbage so what do you consider to be average for a player in about 20 minutes of playing time? Here is a comparison of Hezonja, Aminu and Harkless. We know how Harkless and Aminu improved so why can't Hezonja?

https://www.basketball-reference.co...minu&y3=2013&player_id3=aminual01&idx=players

 

Not sure if you're stressing about Hezonja or not, but... Who cares? It's not like we need him. I hope he surprises us and plays well, but he's not going to be the reason we make the WCF or not.

 

Why cant Hezonja? I never said he couldnt.

 

He could be the difference of winning or losing a couple games which could decide seed which could decide how far we go.

 

You may never have actually said the words (I have no interest in going back and checking) but it has been implied in many of your posts. No reason to go any further with this on my end. I'll happily be a fan rooting my team on and hoping he does well for us.

 

I've been pretty consistent.

All the arguments you make were made for Stauskas last year.

 

Sure hope you're wrong!

 

Not sure if it was pointed out in this forum or not but Bazemore was traded for Turner straight up and Curry was let go because we signed Hood, and Harkless and Leonard was traded for Whiteside and Kantor was let go for that as well. The Poll cherry picked the worst possible scenario over the entire off season and omitted the real pieces. Hezonja and Little are project players that were acquired through the draft and picked up at vet minimum we did not use Curry, Harkless, and Aminu for any of the pieces mentioned in this poll. It would be like mentioning any players the Clippers lost and draft picks and omitting the pick up of George and Leonard. Not realistic and shades away from the actual truth

 

I am not as high on Curry as some of you guys are. I think he showed ok in the regular season but in the playoffs not so much. I am too lazy to check his stats Regular season vs Playoffs and Hoods Regular season vs Playoffs. I just know that Hood played his way to more minutes in the Playoffs while Curry not so much.

 

My guess is the Blazers thought both Layman and Hezonja were similar age, same position, same kind of "could be good or could be out of the league in 5 years" kind of talent.

Layman put up slightly better stats, but he's also a year older and has had years to develop in a well-run system. They've seen up close how much he's progressed, and when you look at the trend line maybe it's just not quite as good as they hope. Layman is a high-flying dunker/spot up shooter at his very best. A guy the ball handler has to set up.

Meanwhile, Hezonja put up those crazy last 3 games with the Knicks, he was a top 5 pick, and he hasn't had Portland-caliber coaching/leadership by a longshot. So there's kind of a mystery about how much untapped potential you have there. When at his best he's a scorer who can also handle and distribute. A guy who sets up others and himself.

If I had to guess which guy is out of the league in 5 years, it's a coin toss. More than likely, it's both of them. If I had to guess which could become a borderline all-star and fill a major need on our team if everything works perfectly, I'd go with Hezonja.

Because of his skill set, Hezonja is being compared to Turner. I think it's much more that he's a replacement for Layman.

We went from this:
Small forward continuum
Ready Today --------------------------------------------->Ready 3 years from now
Harkless/Turner----------->Layman------------------>?

To this:
Ready Today --------------------------------------------->Ready 3 years from now
Bazemore/Hood ----------->Hezonja------------------>Little

Better shooting, worse defense, but more likely to show something good down the road. Given how hard it is to play defense in the modern NBA, especially against perimeter players, I'm fine with investing in more offense. It's much easier to be a game-changer as a perimeter offensive player than it is a perimeter defensive player.

 

Good point.

 

I think the fault in the OP is that losing ET is addition by subtraction, so even though he wasn't included in the title or OP you have to consider this team won't have Evan Turner on it and therefore it is substantially improved.