Besides the obvious (literally scared to shoot) this is another reason. He doesn't fit with Nurk either. And y'all in here who want to sell on Nurkic should wait until you see him when he isn't coached by Stotts. IMO the offense should go through Nurkic at the very least 30% of the time maybe more. Stotts use of Nurkic was asinine and annoying. He should be averaging 20 and 10. I blame Stotts. Imagine Powell being our 3rd scorer... I'm jussayin..
There literally was no mystery. There was no theory. There's just you not reading this very thread. I said this shit a long time ago. You kept asking me to repeat myself and I was done.
An actual scorer that has a lower field goal %, lower points per shot and lower points per game for his career, regular season and the playoffs. The only time Nurk was an actual better scorer were in these last playoffs and when Nurk's entire season was an eight game sample size. Other than that... Ben Simmons is the actual scorer between the two.
I mean... Where do you put the MF...? Spacing would be fucked... And we know he doesn't play without the ball...
"Stotts coached" Is gonna be the equivalent of a mic drop around this MF. Nurk was an afterthought in Stott's offense...
It's only frightful because Dame's gonna leave afterward... I swear I don't want us to waste our last possible year of Damian Lillard for a fucking reclamation project...
Dame was at the top decile in the NBA as the handler in pick and roll plays. The only player on POR that was in the top decile as a roller in the same games was DJJ - a mobile athletic freak that went hard to the rim. 2nd best was Kanter (4th decile) who is a big body that can set good picks. He is not very agile (west/east) but he can go hard to the rim and at least has good hands. This tells you how great Dame is at initiating the pick and roll despite the facts that he did not have great teammates rolling for him last year. IIRC, before Nurk went down in 2018 - the 2 of them were the top pick and roll duo in the league despite Nurk's well know sub-optimal finishes around the rim. Now imagine that there is a new roll man option in Ben Simmons, a bigger athletic freak than DJJ with much more agility than Kanter and the ability to find people in transition if he the opposing team manages to collapse on him. I honestly think this would be a really scary combination to stop for the rest of the league. In a standard pick and roll you have one of the best handlers in the league in Dame, getting picks from a big body that is an athletic freak that can go hard to the rim (and scores very efficiently there). In addition, both the ball handler and the roll man are excellent and finding others if the defense manages to contain them with good shooters all around. In addition, because of Dame's ridiculous range, the Blazers can now run 2 sets of north/south pick and roll starting from the half court if they really want, Dame and Simmons and if there is a need (Simmons love to attack the rim from the handle with the ball in his hands, a great place to put it for him as the roll man) - a secondary one with Simmons as the handler (which he is capable of doing) and Nurk. At the same time, somehow the defense now manages to collapse back on both of them - you know who can move without the ball and get it for a 3P attempt, Dame... - scary shit.
How is this Olshey spinning. Go to the “Ben Simmons” poll and a number of us are saying “Ben Simmons makes no sense because his greatest strength would minimize Damian by moving him off the ball.” Dame is the best PnR PG in the league. Why would u do that? UNLESS you’re moving Simmons to center. Confirmation bias. We know you hate Neil. But the proof is in that poll. More than a few people question the fit.
Watching that video of Simmons's 40 point game against the Jazz, it did seem that he was rolling a fair amount. And he even let Tobias Harris bring the ball up the court a few times.
Looks like TOR could be back in the mix... According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, the Toronto Raptors have already engaged with the Sixers on the Simmons front. "Philadelphia has conducted expansive discussions with several teams, including Minnesota and Toronto, but neither a Timberwolves package nor the Raptors' proposals have appealed to the 76ers as of yet," Charania wrote. "Philadelphia has set a high price threshold for teams to meet in talks for Simmons thus far." Maybe this and some picks?
And they can't get back there with a non shooter on the floor crowding the middle due to spacing. Nurk would literally have to live in the high post if Simmons was on our team. While I do want him there much more, I don't want him there permanently
As we said, Dame liked a pic of Simmons in a Blazers jersey. Green would be great but not for CJ. Simmons is 25 and more talented. Green is past his prime.
I don’t know. You seem to think Simmons is a zero on offense and he’s not. He scored 42 points in a game at Utah last season. Threes aren’t everything. Simmons is much better offensive player than Green.
