I think Mo needed more court time, and playing him and Dame together, sometimes it was a bit too loose and not so much D being played.
More court time? My dear friend, he averaged 25 minutes per game. That's quite a lot for a bench player.
I meant that Mo needed more court time than we would have to give to Hinrich or Ridnour. Mo wanted to be the sixth starter, I think that we could give either of the others 15 mins a game.
You give CJ 25 minutes a night next year and I bet he would. CJ is probably already a better defender than Mo
Lillard often looked frustrated when Batum used up seconds on the 24 bringing it up. Then Batum looked around for a receiver, gave up, tossed it to Lillard, who repeated the search. With the defense long set by now, Lillard would have to shoot and miss. This is by Stotts' design, so next season will have a PG combo of Batum, McCollum, and Lillard. Olshey wants to prove his drafting skill, so get used to McCollum and Leonard for many years to come.
If we had Pop, shit like this would happen. I'm okay with it. I don't want to see Mo black-holing the ball any longer.
This is like when we tried to wish Nolan into a PG. I find it hard to believe that we won't be re-signing Mo. Not because I particularly want him to re-sign (although he does seem to be a genuinely awesome person behind the scenes) but because he took something of a paycut to come to us and the implication was that he was sort of doing Olshey a favor because of their previous association, so surely there's some kind of deal in place. Hope I'm wrong and Mo lands in a good place for him (that isn't Portland) for a fat salary, but I don't think he particularly increased his value this year.
I think Mo was far and away our best bench player. He would be a major loss. I am very hopeful we resign him.
Why not? I think CJ, although certainly not a defensive stopper, will be a better defender than Mo as early as next season (and may be better right now). I also feel that CJ sees the floor well, is a good passer, and is unselfish. Even though his game is largely predicated on breaking down his man and going toward the basket for a layup or midrange shot, he won't hesitate to share the ball when someone comes open. Conversely: I've seen Mo not pass to open players dozens of times, including a wide open Dame at the three point line on multiple occassions, choosing instead to dribble dribble look for his own shot. I wonder how many bench players played more minutes than Mo, and how much of Mo's stat whoring is due to the minutes he played? I really don't know, but Mo almost played starters minutes off the bench. Another thing about Mo's assists is that they remind me of $amon Stodamire's: $amon dominated the ball and either shot or passed to the person who shot (usually at the end of the shot clock), so of course he scored or assisted on a lot of plays. I'm not sure either made the offense better because of it.
