They stick O'Neal on the opposing team's best player. (Other than center) Their fans also view him as a PF. the announcers mention him as the PF. https://www.slcdunk.com/the-downbea...liber-nba-player-2019-preseason-power-forward "The talk with Royce O’Neale even in July was that Utah was eyeing O’Neale for the Power Forward position. That seemed crazy at the time for a team that has had the likes of Karl Malone, Paul Millsap, Carlos Boozer, and Derrick Favors manning the position. Little 6’6 Royce O’Neale? A power forward? The same player who was starting at shooting guard just a couple seasons ago in Europe? After only one preseason game against admittedly subpar competition, it looks to be the right call."
Like I said, the line between SF/PF is blurred for most teams. I think most of the arguments around positions (besides centers) are just arguing semantics. But O'Neale is clearly their best defender. That is agreeable.
The problem with Powell at SF is we can't switch 3-5 which is what nearly every successful team does. You want Powell guarding Lebron or Giannis on a switch? He couldn't handle Porter jr, for Godsakes.
well, Powell isn't O'Neal the thing is RoCo can move down from PF and effectively defend SF's and SG's. Powell can't move up from SF and effectively guard most PF's. Defensive versatility isn't as fluid for a lot of players as it is for others by the way, both bbref and 82games reportedly base those positional stats on who the player guards. Both websites have about the same positional data for O'Neal
Yes, our lineup is very flawed. To be honest, arguing the difference between Powell and O'Neale or whatever is just pointless. Not even prime Scottie Pippen could cover for having both Dame and CJ being your starting guard pair.
bbref has Lillard playing PG 100% of the time, and we know he is often taken off of opposing PGs, so that seems really doubtful to me.
true, but I don't think that's the determination. Dame plays PG, like Chris Paul. Just like Gobert & Embiid play C. Those are defaults locked in from years of observation but when it comes to those sliding positional determinations for SG-SF, SF-PF and PF-C, I think 'you-are-who-you-guard' takes precedence
Well, he's under contract and needs a cold water to the face splash of reality. It's coming this Summer. Dame Lillard is probably second only to LeBron in terms of guys the League respects. I don't mean his talent level, I mean his overall respect in the League is legitimately JUST below LeBron, the face of the League. If anyone can get Simmons head on straight it's Dame and Billups. I don't worry about this Simmons can't do this, he said that stuff, I worry about Olshey having a fucking clue when I hear shit like he turned down a CJ for Siakam trade. Like holy fuck fire him right away and hire Ujiri right FUCKING NAO!!!!!!!
I could live with that actually, I mean actually that sounds great if we get to keep Ant and Little. I'm not as worried about picks as long as they are for when we still have Dame under contract. It's not quite as tasty as Siakam and Simmons, but with Dray you know exactly what you're going to get, a LEGENDARY competitor who also has an otherworldly BBIQ and IIRC likes to mentor younger players. OK I've sold myself. Dray to the Blazers for CJ + DJJ and picks. I'd even give up Ant, but not Little.
The first time that's been said was today by this guy. https://twitter.com/JDumasReports That's a Bay Area sports talk radio host, local news sports guy and Bay Area sports related writer for Bleacher Report. Dude said a bunch of shit trying to push the narrative that the Warriors were the best destination. Typical stuff from a local sports talk guy in a huge/entitled California market.
You think Draymond would be happy leaving Golden State? Besides, Draymond is getting old, that's a dumb trade and it won't happen. IMO, that is.
here's a framework I found that works. Matching Salaries was surprisingly tough. I guess with Simmons, Wiggins, Steph and then Klay returning (maybe). They can spare these guards and Damion might be OK as a back up SF. Blazers end up with. PG: Lillard/TPMLE vet PG/Ant SG: Powell/McLemore/Lee/Elleby/Poole SF: RoCo/Snell/Little PF: Green/RoCo/Zeller C: Nurkic/Zeller/Giles if we retain him That's not bad at all. I think Dame would give that a real chance. the defense looks amazing. We also definitely want to do another consolidation trade around our endless SF/SG's. Perhaps for Marcus Smart?
