Game Thread GAME# 10: HAWKS @ BLAZERS - NOVEMBER 10, 2019 - SUNDAY, 6:00 PM, NBCSNW

What's nice is seeing Ant come in right away and produce. He seemingly won't be one of those players we all gush about and wonder what they will be like when they figure the game out (which usually doesn't actually happen). And he's scoring and looking elite at certain aspects of the game 1 year removed from high school ball too, against NBA players.

 

He's so quick he can actually stay in front of those guys. So nice for a change.

 

I gotta say, I am shocked and impressed! Now if they can just get Little enough PT to fast track his development.

 

You rang FAMS?

 

Always a good strategy

 

yep

 

Pretty quiet. Young absolutely torched him. Not a huge knock on him because Young torched everyone except Baze.

 

God that feels good

 

Simons is good man, and he can pass to. A few year down the stretch he will be a threat to make a play not only for himself but also for other every possessions.

I really like Little. At this point I'd play him above Mario and Tolliver. The team seems to play better as well when he's in

 

Nothing to write home about, but a win is a win

 

Young didn't torch anybody. He took 30 shots for his 35 pts and was gifted some overly generous FTs all night on calls that even Dame doesn't get. He also had 7 turnovers and was largely absent after he told the crowd to quiet down.

 

I guess you didn't watch the end of the third? Came out ok beings 1M got his also.

 

He hit a few tough shots. He was 9/30 for the night.

I thought Ant was fine one on one. Where he's struggling is team defense right now, but it's understandable considering he's only played in like 11 real games.

 

I didn't knock him at all. There will be good and bad for sure. The guy plays with fire.

 

The last two games Stotts hasn't hid Simons on defense like he does with Dame and CJ most of the time. Neither one of those other guys had to matchup with Young much. To me that can mean one of two things, either he trusts Simons more than other options in those situations or he's trying he's trying to make Simons have an obvious flaw in his game to warrant sitting him over CJ in the 4th when Simons was unstoppable on the other end.

I don't believe Stotts would be like that so I'll choose to think that he simply thought Simons was the best option from who was on the floor at the time. Although with Layman last year Stotts always made him play however Harkless would. People mention how crappy Layman was on defense in the playoffs but almost all of his minutes were spent guarding guys like Jamal Murray which is a really tough matchup for most forwards to try and guard a pick and roll point guard like that. You can only hide so many players on defense so it's probably just a pick your poison type of thing.

 

one possibility you didn't mention:

Stotts is probably smart enough to realize he's grinding Dame into the hardwood. Dame came into the game leading the league in minutes and he played 44 last night including no rest in the 2nd half. Blazers absolutely need to get him some rest and some easy minutes. Having him defend players that will run him thru screen after screen would just wear him down even more

 

You gave that way more thought than I.
I just figure 1M was doing well so he played him. He will get better on Defense. Right now Stotts doesn't have many options. Three guard lineup seems to be one of the weapons he has so he is using it.

 

Gonna pay dividends if he plays his bench and gets them some run. But he still needs to win some games. Balancing act.

 

Some kids here never watched VH1

 

I did think about this but even with hiding Dame on defense he shouldn't be playing 40 minutes in every game in November, especially when the team plays 5 games in 7 days. Dame's gonna be worn out by Christmas.

When Simons plays like he did last night shouldn't that allow Stotts to sit both Dame and CJ a little more? I get that injuries are part of the equation right now but I believe Stotts needs to be more creative in stealing Dame more rest earlier in games. Why does Dame pkay the entire 1st quarter every game no matter what the situation is?