Now that Simons is a Blazer, I wish him well, and hope he develops into a very productive player. The kid can shoot.... But in the past, we have drafted the best shooter in the draft, and it did not turn out well for us. Luke Babbitt comes to mind. We even traded up to draft him. Luke is still in the league, and his shooting % look fairly decent. But it the rest of his game that is holding him back, and has him sitting on the end of the bench. I'm not comparing Simons to Babbitt. Simons is much more athletic, so he has the potential to be much better than Babbitt. I'm making the point that there is a lot more to the game than shooting. And Simons has a lot to learn about the other aspects of the game. And then improve those weakness to NBA level talent. I do not agree he is a combo guard. He is a very undersized shooting guard, at this time. Last season he made more turnovers than assists, against much less talented players. He needs to learn how to make passes against larger, quicker and smarter players than he played against. However, he seldom passed the ball. he played a lot of iso hero ball. So he needs to learn how to get his other teammates involed, and then learn how to run a team. Then he will be a combo guard. Yup he is a project, with "potential". But potential seldom meet expectations. Grade c+ Good luck kid, and work hard.
My only issue with it is that it's another small guard. May be perfect when he's actually able to contribute, but right now our two best players are undersized guards. So basically we're planning on Dame/CJ not working long term. But hoping Dame/Simons will? Or just planning on Dame asking for a trade and eventually Simons is our guy?
I gave it a very solid B as we just haven't seen enough of him to know what he will bring, but the potential does offer some excitement.
Lillard is not undersized. Look at some of the PG's that were drafted last night and their size. Lillard is actually very average size for a point guard.
For those with a stick up their ass..... Think of Collins and Biggie as our rookies this year, and Simons and Trent as our rookies next year.
I was about to say haha... His athleticism and ball skills at 6'4 excite me. He has some similarities with Donovan Mitchell (a Louisville product, which is where Simons was supposed to go). Dame is the best mentor for a kid like this. He does has a lot to learn, but his skills go perfectly under a mentor like Dame. It also has to be understood that he was playing with less talented players. It was probably better for him to press the issue himself than create for others, so I want to examine is passing in summer league. His hero ball might've been a product of his situation.
Exactly. And Simons is easily bigger than Dame. Simons is a big PG, and a slightly undersized SG IMO.
B. Might be lower if they don’t make other moves to change the roster. If this is it, it doesn’t help this team whatsoever in the short term. If they fill the other needs and they can groom him I like it. It just feels like they have two separate things going - a youth movement and also trying to build with the vets. I feel like they need to pick a lane.
More I think about it.... A+. If he shows flashes, we just got an ELITE TRADE chip to leverage in him. If he doesn’t, I like the risk. Well worth it IMO, especially if the Lakers were going to take him with their next pick.
F. We don't do well with projects, and he is a massive project. He's not the next LBJ, and I'm not going to bullshit myself into believing that he is. If he's anywhere near starting in 4 years, I will gladly eat my words. But I'm not holding my breath. This was a stupid, terrible pick by Olshey, and a demonstration of the ineptitude that I've come to expect from Portland's FO and Ownership. Now.....all of that being said, I will no less support him and hope for the best. That's really all we can do right now. And I really DO want him to succeed. But I have a strong feeling he won't. We had clear needs going into this draft, and Olshey fucked it up. A 6'3" High School player with no defensive game. Brilliant..... I'm at least hopeful about this Gary Trent dude we drafted because he has college experience and a very good 3 point game. I gave him a C-.
No. My standard for high school players drafted out of high school is LeBron James. Otherwise, there's zero reason to draft them.
You wouldn't have gone back in time to draft Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire since they aren't living up to the standard of LeBron (which no one can)?
