Exclusive I'm not sold on Dame/Ant

Let's theorize that the strategy is to move forward with Dame/Simons as the starting backcourt.

I'm not sold on this being any different/better than Dame and CJ.

CJ's best season was 2016-2017. He was 25 years old. He played most of the season. He shot the lights out.



Statistically CJ was better defensively than Ant is now. I see this as Ant's likely ceiling if paired with Dame.



I get that we could essentially have a chance of replicating CJ's offensive production at a cheaper price, but why the heck would we run it back with a younger CJ and an older Dame? It doesn't make sense to me. It's like we didn't learn anything from the past. The problem with this team hasn't necessarily been a lack of talent... it has been a flawed design, and it sure doesn't seem like we're changing it up.

 

Shouldn’t be, but no real need to worry about it

 

me neither

 

me neither

 

Im thinking Ant or Naz could be included with Nurk for a bonafide front line guy. We've got Hart and you know what he is and isn't, he's having a very good year and is a better defender/rebounder than Ant. The only way they will include him, imo, is if the right front court player on Dames time line was there.

 

Yeah I don’t like that backcourt at all. Choose one or the other.

 

I'm more sold on Dame and Ant for a number of reasons;

As Lillard is aging into his 30's he can't support the workload as when he was 25, he needs Ant to share the burden.

Ant isn't eligible for as large of a contract as CJ

Cap is going up with the next TV contract which will make Ant&Dame extensions less damaging to roster constuction.

Ant has potential to be a superior defender to CJ.

Ant may have potential to surpass CJ as a player.

The DameCJ duo was not inherently 100% flawed, just the the rest of the roster has to be constructed very well to fit around those two. We never had the forwards needed for such a contender.

Finally, Ant has the youth to excel after Dame, so if it doesn't work out we could always move on from Dame or have Dame take a back seat in the way that didn't make sense with him and CJ in their prime.

 

I like Anfernee, a lot.
But I just don't see him as a building block type of player.
If he was gonna "pop", he'd do it by now. He would have made one of those last second game winners.
I cannot put him in the same league as others his age, JA, Trae, Limelo, Edwards (the real 'Ant')..But, he could be a solid trade piece.
You can do a lot worse than a Lillard/Hart backcourt.

 

Me neither.

I credit Simons for the improvement he has shown, but in his 4th season there are still too many games he looks like a callow rookie. If he had "star" potential, we would have seen it by now.

 

I agree with this.
CJ started after Wes got hurt and left the team. Who was our 3rd guard after that? (Let alone frontcourt)

There are 96 minutes in a game at the guard position. That is more than enough minutes for a 3 guard rotation.
As you said Dame is not getting any younger. 33 minutes is about right for him now. Plus if Dame gets hurt as he ages, you need someone like Simons.

So the real question for me (as it has been for a few years) is who is that 3rd guard? At the very, we need a 3 and D player.

If Hart was a better 3 pt shooter he would be ideal. (Same with Winslow for that matter)

 

Jaden Ivey will make Ant expendable next season. Just chill.

 

No need to be, they'll never play with each other again.

 

So Dame is out ?

 

Serious question @Natebishop3 :

What positive thing about the franchise are you sold on?

 

Who says we're keeping Ant? Hasn't the work Cronin done allowed us the flexibility of using him as an attractive trade piece along with the trade exceptions. Let him have a billion shots and be the primary focus of the team for the rest of this season, increase his trade value and then get something really promising back that fits very well with Dame.

 

Not much right now. I like Nas and Ant. I just don’t think Dame and Ant is a championship backcourt.

I can tolerate a lot of bullshit if I think we are on a path to a ring. It can be a long fucking path but I just need to feel like we are on it. The last four or five years has felt like we were the people who were on the Oregon trail and gave up. Stopped and just set up wherever they were.

And right now it feels like maybe we unloaded all the crap from the wagon and are loading up only the essentials but with Dame and Ant we might just be taking a lap around and town and not actually getting back on the road to the promised land.

 

We have seen it. 43 in win over Hawks. The guy averaged 28/8 on 50/40/90 during a stretch of starting games with Little and without CJ and Powell. Simons absolutely has All Star potential. Might need his own team though.