Blazers Twitter is really hyped right now, i have not watched a minute of SL, is the hype justified? I saw something like Jabari is the wing Dame always needed of Littles post that Blazers did a robbery drafting at 57
Yeah, I think it's important to remember that the concerns about him are if he's athletic enough to defend in space or will he be relegated to post defense. He's done a really good job of that so far. That being said, this is SL and while it's a step up from college ball it's not indicative of the speed at the NBA level. So, I've been impressed by what I've seen, he definitely has great feet, makes open shots, gives great effort and has a high BBIQ... it's just if his athleticism will make him a spot minutes guy or a rotational player in the league. When people make the Zbo comparison I think it's a good one but Zach got out of the league right about when it became imperative for four of your players to be able to cover the perimeter.
He has such natural hip movement and instincts. Most players in that Tweet you posted would turn their outside hip towards the ball, trying to cut off the ball handler. If they get around your hip when you do that, you're cooked. In this example he actually turns his hip the opposite way, leaving no path for Chandler to continue his dribble. Impressive stuff from a 19 year old.
More specifically, I think screen navigation is critical to being a good on ball perimeter defender. There just isn't enough of a sample size with him guarding the ball handler in the PnR to know how good he will be in that area yet. Everything else has been excellent so far including switching onto quicker guards, help defense, secondary rim protection, and of course rebounding. If he shows an ability to get through screens quickly too, look out.
He's not Superman, but the Blazers don't need him to be. They need some added length and size inside, a guy that won't get posted up easily but can still challenge when switched onto a guard on the perimeter. They need a guy who finishes defensive possessions by boxing out and getting the boards so as not to give the other team extra possessions. They need a guy who can finish on cuts to the basket and can make a couple of wide-open 3s. We have a lot of guys who can score. We need guys who can pick up some slack on the other end, hit the boards and aren't complete lost causes on offense. Jabari Walker seems to check all those boxes and might even be a little more, which is tremendous.
PORTLAND, Ore. (July 13, 2022) –The Portland Trail Blazers have signed rookie forward Jabari Walker to a standard NBA contract, it was announced today by General Manager Joe Cronin. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. https://www.nba.com/blazers/news/trail-blazers-sign-jabari-walker
Interested in the details. Our roster is at 15 so we’re done for now, unless we find some way to dump DiDi
doesn't make sense to cut didi immediately unless we have plans to bring someone else on. we will get no cap savings, only a roster spot. we can always cut him later if we want to use his spot for someone else, or hell maybe even tack on his contract with Keon/Winslow/etc in a trade to remove his salary altogether
Didi is guaranteed. There is absolutely no reason to waive the guy unless we thought someone would pick him up from the waiver wire and I don't think any of us are under that delusion. Didi is a body on the bench and in practice. I'm really interested in who our second two way will be and am really hoping it's a big.
