Did you miss this part where I explained logically why I used the word appreciation and why it's a GOOD word?
I've written this before. The news out of summer camp on Harkless sounded a lot like the news about Wes when he first came to the Blazers. Great athleticism and can really play. As this season wore on, it seemed like he didn't get the chance to play on a consistent basis. There was a point many called him "Harmless." I thought he might win the SF job going into the season. I also thought we might play Aminu a lot at PF. But what do I know?
Not Leonard. Vonleh. The guy started over 50 games this year. Halfway into that, the change shoulda been made.
Not if other teams are less willing to offer Hark a big contract this summer because he's only done this over the last quarter of the season...
The 4 bigs were always awkward when they were in the game together. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong but my guess is that none of them can really space the floor on offense and the one guy that can actually space the floor is a bumbling mess on defense. Seemed like it was always one big doing decent while the other big just kind of floated on both ends. Vonleh/Leonard Vonleh/Plums Vonleh/Davis Davis/Leonard Leonard/Plums All awful pairings Ironically the Davis/Plumlee pairing looked the best to me, but they didn't really play that many minutes so maybe (probably) that lineup would have blew too if they played enough minutes. The small lineups with two of the four wings (Aminu, Harkless, Crabbe, Hendo) always looked more natural in Stotts system, and just overall more coherent on defense even if they sometimes got beat. I'm surprised it took Stotts this long to commit to small ball full time, but we did go with the Dame/CJ/Crabbe/Aminu/Plum, Davis or Meyers lineup to finish most games. Maybe being within reach of the 5th seed finally forced Stotts to prioritize winning over player development.
I really can't help but reject this notion of starting Vonleh for player development while letting Moe ride the bench. Harkless seems to have more equal, if not more potential than Noah at multiple positions while being a clearly more productive player now. The kicker: Moe is only 2 yrs older than Noah and is still 22. Just baffling why we so many here are OK starting Noah because we are "developing him" while starting Moe is implied not to be.
If Harkless develops a 3 point shot he's a max player. As is I'm happy with him regardless. We have plenty of 3 point shooting. All else equal of course you want a player who can hit three's. But I'm sick of scrubs who get beat in 20 areas on the basketball court but have a place in this league only because they have one skill; shoot a three. The Warriors and Spurs didn't win a title by having a bunch of three point shooters that do nothing else on the court. Players must contribute in other areas.
I hope Paul Allen falls in love with him like he did Darius, and forces Neil to resign him. I don't think he fits in with what Stotts wants in a wing, because of his shooting. But if we let him walk and resign Crabbe and Leonoard instead....ugh
Problem for impatient Skeptics like yourself is that Noah is only 20 years old. We have lots of time to get return on that investment.
he really does have a nice stroke, as we can see with his confidence rocketing his FT% is improving as well. I think he can easily become a 35% 3pt shooter over the next few years.
His release is a bit slow, and he has that frog jump Clyde had; I don't know if he'll ever hit 35%, but 33% is fine for me.
Overrated? All I know is O'Neal was the anchor of a team that won 60 games, and was also in the playoffs pretty much every season. Petulant? How?
His release is weird as fuck, and his shooting stance even more so. Every time Mike Rice says "He's got such a nice stroke" I readjust my eyes and wonder if he's watching the same guy.
