As time goes on.......Everyone should know that I was a huge fan of JJ Hickson last year and I thought that it was a miscalculation on Olshey's part to not only let him walk but to also kick sand in his face. I thought it was trashy and low grade of a guy to do that (Olshey) whom I do think he's made a lot of good decisions as well. This was just not one of them to let Hickson walk let alone for nothing in return. Last night Hickson had a 16 point, 25 rebound night. We know that Hickson's capable of nights like this but what amazes me is that of his 25 rebounds, 15 were offensive AND it was in only 29 minutes of action. I often get friendly/amicable crap from others who believe that Lopez and especially Robinson are better than Hickson right now. Let's put this in perspective, JJ Hickson's 16 and 25 were more than Lopex and Robinson COMBINED tonight and they played roughly 53 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking trash about Lopez as I think that he's a very serviceable center who is not really athletic in comparison but he has such a high basketball IQ that he knows where to be at the right time and place. I like Lopez so I just want to make that clear. I like Robinson as well, I just think that he has a proper place and time to show his value. I really wish that Portland would have kept Lopez at the center and Hickson as the first PF off of the bench. This is not an attempt to troll; I just figured that I have taken a lot of criticism over this issue that I can finally say something back in a light-hearted way.... I am a huge fan of JJ Hickson. I really do wish that he was still part of our team. One thing I can't understand is why the Blazers as an organization HATES him so much????? They Blazers management has talked so much trash about him from this point last year and continued until half way in the 3rd quarter of last nights game until his stats got so video game-like that they had no choice but to tame it a bit and then it continued in the post game with Mike & Mike. It just leads me to believe that SOMETHING happened last year that led to animosity of this degree. Just remember what Hickson did last night.........Hickson's 15 offensive rebounds is an NBA franchise record. Only three players have collected as many rebounds in league history -- Andray Blatche on April 1, 2011, and Dennis Rodman on Dec. 23, 1997. Hickson's one of my favorite players in the league to watch.
HOW or WHY would we know you were a fan of Hickson last year? What a random way to start a thread amongst a bunch of strangers.
Would you care to comment on the OTHER 9 segments of the post I made or are you just fixated on the first segment you see that you can be negative about? None the less I will change it but please be more positive in the future.
I love JJ and what he brings to the game. Can't play D to save his life, but still love his energy. As for what I commented on, I found it strange to start off a thread like that when you only joined us last week. How would we know who or what you like?
The Blazers played tonight, coming from a guy who had his picture up with a beer in his hand while the RG was in the back ground, you should understand....... LOL. Accidents happen man........
I think Sacramento just being SACRAMENTO contributed to a lot of that. I think that they mismanaged Hickson from start to finish. First they thought that they were smart and traded power forward J.J. Hickson to the Sacramento Kings for 6-9 small forward Omri Casspi and a future first-round draft choice. Then to compound matters worse, they waived Hickson for absolutely nothing in what appears to be a contract dump when the owners were strapped for cash. If Sacramento had their heads on straight and stayed calm, they could have just done nothing and would have came out ahead. They also could have highlighted Hickson and what he could do on the court and at the very least received a first or second round pick for him. My own personal opinion is that they brought Hickson in on a flyer not expecting much and then he became a fan favorite and it mess with their over all plan for where the organization was heading. Theirs only 1.6 million that seperates Hickson and Thomas Robinson and they are light years apart with Hickson being a head right now. That's not to say that Robinson is a bad player, just that Hickson is a far better player.
He does a couple of things very well, but he also has massive drawbacks to his game. For what the Thuggets were willing to pay him, he didn't make any sense to keep.
I don't think that he's an all-star or anything but I do absolutely think he's a beast when playing in his natural PF position. Everyone thought that he was going to command 7-8 million this year but for reasons unknown he signed with Denver the day after Portland made the Lopez trade for only 1.6 million more than Robinson.
HA HA. I hope that was your sarcasm coming out......... It has to be considering that you are not happy with the current Blazers team. Denver is clearly a whole organization that is in a state of change. It started when they fired coach Karl.
He had a great game..... against Dorell Wright. I mean, come on..... We were playing three guards for much of the second half. It was like we gave Hickson a free pass into Disneyland. It was a joke. LA was out. Freeland was out. Leonard was out. Robinson was out. This really wasn't anything to beat his chest about.
JJ Hickson's 16 and 25 were more than Lopex and Robinson COMBINED tonight and they played roughly 53 minutes when Hickson played only 29 minutes. Are you suggesting that it takes 4 people as stated plus Lopez for a total of 5 people to neutralize Hickson?
It takes one person actually. LaMarcus Aldridge. Nov 1st - 5 points, 2-13 shooting, 9 boards, 4 blocked attempts January 23 - 12 points, 6-10 shooting, 7 boards, 5 assists, 5 fouls, 3 turnovers. He really didn't do that much against us when LA was playing, mostly because LA was fucking abusing the shit out of him to the tune of 44 points, 13 boards, and 5 dimes in January and 25, 9 and 4 in November. I would also point out that Robinson was hurt in the game. We didn't see him at all in the 4th.
I throw the first game out because Hickson was on a new team with a new coach and pretty much all new players from his perspective as well as the teams as well as him being over-hyped in trying to stick it to the blazers. He still had 9 rebounds, 5 points, and 2 assists in that first game while LA played 36 minutes and had to shoot the ball 26 times to get his 25 points. I don't really call that "Abusing" Hickson. In the second game, Hickson wasn't playing defense on LA as Hickson was playing out of position at the center position due to a season ending injury to JaVale McGee. You can give those points to Faried who was playing defense on LA. I don't want to sound like an excuse machine but those are the facts. I would love for Hickson to be the 6th man off of our bench. He's a double-double machine and he does it in limited minutes.
Lopez played 38 minutes of the 53. Robinson played 14, and some of that was injured. Hickson's top 3 rebounding games as a blazers we are 1-2 (Win @ Chicago by 10, losses @Washington by 2 and Atlanta by 8) Before tonight's game against Portland: Against Sacramento: 1 point, 6 rebounds (16 minutes) @ Chicago - 6 points, 1 rebound (20 minutes) Both losses Going further, winning @ Milwuakee (14 points, 10 rebounds in 29 minutes) Loss @ Phoenix (11 points, 9 rebounds in 30 minutes) My point being, just because he had this one great game, doesn't mean he's consistent or worthy of being back on this team. The last time he had 15+ rebounds was against Detroit on the 7th... and the team lost by 17. It's great that JJ had a great game, but lets also be realistic. For the record, when he's gotten 19+ rebounds, the nuggets are 1-2 this year. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hicksjj01/gamelog/2014/
The hate JJ receivers is comical at this point. Averaged a 20 PER in a season and a half with the Blazers, and is currently has a PER above 16. He'd be a welcomed addition on any team needing a big off the bench (like, um.... the Blazers) He only makes $1.5M per season more than Robinson. NO outsmarted himself on this one.
Because they're stupid. Okay. http://bkref.com/tiny/v1TOi One of the players brought in to replace him. So his replacement Thomas Robinson plays better defense. Sure. Like any of our subs, he has holes in his game. Nuggets pay him $5M. We paid Travis Outlaw $4M. Could his replacements Robinson, Wright, Leonard, Freeland do as well as he can against Aldridge? Since he'd be a Blazer, why does this matter?
Saying that when player (A) scores (X) amount of points on offense and them team loses actually means something. When saying that when player (B) rebounds above (X) amount and the team loses only means that player (B) out worked the other 9 players on the court for those rebounds and they should work harder.
Mike and Mike sure go out of their way to bash/discredit/minimize him in a concerted way. Olshey really bashed him in a unprofessional way. Seems like Olshey has some hard feelings over something that happened behind closed doors?
