Young Gerald Wallace showed up. Outside of Dinwiddie blowing past him one time he was steady defensively, pretty impressive for a rookie. Crashed the boards and brought energy. He should be playing over Tolliver at the least. Still only 19, what’s he going to look like after a year in an nba strength program?
Shit coaching aside, Little has earned playing time. He held his own against one of the better players in the league right now, a power forward that had a considerable size advantage, at least height/length wise. Still only 19 with an nba body. His energy and play in transition is really Gerald Wallace all over again. Hopefully he develops into a better shooter than crash but he should be fine regardless. If we’re gonna suck/be injured all season, may as well develop guys like Little and Anfernee.
His IQ on both ends is night and day different than what he showed at UNC. He's a demon on the court with elite rebounding instincts. He has the makings of a young Ron Artest. His iso defense is already above average.
I think the style of the NBA game suits him much better. College is more structured, half court sets, slow and methodical. Where in the NBA it’s faster and more spread out it allows him to use his skill set much better.
Little hitting those threes was very exciting for me, as the rest of his game is raw but energetic. Being able to hit open threes definitely helps him get more minutes. I'm very happy for him and hope he can fill our gaping hole as a strong 3/4 defender.
I am really liking Nas. I want to see him go up against top notch teams/player consistently so he can learn, develop and grow. I think he was an outstanding draft pickup for Portland.
The offense we have is not conducive to Nassir and he's still breaking through and doing good things. In the Stotts offense, he's relegated to park in the corner for a 3 which is an absolute waste. Let's get him some cuts to the basket. His handle looks to be really good too.
Little has been the ONLY positive recently. So of course he gets pushed to the bench by Mr. -20 Anthony.
Trying to think of the best comparison for him. I toyed with Kersey, but he's more like a non-asshole Ruben Patterson?
We might even get another huge upgrade with the lottery pick this year. I really think this will be a blessing in disguise having this very temporary tank season this year as well. Simons, Little and this pick this season? We might be on to something
Isn't he really a Kawhi-lite? Similar height and weight, wingspan only differs by 1-2", shows he can hit the three, play good defense and rebound. Not sure there is anyone closer.
Yeah, that one struck me as the obvious one later... Here's hoping we can trade him for the pick where we take the next Damian Lillard!
We will have to see after Little has a few NBA games. Obviously on a small sample Little looks better across the board.
It's too fucking bad that just as Nassir Little is showing a little of what he can do, we add Carmelo Anthony. It's very disappointing. We also saw some nice passing from Anfernee Simons against the Pelicans. It was kind of shocking how quickly he whipped the ball to Bazemore, I'm glad Bazemore caught the passes. Simons seems to have as good or better (or maybe he's just more willing?) vision as Lillard and McCollum. Maybe he doesn't feel the pressure to score as much. Whatever it is, he could make the Blazers more dangerous on offense by being less predictable and quicker in execution. He does not seem to play favorites as to whom he's passing to (which is great if he's playing with all shooters.) Even when he got in a jam near the hoop, instead of taking a difficult contested shot, he made a un-panicked pass to Labissiere who missed a pretty easy mid-range shot.