What do people think so far? I've got to say, I'm a bit underwhelmed. So far I'm thinking the trade might be looked back on as a mistake. Not that any of the three we traded were helping us (although I STILL believe Claver could have, given more of a chance, and I will always love Will, albeit now safely from afar), but they would have disappeared from the cap at the end of the year, and we also gave up a pick. Meanwhile, while Afflalo is undoubtedly a safer player to have on the court than CJ, he's also stunting any development CJ might make, and you've got to hope that CJ has a higher ceiling, otherwise that draft looks like an even bigger fuckup than it already looks. I dunno - I guess I'm prepared to believe that Afflalo has "intangibles" - intensity, et al., that we lacked, but our bench is still pretty atrocious. And if the acquisition of Afflalo is in any way an influence on Wes leaving... then it's an unmitigated disaster.
There were some players I wanted over him, but I must say he seems to be the perfect fit. I want to give him more than 3 games, because he seems to be playing at a very high energy level, and I'm not sure he can sustain it. I wonder how much of his energy has to do with excitement over a new and improved situation. If he can keep this energy and do tinue to learn the offensive and defensive sets, then I think come playoff time he will be big time for us. It has the potential to go down as the best move by any team this season. I don't usually like the "been there" argument, but playoff experience is important and I'm sure if you looked at the statistics of it you would see that players generally improve their playoff success the more often they have been there. The reason I don't like the argument is because it is completely possible for players to show up and be big with little or no playoff experience - look at dame in his first playoff series last season.* That being said I think Afflalo seems like the type of player who has gotten close, and really wants to win it all. *By the way I think this needs to be talked about more come playoff time. How difficult will it be for him to improve on last years performance.
What do I think? AAA is a revelation for the Blazers. Another, much needed lock down defender on the wing. And finally, somebody who can get to the line/attack at will.
Give him at least 10 games. He had played very well in the minutes he has gotten, it's gonna take time till he is fully comfortable. Right now he is doing everything we need of him, unselfish play, taking good shots, getting the tough rebounds and playing good D.
The guy has played well in 3 of his 4 games with is. He is exactly the type of guy we needed off the bench. I think his game and personality fits us so well. Not to mention, gee looked playable last night. This trade was a good one. If Wes leaves this offseason, we have afflalo starting with Cj coming off the bench. Gives us insurance and makes it easier because we have afflalos bird rights
I think when you have a title window, you have to swing for the fences. I rarely fault a team for taking a risk, if the reasoning is valid and the potential payoff is worthy. Afflalo may not end up being the piece that solidifies our bench for a title run, but he definitely can be. We now have veteran backups at every position (if we consider Wright as a 4), and I think our bench is fine, as long as they're not all out there simultaneously. Olshey has given Stotts everything he needs to make a deep playoff push.
Afflalo has the highest True Shooting % of any Blazer with 100 minutes or more (66.6%); the next highest is Meyers "Never A Bad Shot" Leonard with 65.5% That alone is worth the price of admission. The guy is a scorer. His DRtg isn't great but has improved 3 points over his Denver days. 50% shooting from 2, 50% shooting from 3. I doubt that can last, but DANG is it needed!
He doesn't shoot enough. 6-8-6-4 shots in his 4 games with us so far. We needed a scorer off the bench but he's being too tentative by trying to fit in.
Isn't fitting in the goal? He needs to build trust with everyone and play within the offense. I'm not worried about his shots at all.
Also, considering that Kaman has shot 7-12 times most of the time off the bench, it seems to be average for the guy we expect to be a shooter off the bench.... but AAA is better suited for it. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kamanch01/gamelog/2015/ I'd much rather have AAA taking shots, anyway.
50/50 shooting looks a lot better on 10 shots per game than 6. I just thought with a player as good as Afflalo coming off the bench, Terry would have created better ways to utilize him. It's still early of course, but Aaron should absolutely be a bigger part of the offense.
I haven't watched all the games, but he appears to be playing with our starters a lot. It would be nice if Stotts primarily played him as the featured player with a bench unit - I thought that was the point in trading for him. Playing him with Dame, Wes, LMA seems to reduce the impact he could have.
I love AA and happy he is here. I think it was overpaying but only because of the picks (specifically the 1st more than the 2nd of course). DEN got a great deal. We got a pretty dang good deal. I would still probably do it again (AA is perfect for our team) but I would probably try some mind tricks on DEN to get them to not insist on level of picks they got.
TIME my friend, takes a while to get integrated and comfortable with our players and offense. If he was a good get will be determinable much more at the end of season and then the playoffs
Give him a month to learn the plays and get some timing and learn to be comfortable with his teammates. That would be a better time to have this discussion. I thought his play against OKC was better than I'd expect for a guy with a team for a week.
I like what iv seen so far on the D end and on O he is definitely still getting integrated into the system and players arent used to playing with him, thats pretty obvious. He will get better with every game until it looks like he has been playing with us all year just gotta have some patience.
