Noah on a non guaranteed deal or I'd bring up Moses and throw him in the fire until Gasol can get on the court. ….no better school for a young center than playing against NBA centers night after night. He'll make some mistakes but I think he'd get you the rebounds we're missing last game....Skal only got 4 boards in that game...he's on a cheap deal and would work as a stop gap until we get some bigs healthy again...it's 6 fouls in the paint that Hassan wouldn't have to pick up early in a game. He's certainly young but so is Simmons.
I keep using phonetics to type his name or I think Paul Simon....strange pronounciation he uses for the spelling...the short "i" tone and the double mm following just comes out naturally thinking the guy's name....I mess up Jusef and Jusif or Jusuf as well often...
It's no problem, I shouldn't make anything out of it. I just keep seeing Simmons and not Simons and my first reaction every time is, "Who's Simmons?", I need my brain's default behavior to change.
He hasn't even started on court work. "Patient".... For what it's worth, Windhorst just reported that Joakim Noah has a significant injury and his career is in jeopardy.
I think a trade would be much more likely than a signing. Zach's likely going to be out 4-6 months, which means playoffs at best. In order to get to the playoffs, the Blazers are going to need a starting caliber PF. I love what Bazemore brings to the team, but we have plenty of wings. Trading him and a pick for a starting caliber player seems to me like the right move. Gallinari fits the bill, in my estimation. I'm sure that there are others.
Olshey may not want to add another player for a variety of reasons, but if the Blazers keep giving up 60-80 points in the paint while their defensive numbers continue to tank, and their rebounding sucks, he might not have a choice unless he's ok with Portland being a 6th or 7th seed for what it's worth: * last season, Portland was 8th in defensive rebound rate; this season they are 23rd * last season, Portland was 2nd in offensive rebound rate, this season they are 27th.....yeeeeesh! that's a terrible regression on the glass and it points out that the Blazers may end up missing the contributions of Aminu, Harkless, & Turner (and Meyers) in rebounding as much as on defense. Whiteside alone might not be enough a player like Faried would certainly go a long way in mitigating the rebounding deficit
Seems like a small sample size issue. We've been relatively even in the rebound% matchup in the 5 games Whiteside played. The last game skews those numbers quite a bit as Philly posted a 57% TRB to our 43%.
sure....only 6 games can have sample size issues, especially when compared to 82 games. No argument however, IIRC, Portland outrebounded opponents in something like 2/3rds of all games last season. They had been outrebounded in 3 of the first 5 games, even with Whiteside. look no further than Aminu vs Zach/Tolliver and Harkless vs Hood. Aminu had a 14.1% rebound rate, Zach/Tolliver are at 7.2%/9.0%. Harkless was at 10.1% while Hood is at 6.2%. Even Turner has a slight advantage over Bazemore. Hezonja/Skal are holding up OK but they are no match for the rebounding prowess of Kanter/Meyers. Whiteside being a little better than Nurkic can't offset all those other deficits last season, Portland had a rebound differential of +5.2. Going into the Philly game, the Blazers were at -1.0
Yeah, it's not as good, but I don't think it's as bad as 27th in the league. It's not as much of a strength, but hopefully we make up for it in other ways - like hey, we're shooting 40% as a team on threes! (Knock on wood, also small sample size issue)
If signing someone isn't an option then lets look at some non-crazy trade options (these are ones that we could do now, after December 15th a lot more possibilities open up): Jonah Bolden: He's out of the rotation for the 76ers right now after being in it most of last year. He's a big who can stroke the 3 and is an okay rebounder. Would fit well in a Stotts offense and likely would be reasonably cheap to acquire. With the 76ers lack of shooting maybe something like Bolden for Trent? Marvin Williams/Cody Zeller/Bismack Biyombo/Guillermo Hernangomez: Charlotte is obviously going young. Marvin Williams is playing just 18 minutes a game. He'd be a decent stop gap for Zach. He's nowhere near the interior defender Zach is but he's a better perimeter defender. He's more like Aminu with a nicer looking shot. Bazemore for Marvin Williams works but I doubt Charlotte would take on a few more million just to swap out expiring contracts and that leaves us thin at wing. A Marvin Williams and Cody Zeller for Whiteside swap I think they'd probably do but that is selling awfully low on Whiteside plus Zeller has another year left on his deal. It's probably not ideal right now but may be worth revisiting if we get desperate for depth up front. A Trent for Hernangomez trade would make sense but I'm not sure either team would do that. Larry Nance JR: He's kind of a poor man's Blake Griffin playmaking big. His contract isn't bad but it's in that range that makes it tough for Portland to trade for. Portland would have to take on a bad player to get this done and so far they've been unwilling to add salary for future years. Something like Nance and Dellavedova (expiring to make the deal work) for Bazemore? Once again, not sure about giving up one of our few defensive wings for a scenario like this. Jae Crowder: Another smaller PF and one who's contract is a tough match with ours but he'd fit in well on this team. Much like with Cleveland we'd have to take on an expiring deal. They'd probably do Crowder and Solomon Hill (expiring deal) for Bazemore. They could try to flip Hill for someone else like Nance or Marvin Williams so it would be Crowder and Marvin for Bazemore although we may have to throw something else in there even though it saves both teams money. I kind of like that because it give us some wing depth while also providing PF help but we still wouldn't have a lot of big size if injuries occur. Derrick Favors: Favors seems really out of place on New Orleans roster and with their style of play. I wonder if they'd do a straight up swap of Bazemore for Favors? I don't know about trading Bazemore for a big though. There might not be a choice but my favorite of those is the Jonah Bolden trade because it makes sense for both teams and Bolden won't be a problem when the other bigs get healthy plus he's still young enough to have some potential.
I've really grown to like Baze. His energy and defense will be even more impactful to close the season and in the playoffs, I feel. Don't just wanna throw him in a deal unless it's for a bonafide starter (even after Collins returns).
Windhorst mentions Gallinari. The Baze + 1st for Gallo deal is there if Portland wants it. I just don't see what Gallo offers this team. He's a scorer not a playmaker. We have enough scorers and Gallo's defense is non-existent.
