I agree the 4thQ of games can be different then the other Q's; especially the last 5 minutes in a close game. Offenses get more deliberate and try to value possessions. Defenses get more focused and more intense. I think defenses also get more physical; more grabs and holds and redirection. And officials tend to allow more contact so it's common for players, even great ones, to drop a little in efficiency that's not what's being discussed here, or at least not the discussions I've been engaged in. That was about Ant dominating the ball on Portland's end in the 4th Q's over the last 3 games much more than he dominated in the other 3 Q's. It was pretty apparent what he was doing...or at least what he was trying to do. What was also obvious was that his shooting and passing efficiency cratered at the same time. More bricks and more turnovers. Yes, some of that was probably due to opponents playing more intense, physical defense while they amped up their focus on Simons. And some of that could have simply been due to Simons trying to perform above his actual level.
It's pretty normal for teams top scorers to iso in last qtr when the score is close. Im sure CB is telling Anf to take over when he's the only real vet on the floor.
Agree with this 100%. I really like Castle and Williams because of that. I still need to watch more tape on Buzelis, but I'm struggling to see where he'll be a high impact starter.
Ant has shown the offensive talent for quite a while now... The biggest revelation to me (this season) has been his defense! He can actually guard a chair! He's been involved and making decent rotations. As long as Ant will commit to defense, he is an All-star level talent.
Simons isn't a vet for this season, or the end of last season. Sharpe has played over 3 1/2 times more minutes (413) than Simons has this season (114). Since 2-23-2023, Sharpe has played 4 1/2 times more minutes than Simons. Time played starting 2-23-2023 to now: Shaedon Sharpe: 1,435 Minutes Anfernee Simons: 318 Minutes
It’s really hard to judge the Ignite team this year. Without a real PG prospect, this team just isn’t able to play in a system. The concept of the Ignite is good, but there is still work to be done for sure. The only prospect who I see not having the Ignite doubt to him this summer will be Tyler Smith, who already shoots spot up 3’s at a great rate. The lotto guys could all slip, and Buzelis could end up around #14. Maybe a team around #10-12 see Dunn’s defense as something that translates right away and picks him over Buzelis. Regardless of where he ends up, his skillset is undeniable based on his HS tape. People on this board liked Gradey Dick, who went around this range in a deeper draft. Buzelis is a much better prospect than Gradey. His playmaking potential is real. If a team gets Buzelis in the late lotto, that is a real value pick. Obviously, situation still matters. If Washington selected him, they should expect him to struggle without a true #1 scoring threat to draw attention. If SA selected him, they should expect him to struggle without a true PG, it will be a similar situation like the Ignite, but with more talented players. In Portland, he would be amazing. Buzelis could strictly be a catch and shoot guy who can also bring the ball up the court. Murray hasn’t been a liability on defense this year, if Buzelis can be as good as Murray as a rookie, he’ll no doubt get playing time as a rookie and have a huge impact on this team with his shooting. I will expect more freedom to actually play ‘point forward’ towards the end of his rookie season or starting his sophomore season. If we aren’t lucky enough draft Sarr, another awesome outcome would be trading down from our own lotto pick and ending up with two of Castle/Buzelis/Williams and Bradshaw, maybe another high impact NBA-ready player like Watson or Hall in the 2nd.
I still think part of Ant’s defensive struggles were aided by the fact that Chauncey wasn’t ever going to be able to change Dame or CJ defensively. We saw how much better the ball movement was with Ant in and both guys out in stretches. Ant was already really skinny in the beginning and Dame/CJ already didn’t prioritize defense. Now, he’s working on that end of the floor.
Win or lose, these short-handed games are a great opportunity for in-game training, which will pay of handsomely in the future.
Someone has to do it. Go tell Shae to get the ball then. They’re the only two guys who can actually get his own shot. You’re acting like you enjoyed Mani’s 20 fga game. I’d rather Ant put his time in struggling against 6’8 forwards and double/triple teams now and being a well seasoned scorer when we’re ready to compete. There was a point where Devin Booker was getting doubled so much during the season that he verbally lashed out when he got double teamed in an open gym game. Ant has never seen this much attention in his career. In the beginning, he was viewed as a 3pt specialist, plenty of people actually thought that he lacked the intensity to actually be an elite scorer. Right now, he’s looking like he has all the skills to be a 30ppg on a regular basis, and we’re going to have to ask him to dial it back when the vets come back. I have no doubt he’ll be able to do that and bump his efficiency and apg. Anyone is welcome to tell say “I told you so” if he struggles when Grant and DA are back, but I see it being pointless talking about him as if he’s Jordan Poole.
lol...."acting like" who the fuck is saying he's Jordan Poole? that's a straw man. I'm saying I've seen two different Ant's out there since he came back and the 4th Q Ant is quite different than the 1-3Q Ant; excessively one-on-one and not performing near as well as he does in the other 3 Q's. I don't see a good reason for his game to change as dramatically as it has when the 4thQ rolls around
Maybe he wasn’t a good example, but there were legit debates on Reddit and other forums about whether or not Ant or Poole was better pre-extensions. I could’ve said Herro. Or CJ, just for familiarity, the point still would’ve been the same. Some of us aren’t discussing his fourth quarter performances because we’ve been discussing all the things put up against up upon his return. The opposing game plan has been that no matter how Ant or Shae do, as long as you put a big defending forward against Ant and double team him and deny Shae, you can still win. That game plan has largely worked. How do you suggest helping Ant improve in these areas while DA and Grant are out? The answer isn’t as simple as “get Shae the ball more”, the opposing team is constantly making it a priority to make sure Shae doesn’t touch the ball in the fourth. It’s even harder to get the ball to Shae coming out of a timeout when everything is set. Camara is always in the game in crunch time and we already saw a 20fga game from him. Thybulle and Reath are not guys that you run plays for, and a lot of passes out of an Ant double team end up in Reath’s hands anyway. I’ve seen him pass out of double teams to Walker, only to see him eat up 5 seconds because he’s unsure of his next move/read and passes it back to Scoot or Ant. What exactly is the fix in your opinion? He one thing he can control is his aggressiveness in getting to the line. He’s been doing well in that area, and I hope for it to continue.
if you don't see any issues with the blinders he's been strapping on and the hooplock he's had in the last three 4thQ's then there's not much room for discussion it's just 3 games so maybe it's an aberration. But for damn sure I'm not the only one who has noticed it. There were lots of similar comments in the last game thread, including one by a poster who is as big an Ant fan as you are
Dame’s first year post Aldridge: 25.1/4.0/6.8 (3.2to) on .419/.375/.892 (8.1 3pa, 6.1 fta). Also notable: 45% 2pt compared to 50% the year before. Even with the emergence of CJ, Dame’s efficiency dipped after losing his starting lineup from the first three seasons. Ant’s games back have been without so many of the vets, that the rosters in Ant’s games have been just as bad as that first post-Aldridge team.
I just asked you who was going to make that next play out of an Ant double team when Shae is being denied. Like I’m actually asking you for your opinion, because I have zero clue. I watched two games live this season where Ant was playing, I didn’t see any guys on the court that knew what to do with the ball when it matter. The only other guy who did was blanketed all fourth (sometimes it doesn’t work like when Shae’s man gets caught ball-watching and Shae gets a wide open 3 or something like that).
it's hard to say because the motion in the Blazers offense stalled, a lot, when Ant was going iso. It turned into a two man game, at most. And usually the screener was just a quick relay pass back to Ant after he reset I saw Sharpe standing in the corner a lot, usually on the opposite side of the court as Ant and the ball. But I also saw Sharpe work to get open several times and Ant missed the opportunity by the way, I was a big Dame fan but I certainly criticized him when he consistently did things wrong. It's OK for you to note that maybe, just maybe, Ant went with a little bit too much iso in those 4thQ's. Whether that was Ant's call or Chauncey's, I don't know
I’ve acknowledged he’s been iso heavy in the 4th since been back already. It doesn’t take more than watching the quarter, I’m just not criticizing him over it, because again, no one has found a good solution yet. This problem largely is on Chauncey, but right now, a lot of people are happy with the improvement on defense that they are ignoring the fact that Chauncey has to design an offensive game plan where each guy knows what they’re doing. With Chauncey getting his flowers recently and what seems like a lack of disregard for context of the situation Ant is returning to, I strongly believe Ant is being the scapegoat of Chauncey’s lack of offensive scheme. This isn’t an Ant problem, this is a coaching/talent-gap problem.
Through 7 December games: 26.4/3.1/6.0 (2.9to) on .444/.350/.923 (8.6 3pa, 5.8 fta) Observations: - the shooting splits remain sub-par, yet he is averaging 5.8 fta this month, and that’s been the huge difference in his boost in scoring. Even tonight, on a night where I thought he was fouled driving at least twice (4 more fts), he still ended up with 5 fta. I hope to see him continue this improvement in getting to the line. He’s a fraction of a fta away from averaging Dame’s number of ftas in his first year without Aldridge and Fox at age 24. He’s just now getting to the line almost as much as Ja a couple years ago and Devin around ages 21-24. - He’s had obvious good signs on defense. We know that Brogdon will be traded eventually, so those minutes will eventually be replaced by a bigger body, so I’m not totally worried about the defense. He’s going to get use to taking more contact—between getting to the line more and playing much better defense, Ant’s probably had to be more physical this year than he’s ever been in the league. He’s taking the challenges well too, we are starting to see the all of the FO’s investment into this skinny 175lb kid pay off. - 6.0apg is pretty much what I expected from Ant. The encouraging thing has been that a lot of his passes lead to shooting fouls or chipped layups. The way he’s been playing this season, I think he could be averaging close to 8apg with talent (I don’t mean “more” talent, I mean the talent we have now) that is consistently healthy around him. I really want to see him average 7+apg this year. With incoming trades, I don’t know if I could expect that from him, but our younger players will be improving as the season winds down as well. I’d either like him to be around the 7.5apg mark at the end of the season, OR reduce his topg to 2.0. - A lot of people have been talking about the “ball-stopping”. I think tonight showed this is more on Chauncey than Grant. I’d be interested in seeing more of what we saw between DA, Ant, and Grant in the fourth quarter, in the following games. Ant’s threat to shoot is magnetic, he has to be accounted for at all times. I’m not sure if it’s just his ability to lull a guy to sleep, but his first step looks lightning quick. Even today, he got to the cup EASY and almost looked like he didn’t want want to pack it, and it kind of bounced out. Had he tried to finish with more authority, it’s a two-handed dunk and two extra points, but nothing but a little more aggressiveness won’t fix. His offensive package and potential is so great to me, that it’s too hard to think about giving up on him now. It’s going to be Chauncey’s job to utilize these pieces. I would find a replacement for Chauncey before I look to sell on Ant for less than a haul.
