Right? Outside of Meyers and CJ, who's gonna have the potential to average over 15ppg? I think we should go after Kanter just to have another guy that can take the load off of Dame on the offensive end.
I wouldn't be surprised if Dame averages 28-30 ppg. I'm hoping he does it efficiently though. I wouldn't want to see him scoring that much on 40% from the field.
I hope not - that's going to be inefficient, losing basketball that doesn't lend itself to developing all the other players on the team. Lillard should be focused on developing, too, rather than doing the same things he's always done (score).
I don't think Lillard can score 25+ PPG efficiently. That's the type of production the greatest scorers ever provide. I like Lillard, but he'll have to take a couple gigantic steps up to be that caliber of player. I think he'll score 20-22 solidly efficient points and his assists will go up. He's going to be playing pick-and-roll a lot, and he's going to draw a double-team from a lot of those pick-and-rolls because he's the only proven scorer. If he makes the right play each time, he'll be passing a lot. It'll be on other guys to hit open shots.
I don't want Dame trying to carry that load. I want him to show leadership by guiding his team and putting his teammates in positions to grow and succeed, in the long-term.
K*be will sign with us for our 2016 cap space thinking: "That young'un is my kind of player! And don't worry, Aminu and Ed Davis...you guys just play D and clean up the boards...we'll be fine back here"
On a serious note, with teams having to respect the "and roll" much more on the P&R, you will probably not see as many bigs hedging up to double Dame. Last couple years other teams have known that worst-case scenario the get by trapping Dame is an open 41% jumper from LMA or a chance to catch back up on D as the ball swings its way around the floor to the other corner. (For players that had 2 P*R chances per game, LMA was worse than everyone except Luis Scola, Josh Smith and Thaddeus Young at .83PPP). Even though he led the league in P&R possessions, his shooting of the P&R was well below his first two years. Now, with a couple of crashers to the rim as our bigs (and maybe, dare I say, lobs and alley-oops?!) the defending big will be forced to stay back, giving Dame either an open mid-range or 2-on-1 drive to the hoop if the defender goes over the top, or a calm 3 as they go under the screen. Either way, I expect higher efficiency, higher 3pt% and more assists even with the same number of P&R plays. If we have more P&Rs...wow. Before he hurt his back against MIA in January, Dame was shooting 42% on 3's.
Yeah, cause we all saw what Westbrook wasn't able to do by being an inefficient volume scorer. Set records...but lost.
...what? he's been with adidas since BEFORE he was pro. i don't understand what you're trying to say here
When he premiered his signature shoe, coincidentally his game took a turn for the worse. Pre-Damian-1 days is what we mean.
Damian's about to enter a whole new world as the focal point of every team's defensive effort. Aldridge took a ton of pressure off of him and I think there's going to be a major adjustment period for him. Will he lead the league in scoring? No I doubt that, at least not while Lebron, Durant, Westbrook, and Curry are still in the league. He'll probably put up about 23 per game on 38-40% shooting . . . and we'll lose a shit-load of games and that's just fine by me because I don't relish the idea of sacrificing our first round pick to Denver.
I've been thinking about that draft pick... if 2016 is as weak as we think, do we want to risk having a worthless 8th pick this year and accidentally getting too good in 2017 to keep our pick? Playing our asses off, and giving Denver a non-lotto pick in 2016 gives us freedom to trade the 2017 pick, or whatever. I'm thinking it's a win-win scenario for us either way.
If we are gonna lose the pick, it should be this season. The 2016 draft supposedly one of the worst in the last decade. And who's to say we don't trade one of our valuables to move up anyway? If the draft is as weak as they say, then a player with promise and a little cap space could do the trick.
