What Blazer will assume the post-Dame leadership role? Here's a look at the PER leaders for the Blazers over the years. To qualify, the player must be a starter (start over half their games). The Blazers have had 16 PER leaders in their 53-year history. With Dame and Nurk now gone, this season will usher in a new Blazer era.
I think it will be leadership by committee, like the team Rob and Malcolm came from. For stats, it should be Scoot for assists, Ayton for rebounds and I suppose Simons for scoring, though scoring should be pretty balanced.
My top 3 candidates to lead the team, Simons, Grant, and Ayton, all seem to have a quiet, relaxed personality. This is an interesting roster in the sense that there doesn't seem to be 'an alpha male.' Scoot is the closest to having that leadership persona, but I'm guessing he's a few years out from actually leading the team in stats.
I would expect Ayton to be our PER leader this year. I think Simons will start the season as the "leader" of the team, but Scoot will own it by season's end.
I think Chauncey said Grant was actually taking a leadership role and making sure people were attending meetings etc....he might be a quiet leader but I think Ant will get top billing at homegames with the introductions.
I'm excited to see what Ayton can do when he's one of the top options. He averaged 18/10 on a team that had Booker, Durant, and Bridges. Is it unreasonable to expect that he could ramp up those numbers significantly higher?
It will be interesting to see if Williams is able to sneak into the starting lineup sometime during the season. With injuries and different team matchups, I wouldn't be surprised to see him getting some starting opportunities.
I'm surprised Brogdan didn't make the poll as at 30 and being 6 man of the year he's more than likely going to put up great numbers in Portland.
I think they'll load manage Williams for the playoffs and not run him into the ground..He might play 18 - 20 minutes a game regular season.
However, he may not qualify for the graph above, criteria is they must start at least half the games and I think Sir Rob is intended more for backup rather than starter duty.
...not gonna lie, seeing Nurks rapid decline on this chart brings a tear to my eye (the flashback of "the injury" was truly gut wrenching) Now it's time for some PER DominAyton!!
One of the centers for sure. DA hovered around the 20PER for years, but with an increased role, he is likely to go up a bit. Timelord's variance if a bit bigger, he had a year as high as 25, but last year was at 19.something. It depends on health as well for him.
As much as things have changed, it doesn't mean things will change. Chauncey's wtf airport takeoff 3-2 zone won't go anywhere. It was bad enough to get a #3 pick in the draft. Very impressive! Guards on the baseline instead of harassing the perimeter makes transition offense easier. Bucket/rebound there's your 2 guards. Inbound and everyone sprint back. "the way that Chauncey wants to play" is shoot shoot shoot. Run run run. It's always nice to have a few more scrappy defenders. It makes talking defense easier. But the strategy of Billups is to keep leaning on offensive pressure. Free chicken nuggets is what everyone craves. Portland only had 2 games where they held their opponents under 100 last year. Both teams fanbase got to eat.
Certainly could be, if he averages 25 & 10 it will help his case. My thinking is he'll give a couple years and expect to be in playoffs/contend or he will want a change of scenery. He won't buy into tanking imo and can't say I blame him.
Ayton and Scoot will be communicating that we cannot purposely tank. They're talkers and its nice to have.
