Difference between Simons and Sharpe is 3 years, 11 months, 22 days. Anfernee Simons. Born: June 8, 1999 (Age: 23-035d)in Longwood, Florida Nassir Little. Born: February 11, 2000 (Age: 22-152d)in Pensacola, Florida Trendon Watford. Born: November 9, 2000 (Age: 21-246d)in Birmingham, Alabama Greg Brown III. Born: September 1, 2001 (Age: 20-315d)in Dallas, Texas Keon Johnson. Born: March 10, 2002 (Age: 20-125d)in Shelbyville, Tennessee Jabari Walker. Born: July 30, 2002 (Age: 19-348d)in Wichita, Kansas Shaedon Sharpe. Born: May 30, 2003 (Age: 19-044d)in London, Ontario also: Brandon Williams. Born: November 22, 1999 (Age: 22-233d)in Los Angeles, California Didi Louzada. Born: February 7, 1999 (Age: 23-156d)in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Brazil
I'm interested to see how Walker fits in talent-wise. He may soon be just below Little in overall impact during an NBA game. I'm also interested to see how Sharpe makes progress over the next calendar year. He's about 300 days younger than Jabari Walker. He might already have a very high skill level which he just needs time and health to show.
Nassir Little will make the biggest impact this year IMO , and become a full time productive starter.
My hope is Nas starts at the beginning of the season. If he proves to be the best point of attack defender on the team, it only makes more sense to start him and keep Hart off the bench as an instant offense guy. At the very least, Nassir and Grant are on par with Harkless and Aminu offensively, with a lot more upside offensively. So in a sense, this starting lineup could end up being the best starting lineup he’s ever had. I can honestly say I’ve been happy with the building for the future and trying to compete at the same time, even if I wasn’t happy with the offseason overall. At this point, anything good that happens during the Dame era is a bonus, but I’m more excited about Ant/Sharpe/Nas in the next several years. Safer to assume no star wants to come here enough for any of those guys to be moved than not anyways. Unless either Walker or Watford prove to be a starter quality player by the end of their rookie deals, they can be dealt for draft capital as well. Then the wheels keep turning, we’ll keep finding Watfords and Walkers in future drafts, and hopefully we’ll still have 1sts to add to a core of Ant/Sharpe/Nas.
I'm not the biggest Little fan, (see what I did there?), but I hope he can start as well. I like what looks to be a good combo in him and Grant, but I especially love what I saw on defense from Hart/Winslow playing together.
1. Simons 2. Little and Sharpe 3. Johnson, Watford and Walker 4. Brown, Williams and Louzada Sharpe gets a pass and time … for now. Simons, a starter. Little in competition with Hart. The others are strictly back-ups … for the foreseeable future for the Blazers. Keon may have to move on to get time on court to develop. He has some game. Watford and Walker have the best chance to stick. The others look like end of bench which means they improve or get replaced at any time. Brown’s got his contract and physical abilities, but growth in skills needs to happen.
All the more reason to start Little and keep Hart on the bench right? I reeeeeeally would hope Winslow gets no playing time at all. But if he got any playing time, you’d have to hope Walker can play right away as a backup and play a small lineup of Ant/Hart/Winslow/Walker/Eubanks.
There are a lot of combinations for Billups to experiment with. I hope Billups keeps an eye towards improvement of players like Little because that means improving the team as well.
I think Walker could be a starter one day. It would all be dependent on: 1) Will his rebounding translate 2) Will his shooting translate 3) Can he really guard all wings and not just PFs If he proves he can do all three things, I don’t see why he couldn’t be a good starter. Jabari looks to have the Herb Jones profile, but looks to be better offensively and not as good defensively. That leads me to think he can be a starter, and maybe relatively soon too like by year 3 or 4. I agree on Watford though. If he can’t shoot, it’s hard to justify him on the court unless he makes a Draymond-like impact on defense.
Regarding Walker, IMHO he can become a starter — as you’ve said. He’s got a proper attitude valuing what a role player can do for a team … without short-changing what he might become. Humble and confident. I’m restraining myself from seeing what I’d like to see in his game. CONGRATULATIONS to him for getting that 1st contract … I do hope it’s for the remainder of the MLE to get it some length. Watford and Winslow better be working to improve.
