Was just going to say this. Sure we drafted him with the thought that he was "NBA ready" but he hadn't played in basically a full season, ending his college career in early January, and making his official debut with us in early January. He showed flashes, and showed terrible play also. He was a rookie who hadn't played in a year. He also was not given consistent minutes because we were a 54 win team, and those teams often don't give consistent minutes to inconsistent rookies.
...Claver should stay because he has a high bball IQ and is a solid 9th/10th man, he just needs to "PRACTICE LIKE HELL" on his shooting (specifically, the ability to start draining threes). ...Leonard should "GO!" because he is a joke. I question his intelligence. I question his mental toughness. I question his overall skill. Maybe it is too early to label him a complete "bust", but I have zero faith that he will be able to develop into anything more than a 15th man bench warmer that is only on a NBA roster because of his height/size. ...Crabbe should stay because he can be a lights out shooter off the bench. I'd love to see him play a lot in summer league and work his way into the rotation to start the year. He is a baller and I expect him to improve significantly from his lowly rookie campaign because I know this off-season he will "PRACTICE LIKE HELL". ...Mo should "GO!" because of many different reasons. He wants more money and it would not be a wise decision to pay him more. He is too inconsistent and makes far too many unforced errors and/or plays too much one-on-one hero ball. He lacks defensive ability to stay with his man. He is only getting older/slower. His role on the team prevented some of our younger players from being developed. Unless he wants to take the vet minimum, I see no reason whatsoever to keep him around.
It doesn't matter 'who goes'. It only matters who Olshey can get that's better. And those are privileged conversations between Olshey and other GMs, and player agents. We're just shooting off in the dark.
CJ showed some impressive flashes during his rookie season. In particular there were two games on a road trip where Mo was out and CJ had effective double digit scoring games off the bench. CJ shot the 3 ball well all year at 37.5% so I'm not sure why posters are saying its something he needs to improve on, he was better than vets Mo or Wright in that regard, and even Batum. The vast majority of the year Mo was the primary ballhandler and scorer off the bench which limits CJ opportunity of impacting the game. In a sense you could think of it as CJ was our 3rd string scoring combo guard this season behind both Dam and Mo. I'd rather see one of them on the floor the majority of the game and have a taller defender at the SG position. While overall it was a disappointing year for CJ I see reasons to be hopeful and optimistic.
What's more important... Replacing our 6th man PG or adding additional better pieces to the weakest bench in the league?
The answer is the same. Upgrading our back up pg does improve our bench especially since our other bench players will get better with experience. Yes we need one more back up enter. But we desperately need another pg more.
Mo led the NBA in assists off of the bench. Who is available to play his 24 minutes that is a massive upgrade?
Great, he led the league in assists, I'm sure he probably also led the league in time spent dribbling, poor defense, and bad shots.
You posted the exact same stuff about Crawford. I don't think Mo's coming back, since he's looking for job security, so I wonder who next year's scapegoat will be.
Mo shouldn't be anyone's scapegoat. He is what he is. He improved our bench, we, as a team, just aren't good enough yet to compete with the elite teams in the playoffs
Did I? I would like to see links because quite frankly that team was so frustrating that I stopped caring. Crawford is a shooting guard that McMillan had playing the point. Mo is supposedly an All-Star point guard. It's not a good comparison by you.
Both were 6th Men who created offense off the bench. Both, IMO, were undervalued as Blazers. I can't imagine how bad the bench would have been this season w/out Mo. Imagine that he didn't sign with Olshey, and the options were Earl Watson and CJ McCollum. Lillard would have had to play 44 minutes a game.
And they were both shitty in Blazer uniforms. http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=0&p1=crawfja01&y1=2012&p2=willima01&y2=2014 At least Jamal posted a PER of 15.7 compared to Mo's paltry 11.8 PER. They both shot pretty horribly from the field, but Crawford was a 6'6 shooting guard that Nate was trying to play at the point. What was Mo's excuse?
I like the whole team considering how young the bench is. Mo can be signed for a reasonable deal in my book. He'll replace Earl Watson and we can find another 20pt scoring 6 man vet with the MLE. Mo picks up the pace of the whole team off the bench. He's not slow by any stretch and even though he forces some jumpers, he has an uncanny knack for hitting important shots that spark runs or turn the momentum on. I couldn't believe how many shooting droughts he came off the bench and stopped this season. I love Claver. I don't care if him or Freeland score 2pts apiece, they are defensively savvy players. Dorell Wright is an underrated rebounder and defender. Shot streaky this season. Scored much better as a starter when LA was down with injury. CJ is a rookie that was not going to be Damian Lillard. Next year will be his true rookie season if he stays healthy but hey, he's better than Nolan Smith eh? I like Deng and I like Mills or Sergio. Neil hinted that we have 2 roster spots open to fill, one will be Earl, the other may be via trade. In a perfect world we'd end up with both Lopez twins on the team. I'm thinking Wright will be traded
Do you honestly believe CJ will be a lights out all star player? If not, he should not be labeled as a keeper/untouchable. Anyone that is realistically replaceable at this point in time should not have the label as a keeper. So I do disagree.
I agree. McCollum is not untouchable. We are in win now mode. McCollum COULD develop into that 6th man we so desperately need. the problem is the operative word; could. If you can package him in a deal for a proven player...you have to do it.
