Exclusive Welcome Zach Collins!

Welcome Zach, you've got one season to impress me or you can rot in hell, the choice is yours!

 

He seems intriguing.... hopefully he can contribute right away. We don't need another 19 year old project.

 

I think Harkless is the perfect SF for our team at this point in time. He's the one player we have who knows how to cut to the basket, and when he does receive a pass he knows how to catch it and go up quick with his shot. He's an opportunistic scorer who shot 50%+ from the floor - that sort of efficiency from the 4th/5th option is terrific! Offensively, he fits perfectly with Dame/CJ who do 60% of the heavy lifting from everywhere on the court and Nurkic who has the vision and passing ability to hit players on the move, and PFs in Vonleh/Collins who can stick the mid-range. Nurkic really opened up the offense for our SF/PF positions, and the addition of Collins further solidifies what Vonleh started building once Nurk commanded interior attention. I'm getting very excited about our growing core:

Dame
CJ
Harkless
Vonleh/Collins
Nurkic

If both Vonleh and Harkless continue improving upon what they showed in their limited time with Nurkic, and if Collins pans out, that's a great 6-man core, and terrific 3-man front-court rotation. I didn't like Turner at all last season, but will be interested to see how he fits with this group if he's not traded.

Depending on the continued development of Harkless/Vonleh and Collins, we could be 1 or 2 players away from a really solid 8-man rotation!

 

I think this is a hilarious take... And we don't know if Monk is or isn't gonna be an All star.... He hasn't played one NBA minute and you think you know what he's gonna be... Goodness...

 

Dafuq are you? In the words of The Great Dame:

"I'm tryna figure out why you think your opinion carries much weight "

 

I'm glad he didn't because I doubt if we could have gotten him then.

 

I already addressed this. He was a 19-year old freshman that came off the bench behind a 23-year old 7'1" 304 lb. 5th year senior.

The last Zach we drafted wasn't a starter in college either, and he turned out to be a pretty decent NBA player.

Do you realize how many great NBA players did not start as freshmen? Russel Westbrook did not start as a freshman at UCLA and one played 9 MPG averaging 3.4 PPG. Jimmy Butler did not start as a freshman. Draymond Green didn't start as a freshman.

As far as playing in a weak conference goes, did you see how he played in the NCAA Tournament? He may not been a starter, but he was named 1st team all tournament. He played against some pretty good competition and played very well.

BNM

 

We don't know anything.

The draft is a gamble.

What i expect from Monk:
-To be a great scorer/shooter (Easy bet).
-To be athletic enough for the NBA (He is).
-To be explosive enough so he can penetrate and get easy baskets (good bet).
-To be an above average defender (Shown the potential, even though he's not a good off-ball defender).

What we need from Collins:
-To be a good rebounder against big NBA players and not children (who knows).
-To be quick and agile enough so he can switch and defend NBA guards (big bet).
-To be able to put a body and block NBA players in time (big bet).
-To be a good shooter (easy bet).

I just think Collins has more unknowns in this game, i see him as 10 and 7 guy AT BEST.
Maybe i'm jaded after seeing so many tall players like him who ended up being failures.

I think it would have been easier to get Monk and trade him for a proven PF down the line.

 

No you don't get it. Olshey didn't draft Monk, so he will definitely be an all star. Huge mistake. Huge.

 

1. He's white

2. He didn't start as a freshman


He's a bust. Sorry.

 

Fair enough. But some of what you say about Collins is untrue. He rebounded WELL against elite competition in the tourney. So it's not a "who knows" on his rebounding. You're making things up when you say "rebounding against players that are not children"...

 

Here's the truth; if Collins stayed another year, he would've most likely been a top 5 pick, probably top 3.

I remember when I was first saw Collins. I wanted to hate him. I mean look at his face. Then as I watched him play, I got geeked up. There's really nothing on a basketball court he can't do, at some level. It's the same reason I wanted Nurkic. His basketball instincts are off the charts, especially defensively. That will get him on the court quicker than most rookies, especially on this team.

 

I do find the whole WABC bust thing ridiculous - it's all pretty much driven by the fact that one big white guy we took late in the lottery didn't pan out.

Ironic isn't it, given our three biggest draft busts (LaRue Martin, Sam Bowie and Greg Oden), by far, were all taken 1st or 2nd, and while all of them were American born centers, not one of them was white.

Last I checked, neither are Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, Michael Olowokandi or Anthony Bennet. Yet, I have never seen a single poster on this board say we should never draft a BABC in the lottery.

BNM

 

So who is the last white American born center that really panned out?

 

It's lazy at best. Leonard wishes he had half the instincts Collins plays with. Besides being more skilled, Collins is also a better athlete. Leonard can run in a straight line and jump, but that's about it. Leonards lateral movement is below average, and his lack of instincts slows him down even more. Leonard came into the league as a project, a theory. Collins is more ready after one year in college than Leonard was after two. But I guess being white trumps all of that...

 

Never said nor implied that it did. Though if I were to say, I'd say my opinion carries as much weight as any other Blazers fans does.

I am just a Blazers fan who woke up in a silly mood and made a silly post, nothing more.

 

White American born centers drafted in the last ten years

Hawes
Mullens
Aldrich
Meyers
Zeller brothers
Plumlee brothers
Olynyk

And now Collins

I didn't count the Lopez brothers since they're probably not white enough for you.

10 guys in 10 years.

Now how many of them were top 10 picks? Two. Collins and Zeller. Not much of a sample size.

Now list all the black American centers drafted in the first round and tell me what percentage of them panned out. It's only fair. Right?

 

So..... zero All-Stars. I guess it all depends on how you define "panned out." We took Collins in the top 10. If you really want to compare him to the likes of Meyers, the Plumlee brothers, and Spencer Hawes... well..... I guess you can do that at your own peril.

 

I don't. I can see beyond skin color. (Btw this isn't necessarily directed at you. I don't know what your stance is.)