Jdiddy701 wrote:sunsbum wrote:spanishninja wrote:
what do you mean by this? in January while Book was out the whole month, Ayton had 3.5 extra FGAs a game compared to the season as a whole. The trouble is his efficiency sank with the increased usage (which is what will happen in Portland) and that's why he ended up still averaging only 18 PPG that month.
and if your argument is that Monty needed to prioritize getting HIM more touches in particular compared to everybody else, then I ask...why? You don't prioritize a finisher over playmakers for touches. This isn't the 90s when forcefeeding a guy down low is the best option on offense. Bigs like Giannis, Embiid, Jokic even Sabonis don't need you to "feed" them to produce. Billups won't be doing that for him either.
The FG% dropped probably because the defense was key'd in on him with book being out I'd imagine. I never really thought about it but it will be interesting to see Ayton play a full season with out the gravity of Paul and Booker. People keep blaming them for the style of offense that wasn't conducive to DA's style of play but how much credit are we not giving them for things like pulling their defenders away from him etc.
I remember BWGOOD praised DA all the time for the gravity he creates for everyone but never mentioned the same for Booker, CP3 or KD. Portland should be really good since DA makes things so much easier for everyone!
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Well Portland has a rookie and a second year player, along with a pretty young Simons and Grant who likes to get his own. The gravity and scoring will help, but they just are not as good.
Yes, of course Book, CP3 and KD were better and require more attention on D (particularly D and Book) but Ayton had gravity. Obviously if watching you saw that when he got the ball he often had a couple defenders in there and was never left open. A lot of people didn't like when he passed out when doubled but it was the right play with an open shooter with our talent. I mean regardless of how much people hate Ayton, once he had the ball, even though he couldn't dribble, he was one of the best shooters/scorers for a C outside of the very best, so he obviously had that gravity.
It's not really huge praise...it's just a fact that his gravity helps. Nurkic, with the worst FG% for bigs, won't create that. He may end up being a better fit for other things he does, and fit in better off the court, and even though I wish we got more for Ayton, I do think the trade needed to be made all things considered.
And I know many probably assume I loved Ayton, but he wasn't one of my favorite players and I didn't want to draft him, and he frustrated me. I just played devil's advocate because I thought even though he was frustrating he took WAY more criticism, bashing than he deserved when other players struggled at times as well. He just seemed like a scapegoat.
I was probably his biggest critic as a rookie and really pissed some people off. So I backed off and then people even ended up getting worse than I had, despite his big improvements each year after his rookie year (except last year when our team was banged up all year and his role turned into something more than it should have been. I never thought he should be a #1 option..and playing with 2nd/3rd stringers, despite more shots, was obviously not going to play as well).
