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Calvin Klein wrote:

Sunlight wrote:The most likely player of the month continues to dominate. In March average 27pts 15rbs.

continues?

Ayton is slowly figuring out what it takes to becoming a dominant basketball player. What is hurting him are injuries he was more healthier on our team. Blazers must have a poor training staff.

SunsRback4Good wrote:

Calvin Klein wrote:

Sunlight wrote:The most likely player of the month continues to dominate. In March average 27pts 15rbs.

continues?

Ayton is slowly figuring out what it takes to becoming a dominant basketball player. What is hurting him are injuries he was more healthier on our team. Blazers must have a poor training staff.

That Blazers team just has been wrecked by a bunch of injuries this season.

Sharpe, Brogdon, Timelord, Camara and Grant out with injuries.

Scoot was out for a good chunk with an abdominal strain or something. Definitely something in the water in PDX.

Billups started using DA more like he should have done to start the season but better late than never and yeah it's weird how many weird injuries DA has been having in Portland.

Revived wrote:

Read on Twitter

He was 23 and 12 in post All-Star break. Going from CP3 to a rookie PG is a big difference, but toward the end of the season, Scoot started to figure some things out.

Is it world beating? No. But he's happier with his opportunity, and that's fine.

MrMiyagi wrote:

Revived wrote:

Read on Twitter

He was 23 and 12 in post All-Star break. Going from CP3 to a rookie PG is a big difference, but toward the end of the season, Scoot started to figure some things out.

Is it world beating? No. But he's happier with his opportunity, and that's fine.

It’s kinda the story of Ayton’s career right…he’s good for either a half or a quarter of the season or game or whatever. But can never actually be consistent throughout it.

He had the perfect opportunity to put up empty stats on a team that’s getting blown out night in and night out with zero expectations to win and for the season as a whole he hardly put up numbers better than he did here.

Revived wrote:

MrMiyagi wrote:

Revived wrote:

Read on Twitter

He was 23 and 12 in post All-Star break. Going from CP3 to a rookie PG is a big difference, but toward the end of the season, Scoot started to figure some things out.

Is it world beating? No. But he's happier with his opportunity, and that's fine.

It’s kinda the story of Ayton’s career right…he’s good for either a half or a quarter of the season or game or whatever. But can never actually be consistent throughout it.

He had the perfect opportunity to put up empty stats on a team that’s getting blown out night in and night out with zero expectations to win and for the season as a whole he hardly put up numbers better than he did here.

Okay. Who cares?

Blazers should draft a center with their first round pick...

SlovenianDragon wrote:Blazers should draft a center with their first round pick...

Why? What Ayton did the last half of the season would have put him as a top 5 center in the league. He adjusted, had some injuries, and a rookie cast playing with him. He will get better, and they should find a SF/PF in the draft.

KdoubleDees23 wrote:

SlovenianDragon wrote:Blazers should draft a center with their first round pick...

Why? What Ayton did the last half of the season would have put him as a top 5 center in the league. He adjusted, had some injuries, and a rookie cast playing with him. He will get better, and they should find a SF/PF in the draft.

I think he meant because of Oden and Bowie.

MrMiyagi wrote:

Revived wrote:

MrMiyagi wrote:He was 23 and 12 in post All-Star break. Going from CP3 to a rookie PG is a big difference, but toward the end of the season, Scoot started to figure some things out.

Is it world beating? No. But he's happier with his opportunity, and that's fine.

It’s kinda the story of Ayton’s career right…he’s good for either a half or a quarter of the season or game or whatever. But can never actually be consistent throughout it.

He had the perfect opportunity to put up empty stats on a team that’s getting blown out night in and night out with zero expectations to win and for the season as a whole he hardly put up numbers better than he did here.

Okay. Who cares?

You’re posting in an Ayton thread asking who cares? You lost?

MrMiyagi wrote:

Revived wrote:

Read on Twitter

He was 23 and 12 in post All-Star break. Going from CP3 to a rookie PG is a big difference, but toward the end of the season, Scoot started to figure some things out.

Is it world beating? No. But he's happier with his opportunity, and that's fine.

To be transparent, he had 15 total games played in March and April where he put up those numbers. He would occasionally have that type of hot streak with the Suns and then revert to normal. Would not be surprised to see DA puff up a bit like Kemp or Zion. His games played per season is pretty weak because he is injured often.

Nurk and Grayson were a huge get for DA

Shout out to Ayton leading his team to the 3rd overall pick! Once he got off that blowup bed he really turned things around.

The Blazers sure were a mess to start with all the injuries and trying to integrate people. Ayton barely even got shots.

The finally got him going down the stretch though. I was surprised even with all the issues, he averaged more rebounds than Nurk this season...wouldn't have guessed that though I'm sure every one of those bounced right to him while Nurk fought super hard for all his.

But he was finally hitting those 20+ 12+ averages post all star break. Down the stretch he had a # of good games. Good for him. Will be curious if they stick with him.

Still can't get to the line..though...was surprised that one game out of the blue he was 8-9 from the line.

sunsbum wrote:Shout out to Ayton leading his team to the 3rd overall pick! Once he got off that blowup bed he really turned things around.

Apparently he is selling the air bed on craigslist

SlovenianDragon wrote:Blazers should draft a center with their first round pick...

Tank master extraordinare. Good, meaningless stats on an awful team.

bwgood77 wrote:The Blazers sure were a mess to start with all the injuries and trying to integrate people. Ayton barely even got shots.

The finally got him going down the stretch though. I was surprised even with all the issues, he averaged more rebounds than Nurk this season...wouldn't have guessed that though I'm sure every one of those bounced right to him while Nurk fought super hard for all his.

But he was finally hitting those 20+ 12+ averages post all star break. Down the stretch he had a # of good games. Good for him. Will be curious if they stick with him.

Still can't get to the line..though...was surprised that one game out of the blue he was 8-9 from the line.

Portland has too many scorers.

One of Brogdon, Grant or Simons is probably going to be shipped out due to there not being enough shot opportunities if they plan on developing Scoot, Sharpe and whomever they are getting in the upcoming draft.

For Ayton I liked that he was getting position deep in the paint and they were finding him on mismatches. More lobs and rim running certainly was encouraging.

Defensively he as usual had his share of lapses but I think at this point in his career he is who he is and he kind of loses focus at times or doesn't know where he should be when rotating on defense.

I'm not surprised with the inconsistent performance by DA. Since I'm living in the Portland area, I'm rooting for him to do well. I hope he has some redemption arc in his career. As for the trade though, I think the Suns got tremendous value considering Nurkic played a whopping and surprising 76 games for the Suns. Grayson Allen puts this trade over the top for the Suns, and while Little wasn't able to crack the rotation, I think he adds some more depth and can go off and hit threes in bunches.

For all the inconsistency talk Ayton's stats have been pretty consistent over the years. Scoring-wise the outlier is dropping to 14+ppg on higher efficiency in the finals run season. For the Blazers he was 4-5 option early and became 1st option recently based on the box-scores I checked over the season. All in all, if a team gives him 15-17 shots they know they are getting an efficient 20/10 player.

Qwigglez wrote:I'm not surprised with the inconsistent performance by DA. Since I'm living in the Portland area, I'm rooting for him to do well. I hope he has some redemption arc in his career. As for the trade though, I think the Suns got tremendous value considering Nurkic played a whopping and surprising 76 games for the Suns. Grayson Allen puts this trade over the top for the Suns, and while Little wasn't able to crack the rotation, I think he adds some more depth and can go off and hit threes in bunches.

He's also an important tradeable contract, likely for matching purposes. You can't just have 5 starters and a bench full of vet mins. We did super well turning 3 vet min guys into one rotation player which is basically unheard of but having Little contract will certainly be useful.

But yes, overall it was a near perfect trade. I'm not one of those who care much for potential nickel and diming scenarios (oh we could've gotten a 2nd or whatever) so to me, we got really good starters on very reasonable deals for a guy who's been on the trade block for a while. Nurk playing 76 games and Grayson having a career year is just the cherry on top.