Blazers Depth Chart

[monopoman]

Personally I would start a veteran group.

Starters: Brogdon, Simons, Thybulle, Grant, Ayton
2nd unit: Scoot, Sharpe, Murray, Walker, Williams
Deep bench: Mays, Rupert, Knox, Camara, Butler, Reath, Badji

Let Scoot be the first sub for Brogdon in the 1st and Simons in the 3rd and allow him to play with both the vets and the young, running group.

I think a sink or swim thing with Scoot is the best way to develop him, we threw Lillard out on day 1 as the starting PG without question and it paid off big time. Scoot has the same potential Lillard did even though he is younger than Lillard was in his first season.

If Scoot has some trouble then we can rework that down the line, but this team is not trying to win we are pretty damn sure of that. So in that case screw it let Scoot have the majority of minutes until he proves that he needs more time to really become the superstar we all think he will become.

He also really dominated in the G-League Ignite so that already gives him more credit on being pretty damn good on day 1.

[Sinobas]

I'd be much more excited about Thybulle as high quality depth.

Thybulle is the starter by default. Team might be really good if they could flip Brogdon for a competent
SF, but that won't happy until mid December, when the restrictions on Brogdon will be lifted.

Guards very rarely get turned into forwards in trades unless you're taking a significant talent drop. I think our best shot would be seeking relief for brogdons salary with pick(s) then pursuing og

Where did you get that idea? If one team has excess at guard and another at forward why wouldn't they make the trade.

You're insinuating the league values forwards more than guards, which is not something that is reflected in average salaries by position. In fact, the highest paid position right now is PG.

[m0ng0]

I don't know why we could not do this

Ayton/Reath/Brown
Williams/Walker/Murray
Grant/Thy/Murray/Camara
Sharpe/Brogdon /Rupert
Simons/Scoot/Skyler

Our 5 best players on the floor to start, this is a good pair of bigs who can move, Grant is a Swiss army knife who can score, Sharpe develops and Simons shows he can run the point or not.

Scoot would have a couple of on court vets to help Scoot get his feet under himself, tweak things as players progress.

Assuming no injuries this is a fluid and flexible roster, name your starters on a game to game basis, dominant pg? Plug in Brogdon. Weak Pf? Plug in Grant, roll in Thy at the 3, slide Simons to the 2 or run with Sharpe.

The only real consistent starters IMO is Ayton and Grant. Flex in everyone else based on matchups.

[RTG HD]

I don't know why we could not do this

Ayton/Reath/Brown
Williams/Walker/Murray
Grant/Thy/Murray/Camara
Sharpe/Brogdon /Rupert
Simons/Scoot/Skyler

Our 5 best players on the floor to start, this is a good pair of bigs who can move, Grant is a Swiss army knife who can score, Sharpe develops and Simons shows he can run the point or not.

Scoot would have a couple of on court vets to help Scoot get his feet under himself, tweak things as players progress.

Assuming no injuries this is a fluid and flexible roster, name your starters on a game to game basis, dominant pg? Plug in Brogdon. Weak Pf? Plug in Grant, roll in Thy at the 3, slide Simons to the 2 or run with Sharpe.

The only real consistent starters IMO is Ayton and Grant. Flex in everyone else based on matchups.

Scoot neeeeds to start given the situation and Ayton is closer to being a PF than Williams. Realistically they are both centers and we probably don't start both even though I am excited to have both big guys.

[PDXKnight]

I don't know why we could not do this

Ayton/Reath/Brown
Williams/Walker/Murray
Grant/Thy/Murray/Camara
Sharpe/Brogdon /Rupert
Simons/Scoot/Skyler

Our 5 best players on the floor to start, this is a good pair of bigs who can move, Grant is a Swiss army knife who can score, Sharpe develops and Simons shows he can run the point or not.

Scoot would have a couple of on court vets to help Scoot get his feet under himself, tweak things as players progress.

Assuming no injuries this is a fluid and flexible roster, name your starters on a game to game basis, dominant pg? Plug in Brogdon. Weak Pf? Plug in Grant, roll in Thy at the 3, slide Simons to the 2 or run with Sharpe.

The only real consistent starters IMO is Ayton and Grant. Flex in everyone else based on matchups.

Scoot neeeeds to start given the situation and Ayton is closer to being a PF than Williams. Realistically they are both centers and we probably don't start both even though I am excited to have both big guys.

I'm with this. There's not much we are playing for thus year anyhow so why not play the young kids with promise? In fact if I played anyone out of position it'd be brogdon at sf even if it blows up for the sheer sake of giving sharpe reps at the 2. With any luck we have the worst record and a 3 in the draft to fill that position of need.

My suspicion with the lineup question is, as crazy as it may sound to an outsider, Scoot is likely already or very soon gonna be the best player on this team or if not the best a close second. Hes a 2 way monster who isnt, like ant
gonna leave massive lapses on the defensive end and his physical skills are likely the best on the roster. His natural skills which will make him a rare elite 2 way player cant be bought and he has the work ethic to realize those skills into production. And if that's the case you start that kid from day 1.

My lineup:
Scoot/Ant
Sharpe/ant/Brogdon
Thybulle/brogdon
Jerami/Murray
Ayton/Williams

Do everything to alleviate the guard situation, ideally that's Ant for a 3 or 4 but at the same time maybe give it till the deadline to ensure Ant doesn't turn into a completely different player outside of dames shadow. I think Williams has a good shot to be viewed as the more productive center and start but could go either way. Robert probably won't start at 4 because of offense but thybulle and grand at 3/4 had got to be considered a liability going into next year. Fortunately this year is all about losing so experiments galore

[Pattycakes]

Personally I would start a veteran group.

Starters: Brogdon, Simons, Thybulle, Grant, Ayton
2nd unit: Scoot, Sharpe, Murray, Walker, Williams
Deep bench: Mays, Rupert, Knox, Camara, Butler, Reath, Badji

Let Scoot be the first sub for Brogdon in the 1st and Simons in the 3rd and allow him to play with both the vets and the young, running group.

I’m not a fan of starting Malcolm.. scoot needs it. His body should be ready too.

Shaedon should be 6th man indefinitely, for best for team. Well and Malcolm. That’s what’s gonna send us to play in (yes we’re headed there).

Looking at Matisse starting concerns me a little bit but if it’s really short to mid term then I get it. I was not quite as impressed as some w him but I’m happy to see him stay on the team.

[JasonStern]

No disrespect to Brogdon, but the Blazers need to take what they can get before the season starts.
Sharpe/Ayton/Scoot/Little. That's the core. We're going to be bad for 1-3 years. But they need as much playing time together as possible. Same with our other young prospects. Same with whoever we get in the next few drafts.
Rebuilds happen. Wasn't the first Blazers rebuild. Hopefully won't be the last. Just need to be smart about it.

[PDXKnight]

No disrespect to Brogdon, but the Blazers need to take what they can get before the season starts.
Sharpe/Ayton/Scoot/Little. That's the core. We're going to be bad for 1-3 years. But they need as much playing time together as possible. Same with our other young prospects. Same with whoever we get in the next few drafts.
Rebuilds happen. Wasn't the first Blazers rebuild. Hopefully won't be the last. Just need to be smart about it.

Little, you mean anf?

[m0ng0]

No disrespect to Brogdon, but the Blazers need to take what they can get before the season starts.
Sharpe/Ayton/Scoot/Little. That's the core. We're going to be bad for 1-3 years. But they need as much playing time together as possible. Same with our other young prospects. Same with whoever we get in the next few drafts.
Rebuilds happen. Wasn't the first Blazers rebuild. Hopefully won't be the last. Just need to be smart about it.

And not impatient

[Sinobas]

Whelp, Chauncy started the lineup I was hoping he wouldn't with Simons at SG and Thybulle at SF, and it looked like crap.

Scoot though....I haven't seen him play much, but he already looks like he can run an offense well. He actually creates opportunites for his teammates. We need to eventually weed out the MeJs of the team (Simons/Grant) and build around Scoot..

[Norm2953]

It'll be interesting to get a report from anyone who went to tonight's game

[JRoy]

No disrespect to Brogdon, but the Blazers need to take what they can get before the season starts.
Sharpe/Ayton/Scoot/Little. That's the core. We're going to be bad for 1-3 years. But they need as much playing time together as possible. Same with our other young prospects. Same with whoever we get in the next few drafts.
Rebuilds happen. Wasn't the first Blazers rebuild. Hopefully won't be the last. Just need to be smart about it.

How is Little part of the Blazer core?

Doesn’t he (not) play for PHX now?

[zzaj]

Based on the box, it looks like Mays was hyper efficient in his 11 minutes…other than to maybe showcase them for trades, I see no reason to play either Ant or Brogdon at the backup PG spot.

Mays is a better PG than Ant on both sides of the ball, and we want Brogdon to stay healthy—so limiting his minutes is probably wise. The Blazers are not going to reveal anything by playing him that teams don’t already know.

[GEE]

It sure feels like most everyone on here has written Simons off as some weak trade chip... We'll just wait and see about that. I personally am rooting hard for the kid and think now that Dame is gone, he is more than capable and ready to prove all of you wrong by becoming an All-Star level mention within the next two years... unless the Blazers try to start Simons and Scoot together, which is soooo obviously stupid, then he WILL continue to struggle, and I'd then hope he does get traded, but only for his sake.

I hope better minds prevail, and we start the season without Scoot in the starting lineup. Not a knock on him one bit, just that Simons HAS earned that starting spot, and until he begins to be out-played at the PG position, the job should be his to lose. Sharpe starting at the two. I think these three will rotate for around 95% of the PG and SG minutes though, regardless.

I think we would be best at the SF and PF positions if we went with Grant always, and use Thybulle or TimeLord to pair with him, depending on the particular matchup. We can use that formula mostly giving those three guys 95% of the SF and PF minutes.

Center is for Ayton.

Brogden I want traded yesterday for a young and talented, Blue-Chip Bigman to add to our depth, but I'm fine with waiting a while if we must, if the result is the one that's worth the wait. I'm now hoping that we might get such player in time, and that we might just have to wait a couple more months before Cronin's #1 target Blue-Chipper can be traded for brogden. RUI? Something like that though, I hope. We would be set for years to come IMO.

[The Sebastian Express]

I don't think the Blazers plan was to draft Scoot, trade Dame, only to start Ant at the PG spot.

Ant cannot run an offense consistently.

[hkphooey]

Excited to see a bunch of different looks including:
Big: Scoot, Shaedon, Jerami, RW3, Ayton
Scoring: Scoot, Ant, Shaedon, Jerami, Ayton
Defense: Scoot, Thybulle, Jerami, RW3, Ayton

[BlazersBroncos]

Brogden I want traded yesterday for a young and talented, Blue-Chip Bigman to add to our depth, but I'm fine with waiting a while if we must, if the result is the one that's worth the wait. I'm now hoping that we might get such player in time, and that we might just have to wait a couple more months before Cronin's #1 target Blue-Chipper can be traded for brogden. RUI? Something like that though, I hope. We would be set for years to come IMO.

Brogdan isnt returning a blue chip big and Rui is miles away from a blue chip big. He had an outlier season where he shot 44% from 3 in 40 so games but otherwise is about a 31% 3PT shooter - he will be 26 this year. That shot isnt developing. We need 3PT shooting at forward next to Ayton - and as well at forward as Scoot is nowhere near a deadeye. Rui really isnt a good fit nor is he really young.

[tester551]

Ant cannot run an offense.

Fixed this for you.

[mighty_duck]

I hope better minds prevail, and we start the season without Scoot in the starting lineup. Not a knock on him one bit, just that Simons HAS earned that starting spot, and until he begins to be out-played at the PG position, the job should be his to lose. Sharpe starting at the two. I think these three will rotate for around 95% of the PG and SG minutes though, regardless.

Ant hasn't earned anything, except as a high usage player on losing teams.
He plays horrible defense, and doesn't make his teammates better. He can't play PG, and can't defend starting SGs (or anyone worth their salt at any position).
He would make a great microwave 6th man. Jamaal Crawford carved out a great career doing that.
Giving him the reigns over Scoot at this point it madness. Let's see what Scoot can do, and have him learn from his mistakes. He's our future.

As to Rui for Brogdon - that isn't a horrible trade. It would improve the balance in the roster, at the cost of a talent downgrade.
Rui is a 7th man on a good team though. I've watched him extensively and the numbers bear that out as well. We would still need to find a starter for our SF/PF position. I still hope there is better value out there for Brogdon.

[GEE]

Ant has admittedly looked bad on defense, because he has most often been paired with Dame on the court, making him the one guarding the opposing teams' SG. Not to mention, Dame wasn't the greatest defender either, and would suffer under the very same criticism Simons constantly gets. But I regresss... The letter O is no longer (best wishes), and we should not be considering, even for one freakin' minute, that we should pair Simons and Scoot on the court, and expect it to be any different than the last two previous versions of small-ball. For the love of God!!!

Chauncey better be thinking '91-'92 Blazers, like I, and some others on here I might be envisioning. That means we will finally again see a Drexler-like 6'6-6'7 starting SG in Sharpe. Simons as the PG (Day 1 at least), with instant offense in Scoot coming off the bench with Thybulle backing up SG and SF. Grant would be my full time starting SF, with some small ball minutes at the PF.

At Center we have both Ayton and TimeLord to hold that down, with Walker and Reath as solid thrd stringer bigmen, but I think we are just one Brogden trade away from finishing a complete, and very successful rebuilding of this team, and love the new look.

I would feel comfortable playing both Ayton and TimeLord together, as I think their respective games offset and don't match styles. Ayton I feel has some real Lamarcus to it, escecially shooting 15-18 feet in the midrange, but a tiny bit soft in the paint. Whereas TimeLord is a monster in the paint, but a suspect shooter. In short, I see no reason why we couldn't start both of them.

Hopefully:
Simons / Scoot
Sharpe
Grant / Thybulle
Timelord
Ayton / (BROGDEN)

Mays / Walker / Knox / Reath / Murray / Camara