Media Day 2023 & Preseason Leadup

[The Sebastian Express]

Why are we talking about trading the third overall pick so the guy who can't run the offense consistently is made the lead guard?

Why would we have traded Dame to rebuild with farlesser!dame?

[zzaj]

People who think Ant is coming off the bench need their head checked. The guy is a 25ppg player. Shaedon or anyone we could possibly have short of an all NBA player will not be unseating his starting spot.

Brig don and Grant being on the team will really disrupt Shaedons development as he will be in the second unit with Bronson and if playing with Grant at all he will essentially always be the 3rd or 4th option which is just unacceptable on a rebuilding team.

We simply need to trade away Bronson ASAP and Grant can wait till the deadline. Eventually I am hoping that Shaedon develops over the next 2 years and makes have to choose between Simons or Scoot as our lead guard a lot like the Kings had to in Fox/Halliburton. I think Scoot or Ant brings us back a great Sf/PF in the next 2 years. We are really gonna stink this year so hopefully we can grab one of the great forward prospects coming out this draft and have a core of Ant,Scoot, Shaedon, Ayton and that top 3-5 pick. That’d be an amazing 5 person core all between 19-26

There is a good chance Ant will never be as good as Fox (a 25/4/6 on a good team) let alone Haliburton. The Blazers will be lucky if Scoot ends up as good as Haliburton, honestly.

Ant is CJ lite. This crowning of Ant as some kind of PGOTF is insane, IMHO.

[GEE]

People who think Ant is coming off the bench need their head checked. The guy is a 25ppg player. Shaedon or anyone we could possibly have short of an all NBA player will not be unseating his starting spot.

Brig don and Grant being on the team will really disrupt Shaedons development as he will be in the second unit with Bronson and if playing with Grant at all he will essentially always be the 3rd or 4th option which is just unacceptable on a rebuilding team.

We simply need to trade away Bronson ASAP and Grant can wait till the deadline. Eventually I am hoping that Shaedon develops over the next 2 years and makes have to choose between Simons or Scoot as our lead guard a lot like the Kings had to in Fox/Halliburton. I think Scoot or Ant brings us back a great Sf/PF in the next 2 years. We are really gonna stink this year so hopefully we can grab one of the great forward prospects coming out this draft and have a core of Ant,Scoot, Shaedon, Ayton and that top 3-5 pick. That’d be an amazing 5 person core all between 19-26

There is a good chance Ant will never be as good as Fox (a 25/4/6 on a good team) let alone Haliburton. The Blazers will be lucky if Scoot ends up as good as Haliburton, honestly.

Ant is CJ lite. This crowning of Ant as some kind of PGOTF is insane, IMHO.

And I would say the very same about crowning Scoot, without having yet proved a damn thing.

All I'm advocating for is a fair and open competition for the starting job, with the other accepting the 6th-man spot, without "crowning" anyone just because they were a high pick in a weak draft... IMO.

The bigger issue to me is what Chauncey will now do, and to a bigger degree, be allowed to do with the players he now has. The smart move to me is to return to the Drexler-era style of having a two-way 6'6-6'7 SG which we have in Sharpe. This IMO would result in a more competetive team with more success in the win/loss column. But will Chauncey be able to bring Scoot off the bench if he felt it was best for the team. We have the Vulcans, and if the plan is to market Scoot like they did with Dame, as the primary goal instead of winning a championship, I expect 10 more years of minimal success.

Very concerned we don't learn from our lessons here is all. Just have a fair and open competition for the starting PG, PICK ONE and START SHARPE AT THE SG. Grant at the 3. If we can't figure this INSANITY out after 15 years or more, Sell the damn team already. F*** the Vulcans! I can't take 10 more years of it, and will say it again and again, Small-Ball Sucks! If this is the Vulcans new plan to just blindly hand over the keys to Scoot... I say "Just Do It"... Sell the team for the love of God... and basketball.

[GreenRiddler]

People can't get over their prejudice it will be interesting too see the mental gymnastics being done if Ant gets to the FT line more and ends up with 25 5 and 5 on his usual stellar shooting splits. As I said before if he ends up asserting himself as that type of player we will have to make a decision if we want to play Ant and Scoot as the starters when Shaedon has the potential to be the best prototypical SG we've had since B Roy and we are coming off a small 2 guard duo already.

You don't need a traditional PG to run an offense this isn't 2005 you have teams all over the league without one from Bos to GSW to Phx, 76ers and Den.

I am big on all three I love all three of them as prospects but we will need to pick 2 IMO within the next 3 years. I don't think Shaedon has shown enough yet to not be the 3rd man out and Scoot is an unproven rookie so right now the pecking order is defiently Anfernee/Shaedon/Scoot until proven otherwise. Like the Haliburton trade it won't mean the guy traded away is bad but is instead used to find a better fit player.

It could very well be we trade away a 25ppg Anfernee and get a great PF/SF in 2 years but that could very easily be Scoot or Shaedon on he way out as well.

Edit: its one of the reasons I kept going back and forth with hoping Charlotte didn't take Brandon Miller as I see a trio of Ant/Shaedon/Miller being an amazing core of allstar potential from 1-3 who complement each other very well with great on and off the ball skills and size at each of their positions.

[Shem]

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[The Sebastian Express]

It's not prejudice to say Ant has trouble running the offense.

Even in the best projections and hopes of Ant from yourself, GreenRiddler, you imagine him as a 25/5/5 guy.

That's great - for a shooting guard. But I don't think anyone here wants to relieve the Dame/CJ experiment. And right now acting as if five assists from a starting point guard would end up amazing is.. really, truly, honestly not ideal. And it's not even about the assist numbers, it's that he has real trouble running the offense. He can create for himself and sometimes others when having the ball in himself, absolutely. No one's denying he's a great scorer.

But when he gets into the post and has to pass out, he's historically shown he isn't more than average at this at all (and that could change - or it could remain consistently.. average). He's not always great about getting the ball into the post. And yes I know some posters are going to point to Januay 2022 for his 24/6.5ish month but that was one month out of the last two years.

When he gets into the post to score, he doesn't draw contact or fouls consistently. I mean I think that's a valid criticism. Last year Shaedon during our tankathon, which Ant has had his opportunities during our tankathon the year prior and then this year when we weren't tanking - Shaedon gained had two games where he had more FTs than Ant has had in game in his career.

I don't know what the issue with in that saying Anfernee is an elite shooter, a great scorer, but is not even average defensively (he isn't), can't run the offense consistently (he can't, and that's okay! When you aren't the point guard!) and he hasn't show an ability to consistently draw contact and fouls (which he hasn't???) means that somehow people are prejudice against him.

He has many great qualities! And he also has some that don't fit well for winning basketball if he's the point guard.

It'd be like saying people are prejudiced against Grant for pointing out he has rebounding troubles. But he does!! HE DOES!!

[The Sebastian Express]

Also I really like Camara.

[Norm2953]

Blazers roster appears to be a work in progress with the waiving of Butler and Conditt and the 2 way signing
of Minaya.

Not nearly as extreme as the period in 2016 when Luis Montero and Brian Roberts were on the roster
but they need to add one more player to their current 13 man roster with Kevin Knox and Reath still
around. I wonder why Portland didn't add Justice Winslow to fill the 14th man on the roster for he can
play when he's not hurt.

[Norm2953]

Ish Wainwright is the 14th man..He was picked up waivers from the Sun's and according to the Sun's board, seems like s good guy

[Norm2953]

Portland also cut Knox and Reath

[tester551]

Ish Wainwright is the 14th man..He was picked up waivers from the Sun's and according to the Sun's board, seems like s good guy

Think of him as a healthy Justice.
Doesn't have the ball handling skills- but does a lot of the little things

[Norm2953]

Interesting Zach Collins is able to get $35 million/2 from the Spurs in a new contract

[GEE]

Interesting Zach Collins is able to get $35 million/2 from the Spurs in a new contract

This is one of my favorite of the Olshey' screwing us on the way out moves... not picking up Collins' rights (it was like $7 mil iirc) and allowing him to become a UFA proved to be pretty dumb I think, especially considering how much we had already invested in the kid. We should have expected him to take a fair amount of time to develop, but instead, I suspect the org may have screwed him over at least a litte in his player development by trying to bulk him up turning him quickly into a C, instead of allowing him to become one natuarally with age... like Timmy. Just how I see it though.

Still think we should have kept him, but I'm happy to see things turn out the way they have for him. Tough road for the kid, with lots of injury recovery time which must suck hard, but he now gets a nice payday from a great franchise, and gets blessed with Wemby as a teammate (and not an opponent). Those two are going to cause huge problems for all NBA teams, for many years to come I'm affraid.

[BlazersBroncos]

I am a Zach stan and agree - wish we extended the QO.

I love the SAS trio of Wemby, Sochan and Zach. Excited to watch them this year. Think Zach is going to be a 14-16ppg guy this season.

[zzaj]

I've always stood by the Zach pick in that draft...yeah, he has high hips, and no he was never going to be the answer to Portland's long-term Center needs. But he's a valuable player that does just enough of everything to keep him on the court of a contender.

[Norm2953]

There will be lots of speculation about Minnesota, now that they will be extending McDaniels.

Their payroll with Towns, Gobert, Edwards and now McDaniels approaches $160 million for just
4 players with no PG