The NBENFANT Thread (NBA): 2023-2024 Edition!

GreenRiddler · Post #61 » by **GreenRiddler** » Sun Dec 13, 2015 7:36 am

Well this is something...

https://streamable.com/79tv

Dame Lizard · Post #62 » by **Dame Lizard** » Sun Dec 13, 2015 9:12 am

GreenRiddler wrote:Well this is something...

https://streamable.com/79tv

It's absolutely brilliant! :lol:

Dame Lizard · Post #63 » by **Dame Lizard** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 12:26 am

New Orleans just traded Ish Smith for 2x 2nd round picks. A 2016 Denver one, and a 2017 Philly. They will be higher than average 2nds as well. Incredible return for New Orleans (they claimed Ish Smith off waivers exactly 2 months ago).

Hopefully New Orleans doesn't just tank the season for our sake! I mean they are desperately lacking talent (given the have Davis), so it kind of makes sense for them to do so, but hopefully they try and turn their season around, and bank on using Davis' superstar appeal in free agency to complete the picture. Hopefully!

If New Orleans are going to try and have their best crack at winning games this season (they've played well over these last few games), we should offer up Hendo and Kaman to them!

GreenRiddler · Post #64 » by **GreenRiddler** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 2:06 am

Dame Lizard wrote:New Orleans just traded Ish Smith for 2x 2nd round picks. A 2016 Denver one, and a 2017 Philly. They will be higher than average 2nds as well. Incredible return for New Orleans (they claimed Ish Smith off waivers exactly 2 months ago).

Hopefully New Orleans doesn't just tank the season for our sake! I mean they are desperately lacking talent (given the have Davis), so it kind of makes sense for them to do so, but hopefully they try and turn their season around, and bank on using Davis' superstar appeal in free agency to complete the picture. Hopefully!

If New Orleans are going to try and have their best crack at winning games this season (they've played well over these last few games), we should offer up Hendo and Kaman to them!

He has killed them in recent match-ups and GMs have a funny way of getting the guy that kills them in the past (Clips with J Smoove).

If Lillard continues to miss time, they will absolutely zoom by us now that they are healthy. I am just worried if the East teams are gonna hit a wall in January/Feb like our Blazers have over the past 3 seasons and past by us in the race to the bottom. We are really struggling right now even when healthy, so I also fear our best basketball is ahead of us in the new year. :banghead:

Norm2953 · Post #65 » by **Norm2953** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 3:04 am

Doesn't Philly have a boatload of first and second round picks like the Celtics so them giving up
2 #2 picks is meaningless for they've got to be embarrassed with the season record.

GreenRiddler · Post #66 » by **GreenRiddler** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 5:27 am

Atta boy CJ!

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pi/shareit/FsDeY

Dame Lizard · Post #67 » by **Dame Lizard** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:52 am

Norm2953 wrote:Doesn't Philly have a boatload of first and second round picks like the Celtics so them giving up
2 #2 picks is meaningless for they've got to be embarrassed with the season record.

Yeah they do, giving away those 2nds doesn't impact them much, I was mainly just jealous as I'd love Portland to nab any draft pick we can get!

Shem · Post #68 » by **Shem** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 11:48 pm

Christmas Day Flashback:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2xEViELSuU[/youtube]

Wizenheimer · Post #69 » by **Wizenheimer** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:22 am

the sad thing about that video is that it happened during the best stretch of Roy's career. He averaged about 26 - 5 -5 in December and January of that season, but only played 7 games in January before his knees gave out. He was never the same player again when he came back

he was the same age then as Lillard is now. For a while, I had hopes that Lillard would become as good as Roy was. Now, I'm doubting that he'll reach that level

GreenRiddler · Post #70 » by **GreenRiddler** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:56 am

Just checked BBref and was surprised to see McCollum's Ast% doubled from 10.3% last year to 20.6% this year while his TO% dipped by 0.3% Crazy given his role in the offense increased by 10000% but his TO% DIPPED! He is averaging 4.9Asts in December to go with a 2.22 Ast/TO ratio.

He is finally showing a well rounded game and its nice to see his work in the off-season working on his passing is paying off, he didn't do much of that in the breakout streak to end last year and in the POs. That was the area I thought he had to get much better at. Given he is a good scorer out of the PnR, I never got why he wasn't a good passer out of it in college or last year. Maybe he never had the mindset to want to?

Now we just gotta find a wing facilitator to team up with this back-court, or a low scoring quality bigman.

Dame Lizard · Post #71 » by **Dame Lizard** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 2:28 pm

GreenRiddler wrote:Just checked BBref and was surprised to see McCollum's Ast% doubled from 10.3% last year to 20.6% this year while his TO% dipped by 0.3% Crazy given his role in the offense increased by 10000% but his TO% DIPPED! He is averaging 4.9Asts in December to go with a 2.22 Ast/TO ratio.

He is finally showing a well rounded game and its nice to see his work in the off-season working on his passing is paying off, he didn't do much of that in the breakout streak to end last year and in the POs. That was the area I thought he had to get much better at. Given he is a good scorer out of the PnR, I never got why he wasn't a good passer out of it in college or last year. Maybe he never had the mindset to want to?

Now we just gotta find a wing facilitator to team up with this back-court, or a low scoring quality bigman.

That's very encouraging to see. Certainly a very big leap, obviously the AST% is largely due to CJ playing full-time PG when Dame's on the bench, but it's great to see TO% hasn't followed suit, but in fact dropped slightly.

Both Dame and CJ were in college teams where they were by far the best scorer and second place wasn't close. Also their opponents were weak teams as well. I'm guessing that playmaking to other teammates a lot of the time would have been somewhat inefficient given that they could just score it themselves at such a high rate.

GreenRiddler · Post #72 » by **GreenRiddler** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:32 pm

Barton is officially the real deal, would've been great to have a ball handler like him now that we are rebuilding. His 3 point shot looks legit too. TBH I am looking at his stats, they are better than Gianniss'. That's not to diminish G, Barton is just playing that good. See you on the 30th Barton. Should be in the home locker ( I hate that AAA trade soooooo much, who'd thought Barton CJ and Crabbe would've been better suited for his role? They are all playing better than him and seemingly all they needed was unrestricted/consistent mins like he got here, then again LMA doesn't trust them but does vets, and he's not going annnnywhere. :banghead:

).

GreenRiddler · Post #73 » by **GreenRiddler** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:24 am

He had a great game Vs the Cavs tonight. Man if only we didn't trade for AAA :roll:

Apparently he was a great player in practices, but surprise surpise didn't get mins cause he was a young unproven player who didn't mesh with LMA's ball dominance.

"Will and I were a lot of times on the same team. We were doing a good job whooping up on the starters, getting them ready for the games."

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2015/12/will_bartons_breakout_with_denver_nuggets.html#incart_river_index

:banghead:

Downtown · Post #74 » by **Downtown** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:59 am

I watched the Cavs/Nuggets game. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record but one guy that really stands out to me is young Nikola Jokic. His stats look average but when I watch him I see so much potential. He's quite young but boy does he do a lot of good things. He kind of reminds me of when Marc Gasol came into the league.

He was matched against Kevin Love and pushed him around and held Love in check. He backed down Mozgov with physical strength, and Mozgov is a big guy. He sure doesn't shy away from the physical side of the game. He doesn't have an athletic body but he's very active with his feet and he's a good passer with good hands. He made one cross court bounce pass to the open man in the corner that would make a point guard proud. The only negative thing I can say is that he still has to learn the nuances of the game. But he's young and coming into a new league isn't easy for any rookie.

Something about him says it's the tip of the iceberg and I wonder what will happen when Nuric returns and claims the starting center spot. Joffrey Lauvergne is starting ahead of Jokic and putting up solid numbers.

Man, if Portland could get their hands on Jokic, who I think is only 20 years old, they could have something. Depending on the final standings maybe they could trade down a few spots with Denver and also get Jokic.

I'm going to keep my eye on this young prospect.

Dame Lizard · Post #75 » by **Dame Lizard** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:18 am

GreenRiddler wrote:He had a great game Vs the Cavs tonight. Man if only we didn't trade for AAA Apparently he was a great player in practices, but surprise surpise didn't get mins cause he was a young unproven player who didn't mesh with LMA's ball dominance.

"Will and I were a lot of times on the same team. We were doing a good job whooping up on the starters, getting them ready for the games."

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2015/12/will_bartons_breakout_with_denver_nuggets.html#incart_river_index

Whilst it's frustrating seeing one of our draft picks play so well straight after we traded him, he had 1660 minutes over 2.5 seasons here (not a giant sample size, but certainly a pretty big one), and unfortunately just didn't fit and/or at least didn't perform like he's performing now.

He wasn't a good college 3 PT shot and shot less than 23% from 3 PT range on 127 attempts for Portland (plus it's not like his form was that good either). That's a big enough sample size to get a good indication. Never shot the 3 PT ball well at Summer League or Preason either, from what I can recall.

No-one could have predicted his epic performances since he arrived in Denver, so I feel we just have to take it for what it is. We had Wes, CJ and Crabbe at the same position. Kudos to Denver, for requesting him in the trade (as Stotts says in the article). They got themselves a steal.

Downtown wrote:
Man, if Portland could get their hands on Jokic, who I think is only 20 years old, they could have something. Depending on the final standings maybe they could trade down a few spots with Denver and also get Jokic.

I'm going to keep my eye on this young prospect.

I've heard a lot of good things about Jokic. He averages 0.77 bpg per 36 though, and doesn't have particularly good defensive advanced stats either. Given he's got a 9"3 standing reach and a really strong body, that's a bit of a concern.

Offensively he's doing a very nice job though.

Wizenheimer · Post #76 » by **Wizenheimer** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:22 pm

Dame Lizard wrote:Whilst it's frustrating seeing one of our draft picks play so well straight after we traded him, he had 1660 minutes over 2.5 seasons here (not a giant sample size, but certainly a pretty big one), and unfortunately just didn't fit and/or at least didn't perform like he's performing now.

I'm going to take a different view on this....I think the sample size argument is bollixed when it comes to Barton because, under Stotts, no player was jerked around in minutes and playing time as much as Barton was. Just saying "1660 minutes" conveys the wrong picture, IMO, because that was over the 220 games he was a Blazer. Saying 7.5 minutes a game conveys a completely different message then saying 1660 minutes, but neither narrative is really accurate

Barton only averaged 11 minutes a game in 144 games for Portland. IIRC, Barton was never injured, so in those "2.5" seasons, Barton had 73 DNP-CD's. That's about 1 DNP-CD in every 3 game stretch, and that's a nearly impossible situation for a player to develop any rhythm or consistency

By my quick count, Barton only had 15 games where he played more then 20 minutes; in those 15 games, he averaged 15 points and shot well while doing so; 7 of those 15 games were consecutive at the end of his rookie season. In that tiny stretch of consistent playing time, he averaged 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 FTA's.

Yeah, Barton didn't shoot well from the arc (which is apparently a death sentence in a Stotts offense) and he tended to be out of control quite a bit on the floor...a bad case of hoop-lock (are you reading this, Al-Farouq?). But all the reporting was that Barton was a gym rat who worked really hard on his game and always has great attitude.

In other words, what Barton needed was some coaching coupled with opportunity. Stotts never really gave him that. Then, lo & behold, he goes to Denver and playing for a new team immediately after arriving, per36 he averages, 16pts, 7reb, 3ast, & 2stls. We can only wish Afflalo would have performed so well for his new team

I got some grief last year for saying I wanted Barton to get more minutes at the expense of CJ and other wings. I knew what Barton's contract situation was and knew there was a fast approaching decision point for him (meanwhile, I knew CJ would be back this season) and I felt Barton would perform if given an opportunity. I guess it's unfortunate he's performing well for another team; and ironic that he and CJ will both be in the running for MIP, while Barton is a candidate for 6th man of the year. Blazers could have both

oh well...I'm not really lamenting the trade considering Portland's situation (although Barton at 3.3 million/year is a really appealing contract knowing what Crabbe and CJ are going to be getting pretty soon)

one thing that is bothering me is how quickly players get dismissed from being a Blazer if they don't show good 3 point shooting ability. I still think there's too much emphasis on that and that emphasis eliminates a lot of good players from consideration. I mean, would a young Tony Parker or Tony Allen or Demarre Carroll even be considered? How about a Antetokounmpo or a Caldwell-Pope?

Epicurus · Post #77 » by **Epicurus** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:17 pm

I don't believe Stotts forced a trade of Barton, as the above almost implies. Barton was whom Denver wanted in any trade for Affalo. Obviously they liked what they saw in the "mere" 1600 minutes of court time he got as a Blazer. And the front office wanted Affalo to solidify the second unit. And it worked for six games, then Matthews got hurt.

GreenRiddler · Post #78 » by **GreenRiddler** » Sat Jan 2, 2016 2:20 am

Dame Lizard wrote:
GreenRiddler wrote:He had a great game Vs the Cavs tonight. Man if only we didn't trade for AAA Apparently he was a great player in practices, but surprise surpise didn't get mins cause he was a young unproven player who didn't mesh with LMA's ball dominance.

"Will and I were a lot of times on the same team. We were doing a good job whooping up on the starters, getting them ready for the games."

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2015/12/will_bartons_breakout_with_denver_nuggets.html#incart_river_index

Whilst it's frustrating seeing one of our draft picks play so well straight after we traded him, he had 1660 minutes over 2.5 seasons here (not a giant sample size, but certainly a pretty big one), and unfortunately just didn't fit and/or at least didn't perform like he's performing now.

He wasn't a good college 3 PT shot and shot less than 23% from 3 PT range on 127 attempts for Portland (plus it's not like his form was that good either). That's a big enough sample size to get a good indication. Never shot the 3 PT ball well at Summer League or Preason either, from what I can recall.

No-one could have predicted his epic performances since he arrived in Denver, so I feel we just have to take it for what it is. We had Wes, CJ and Crabbe at the same position. Kudos to Denver, for requesting him in the trade (as Stotts says in the article). They got themselves a steal.

Yeah but I think that was all because of LMA and even Wes/Batum being here ahead of him. If we don't trade him and LMA still left/Wes got hurt he would have had the same opportunity here as McCollum/Crabbe do now and we'd reap the rewards. He probably wouldn't be step for step as good as he is in Denver cause he is like the go to guy for them right now and they have a lot more pace on their team, but it would still be a good player.

GreenRiddler · Post #79 » by **GreenRiddler** » Sat Jan 2, 2016 2:35 am

GreenRiddler · Post #80 » by **GreenRiddler** » Mon Jan 4, 2016 12:58 pm

Points ain't everything, but it's a big part of the game/recognition. That is a steeep drop off.

https://www.statmuse.com/view?qid=a69b6b1e-b093-4f3e-bdea-0a2a140556c5