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This whole thing feels JUST like when the Blazers traded for Hassan Whiteside and we never used him right and the whole thing fell apart.

“When you feed the big dog, it does whatever you tell him to do.”

— Shaquille O'Neal

Ayton looks like he's trying on both ends of the court. I don't see that lasting long if he's not getting double digit shot attempts in the very near future.

Fouls are an issue so far, which has at least somewhat to do with our team making the big man clean up their many mistakes. It really limits how aggressive he can be and at least makes him think and he has a bit of growing to do in terms of managing that aspect, not an easy thing to do.

Ayton also doesn't have the greatest hands and Scoot is pretty young so its gonna be a bit before we get comfortable getting him the ball in the quantity needed without basically handing the ball to the other team 50+% of the time. And as we go to him more and more the other team will pay more defensive attention so its not a simple thing to just increase a players usage, the decisions coaches make in trying to get players certain shots would have consequences in terms of turnovers and other forms of wasted plays.

Also Ayton isn't the best at passing out of the paint either so even once we do figure out how to get him the ball more he is going to have to show he can make the right decision and not become a predictable offensive dead-end down there. So while I 100% agree the Blazers need to work on this I am taking the fairly pessimistic view that it is going to be a long and bumpy road getting there in a way that is worth it, learning how to do it correctly in the flow of the game instead of just letting him chuck up a bunch of shots.

Got to keep the Big Men's Happy was what Billy Ray Bates used to say

Looking at the # of TO's Scoot is having so far, I am not a huge fan of him passing right now. I realize he has to continue to do it to get better at it but for now it's not happening.

I have a feeling Simons would be a bit more adept at it having more experience with passing. Though I'm not sure the team is really making an effort to get Ayton the ball quite yet. Ayton did have a lot more shots against the Magic then he did against the Clippers so It looks like BIllups did talk about utilizing Ayton more.

Ayton is a strange player.

He seems to rebound well but doesn’t seem to like contact. Doesn’t have the best hands he doesn’t know how to set a solid pick.

Seems to be able to shoot a bit. Haven’t figured him out yet.

Phoenix board has said he wants to be a PF, which suggests perhaps he's a bigger
version of LA.

Ayton is a finesse player so he's not really great at creating his own shot and you really wish sometimes he would put his head down and drive to get contact but he's sadly quite adverse to physicality.

What you saw out of him in the 4th is him at his best just cleaning up missed shots with pretty good efficiency. He isn't the type of player who is going to tear the rim down but he's been pretty consistent at finishing near the rim and he's probably one of the best at that averaging .600 or close to it in his 5 seasons in the NBA.

He is good at hitting the mid range shot and his hook shots is pretty reliable but besides this he is a pretty limited offensive player. He does need to get touches every so often or he gets disengaged. Hopefully you guys can get a decent pass first PG because Scoot looks super raw and is super turnover prone and his mentality seems to be a volume scorer in the mold of Ja or Trae.

The only thing that concerns me about Ayton is his coach. New team, New role, surrounded by youngsters, he'll figure all that out. Coached with no clear offensive or defensive identity or even aspirational vision...good luck.

Agreed, multiple plays should be drawn up for him and he should be getting the ball much more.
No excuse for this.
Billups gotta coach.

I’m Angry the Blazers…

Is a great summary of the season start for us. Everyone and everything look terrible outside of brogdon and Shaedon. Walker doesn’t even get the mins he deserves.

I thought Chauncey would have this team playing to it’s potential, instead they’re playing to their worst case scenario in every way. Anyway. It can only go up from here?

JRoy wrote:Ayton is a strange player.

He seems to rebound well but doesn’t seem to like contact. Doesn’t have the best hands he doesn’t know how to set a solid pick.

Seems to be able to shoot a bit. Haven’t figured him out yet.

No, you have figured him out. What you just said is what he is and it's not going to change.

Norm2953 wrote:Phoenix board has said he wants to be a PF, which suggests perhaps he's a bigger
version of LA.

I actually do wonder if TL at Center and Ayton at PF could work. I completely disregarded the idea to begin with, but after watching Ayton play a little bit more closely...not so sure.

So far we have seen nothing, zero, nada, zilch that shows that Chauncey and his staff have prepared a system on either end of the floor that the players can adhere to.

Sometimes you can see a bit of a system but the players just aren't executing, or a system but poor fit with the roster...this looks like no system and no preparation for the roster.

That is worrisome.

Now some of that might be exacerbated by the fact that a 19 year old with no actual NBA level skill (yet) has been given the task of setting things in motion. But we're seeing a lack of system with Brogdon running the show too.

Pattycakes wrote:I thought Chauncey would have this team playing to it’s potential

And here is where you made a mistake.

zzaj wrote:So far we have seen nothing, zero, nada, zilch that shows that Chauncey and his staff have prepared a system on either end of the floor that the players can adhere to.

Sometimes you can see a bit of a system but the players just aren't executing, or a system but poor fit with the roster...this looks like no system and no preparation for the roster.

That is worrisome.

Now some of that might be exacerbated by the fact that a 19 year old with no actual NBA level skill (yet) has been given the task of setting things in motion. But we're seeing a lack of system with Brogdon running the show too.

It really is staggering the lack of motion in our offense, regardless who is running the point. I love the PnR and it’s one of the most heavily used plays in all of basketball, but that is literally the most advanced play in our offense right now.

We have athletes that can take advantage of back door cuts and off ball screens all day long but they spend so much time standing around in our halfcourt sets. Perhaps Billups is worried a more complex offense would be too complicated for a rookie PG, but adding more complexity actually takes some playmaking pressure off of him and redistributes it amongst the team.

DC_Melo wrote:

zzaj wrote:So far we have seen nothing, zero, nada, zilch that shows that Chauncey and his staff have prepared a system on either end of the floor that the players can adhere to.

Sometimes you can see a bit of a system but the players just aren't executing, or a system but poor fit with the roster...this looks like no system and no preparation for the roster.

That is worrisome.

Now some of that might be exacerbated by the fact that a 19 year old with no actual NBA level skill (yet) has been given the task of setting things in motion. But we're seeing a lack of system with Brogdon running the show too.

It really is staggering the lack of motion in our offense, regardless who is running the point. I love the PnR and it’s one of the most heavily used plays in all of basketball, but that is literally the most advanced play in our offense right now.

We have athletes that can take advantage of back door cuts and off ball screens all day long but they spend so much time standing around in our halfcourt sets. Perhaps Billups is worried a more complex offense would be too complicated for a rookie PG, but adding more complexity actually takes some playmaking pressure off of him and redistributes it amongst the team.

The NBA is a pretty stagnant thing I see many teams have a bunch of guys standing around on offense. Now that doesn't mean it's a good thing but there are a good number of teams out there that seem to stand around and watch one guy operate at a time.

Stan Van Gundy used to tell Dwight Howard that his touches were offensive rebounds and if he wanted more touches he needed to get more offensive rebounds.

Hope Scoot is not out for long, he and DA had it going last night! Was great to see their chemistry developing

Ayton looks like he is engaged some of the time, and then some of the time he just seems to be wandering around the court. This is what we saw in Phoenix. No, he does not like contact, and one or two good plays a game and he seems happy.

Honestly, he seems like he is playing baked about half the time. Other players ARE high and play fine.

DA on a good run of games. I get we’re losing too, but this is good development time for when Ant/Scoot and whatever high picks we get this year are mixed back in. Good to see it