We got the #3 pick. Discuss the possibilities.

I only worry about competition

 

His ability to get contact and go to the line is otherworldly. His midrange is lethal. It's about adding difference makers this offseason. DeRozan is one of those players. Ant is a nice player, but he just doesn't offer enough outside of his shot. He's not a PG. On this Blazers team, i think Ant's best position would be as 6th Man .

 

It would be fun to watch for............ 1 year

 

I think he still has 3 maybe 4 good years left in the tank.

 

With today's conditioning & nutrition, players can be productive at a higher level for lengthier periods of their careers. Not many are out their smoking heaters after practice . Injuries are the main reason for shorter primes today.

 

The competition thing itself can be a red herring. A player can be a star at the highest level of college competition and it might not mean anything.
That's the job of a guy like Mike Schmitz to figure out.
Luka Garza's awards in college competition:

• National college player of the year (2021)
• 2× Sporting News College Player of the Year (2020, 2021)
• 2× Consensus first-team All-American (2020, 2021)
• 2× Pete Newell Big Man Award (2020, 2021)
• 2× Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award (2020, 2021)
• Lute Olson Award (2021)
• Senior CLASS Award (2021)
• 2× Big Ten Player of the Year (2020, 2021)
• Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year (2021)
• 2× First-team All-Big Ten (2020, 2021)

 

I tend to think of Whitmore is too tunnel vision-y for my liking. There are reasons to like him though and I actually think there’s a solid chance Whitmore pushes Amen out of the top 4. I just feel like the twins have a higher ceiling.

In regards to Ant, I think it’s important for Ausar and especially Amen to play with shooters. Between Sharpe, Ant, Dame, Grant, maybe even Watford and/or Nurk, there’s enough guys that one of them can kick it out to.

Demar is 34 and still played 36mpg last season. I’d rather Sharpe gets his 25-30 mpg and Amen to get 15-20 mpg and let the young develop. I don’t watch enough DDR, so I’ll take your word for it that he’d make us a better team. But at best, I think the improvement will be marginal and we still wouldn’t be a contending team. I’ve seen enough from Eubanks to know he won’t ever be more than a good third string big on a good team. Knox had a couple good games. Despite those good shooting games, he still averaged 31.4% from 3.

 

There isn't much discussion about the playmaking and unselfishness of Amen and Ausar Thompson. All the discussion is about their lack of shooting.

To me, the Blazers desperately need a high-level playmaker who will push the ball up the court, for Shaedon Sharpe, and by extension, the Trail Blazers, to reach their potential.
We saw a glimpse of that with Watford starting in place of Jerami Grant, and Sharpe starting in Simons' place in the last "real" game, the victory in Utah on March 22.
I wish we could have seen more of that group play together.

Adding another shooter like Demar Derozen or Brandon Miller will certainly make the Blazers better, but I don't see them pushing the team into another level.

 

how did that Weber State competition work for Dame? How about the HS guys Shaedon was up against in his last games?

STOMP

 

At some point, players play enough to show that their past competition doesn’t matter. We all were only able to evaluate Shae from high school tapes from almost a year prior to the draft. I knew he was a lob threat and would be a crazy off ball shot blocker, but I also saw an advanced offensive game for someone his age. In Amen, his mind to process the game and pass the ball doesn’t just go away as he goes up a level in competition. From what I’ve been hearing surfing YT, OTE runs NBA-style sets as oppose to NCAA and they use the NBA 3pt line. I haven’t watched much OTE to confirm the first thing was true. If either twin lands here, it’ll be because Schmitz wanted him here. Trust in Schmitz.

Both twins also not rail thin. They’re both 6’7 in shoes and sub 210 lbs. In their prime, they’ll probably be 235 lbs. With their physical gifts, they’ll eventually get to the point where they’ll be so physically imposing, especially if they were playing PG. Imagine one of the 6’7 Thompsons playing the smallest position on the court, then playing beside Shae and two other 6’7-6’9 wings. NOP found Jones and Murphy in the same draft.

In the modern NBA, multiple guys on a team need to be switchable and consistently play defense across multiple positions, and do different things. It doesn’t hurt for start either twin off cutting and playing disciplined defense while they play with Dame. Then allow them to work on their playmaking, feed them a PnR or two with Nurk per night and give them small spurts as the decision maker playing alongside Ant and Sharpe.

HOU fans have been talking about how Amen and Jalen would be the most athletic backcourt in the league. I think Sharpe and Amen could become be most physically imposing backcourt in the league on both ends. Amen’s playmaking combined with Shae’s shotmaking, both can eventually lock up either opposing guy in the backcourt. They would compliment each other well.

 

Both twins also not rail thin. They’re both 6’7 in shoes and sub 210 lbs. In their prime, they’ll probably be 235 lbs. With their physical gifts, they’ll eventually get to the point where they’ll be so physically imposing, especially if they were playing PG. Imagine one of the 6’7 Thompsons playing the smallest position on the court, then playing beside Shae and two other 6’7-6’9 wings. NOP found Jones and Murphy in the same draft.

The second iteration of the champion Jordan Bulls had 6'6" Ron Harper and 6'6" Michael Jordan as the starting backcourt.
The 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Lakers had a starting backcourt of 6'6" Ron Harper and 6'6" Kobe Bryant (for part of the 00-01 season.)

Harper was not an efficient scorer on either of those teams.

Chauncey Billups wants a big point-of-attack defender. He's been using Jerami Grant, which hasn't been working out. Grant is better suited as a help defender. He's not good at navigating screens.

 

Just a worry

 

It's a worry, but like Weber State for Dame, and Davidson for Steph Curry, there can be advantages to playing outside a top college program.
For the Thompson twins, the fast pace that might seen to be rat ball or no defense ball, enabled them to work on quick decision-making over their seasons with Overtime Elite.
Being able to make quick decisions is an important skill for the faster NBA. The longer you take (a-la Cam Whitmore) the more time the defense has to get into position.

 

That’s the pairing I see in Shae and Amen, except I think Amen will be a career average 8apg and be an even better defender than Harper.

 

Amen shot 53% on ft's and that concerns me that he may never develop a decent shot/midrange game.

 

One armchair gm compared him to youmg evan turner or ben Simmons. Lol

 

I’ve always thought Nas’ shot was worse. Nas isn’t a consistent shooter, but if Amen ever became a Nas level shooter, he’ll be an AS eventually.

 

I have a hard time understanding how people get so convinced, confident, and sold on one prospect or another they start posting like his agent

 

Right? And then a few years go by and most of these guys, including lotto picks end up being not very good anyway.