I am going to limit this to the starters. PG Lillard he is tough to place I could see him as high as 4th and as low 9th. If he improves defensively he would solidify himself as likely number 3 behind Westbrook and Chris Paul. Right now I have him behind Curry, CP3 and Westbrook. He is right in the group of Dragic, Wall, Lowry, Conley, Rose and Irving group currently on top but could fall without offseason improvements. SG Matthews I have him behind, a healthy Kobe, Wade, Stephenson, Beal, Thompson, Harden, Derozan and Ellis. So he comes in at number 9 on my list just ahead of Afflalo, Butler, Crawford and Ginobilli. SF Batum he is another one who could place all over the board. Since I consider Melo, and Lebron both SF he tops out at #5 personally though I have him a bit lower than that. Batum finished 8th behind Gay, Parsons and Leonard all of who he out played at times this season. PF LA ranks 3rd overall on my list trailing Anthony Davis and Blake Griffin. He comes in just ahead of Love based on defense. C Rolo was also tough to rank because it can be tough to see real Centers these days. He is clearly behind, Gasol, Noah, Cousins, Jefferson, Horford and Drummond. I would also put him behind Hibbert assuming his slump is over. Since Bosh plays mostly C for the Heat I will add him here as well. I would also put him behind his brother when healthy. Also have him behind Pekovic, and Gortat 12th is a great spot for him to be though considering what we expected to get from him. Where do you rank them?
Way to be a negative Nancy. Lillard: 3rd (after Cp3 and parker) Wes: 11th Batum:7th Lma:1st Lopez:14th
So far it seems people are seeing Matthews as the potential weak link or if not weak the spot we can improve the most in.
Meh. Harden is really the only guy way better than him right now. Wade and Kobe too I guess. It doesn't really make sense to trade Wes for any of the others, they are marginally better if at all. It's basically those top three, then the next ten guys are separated by little. I'd rather gamble on a motivated hibbert replacing Lopez
Matthews is a productive player & is on a reasonable contract. I wouldn't put any of their bench players in the productive category. The bench is the obvious place where they can improve the most. Hopefully some of that comes from internal growth, but... STOMP
Wes is a good player. He is not a weak link. It really comes down to the match up each night. Do we need our SG to spread the floor and shoot three's or do we need him to attack the basket and create his own shot. If we need him to attack, then Wes may get less minutes that game. If the other team has a big physical guard they need D'up, then Wes is our guy. Lot of moving parts each game. But yeah ideally we need a SG who can attack the basket and shoot the three and play tough D. Those are tough to find. We may have to play SG by committee for a while. But it really comes down to who else is on the floor for the Blazers. What are those players lacking that the SG need to fill. The pieces have to fit. And right now we are too perimeter oriented. We need more guy who can attack to basket. Wes and Stuckey combined would fill all our Sg needs.
Does any other team have their worst starter ranked in the top half at their position? If we can get some growth from our young bench players or add a productive free agent it makes me very optimistic for next season.
Barton and CJ both can attack the rim. Not sure if they'll take the step to be a productive bench player but if one of them can we could already have that missing dimension.
And really do the Blazers have a choice? Blazers are limited in the moves they can make this summer with just the MLE and need a back up PG . . . so either Barton needs to step up his game one more notch or CJ needs to emerge. I don't think it is the worst situation . . . hoping a young bench player comes into his own.
I mostly agree with this. Where I differ is in ranking Wes and LMA - and a bit of quibbling for Nic. Wes and Nic go higher, LMA lower. Wes - IMO - is clearly better than Derozan and Ellis. Also better than Wade and Kobe, but that's due to health not talent. I'll give you Beal, Stephenson and Thompson because I haven't seen them play enough to refute it. And Harden makes the cut because of his scoring ability - but after the POR/HOU series I have a hard time saying Harden is better than Wes. Nic is better than Gay, but in the same company as Parsons and Leonard. LBJ, Durant, George, and Melo are the only guys who I think are clearly better - and Melo only because he's a dominant scorer. I'd slot Nic at #5 but can see why others would put Parsons and/or Leonard ahead of him. I won't even get into my ranking of LMA because people get too bent out of shape over it.
Ill play but imo some are tied and/or depending on matchup better at certain things. Those who have clear rankings ill rank those who have fudge room ill give a range. Lillard #3 Wes #8-14 Batum#4-9 Lma #1 rolo #8-12 Our starting 5 is probably the best overall starting 5 imo. Especially when everyone plays their best everyone is top 10 at their position. Start of last season we looked like spurs with ball movement and drilling open shots. Then we seemed to get lazy or something changed because the offense just didnt flow as well. If we could play at our peak like when we were setting 3 point records and scoring over 120 a game we would crush people like the spurs did this post season. As we all know the key is defense. Good defense really fires up wes, rolo, and trob. They thrive off the energy. Then the team thrives off their energy
Given the dearth of talent at SG I think that's the spot that would be HARDEST to upgrade. PF and C would probably be the easiest places we could upgrade given the talent pool at those positions.
