2022 breakout players

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Nassir did an excellent job working on his game from year 1 to last year. I agree with many that Coach Billups will get the best out of him. And Little will return ready to meet, if not exceed, the challenge.
 
B-Roy said:
I think (hope) Billups will have a profound influence on his development as a playmaker.
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I hope that Billups shows him how to incorporate his jumping ability into his game.
I also hope Billups plays him at the 2, and teaches him how to be MUCH more aggressive - drive and dunk/drive and kick.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
I hope that Billups shows him how to incorporate his jumping ability into his game.
I also hope Billups plays him at the 2, and teaches him how to be MUCH more aggressive - drive and dunk/drive and kick.
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He's got great drive and kick potential, if only he could figure out the drive part of that equation...
 
Dillon Brooks will break out in 2022. He's incredibly fierce, hungry and motivated. Reminded me a bit of Tatum vs. LeBron in our games this year. Just the sheer competitiveness. I'd love to snap him up if we could.
 
Nurk in Billups’ system:

High post plays Detroit ran for Antonio McDyess

Low post plays Detroit ran for Sheed

Although I still prefer Neil deals Nurk
 
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tykendo said:
Nassir did an excellent job working on his game from year 1 to last year. I agree with many that Coach Billups will get the best out of him. And Little will return ready to meet, if not exceed, the challenge.
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Give Little more the 3 minutes at a time for stretches of the season (some of the most idiotic rotations known to coaching history Mr. Stotts) and he has as much potential to break out as anyone on the roster. I think Billups could provide him with that opportunity....if he is here.
 
TBpup said:
Give Little more the 3 minutes at a time for stretches of the season (some of the most idiotic rotations known to coaching history Mr. Stotts) and he has as much potential to break out as anyone on the roster. I think Billups could provide him with that opportunity....if he is here.
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I'd still rather trade for Simmons or a major wing talent at that position, but if we traded CJ for Myles Turner and Nurk for a decent young wing-like Dillon Brooks and then let Brooks and Little battle it out to see who our starting small forward is. Turner is enough of an upgrade over Nurk that we can have more 3 and D with a bit of slashing and driving Batum in his prime type player at the SF and be OK. They just need to be able to perform well as a wing defender, though obviously it would help us a ton to have Brooks or Little in this scenario break out. Before you balk at it, I point to a parallel with Phoenix and Ayton and Bridges. Bridges is young, hungry and dedicated which I feel from both Little and Brooks, with a backstop like Myles Turner and help D from Powell and RoCo I feel pretty good about our defense with either of those guys and again, were either to break out we'd be in really good shape. This isn't my ideal, but a Turner + Young Promising Wing with upside combo for CJ and Nurk would be a pretty decent Summer and upgrade at positions of need while getting rid of CJ's bloated contract.

Right now, I'm praying for a CJ for Simmons trade more than just about anything Blazers related.
 
TBpup said:
Give Little more the 3 minutes at a time for stretches of the season (some of the most idiotic rotations known to coaching history Mr. Stotts) and he has as much potential to break out as anyone on the roster. I think Billups could provide him with that opportunity....if he is here.
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Another fun scenario is Little breaking out and his Shooting really coming into form (I could see him becoming a 40% 3pt shooter) combined with a CJ Plus a 1st round pick for Simmons. Then you go modern NBA. Then trade Nurk for Marcus Smart.

PG: Lillard/Smart
SG: Powell/Ant/Elleby
SF: Little/Simmons/Powell
PF: RoCo/Melo on a Vet Min/Simmons
C: Simmons/Giles/RoCo

One of the reasons I love the idea of Simmons on the team is he can play 1-5 as need be. You just need to surround him with 2-4 shooters the more the deadlier. People are so focused on that series rather than his total body of work and the rather significant difference of being paired with Embiid rather than Lillard. It would unlock Simmons to play with Lillard. If Billups can convince Simmons through his own story that Simmons work on his Jump Shot and switch to his Right hand the skies the limit
 
Idog1976 said:
Another fun scenario is Little breaking out and his Shooting really coming into form (I could see him becoming a 40% 3pt shooter) combined with a CJ Plus a 1st round pick for Simmons. Then you go modern NBA. Then trade Nurk for Marcus Smart.

PG: Lillard/Smart
SG: Powell/Ant/Elleby
SF: Little/Simmons/Powell
PF: RoCo/Melo on a Vet Min/Simmons
C: Simmons/Giles/RoCo

One of the reasons I love the idea of Simmons on the team is he can play 1-5 as need be. You just need to surround him with 2-4 shooters the more the deadlier. People are so focused on that series rather than his total body of work and the rather significant difference of being paired with Embiid rather than Lillard. It would unlock Simmons to play with Lillard. If Billups can convince Simmons through his own story that Simmons work on his Jump Shot and switch to his Right hand the skies the limit
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If we get Simmons why in the fuck would we trade for a backup PG when our backup at PF and C is Melo and Giles? We'd trade Nurk for a more versatile big regardless of what Nas is doing.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
Breaking out of his self-delusions and realizing he's not an NBA player anymore?
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The guy came off the bench and scored 20 before halftime. Melo literally won games for us. I’ll take Melo on our bench at the vet minimum all day and night for the next two seasons -
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
The guy came off the bench and scored 20 before halftime. Melo literally won games for us. I’ll take Melo on our bench at the vet minimum all day and night for the next two seasons -
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You know, I mostly look at the offensive side of the ball, too. But, really, how many games did he lose us with his defense? What was his +/-?
 
Wizard Mentor said:
You know, I mostly look at the offensive side of the ball, too. But, really, how many games did he lose us with his defense? What was his +/-?
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I’m gonna answer that with this statement:

Was the defense of Dame or CJ any better than Melo?? At least Melo would grab a rebound every now and then. CJ and Dame are horrific defenders. It’s why I say “we will never win a ring with Dame & CJ as our guards!” And we won’t! We need a defensive guard - I’m watching Jrue Holiday kick ass defensively. Beverley kicked ass defensively…but CJ and Dame got their asses kicked! Every single game. So you can’t point to Melo and talk about defense. He came off the bench as a scorer. Honestly, I can’t think of a more prolific scorer as a 7th or 8th player (by rotation) in the league. Melo can get you back into a game with his first 5 shots. Trouble is Stotts didn’t know how to play him - Stotts kept him on the court too long.
 
blazerkor said:
If we get Simmons why in the fuck would we trade for a backup PG when our backup at PF and C is Melo and Giles? We'd trade Nurk for a more versatile big regardless of what Nas is doing.
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Yeah we can trade for a stretch 4 or 5. I'd love that. I'm just not convinced there are any that are available. If Boucher is I'd definitely trade Nurk for him.
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
I’m gonna answer that with this statement:

Was the defense of Dame or CJ any better than Melo?? At least Melo would grab a rebound every now and then. CJ and Dame are horrific defenders. It’s why I say “we will never win a ring with Dame & CJ as our guards!” And we won’t! We need a defensive guard - I’m watching Jrue Holiday kick ass defensively. Beverley kicked ass defensively…but CJ and Dame got their asses kicked! Every single game. So you can’t point to Melo and talk about defense. He came off the bench as a scorer. Honestly, I can’t think of a more prolific scorer as a 7th or 8th player (by rotation) in the league. Melo can get you back into a game with his first 5 shots. Trouble is Stotts didn’t know how to play him - Stotts kept him on the court too long.
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I'll accept your premise that Dame and CJ were bad defenders. All the more reason to get rid of everyone else who is a bad defender.
I believe Dame and CJ had positive +/-, and they played against starters. Melo had a horrible +/-. The other team regularly kicked our asses when the bench was playing, and the opposite happened when our starters were playing.
 
BoomChakaLaka said:
I’m gonna answer that with this statement:

Was the defense of Dame or CJ any better than Melo?? At least Melo would grab a rebound every now and then. CJ and Dame are horrific defenders. It’s why I say “we will never win a ring with Dame & CJ as our guards!” And we won’t! We need a defensive guard - I’m watching Jrue Holiday kick ass defensively. Beverley kicked ass defensively…but CJ and Dame got their asses kicked! Every single game. So you can’t point to Melo and talk about defense. He came off the bench as a scorer. Honestly, I can’t think of a more prolific scorer as a 7th or 8th player (by rotation) in the league. Melo can get you back into a game with his first 5 shots. Trouble is Stotts didn’t know how to play him - Stotts kept him on the court too long.
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First of all, Melo was actually a horrific rebounder this year. He averaged less than CJ and Dame. That’s embarrassing and something you shouldn’t use as your argument. He averaged 13 point. You’re right he either will us back into the game, or kill us with terrible shots. That just on the offensive side of the ball. The comment above me is right, yes dame and cj are terrible defenders but that’s more the reason why literally everyone else need to be good defenders. This is why I want to trade CJ for someone like Simmons and put Powell at SG. At that point then we can talk about bringing back Melo
 
Melo

* had a .073 winshare/48; that was 11th on the team
* had a -1.5 BPM; that was 9th on the team
* among rotation players (including Little) he ranked 11th on the team in TS%, but was 3rd on the team in FGA & Usage. That's fucked up

* then, there is on/off:

upload_2021-7-4_9-32-30.png

playoffs were even worse:

upload_2021-7-4_9-33-24.png

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if you're thinking that maybe his offense offset his bad defense:

upload_2021-7-4_9-36-41.png

that last box is differentials...he was pretty much a negative across the board

and if you're wondering if he helped in clutch-time:

upload_2021-7-4_9-38-43.png

those are pretty bad numbers

maybe it's helpful to compare him to another familiar player signed for a vet minimum:

upload_2021-7-4_9-43-41.png
 
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