Anonymous Scouts Takes: PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

[Boob-No-More]

Funny thing is Jimmy Butler was like the 26th pick also

30th - last pick of the 1st round.

Kawhi was a 15th pick. Draymond was a 35th pick, etc.

BNM

 

[dviss1]

I'll miss his Shabazz is the Man Stumptown commercials.

BNM

That was hilarious. They need to make one with Curry now!

 

[perkinsfor3]

I think those anonymous scouts are just writers following the teams. Most of the names mentioned are just the obvious takes.

 

[JoshuaHall]

“Real holes in our lineup offensively”

Continues to say how we are going to miss our worst offensive player, Ed Davis.

I’ll be the one who says it...

Glad he is gone. Love him as a player(!) he was my favorite outside of Dame. But there is no way you can play him in the playoffs.

Let me also add the caveat that I think he is a worse Tristan Thompson, and I don’t think TT can play in the playoffs either.

 

[Boob-No-More]

And get attacked?

Someone disagreeing with you is not an attack.

BNM

 

[Boob-No-More]

That was hilarious. They need to make one with Curry now!

Some local restaurant needs to run a series of Curry/Stauskas curry sauce commercials.

BNM

 

[HailBlazers]

I think those anonymous scouts are just writers following the teams. Most of the names mentioned are just the obvious takes.

Whomever, I think they're pushing a narrative to apply pressure on the Blazers to breakup our star backcourt.

 

[jlprk]

Curry is MUCH better than Shabazz. We're not going to miss Shabazz at all...

I think it's a wash.

But I like roster change for the sake of change, unless it's a downgrade, like Davis-Collins. Curry-Napier was a low-risk change, since we're oversupplied with alternatives at guard.

 

[Strenuus]

“Real holes in our lineup offensively”

Continues to say how we are going to miss our worst offensive player, Ed Davis.

I’ll be the one who says it...

Glad he is gone. Love him as a player(!) he was my favorite outside of Dame. But there is no way you can play him in the playoffs.

Let me also add the caveat that I think he is a worse Tristan Thompson, and I don’t think TT can play in the playoffs either.

It's not so much the loss of ed, but the loss of our front court depth.

 

[blue9]

I'll miss his Shabazz is the Man Stumptown commercials.

BNM

Literally the highlight of his career, IMO. Pretty much solely responsible for me having a favorable opinion of Bazz.

 

[blue9]

If the absence of Ed Davis is "crippling", then we weren't really a good team to begin with. Ed isn't nearly good enough to have that big of an effect on a team.
We'll miss Ed for sure, but his absence will hardly be crippling.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Curry is MUCH better than Shabazz. We're not going to miss Shabazz at all...

Shabazz was both an offensive threat and a dogged defender. Baldwin is better defensively, and Curry is better offensively, but I will miss having a single player who brought both aspects off the bench.

 

[blue9]

Bazz made CJ look like Steve Nash.

 

[dviss1]

I think it's a wash.

But I like roster change for the sake of change, unless it's a downgrade, like Davis-Collins. Curry-Napier was a low-risk change, since we're oversupplied with alternatives at guard.

Well you're wrong.

I've never seen Shabazz hit a step back 3 like Curry did. I've never seen him make a left hand layup on the right side. I've NEVER seen Shabazz throw a left handed pass (curry is a MUCH better distributor than Shabazz will ever be). Curry threw 3 of those for assists or led to free throws.

He's MUCH better than Shabazz.

 

[Strenuus]

Literally the highlight of his career, IMO. Pretty much solely responsible for me having a favorable opinion of Bazz.

I guess im in the minority, then... I hated those commercials and thought they were incredibly stupid.

 

[Boob-No-More]

I guess im in the minority, then... I hated those commercials and thought they were incredibly stupid.

I think that was the point - they were so bad they were good.

BNM

 

[jlprk]

Well you're wrong.

I've never seen Shabazz hit a step back 3 like Curry did. I've never seen him make a left hand layup on the right side. I've NEVER seen Shabazz throw a left handed pass (curry is a MUCH better distributor than Shabazz will ever be). Curry threw 3 of those for assists or led to free throws.

He's MUCH better than Shabazz.

Okay, you de man. I was just comparing stats.

 

[Strenuus]

I think that was the point - they were so bad they were good.

BNM

Nah... it was just bad. There's a difference.

 

[dviss1]

Shabazz was both an offensive threat and a dogged defender. Baldwin is better defensively, and Curry is better offensively, but I will miss having a single player who brought both aspects off the bench.

Shabazz shooting numbers were terrible compared to curry. There's literally no comparison on offense. I also don't think we're losing much on D with him either. He's not the defender Shabazz was it's true but he doesn't suck on D.

 

[hoopsjock]

Nah... it was just bad. There's a difference.

Wow, I could see that opinion if the commercial was obviously trying too hard but I thought it was pretty clear that they weren't taking themselves very seriously.

 

[HailBlazers]

If the absence of Ed Davis is "crippling", then we weren't really a good team to begin with. Ed isn't nearly good enough to have that big of an effect on a team.
We'll miss Ed for sure, but his absence will hardly be crippling.

Our third best rebounder will be missed (second best ORB's). Jury's out on how bad it will hurt us.

Rk                          FG%   2P%  eFG% ORB DRB TRB
1            Jusuf Nurkic  .505  .508  .505 2.4 6.6 9.0
2         Al-Farouq Aminu  .395  .432  .503 1.4 6.2 7.6
3                Ed Davis  .582  .584  .582 2.3 5.0 7.4
4             Noah Vonleh  .490  .500  .500 1.1 4.0 5.1
5          Damian Lillard  .439  .501  .519 0.8 3.6 4.5
6             CJ McCollum  .443  .465  .506 0.7 3.3 4.0
7            Zach Collins  .398  .455  .458 0.7 2.7 3.3
8             Evan Turner  .447  .485  .484 0.4 2.7 3.1
9        Maurice Harkless  .495  .547  .577 0.8 2.0 2.7
10         Shabazz Napier  .420  .450  .497 0.4 1.9 2.3
11         Meyers Leonard  .590  .673  .660 0.4 1.8 2.1
12        Pat Connaughton  .423  .506  .518 0.4 1.5 2.0
13         Caleb Swanigan  .400  .442  .408 0.6 1.4 2.0
14           Wade Baldwin  .667  .625  .762 0.1 1.0 1.1
15   Georgios Papagiannis 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.0 0.0 1.0
16            Jake Layman  .298  .370  .340 0.1 0.3 0.5

 

[jlprk]

Shabazz shooting numbers were terrible compared to curry. There's literally no comparison on offense. I also don't think we're losing much on D with him either. He's not the defender Shabazz was it's true but he doesn't suck on D.

Curry was on a much worse team. Stats were about even with Napier (one stat a little higher, another a little lower, etc.). I expect Stotts will create in Curry what he created in Napier.

I appreciate Napier because he was the best substitute PG we'd had in years.

 

[BBert]

30th - last pick of the 1st round.

Kawhi was a 15th pick. Draymond was a 35th pick, etc.

BNM

Speaking of Draymond, Google the Blazers roster and his picture is STILL there above Turner's name. Seriously WTF? Thought it was a Wiki joke at first.

 

[jlprk]

“Real holes in our lineup offensively”
Continues to say how we are going to miss our worst offensive player, Ed Davis.
I’ll be the one who says it...
Glad he is gone. Love him as a player(!) he was my favorite outside of Dame. But there is no way you can play him in the playoffs.
Let me also add the caveat that I think he is a worse Tristan Thompson, and I don’t think TT can play in the playoffs either.

Davis ranked among league leaders in rebounding--per minute, per possession, and percentage. His "awful" FG% was .582. In PER and other summary stats, he was our 4th-best player. His replacement, Collins, ranked near the bottom of the team, and barely improved per minute in the season's second half.

 

[BBert]

Wow, I could see that opinion if the commercial was obviously trying too hard but I thought it was pretty clear that they weren't taking themselves very seriously.

I loved it. Don't see why they couldn't still run it actually.

 

[BBert]

I think that was the point - they were so bad they were good.

BNM

There's bad bad, and there's good bad. Remember the Aldridge car commercials? Very very bad bad. The Shabazz is the man commercials were well done good bad. IMO

 

[PtldPlatypus]

There's bad-bad, and there's good-bad. Remember the Aldridge car commercials? Very very bad bad. The Shabazz is the man commercials were well done good bad. IMO

My kids loved the Aldridge/Rolo car commercials. "Mcloughlin, ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo...". Cracked me up when they came out with a modified version with ad text about silencing the singing due to popular demand.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Davis ranked among league leaders in rebounding--per minute, per possession, and percentage. His "awful" FG% was .582. In PER and other summary stats, he was our 4th-best player. His replacement, Collins, ranked near the bottom of the team, and barely improved per minute in the season's second half.

yep Ed was a smart player. He rebounded and passed it. He rarely took a bad shot. But there are different ways to spin his offensive production. At at 5.3 pts per game for Ed I think Zach may have a little more upside. He had a 12 point game in the playoffs. That doubled Ed's high.

Interesting that on ESPN they have Ed listed as 225 lbs and Zach at 235 lbs. Wasn't it you that was saying Zach would get hurt at his weight playing center?

 

[Natebishop3]

You'd prefer missing the playoffs 13 years in a row, sneaking in as an 8th seed, and then losing your best player and going right back into the lottery? Or maybe 8 lottery picks in 8 years and never winning more than 32 games, losing your one good lottery pick and starting over again?

Seriously, this whole notion that winning 24 games is better than winning 49 is baffling to me. How many high lottery picks has PHO had recently? Yet they still suck big time.

Call us a treadmill team, but I enjoyed the fuck our of beating HOU and LAC in the first round. I even enjoyed the first GSW series three years ago. Sure, we lost in 5 games, and everyone knew the 73-win Warriors were going to beat the 44-win Blazers, but it was still a fun series and we led for more minutes than we trailed (unfortunately, they led when it mattered - as expected). I'd much rather enjoy those moments, like Dame's 0.9 series clincher against HOU than be a sad sack franchise like SAC, MIN, PHO, etc. You don't get Dame's 0.9 buzzer beater if you tank.

BNM

This is still your opinion. Your feelings. I feel differently. I know others do as well.

I will say this though, the team that beat Houston was not a treadmill team. That was a team that legitimately had the talent to advance. If Matthews hadn't gone down, who knows what would have happened the following year.

And then the team blew up. Aldridge left. Batum was traded. Wes and Rolo were basically told to hit the bricks. And then what? What has the plan been? This roster has peaked. It has gone as far as Dame can carry it. Nothing has changed in three years. My issue is with not having a cohesive plan. What the hell is Neil's plan right now? He's not going to sign any big free agents. We know that. He will have to trade CJ if he hopes to bring in any kind of significant talent. It seems like the plan is to just keep drafting 19 year old kids and hope one of them blooms into a superstar while Dame and CJ slowly age.

The other unfortunate issue is that we are in the middle of the most boring period of time in the history of the NBA. Golden State is dominating the league, and the only teams that seem to contend with them have possibly the best player of all time on them (personally I don't think LeBron is the best, but some people do.)

 

[Mediocre Man]

Someone disagreeing with you is not an attack.

BNM

Agree