Deandre Ayton appreciation post

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illmatic99 said:
He is averaging 8.9 shots per game while putting up a paltry 0.4 fts per game. Also facing a career low in usage.

Our guards and wings aren't good enough to freeze one of our most efficient offensive players like this.

Figure it out Chauncey.
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I've noticed every time Ayton catches the ball there are 3 people in the paint around him and sometimes he gets stripped.

It's hard to get him the ball when:

1.) There's no spacing.
2.) He's not good enough to create his own shot.
3.) We don't have a real good pick and roll ballhandler.

Direct post ups are difficult as well when we don't have players that can throw basic entry passes. He's not a particularly good post up player anyways.

Even in Phoenix he was mostly a finisher, and he's going from Chris Paul and a bunch of spacing to.....whatever this is.
 
B-Roy said:
I've noticed every time Ayton catches the ball there are 3 people in the paint around him and sometimes he gets stripped.

It's hard to get him the ball when:

1.) There's no spacing.
2.) He's not good enough to create his own shot.
3.) We don't have a real good pick and roll ballhandler.

Direct post ups are difficult as well when we don't have players that can throw basic entry passes. He's not a particularly good post up player anyways.

Even in Phoenix he was mostly a finisher, and he's going from Chris Paul and a bunch of spacing to.....whatever this is.
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I wish i had synergy to back me up. Forget post ups. We hardly even run pick and rolls with the guy. He sets crappy screens yes, but thr lack of touches is egregious. From Malcolm and Grant especially. They don't ever look for him with pocket passes.
 
illmatic99 said:
I wish i had synergy to back me up. Forget post ups. We hardly even run pick and rolls with the guy. He sets crappy screens yes, but thr lack of touches is egregious. From Malcolm and Grant especially. They don't ever look for him with pocket passes.
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It can't be hard to teach somebody how to set a pick. Especially if the guy wants to score...
 
illmatic99 said:
I wish i had synergy to back me up. Forget post ups. We hardly even run pick and rolls with the guy. He sets crappy screens yes, but thr lack of touches is egregious. From Malcolm and Grant especially. They don't ever look for him with pocket passes.
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I would need to pull up possessions, but outside of a few good ones with Scoot, they converge when the pass gets through and he gets stripped a lot. He needs space.

Also don't think Shaedon is comfortable enough to be running a ton of PnRs.
 
B-Roy said:
Direct post ups are difficult as well when we don't have players that can throw basic entry passes. He's not a particularly good post up player anyways.
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I don’t even like those kinds of looks for him unless there’s a size advantage. I remember in the first Memphis game, DA had a smaller guy pinned under, got the ball, 2(?) backdown dribbles, and threw up a money jump hook. Those are GREAT looks for him. But in the same game, he got the ball with Tillman and threw up a hook that had no chance of going in.

The lack of spot up opportunities are inexcusable right now though. 2 jumpers a quarter is 8 FGA a game, we can afford to live and die with that when we aren’t competing. A few more FGA off dump offs. A few from hustle plays and running the floor.
 
just checked for Ayton:

touches/game: 2022-23 = 51.9....2023-24 = 45.6
paint touches/game: 2022-23 = 11.1....2023-24 = 7.9
seconds/touch: 2022-23 = 1.54....2023-24 = 1.59

2022-23 PnR Roll Man: 4.8/game --> 1.20 ppp --> 65th percentile
2022-23 PnR Roll Man: 2.8/game --> 0.94 ppp --> 24th percentile

my guess it's a combo of Chauncey not knowing how to use Ayton and CP3 not being around
 
wizenheimer said:
just checked for Ayton:

touches/game: 2022-23 = 51.9....2023-24 = 45.6
paint touches/game: 2022-23 = 11.1....2023-24 = 7.9
seconds/touch: 2022-23 = 1.54....2023-24 = 1.59

2022-23 PnR Roll Man: 4.8/game --> 1.20 ppp --> 65th percentile
2022-23 PnR Roll Man: 2.8/game --> 0.94 ppp --> 24th percentile

my guess it's a combo of Chauncey not knowing how to use Ayton and CP3 not being around
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Scoot has been by far the best at getting him the ball, with Shae being the second best.
 
BankTeller said:
I don’t even like those kinds of looks for him unless there’s a size advantage. I remember in the first Memphis game, DA had a smaller guy pinned under, got the ball, 2(?) backdown dribbles, and threw up a money jump hook. Those are GREAT looks for him. But in the same game, he got the ball with Tillman and threw up a hook that had no chance of going in.

The lack of spot up opportunities are inexcusable right now though. 2 jumpers a quarter is 8 FGA a game, we can afford to live and die with that when we aren’t competing. A few more FGA off dump offs. A few from hustle plays and running the floor.
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He's a knock down shooter from midrange. Not running pick and pop plays for him is criminal. It would also help unclog the lane for our drivers.
 
illmatic99 said:
How do you not look at this and see a massive asset? In our shit offense, any play that can get us to 1.2 points per possession is a Godsend. Come on, Chauncey.
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Blazers are averaging 1.16 points/shot. Now, that's shots, not possessions although I don't think there would be any significant difference. So, yeah, 1.20 ppp is probably a slightly better return than 1.16 points/shot

but it's also kind of relative. last season, the Blazers averaged 1.33 points/shot, but most of that was due to Dame averaging 1.55 points/shot. The Blazer offense absolutely sucks this season. Ranks dead last in the NBA
 
I still don't think this coaching staff is good at using bigs. Guards & wings, guards and wings. What do we do with the big guy? Have him set a pick for guards and wings. Maybe step out and launch some 3's. {facepalm}
 
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DA's stats are impressive for rebounds and steals. Needs more touches. But I do agree teams are crowding the paint because of shitty overall POR shooting. Can't get enough space to feed it to him reliably, at least not against JJJ, a terrific defender.
 
Cugel said:
DA's stats are impressive for rebounds and steals. Needs more touches. But I do agree teams are crowding the paint because of shitty overall POR shooting. Can't get enough space to feed it to him reliably, at least not against JJJ, a terrific defender.
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Billups is putting Ayton right smack dab in the middle of the court. Of course he's going to get hounded by defenders. The Blazers have a bunch of time to practice this week. Hopefully they can find better angles for Ayton to operate offensively.

There's a scoring component to DA that Portland hasn't unlocked. I would say most fans had Ayton's scoring going up, increased touches in Portland. His career usage rate & attempts are down ~35% to begin this year.
 
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Ayton is blowing up his rebounding average. Steals are there, blocks are there. He's probably in line for some All-defense street cred atm.
 
Cugel said:
DA's stats are impressive for rebounds and steals. Needs more touches. But I do agree teams are crowding the paint because of shitty overall POR shooting. Can't get enough space to feed it to him reliably, at least not against JJJ, a terrific defender.
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I see the guards looking for DA a lot. There's never a good passing angle. He's basically doubled at all times.
 
BBert said:
I see the guards looking for DA a lot. There's never a good passing angle. He's basically doubled at all times.
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DA won't be double-teamed if he's out by the 3-point line, which is where he was in Phoenix to begin a lot of possessions.
Also, I hate the Blazer offense where we try to throw the ball to our guy who is motionless and the defender is waiting for the ball.
Saw that many times with Dame and Jerami Grant last season.
For all the talk about running and lobs and having "fun," Billups offense is in fact an ugly, blunt instrument.
If we are waiting for slicing and dicing, it'll have to be with different players and/or a different coach.
 
Why aren't the Blazers using Ayton like this in the offense?
Nobody is going to double-team Ayton if he's at or outside the 3-point line.
Ayton should be one of the mainstays of the offense IMO. Sharpe and Ayton could be deadly together, as long as Ayton starts the possession way out of the paint and roams around waiting to catch a pass from Sharpe. Make the other team's big man commit to stopping Sharpe then throw a HIGH pass to Ayton over the defense.
Is this not something Billups works on over and over in practice?


 
blazerfan11 said:
Why aren't the Blazers using Ayton like this in the offense?
Nobody is going to double-team Ayton if he's at or outside the 3-point line.
Ayton should be one of the mainstays of the offense IMO. Sharpe and Ayton could be deadly together, as long as Ayton starts the possession way out of the paint and roams around waiting to catch a pass from Sharpe. Make the other team's big man commit to stopping Sharpe then throw a HIGH pass to Ayton over the defense.
Is this not something Billups works on over and over in practice?


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Well hopefully Scoot can pass like CP3 but CP3 makes it look so easy. At the moment we don't have a CP3.
 
Driew said:
Well hopefully Scoot can pass like CP3 but CP3 makes it look so easy. At the moment we don't have a CP3.
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i say give it a full month of playing games together and i think it will be there, not saying scoot will be CP3 in a month (god could only wish) but i think the synergy will be there by then, these guys need real game time together before i feel like we can use ayton like this. We haven't even had a big like this since aldridge probably so we rarely schemed for it. I really hope chauncey makes it a point to work on it though if he isn't already.
 
TBpup said:
He is a career 60% shooter from the floor. Figure it out.....not rocket science.
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I think that's because he's played in the flow, which his fine. But the Blazers need a go-to guy, but if Ayton was utilized like a guy you throw the ball to and he creates his own, his FG% would be far lower. All of his efficiency is context dependent, all the way down to his good finishing numbers being even more impressive because he won't try to get to the rim if there's a defender around him and will instead settle for that mid-range floater/push shot.

Blazers gotta design more sets that get him to his spots though. Instead they're treating him like he's Nurkic. This offense looks the exact same as it did last year.
 
blazerfan11 said:
Why aren't the Blazers using Ayton like this in the offense?
Nobody is going to double-team Ayton if he's at or outside the 3-point line.
Ayton should be one of the mainstays of the offense IMO. Sharpe and Ayton could be deadly together, as long as Ayton starts the possession way out of the paint and roams around waiting to catch a pass from Sharpe. Make the other team's big man commit to stopping Sharpe then throw a HIGH pass to Ayton over the defense.
Is this not something Billups works on over and over in practice?


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I love the motion into screens and variations of double screens that Monty would utilize that would open up DeAndre rolls more than just a basic pick n roll or handoff. Wish Chauncey would run more of this.
 
Driew said:
Well hopefully Scoot can pass like CP3 but CP3 makes it look so easy. At the moment we don't have a CP3.
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Shaedon lobbed one to Ayton in 1st or 2nd game, and the "potential assist" went in the hoop. Nice shot Sharpe !!
 
Disregarding his offense, DA has been a bright spot. The good so far:

- 13rbg (3 orpg) - great.
- Recorded 1+ steals in 6/8 games and 1+ blocks in 6/8 games, the two games in which he didn’t record a block or steal are coincidentally the same.
- 2spg
- 71% shooting between 16ft and the 3pt line - WOW
 
BankTeller said:
Disregarding his offense, DA has been a bright spot. The good so far:

- 71% shooting between 16ft and the 3pt line - WOW
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he's only attempted 7 of those....made 5. Career mark from that distance is 39%; 47% last season

as for the blocks and steals:

upload_2023-11-10_12-46-27.png


his career mark is 1.7 and the last 2 seasons it was 1.4. He has 23 so far this year. It's encouraging that he's doing so well in some of these numbers but I'd think they aren't sustainable in the long run
 
Guess how many free throws he's attempted this year.
 
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