Josh Hart has spent most of his career at SF
obviously, those positional assignments are full of flux and interpretation. But still he's spent a lot of time at SF, even before Portland. "
You are what you can defend", and Hart is a fairly versatile defender.
the NBA has essentially evolved to 3 on floor positions: PG's, Wings, and C's; and often, teams don't have C's on the floor. Hart is a wing, and generally, he's a little undersized as a wing, but he doesn't play undersized; 8 rebounds a game is impressive, especially when added to 4 assists a game with a 12.5% usage rate and an assist/turnover ratio close to 2.7. That's why there seems to be so much interest in him
and the contrast with Hart is why Ant's value is limited. He only a PG, sometimes, by default because his team doesn't have anything better. He simply doesn't have the court vision or timing of a PG; not yet at least. So, he's a SG who can't really be a wing because he's way too undersized for wing and he can't defend a chair. A SG who is extremely limited at wing really needs to have a consistent and dynamic game to have good value (
think Donovan Mitchell), especially if his PG skills only elevate him to 'tweener guard' level.
that is Portland's major puzzle...Hart is much better at the things he does than Ant is at what he does. And Hart is capable of plugging into a lot of teams in a lot of positions in a lot of situations. Ant is quite limited while playing on a pretty substantial contract considering those limitations
I've been reluctant to say Ant 'should' be traded. I wanted to see how he fit the roster and didn't think he could show all that in half a season. But Portland is underachieving while being wildly inconsistent, and Ant is part of that. There's a CJ problem, but I don't mean the match with Dame. I mean the actual trade value of CJ was a hell of a lot less than many thought, and that's because CJ had the same limitations that Ant has. If Ant is traded, and I don't expect it, I suspect he's going to be traded for a lot less than some people are imagining. And with Hart's contract status, I'd expect his return, if he's traded, will be disappointing too.