Nassir Little

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Pinwheel1 said:
Your last line was a little different from what I said. But it is a huge difference in my point. I said practice and the weight room. We don't see them every day in practice. If the coach says a guy has no motor then that is one thing because he sees a player for hours and hours every week. A fans sees a young player less than 1 hour each week. Again I am being specific to young players not old vets.

As for how it relates to Little...it sounds like early on he was struggling with where to be on defense, which is common with young players. Just like football, when a player has to think too much on D vs just reacting to the ball, he struggles. The Blazers don't have much of a defensive game plan so it should not be a factor. (kidding)
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I cant really speak to Little, though of the handful of games I saw, I never considered his “motor” as an issue.
I can accept that sometimes a guy is just trying to figure it out still, but somethings are simple, get back on defense, move your feet, are you passing up shots, I mean a lot of “small” factors go into what people talk about when they talk about a players motor, but overall I think with a decent sample size the patterns will show up on what kind of energy and intensity they bring to the game, part of that is consistency too. Some guys seem mentally checked out half the time, I think every player ever has had the games they “bring it” and the games they dont, but the real problem is when you cant consistently rely on a guy to leave it all on the court.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
As for how it relates to Little...it sounds like early on he was struggling with where to be on defense, which is common with young players. Just like football, when a player has to think too much on D vs just reacting to the ball, he struggles. The Blazers don't have much of a defensive game plan so it should not be a factor. (kidding)
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This I completely agree with. Mistakes and uncertainty are not the signs of having a bad motor. In Little's case, it seems this particular commentator was confusing effort with results.
 
StumptownHoliday said:
been a while since i posted but the draft got me a Little excited...

my thoughts on nas is that i love the fact that we sat back and got lucky enough to have a guy with his physical gifts and potential fall to us. for a team in our position, ostensibly determined to make the finals, drafts like this are a godsend. for as long as dame is our guy, we’ll probably never have a high draft pick again. teams with lasting success and dominance have a keen eye/luck acquiring talent late in the draft, and with neil at the helm we have a guy who pretty much became a millionaire off his ability to find those diamonds in the rough. thats a beautiful thing.

if you listen to neil talk post-draft, its clear that while he used to be a draft first kinda guy, right now that is not remotely where his head is at and im so so so happy to see that. our wcf berth was no fluke despite the fact that we got mollywhopped by the warriors, and the team knows that were oh so close to the top of the mountain. thus, my thoughts on nas is the same as neil - stoked we got some talent for our less than optimal draft spot but its still a small pick up with a bigger picture in mind. in other words, whether nas is dope or not is kinda irrelevant right now.

only thing im concerned with right now is what the team has in mind for july... are we gonna try to find a way to keep kanter/hood, or are we gonna trade for somebody... those are the only two options that can keep us at our current position and there is absolutely no way we should ever fall back to where we were in the lillard era again.
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Good stuff there. I agree with you 100%. So why have you been slacking here??? Lol. You should be posting more often. Seriously....
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I cant really speak to Little, though of the handful of games I saw, I never considered his “motor” as an issue.
I can accept that sometimes a guy is just trying to figure it out still, but somethings are simple, get back on defense, move your feet, are you passing up shots, I mean a lot of “small” factors go into what people talk about when they talk about a players motor, but overall I think with a decent sample size the patterns will show up on what kind of energy and intensity they bring to the game, part of that is consistency too. Some guys seem mentally checked out half the time, I think every player ever has had the games they “bring it” and the games they dont, but the real problem is when you cant consistently rely on a guy to leave it all on the court.
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I don't disagree with any of this, I am just not really talking about the obvious examples. My point was more about the draft websites that all too often say something like "some question his motor". (or his "love of the game" or "his heart) Those comments bug me when said about YOUNG players, because I think they are all too often baseless.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
I don't disagree with any of this, I am just not really talking about the obvious examples. My point was more about the draft websites that all too often say something like "some question his motor". (or his "love of the game" or "his heart) Those comments bug me when said about YOUNG players, because I think they are all too often baseless.
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Fair enough.
 
oldmangrouch said:
This I completely agree with. Mistakes and uncertainty are not the signs of having a bad motor. In Little's case, it seems this particular commentator was confusing effort with results.
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I think you are making a really good point here. And it fits in with what I think. I think Little had a confidence crisis at North Carolina. Things were a little too fast for him and he never had a chance to catch up. I heard something besides politeness in he and his parent's comments after he got drafted by Portland. Thank you so much for taking a chance on me? I think that is a confidence problem. One of my favorite posters on here has suggested we should trade Harkless and start Nassir right away. I think he needs to be coddled and brought along slowly to build up his confidence.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
I think you are making a really good point here. And it fits in with what I think. I think Little had a confidence crisis at North Carolina. Things were a little too fast for him and he never had a chance to catch up. I heard something besides politeness in he and his parent's comments after he got drafted by Portland. Thank you so much for taking a chance on me? I think that is a confidence problem. One of my favorite posters on here has suggested we should trade Harkless and start Nassir right away. I think he needs to be coddled and brought along slowly to build up his confidence.
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I vote for taking it slow also. First, restore his confidence in Summer League. After he is MVP of summer league, then he can start and be an all-star in February, and Finals MVP in June.

barfo
 
oldmangrouch said:
Huh? I thought we were supposed to be a Blue State hellhole where no decent, gawd fearing Amuricun would want to live? :bgrin:
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You were right. He just hasn’t been there long enough yet.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
I think you are making a really good point here. And it fits in with what I think. I think Little had a confidence crisis at North Carolina. Things were a little too fast for him and he never had a chance to catch up. I heard something besides politeness in he and his parent's comments after he got drafted by Portland. Thank you so much for taking a chance on me? I think that is a confidence problem. One of my favorite posters on here has suggested we should trade Harkless and start Nassir right away. I think he needs to be coddled and brought along slowly to build up his confidence.
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To me, a confidence problem is a red flag. I sure hope that is not the case. The NBA isn't for people who need Tony Robbins to get them out of bed.
 
blazerfan11 said:
To me, a confidence problem is a red flag. I sure hope that is not the case. The NBA isn't for people who need Tony Robbins to get them out of bed.
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To this example only, i disagree. Having had parents both from the military, id say his work ethic will help his confidence in the NBA. You dont declare for the NBA if you dont hsve confidence in yourself in the first place.

Competence breeds confidence.
 
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UKRAINEFAN said:
I think you are making a really good point here. And it fits in with what I think. I think Little had a confidence crisis at North Carolina. Things were a little too fast for him and he never had a chance to catch up. I heard something besides politeness in he and his parent's comments after he got drafted by Portland. Thank you so much for taking a chance on me? I think that is a confidence problem. One of my favorite posters on here has suggested we should trade Harkless and start Nassir right away. I think he needs to be coddled and brought along slowly to build up his confidence.
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He averaged 21.5PPG & 10RPG Per 40 minutes in college. Struggled from the 3pt line but only shot 52 for the season. Was good in almost every other aspect of the game. And that was with his minutes being wildly varied because he was behind two phenomenal upper classman in Cam Johnson and Luke Maye. When he did come into the game, he was very good. He played with an edge and a swagger about him that I like. He exuded confidence when I saw him play. He literally said that he was going to "prove (Bilas) right" when Bilas said he was a steal. Somehow him saying "Thanks for taking a chance on me" means he has a confidence problem? That doesn't make sense. Nothing suggests he has a confidence problem.
 
blazerfan11 said:
To me, a confidence problem is a red flag. I sure hope that is not the case. The NBA isn't for people who need Tony Robbins to get them out of bed.
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You don't have to worry about Little..
 
BonesJones said:
He averaged 21.5PPG & 10RPG Per 40 minutes in college. Struggled from the 3pt line but only shot 52 for the season. Was good in almost every other aspect of the game. And that was with his minutes being wildly varied because he was behind two phenomenal upper classman in Cam Johnson and Luke Maye. When he did come into the game, he was very good. He played with an edge and a swagger about him that I like. He exuded confidence when I saw him play. He literally said that he was going to "prove (Bilas) right" when Bilas said he was a steal. Somehow him saying "Thanks for taking a chance on me" means he has a confidence problem? That doesn't make sense. Nothing suggests he has a confidence problem.
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I don't get it either.

I guess Blazers fans are shell shocked from so much disappointment haha. It's like a tic.

Stop worrying so much people!

:cheers:
 
BonesJones said:
It seems like people are scraping the bottom of the barrel for criticisms of this pick and as Little as a player. Dude will be better than Harkless ever was before he's legal to drink.
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I agree. If we give him a chance he will already have meaningful contribution next season. I’m hoping we don’t bury him until the final year of his rookie deal as some are proposing here because apparently young players can’t contribute.
 
Okay- So here is a LITTLE prediction to go with this thread.

Nassir Little will play well in Summer league because of his overall physical ability. But his nature is about learning so he will also use his time wisely.

Damian Lillard will immediately take this guy under his wing and will get him moving in the right direction.

Stotts will do what Stotts usually does and will go with a starting lineup to begin the season and stay with it for around 20 games.

Stotts however always finds a time to put a player who is working hard and improving into the lineup to see what happens. Injuries might have an effect on this also.

The need for a solid wing player on this team will push up Nas's playing time and by the 60-70 game point of the season he will be in the discussion for ROY.

Nassir Little will not be the Rookie of the Year this year because of a slow start and huge competition from Zion. But he will have made great strides for this team.

I understand this is a rosey prediction but it is entirely possible and i feel is very realistic from the research i have been doing on this player. He landed in a very good place for him to develop and where there is a huge need for his talents.
 
I've been waiting for Portland to get a guy like Little for a long time. An athletic wing who can put the ball on the floor and attack the paint on offense, and a potential lock down defender we can use against a team's hottest player. It sounds like he's a little unrefined and maybe his BBIQ is a little behind his athleticism. I think that's okay for our offense, because our wings only need to react to whatever Dame and CJ are creating. In other words, be a clean up guy from the off side which shouldn't be an issue with his current skill level and game understanding. Admittedly, I've never seen him play, but I wonder if he can follow a similar developmental path as Jerome Kersey did.
 
In Little, Collins and Simons we have three prospects who could make a jump at one point that would elevate team to a much higher level. I always prefer high upside players in our situation - we are good but not good enough to be a contender yet and need an extra punch to get there. You can get solid rotation players if you are Milwaukee or Toronto and all you need is to fill out the bench with playable guys who can do well for 10-15 minutes a night.

I also like what we are doing with guys like Skal - taking a flyer on someone who hasn’t exactly done well so far but shown glimpses and was once actually rated very highly. At some point that sort of talent could also explode and change the look of the team.
 
blazerfan11 said:
To me, a confidence problem is a red flag. I sure hope that is not the case. The NBA isn't for people who need Tony Robbins to get them out of bed.
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I don't think it's something that can't be overcome. Of course I'm not sure if it's even there, but if I was on coaching staff I would check it out.
 
blazerfan11 said:
To me, a confidence problem is a red flag. I sure hope that is not the case. The NBA isn't for people who need Tony Robbins to get them out of bed.
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It's not the case. His goals for himself are the Hall-of-Fame and multiple All-Star appearances. That's what he said when asked. And to be honest, I think he will at least be an All-Star.

Also, people need to stop questioning his work ethic. To me this is like questioning Peyton Manning's football IQ.
 
I think "taking a chance on me" was a fuck-you to lottery teams because he was supposed to go much higher.
 
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