Pre-Season Wrap: What did we learn?

[TBpup]

FWIW....Pre-Season stats. What is 'about as expected' and what was a surprise, both a pleasant one and a disappointment?

Scoring:
Lillard - - - 19.2
Nurkic - - - 14.0
McCollum - 13.4
Collins - - - - 9.5
Turner - - - - 8.8
Leonard - - - 8.4
Harkless - - 8.4

Rebounds:
Swanigan - 6.8
Nurkic - - - 6.6
Leonard - - 5.8
Aminu - - - 5.8
Davis - - - - 5.2
Collins - - - 5.0

Assists:
Lillard - - - 4.0
Turner - - - 3.4
McCollum - 2.8
Briscoe - - - 2.3
Pat C. - - - - 2.3

FG%:
Leonard - 53.8
Harkless - 53.3
Collins - - 51.4
Turner - - 50.0
Layman - 48.6

3-pt FG%:
Leonard - - 71.4
Collins - - - 55.6
Layman - - 53.3
Turner - - - 50.0
Swanigan - 42.9

It's only pre-season and only a small 5 game sample from which to choose from. For the most part, Scoring, rebounds and assist went about the way most of us probably somewhat expected. It's the shooting percentage numbers that surprise me. What in the name of Butterswish is going on? And to have Collins in the top-3 in both FG and 3-pt percentage came as a surprise as well.

Also nice to see Layman finally hitting some shots. If he can develop some confidence, he has multiple skills that along with his shooting could more than replace Crabbe if he earns minutes.

 

[SIeepwalker]

Zach Collins might just have been worth moving up in the 1st round for after all

AFTER ALL WHAT FFS ! one and a half summer league games ?

 

[Denny Crane]

We learned Leonard is going to hit 71% of his 3s this season.

 

[TBpup]

Green font rocks! ^^^

 

[Chris Craig]

Leonard has the highest shooting percentage? WTF!?!

 

[TBpup]

Leonard has the highest shooting percentage? WTF!?!

Right? That to me constitutes a big surprise especially since he had the highest % in both shooting categories. I don't expect anywhere near those numbers in the regular season....and pre-season is a small sample size to gauge, but it's a lot better than him looking continually and totally lost.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Jake Layman would be an All-Star in the Israeli League.

 

[handiman]

Meyers, Zach, and Jake are the foundation of the tallest boy band ever. Nurk wants in.

 

[GriLtCheeZ]

Meyers, Zach, and Jake are the foundation of the tallest boy band ever. Nurk wants in.

All good boy bands need a bad boy, so Nurk gets my vote.

 

[TBpup]

Meyers, Zach, and Jake are the foundation of the tallest boy band ever. Nurk wants in.

Pat Connaughton blames his parent's genetic contributions for his inability to be in the 'Tall Boy' band.

 

[Chris Craig]

Jake Layman would be an All-Star in the Israeli League.

They'd call him the rabbi

 

[Strenuus]

No option for "We should play isreali teams to boost our confidence when it's down".

Thread deleted.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Apparently we learned that none out of Briscoe, Morrow and Goodwin was good enough, because the team waived them all.

 

[Chris Craig]

No option for "We should play isreali teams to boost our confidence when it's down".

Thread deleted.

Or "all the above, except the first one."

 

[Chris Craig]

Apparently we learned that none out of Briscoe, Morrow and Goodwin was good enough, because the team waived them all.

Suprised briscoes not getting a 2 way

 

[BBert]

Collins is legit. His footwork. His ability to get off, and make, a shot around the basket under pressure. His shooting touch. His court awareness. His basketball instincts, especially his defensive instincts. He's a third year big man trapped in a 19 year old body.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

We also learned that Ed Davis is our backup C, according to Jason Quick.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Pat looks a whole lot better playing with legit NBA players as a glue guy than he does playing with scrubs in Summer League.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Jake Layman would be an All-Star in the Israeli League.

To be fair he did look good in the games against NBA scrubs too. After so many games where every other aspect of his game looked better than his shooting, I think he proved his outside shot could eventually be legit in the NBA. At least good enough to hold on to him.

Also he might never be a lockdown defender but he certainly is not a liability on that end either. I went from high hopes to no hope, back to some hope.....that Jake can contribute meaningful minutes eventually.

 

[Pinwheel1]

We also learned that Ed Davis is our backup C, according to Jason Quick.

I agree with JQ on this one. I prefer him in that role as well.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Collins is legit. His footwork. His ability to get off, and make, a shot around the basket under pressure. His shooting touch. His court awareness. His basketball instincts, especially his defensive instincts. He's a third year big man trapped in a 19 year old body.

Yes, Collins and Swanigan have sort of flipped since Summer League. Collins, if anything, looked more useful than Swanigan in pre-season, in part because Collins's strengths are the team's weaknesses. Collins is ahead in defense. Swanigan is ahead in picking fights.

 

[TBpup]

Or "all the above, except the first one."

What.....no Butter love?

 

[THE HCP]

From what I've seen, even other teams bench scrubs are faster and stronger than the summer league guys that Swanigan was beasting.
I mean there have been so many guy that have that old school type body and game that he has, but few have succeeded. The game is about speed and length and athleticism. Collins style is more adept to today's style. I think he will have a better career overall. He won't average 10 points a game for damn sure, but should be fun to watch now and then.

 

[handiman]

All good boy bands need a bad boy, so Nurk gets my vote.

Good call.

Pat Connaughton blames his parent's genetic contributions for his inability to be in the 'Tall Boy' band.

He's the Groupie. Blaker is the angry equipment man.

Crap, I just started my own "The Closers" routine. I hate myself now.

 

[TBpup]

Good call.



He's the Groupie. Blaker is the angry equipment man.

Crap, I just started my own "The Closers" routine. I hate myself now.

Let the self-loathing begin. I'm sure there are people here that can help pound your self esteem into the ground. If you doubt that, just make a spelling, tense or grammatical error and the self-appointed post police come out of the woodwork to damn your posting soul to eternal flames.

 

[tlongII]

We might be a very good team this year.

 

[Trackjack]

What I learn our rookies are legit and alot our players improve this off season.

 

[Chris Craig]

What.....no Butter love?

Its a love hate relationship or is it hate hate

 

[Orion Bailey]

We have a bewtter bench than thought, which will help us to rest our stars more (less minutes per game) for when we need them in the end of games and in the payoffs.

I dont know if Coach Stotts will have had a more important role to this point. Now he really has some chess pieces. Lets see how good he really is at chess huh?

I think he is good enough to get us 5th seed, and it the stars align, 4th seed.

Gonna be a great year to be a Blazer fan!!!

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Team:
If we stay healthy, we're dangerous. We we're ahead by 17 points or more in each of our preseason games. Many of the role players who sucked last year
have regained their form from 2 years ago. This is what many of us were hoping to see from summer league.

Defense:
Looked definitely improved, but our SOS wasn't the biggest in the preseason. Cautiously Optimistic.

Rebounding:
Outrebounded opponent in each game (I think). Looks good on paper, worked out in the preaseason. Nurk, Biggie, Ed are better
than anyone we had most of last year.

==========
Collins:
Took a step toward being our PFotF. Solid Defender (top 2 or 3 on team?) who will get more comfortable on offense. Had many
converts on s2.

Biggie:
He is who we thought he was.... and who we thought he was was a young Brian Grant.

Biebs:
We learned nothing. Excelled at times, while at other times looked like he didn't belong.

Aminu:
Still sucks at shooting and still is a fine defender.

Nurk:
No surprise, he played great, but for me, the jury is still out. Why? I know he's a beast, and will play like it and we'll win a lot of
games, but will the weight loss allow him to play 75+ games this regular season? I'm optimistic, but I'm a homer. My question
can't be answered in summer league. So far, so good, though.

Dame:
Regular season/Playoff form.

CJ:
Looks a little rusty, but I doubt it's problematic.

Hark:
Played good. If he turns into amazing, so will we.

Turner:
Looks like the Boston Turner... hope that continues.

Pat, Jake:
They seemed to play OK with good players, sucked without them.