Simons is a nightmare

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Pinwheel1 said:
It is almost like they are taking every opportunity to tank. I bet if they wanted to make the playoffs Grant, Brogdon, and Ayton would be back sooner. I am okay with that strategy but it is frustrating in crunch time every game.
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Win or lose, these short-handed games are a great opportunity for in-game training, which will pay of handsomely in the future.
 
wizenheimer said:
I agree the 4thQ of games can be different then the other Q's; especially the last 5 minutes in a close game. Offenses get more deliberate and try to value possessions. Defenses get more focused and more intense. I think defenses also get more physical; more grabs and holds and redirection. And officials tend to allow more contact

so it's common for players, even great ones, to drop a little in efficiency

that's not what's being discussed here, or at least not the discussions I've been engaged in. That was about Ant dominating the ball on Portland's end in the 4th Q's over the last 3 games much more than he dominated in the other 3 Q's. It was pretty apparent what he was doing...or at least what he was trying to do. What was also obvious was that his shooting and passing efficiency cratered at the same time. More bricks and more turnovers. Yes, some of that was probably due to opponents playing more intense, physical defense while they amped up their focus on Simons. And some of that could have simply been due to Simons trying to perform above his actual level.
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Someone has to do it. Go tell Shae to get the ball then. They’re the only two guys who can actually get his own shot. You’re acting like you enjoyed Mani’s 20 fga game. I’d rather Ant put his time in struggling against 6’8 forwards and double/triple teams now and being a well seasoned scorer when we’re ready to compete. There was a point where Devin Booker was getting doubled so much during the season that he verbally lashed out when he got double teamed in an open gym game.

Ant has never seen this much attention in his career. In the beginning, he was viewed as a 3pt specialist, plenty of people actually thought that he lacked the intensity to actually be an elite scorer. Right now, he’s looking like he has all the skills to be a 30ppg on a regular basis, and we’re going to have to ask him to dial it back when the vets come back. I have no doubt he’ll be able to do that and bump his efficiency and apg. Anyone is welcome to tell say “I told you so” if he struggles when Grant and DA are back, but I see it being pointless talking about him as if he’s Jordan Poole.
 
BankTeller said:
Someone has to do it. Go tell Shae to get the ball then. They’re the only two guys who can actually get his own shot. You’re acting like you enjoyed Mani’s 20 fga game. I’d rather Ant put his time in struggling against 6’8 forwards and double/triple teams now and being a well seasoned scorer when we’re ready to compete. There was a point where Devin Booker was getting doubled so much during the season that he verbally lashed out when he got double teamed in an open gym game.

Ant has never seen this much attention in his career. In the beginning, he was viewed as a 3pt specialist, plenty of people actually thought that he lacked the intensity to actually be an elite scorer. Right now, he’s looking like he has all the skills to be a 30ppg on a regular basis, and we’re going to have to ask him to dial it back when the vets come back. I have no doubt he’ll be able to do that and bump his efficiency and apg. Anyone is welcome to tell say “I told you so” if he struggles when Grant and DA are back, but I see it being pointless talking about him as if he’s Jordan Poole.
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lol...."acting like"

who the fuck is saying he's Jordan Poole? that's a straw man.

I'm saying I've seen two different Ant's out there since he came back and the 4th Q Ant is quite different than the 1-3Q Ant; excessively one-on-one and not performing near as well as he does in the other 3 Q's. I don't see a good reason for his game to change as dramatically as it has when the 4thQ rolls around
 
wizenheimer said:
who the fuck is saying he's Jordan Poole? that's a straw man.
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Maybe he wasn’t a good example, but there were legit debates on Reddit and other forums about whether or not Ant or Poole was better pre-extensions. I could’ve said Herro. Or CJ, just for familiarity, the point still would’ve been the same.

wizenheimer said:
I'm saying I've seen two different Ant's out there since he came back and the 4th Q Ant is quite different than the 1-3Q Ant; excessively one-on-one and not performing near as well as he does in the other 3 Q's. I don't see a good reason for his game to change as dramatically as it has when the 4thQ rolls around
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Some of us aren’t discussing his fourth quarter performances because we’ve been discussing all the things put up against up upon his return. The opposing game plan has been that no matter how Ant or Shae do, as long as you put a big defending forward against Ant and double team him and deny Shae, you can still win. That game plan has largely worked.

How do you suggest helping Ant improve in these areas while DA and Grant are out? The answer isn’t as simple as “get Shae the ball more”, the opposing team is constantly making it a priority to make sure Shae doesn’t touch the ball in the fourth. It’s even harder to get the ball to Shae coming out of a timeout when everything is set. Camara is always in the game in crunch time and we already saw a 20fga game from him. Thybulle and Reath are not guys that you run plays for, and a lot of passes out of an Ant double team end up in Reath’s hands anyway. I’ve seen him pass out of double teams to Walker, only to see him eat up 5 seconds because he’s unsure of his next move/read and passes it back to Scoot or Ant. What exactly is the fix in your opinion?

He one thing he can control is his aggressiveness in getting to the line. He’s been doing well in that area, and I hope for it to continue.
 
BankTeller said:
Maybe he wasn’t a good example, but there were legit debates on Reddit and other forums about whether or not Ant or Poole was better pre-extensions. I could’ve said Herro. Or CJ, just for familiarity, the point still would’ve been the same.


Some of us aren’t discussing his fourth quarter performances because we’ve been discussing all the things put up against up upon his return. The opposing game plan has been that no matter how Ant or Shae do, as long as you put a big defending forward against Ant and double team him and deny Shae, you can still win. That game plan has largely worked.

How do you suggest helping Ant improve in these areas while DA and Grant are out? The answer isn’t as simple as “get Shae the ball more”, the opposing team is constantly making it a priority to make sure Shae doesn’t touch the ball in the fourth. It’s even harder to get the ball to Shae coming out of a timeout when everything is set. Camara is always in the game in crunch time and we already saw a 20fga game from him. Thybulle and Reath are not guys that you run plays for, and a lot of passes out of an Ant double team end up in Reath’s hands anyway. I’ve seen him pass out of double teams to Walker, only to see him eat up 5 seconds because he’s unsure of his next move/read and passes it back to Scoot or Ant. What exactly is the fix in your opinion?

He one thing he can control is his aggressiveness in getting to the line. He’s been doing well in that area, and I hope for it to continue.
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if you don't see any issues with the blinders he's been strapping on and the hooplock he's had in the last three 4thQ's then there's not much room for discussion

it's just 3 games so maybe it's an aberration. But for damn sure I'm not the only one who has noticed it. There were lots of similar comments in the last game thread, including one by a poster who is as big an Ant fan as you are
 
Dame’s first year post Aldridge:

25.1/4.0/6.8 (3.2to) on .419/.375/.892 (8.1 3pa, 6.1 fta). Also notable: 45% 2pt compared to 50% the year before.

Even with the emergence of CJ, Dame’s efficiency dipped after losing his starting lineup from the first three seasons. Ant’s games back have been without so many of the vets, that the rosters in Ant’s games have been just as bad as that first post-Aldridge team.
 
wizenheimer said:
if you don't see any issues with the blinders he's been strapping on and the hooplock he's had in the last three 4thQ's then there's not much room for discussion

it's just 3 games so maybe it's an aberration. But for damn sure I'm not the only one who has noticed it. There were lots of similar comments in the last game thread, including one by a poster who is as big an Ant fan as you are
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I just asked you who was going to make that next play out of an Ant double team when Shae is being denied. Like I’m actually asking you for your opinion, because I have zero clue. I watched two games live this season where Ant was playing, I didn’t see any guys on the court that knew what to do with the ball when it matter. The only other guy who did was blanketed all fourth (sometimes it doesn’t work like when Shae’s man gets caught ball-watching and Shae gets a wide open 3 or something like that).
 
BankTeller said:
I just asked you who was going to make that next play out of an Ant double team when Shae is being denied. Like I’m actually asking you for your opinion, because I have zero clue. I watched two games live this season where Ant was playing, I didn’t see any guys on the court that knew what to do with the ball when it matter. The only other guy who did was blanketed all fourth (sometimes it doesn’t work like when Shae’s man gets caught ball-watching and Shae gets a wide open 3 or something like that).
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it's hard to say because the motion in the Blazers offense stalled, a lot, when Ant was going iso. It turned into a two man game, at most. And usually the screener was just a quick relay pass back to Ant after he reset

I saw Sharpe standing in the corner a lot, usually on the opposite side of the court as Ant and the ball. But I also saw Sharpe work to get open several times and Ant missed the opportunity

by the way, I was a big Dame fan but I certainly criticized him when he consistently did things wrong. It's OK for you to note that maybe, just maybe, Ant went with a little bit too much iso in those 4thQ's. Whether that was Ant's call or Chauncey's, I don't know
 
wizenheimer said:
by the way, I was a big Dame fan but I certainly criticized him when he consistently did things wrong. It's OK for you to note that maybe, just maybe, Ant went with a little bit too much iso in those 4thQ's. Whether that was Ant's call or Chauncey's, I don't know
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I’ve acknowledged he’s been iso heavy in the 4th since been back already. It doesn’t take more than watching the quarter, I’m just not criticizing him over it, because again, no one has found a good solution yet.

This problem largely is on Chauncey, but right now, a lot of people are happy with the improvement on defense that they are ignoring the fact that Chauncey has to design an offensive game plan where each guy knows what they’re doing. With Chauncey getting his flowers recently and what seems like a lack of disregard for context of the situation Ant is returning to, I strongly believe Ant is being the scapegoat of Chauncey’s lack of offensive scheme.

This isn’t an Ant problem, this is a coaching/talent-gap problem.
 
Through 7 December games:

26.4/3.1/6.0 (2.9to) on .444/.350/.923 (8.6 3pa, 5.8 fta)

Observations:
- the shooting splits remain sub-par, yet he is averaging 5.8 fta this month, and that’s been the huge difference in his boost in scoring. Even tonight, on a night where I thought he was fouled driving at least twice (4 more fts), he still ended up with 5 fta. I hope to see him continue this improvement in getting to the line. He’s a fraction of a fta away from averaging Dame’s number of ftas in his first year without Aldridge and Fox at age 24. He’s just now getting to the line almost as much as Ja a couple years ago and Devin around ages 21-24.

- He’s had obvious good signs on defense. We know that Brogdon will be traded eventually, so those minutes will eventually be replaced by a bigger body, so I’m not totally worried about the defense. He’s going to get use to taking more contact—between getting to the line more and playing much better defense, Ant’s probably had to be more physical this year than he’s ever been in the league. He’s taking the challenges well too, we are starting to see the all of the FO’s investment into this skinny 175lb kid pay off.

- 6.0apg is pretty much what I expected from Ant. The encouraging thing has been that a lot of his passes lead to shooting fouls or chipped layups. The way he’s been playing this season, I think he could be averaging close to 8apg with talent (I don’t mean “more” talent, I mean the talent we have now) that is consistently healthy around him. I really want to see him average 7+apg this year. With incoming trades, I don’t know if I could expect that from him, but our younger players will be improving as the season winds down as well. I’d either like him to be around the 7.5apg mark at the end of the season, OR reduce his topg to 2.0.

- A lot of people have been talking about the “ball-stopping”. I think tonight showed this is more on Chauncey than Grant. I’d be interested in seeing more of what we saw between DA, Ant, and Grant in the fourth quarter, in the following games. Ant’s threat to shoot is magnetic, he has to be accounted for at all times. I’m not sure if it’s just his ability to lull a guy to sleep, but his first step looks lightning quick. Even today, he got to the cup EASY and almost looked like he didn’t want want to pack it, and it kind of bounced out. Had he tried to finish with more authority, it’s a two-handed dunk and two extra points, but nothing but a little more aggressiveness won’t fix. His offensive package and potential is so great to me, that it’s too hard to think about giving up on him now. It’s going to be Chauncey’s job to utilize these pieces. I would find a replacement for Chauncey before I look to sell on Ant for less than a haul.
 
Author of this post -- it has not aged well has it ?

Also as much as I love Sharpe until he can be more consistent and such then Ant MUST stay and it's a simple as that . However at some point the decision will need to be made unless Sharpe can show he can play SF that they will need to decide between Sharpe and Ant but we are still a year to two from that I think.
 
Ripcity4life77 said:
Author of this post -- it has not aged well has it ?

Also as much as I love Sharpe until he can be more consistent and such then Ant MUST stay and it's a simple as that . However at some point the decision will need to be made unless Sharpe can show he can play SF that they will need to decide between Sharpe and Ant but we are still a year to two from that I think.
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The OP was bad from the moment it was made.

Having said that, if we can get an top wing for any one of our 4 guards, I'd likely do it. Nobody on this roster is untradable.
 
Tince said:
The OP was bad from the moment it was made.

Having said that, if we can get an top wing for any one of our 4 guards, I'd likely do it. Nobody on this roster is untradable.
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I'd rank value as:

Sharpe, Simons...........Scoot, Brogdon at the moment.
 
Hypothetically, if Ant keeps up this growth trajectory for the rest of the season (it's a big ask), what is the likelihood the team starts viewing him as THE centerpiece moving forward?

He's shown a lot of growth but he has so much more growth to make. If he needs to play 30+ minutes at point every night what happens to Scoot?
 
Natebishop3 said:
It's so bush league to cherry pick quotes without context.
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Yeah, Chauncey was trying to respectfully say that he doesn't have a guy who comes out with the kind of attitude a player needs to have to take over the game from tip off. I thought it was both pretty accurate and a good way to challenge the guys on our roster in the media without singling anyone out.

Whoever decided to post that tweet and whoever they were quoting from BE are obviously cool with the bullshit effort this entire roster put out there for the first three quarters. The guys were sleep walking and if any of them had a combination of talent and leadership they would have woken up and in so doing likely brought the rest of the team to life.
 
Whyachi said:
that place changed. It went from somewhat non-serious fan discussions to straight up Blazer paparazzi. Portland players can't J-walk across a street without a Blazers Edge writer counting how many steps it took before the ticket was issued.
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And the writing is so incredibly boring. I think I’d like Bleacher Report if it just let me filter out the BlazersEdge stuff.
 
Here is an area where Simons can improve greatly - seeing wide open, good 3-point shooters on his side of the court. Such as Malcolm Brogdon.

Brogdon is up near the top of the league in catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage for his 2.9 attempts per game.

If I set the number of catch-and-shoot attempts to Brogdon's 2.9 or greater, he's actually #2 in the NBA right now.


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We saw this (below) with 2:50 left in the game and the Blazers behind by 1 point.

How is it that Simons cannot see Brogdon? Is Simons intentionally not passing to Brogdon?

This is crappy defense. Isn't it these breakdowns that a good offense looks for and exploits?


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This is the shot Simons decided to take in this possession. A hook shot that hit the back of the rim.

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blazerfan11 said:
Here is an area where Simons can improve greatly - seeing wide open, good 3-point shooters on his side of the court. Such as Malcolm Brogdon.

Brogdon is up near the top of the league in catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage for his 2.9 attempts per game.

If I set the number of catch-and-shoot attempts to Brogdon's 2.9 or greater, he's actually #2 in the NBA right now.


View attachment 61111

We saw this (below) with 2:50 left in the game and the Blazers behind by 1 point.

How is it that Simons cannot see Brogdon? Is Simons intentionally not passing to Brogdon?

This is crappy defense. Isn't it these breakdowns that a good offense looks for and exploits?


View attachment 61112


This is the shot Simons decided to take in this possession. A hook shot that hit the back of the rim.

View attachment 61113
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Here's a video of the play. This happened after Chaucey Billups called a timeout.

If Billups drew up this play to get Brogdon an open 3-point shot, it worked exactly as planned.

Brogdon went from one side of the court to the other to lose his man, and passed to Simons who was in a great spot to get the ball back to Brogdon.

 
blazerfan11 said:
Here is an area where Simons can improve greatly - seeing wide open, good 3-point shooters on his side of the court. Such as Malcolm Brogdon.

Brogdon is up near the top of the league in catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage for his 2.9 attempts per game.

If I set the number of catch-and-shoot attempts to Brogdon's 2.9 or greater, he's actually #2 in the NBA right now.


View attachment 61111

We saw this (below) with 2:50 left in the game and the Blazers behind by 1 point.

How is it that Simons cannot see Brogdon? Is Simons intentionally not passing to Brogdon?

This is crappy defense. Isn't it these breakdowns that a good offense looks for and exploits?


View attachment 61112


This is the shot Simons decided to take in this possession. A hook shot that hit the back of the rim.

View attachment 61113
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Oh, yeah. I was screaming for him to pass, and pissed when he didn't. That was probably my strongest reaction the whole game.
 
Propagandist said:
And the writing is so incredibly boring. I think I’d like Bleacher Report if it just let me filter out the BlazersEdge stuff.
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I think I'd like Blazers Edge if it just let me filter out the Bleacher Report (lol) stuff.
 
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