Skal to the Blazers!!

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Is it heresy to admit that I think Skal has a better chance of being a star on the Blazers than Collins? I like Collins a lot, but I think Skal could be better even this year. I love the idea of a Nurkic, Collins, Skal rotation at the 4/5 next season.

I'm curious to those that don't believe in Skal, what part of his game do you think will hold him back? Strength? BBIQ? other?
 
Is it heresy to admit that I think Skal has a better chance of being a star on the Blazers than Collins? I like Collins a lot, but I think Skal could be better even this year. I love the idea of a Nurkic, Collins, Skal rotation at the 4/5 next season.

I'm curious to those that don't believe in Skal, what part of his game do you think will hold him back? Strength? BBIQ? other?

I think he has a chance to be better offensively - I have never seen him to have anywhere near the defensive acumen that Zach displays (to be fair, I do not think there are many players that young that have, and we have not seen Skal enough against top-level competition).

In last year's playoffs Zach had the highest DBPM on the team and if he did not eat up Paul Millsap (which was killing Aminu) - the team was not going to the conference finals. I think with either Zach / Whiteside or Zach / Nurk - Portland is going to have very stout interior defense going forward.
 
Nurk and Pau/Zach...Hassan and Mario/Skal/Tolliver?….foul trouble to change this up as well as rest for Pau every few games. Little might win a rotation spot...there's a lot of competition for minutes starting training camp. Also Hassan and or another player may be traded by the deadline ...lot of backstories this season. I think it's refreshing after several years of the same crew pretty much. I think Gasol will start at the 4 and play Noah Vonleh type minutes to start...not that many. Set the tone in the first and 3rd qtr and sub out.

I personally see 0 chance Gasol plays a single PF minute. The guy is slower than a turtle.
 
I personally see 0 chance Gasol plays a single PF minute. The guy is slower than a turtle.
we disagree....hobbled Pau is a turtle...apparently those issues are behind him..and I expect him to play Noah Vonleh starter minutes and probably the beginning of the 3rd..not big minutes but set the tone....he'll sub in at center but he's a great passer and smart vet...good footwork. I'm actually excited to see him mentor Zach and Skal..I think Pau will not play in games where small ball is the need.
 
Pau has been a Center for the last 5 years and there is a reason for it. He is 40 man, 40 years are behind him. He can be an ok 10-15 min backup C and really not much more.

Why would we even think to start Gasol-Whiteside? I don't really see the point.
 
I'm curious to those that don't believe in Skal, what part of his game do you think will hold him back? Strength? BBIQ? other?
I have a little hope that Skal shows that he's a player... but I think it's likely a long shot at this point. He's already 23.5-yrs old (18-months older than Zach).

Offensively, Zach & Skal appear to have the same impact - except Zach has shown a willingness to shoot the 3. Both are mediocre rebounders. However, Zach appears to be much better and have more impact on defense.

I think there are probably 2 things holding him back. 1) BBIQ -> Slightly too slow in processing where to be and where to attack. 2) Passion/Drive -> Skal seems like a really cool-laid back dude. From the outside, it doesn't appear that he has the drive to do "what-ever-it-takes" to be more than a bench player.
 
Zach is younger but not basketball wise. Skal has only been playing basketball since he was in high school.
 
Zach is younger but not basketball wise. Skal has only been playing basketball since he was in high school.
I can buy that excuse as a freshman coming out of college. It doesn't hold much value as a player going into his 4th professional season.

The experience a player gets from playing before 8h grade doesn't have THAT much of an impact...
 
I can buy that excuse as a freshman coming out of college. It doesn't hold much value as a player going into his 4th professional season.

The experience a player gets from playing before 8h grade doesn't have THAT much of an impact...

Yeah it does, especially in Zach's case who’s been coached by his dad his whole life.
 
I’ll never get why divac agreed to that move. What was the motivation? They’re both bigs. Was it financial? Was he doing Skal a favor? Because he couldn’t have possibly watched biggies tape in the g league and thought oh yeah this guy is an nba player. Skal belongs in the league. We’ll see if he works his way into the rotation. I think he will.
 
I’ll never get why divac agreed to that move. What was the motivation? They’re both bigs. Was it financial? Was he doing Skal a favor? Because he couldn’t have possibly watched biggies tape in the g league and thought oh yeah this guy is an nba player. Skal belongs in the league. We’ll see if he works his way into the rotation. I think he will.

+1. Even if had mostly given up on Skal, I would never trade him for Biggie just on the chance that Skal might figure it out, but Biggie is not going to get taller/quicker.
 
+1. Even if had mostly given up on Skal, I would never trade him for Biggie just on the chance that Skal might figure it out, but Biggie is not going to get taller/quicker.

Biggie has to be in elite shape to have a chance. The way he looked in his first summer league. He’s let himself go since then. He looked ROUGH last year, even worse when he was with the kings

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I’ll never get why divac agreed to that move. What was the motivation? They’re both bigs. Was it financial? Was he doing Skal a favor? Because he couldn’t have possibly watched biggies tape in the g league and thought oh yeah this guy is an nba player. Skal belongs in the league. We’ll see if he works his way into the rotation. I think he will.
I always wonder when two teams make multiple trades within a season with one another if there isn't a little bit of "we'll let you win this one if you concede a little bit if we deal again" type of thing. Olshey seems to be big on favors. We gave up two 2nd round picks for Trent when the prior season that position was traded for just cash.

Or it could just be Divac was looking for cheap bigs under contract for multiple years instead of just one and was also unaware of Swanigan putting on so much weight again. Swanigan kinda plays like a very poor man's Vlade so maybe he thought he could develop him.
 
I’ll never get why divac agreed to that move. What was the motivation? They’re both bigs. Was it financial? Was he doing Skal a favor? Because he couldn’t have possibly watched biggies tape in the g league and thought oh yeah this guy is an nba player. Skal belongs in the league. We’ll see if he works his way into the rotation. I think he will.
Divac said at the time that he was doing Skal a favor - he wouldn't get any PT next year. The trade also improved chemistry just a bit, because he replaced a player who's pining to play with a player with no PT expectations. There are also some minor contract differences, I imagine.
 
I think there trade to get Damian will be insurmountable.
While I may agree in principal, in practice the trade was for a mystery draft pick, not for Dame. The Blazers could well have come out of that trade with nothing had they drafted poorly. The Nyets could have won more games resulting in a lower pick, and no Dame. The Nyets may not have drafted Dame had they kept the pick. Or the Nyets may not have made the trade at all if the trade had been straight up for Damian. Hence, the trade was not for Damian, since no one knew at the time how high the pick would be, or who would be available, or who would be picked.

And Swanigan for Skal might NOT be the huge steal I thought it was the day the Blazers made the trade :)

:cheers:
 
Admittedly, I was only able to watch the first half of game 1, and didn't see the last game. But, in both games Skal had really great numbers, but every article I see seems to completely overlook his contribution. For those that watched, are his rebounds and scoring against the dregs of the other team, or is there some other reason he is getting overlooked.

I said previously that if Collins got Skal minutes in game 82 last year, he would have never put up the same numbers. Why isn't Skal getting any love for his preseason performances?

#FREESKAL
 

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