Who's our fifth starter?

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Fifth starter?

  • Total voters
    91
riverman said:
Eubanks has a great hook shot and is pretty good with offensive board put back buckets
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It is possible to get 25/18 from the center position this year.
I thought Eubanks was tremendous, and really glad they kept him.
I just believe Jusuf has found himself, for real, and maybe The Beast will never be as bad as it once was, but I think instead, he may be a better Basketball Player.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if Keon Johnson made Anfernee Simons expandable at some point should he start at 2 guard. It won’t be too long until we have a thread discussing which one the Blazers should keep & which one the Blazers should trade.
 
BigGameDamian said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Keon Johnson made Anfernee Simons expandable at some point should he start at 2 guard. It won’t be too long until we have a thread discussing which one the Blazers should keep & which one the Blazers should trade.
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that would be a very good situation for the team assuming Ant is playing well, could give them some solid trade possibilities, if Keon improves that much then he would have more value because of his rookie contract
 
BigGameDamian said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Keon Johnson made Anfernee Simons expandable at some point should he start at 2 guard. It won’t be too long until we have a thread discussing which one the Blazers should keep & which one the Blazers should trade.
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That seems very unlikely to me, I think people are taking fr granted how smooth and capable ant is. Players that can manipulate the defense as he does are not common.
 
I've stated my take on the starting unit elsewhere, but here goes again. Starters Dame, Hart, Little, Grant, Nurk with Ant as the 6th man who leads the team in MPG.

STOMP
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Part of me wants it to be Hart, because he has the most experience, is the most proven, but another part doesn't want him because he's not big enough.
Part of me wants it to be Little, because he has the most prototypical skillset, but another part doesn't trust him to stay healthy.
Part of me wants it to be Winslow, because he's the best facilitator, but another part doesn't want him because he can't shoot.
Part of me wants it to be Walker, because he has the best size for the position, but another part worries whether he has sufficient perimeter skills to play the 3.
Part of me wants it to be Sharpe, because he has the most star potential, but another part says he needs way more experience before he can play serious minutes.

If it were my choice, I think I'd start Nas, holding my breath with every play, and being prepared for the inevitability of needing to replace him due to injury.
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part of me wants to get myself a drink before your next post....it may be the dominant part
 
Scalma said:
Here is Nas last season when he was a consistent rotation player vs Hart's career.

View attachment 48713

It's gonna come down to one of these two imo, so the question is who is the best fit with the other 4? Harts career 3 point % is 35%. Nas was 33% last season, but could probably be better than that.

Measurements

Hart: 6'5.5" in shoes, 6'8.5" wingspan, 8'3" standing reach

Nas: 6'6" in shoes, 7'1.25" wingspan, 8'8.5" standing reach

My conclusion is that Nas is the better fit just because of his length since everything else is pretty comparable. I also think Harts a better creator, making him a better fit with the second unit where he can be more of a featured player along with Ant.
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I also think this is the best course of action. With Dame and Ant, Little is probably the best fit because he’ll just have to find his fit on offense and not command shots. At the same time, Hart at the 3 off the bench would give us a Ant/Payton/Hart lineup off the bench where Hart could be an adequate 2nd or 3rd option on offense.

It also makes sense to have one hustle guy in Little starting, then have the other hustle guy in GPII off the bench. I don’t imagine Little and GPII ever playing many minutes together.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Hart DESERVES it but it would make us super small. I can honestly see Ant being shopped for a forward at some point, if everyone stays healthy.
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It would be hard to justify trading him if he averages north of 20ppg on similar efficiency to last year, which is what I imagine him doing.
 
HailBlazers said:
I think you haven't been paying attention.
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I guess we'll find out. I really like Walker, but I see people here think he'll be starting on opening night, so if that makes me down on him, ok.

I'm fairly confident teams would prefer Walker taking semi-contested jump shots vs Dame/Ant beating them. But maybe I'm way too high on Dame and way too low on Walker.
 
STOMP said:
I've stated my take on the starting unit elsewhere, but here goes again. Starters Dame, Hart, Little, Grant, Nurk with Ant as the 6th man who leads the team in MPG.

STOMP
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I get this logic, but there is near 0% chance Ant comes off the bench to start the season. I assumed the poll was asking us to predict who will start, not who we want to start.
 
I think it all just comes down to if Nas can shoot the three anywhere close to as consistent as Hart. Both guys are really good defenders and obviously Nas has the upside of being longer, stronger and more athletic but Hart just knows how to play on both ends. So whoever is hitting that outside shot when Dame gets them the ball in camp and preseason will be starting.
 
perkinsfor3 said:
I would love to see Jabari Walker start ay sf on opening night!
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If Jabari Walker starts, and Sharpe shows any promise, it's time to prioritize Ant / Sharpe / Little / Walker for the future.
 
Ed O said:
That looks like a good summer league team to me.
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Interesting...It was actually a reasonably competitive starting unit last year, and that was without Payton. Hmmm. But your point is cute.
 
I love it that we have a group of guys who could legitimately start at SF (Nas, Hart, Winslow, maybe even Jabari or Shaedon if healthy). I think that Jabari is a Summer League all star and will struggle with the speed of perimeter players at the actual NBA level but I hope I'm wrong because if he can beat out Hart and Nas to start at forward next to Jerami then we'll have ourselves one helluva team.
 
Tince said:
I hope you're right!
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I don't think that Jabari's catch and shoot ability is in question. Dude shot over 50% when he wasn't the focal point of Colorado's offense his freshman year and a respectable 34.6% when he was someone that opposing teams gameplanned for. The question about Jabari and the reason why he fell to us is that he isn't very athletic. I know he moves his feet well against SL players but we'll have to see how he does agaisnt actual NBA players and especially starters.
 
Tince said:
I get this logic, but there is near 0% chance Ant comes off the bench to start the season. I assumed the poll was asking us to predict who will start, not who we want to start.
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I'm assuming they're trying to win games and predicting that (barring injuries) this will be the starting lineup for most of the season. If the lunacy that you project starts the season, I don't think it will take long to establish thats not the way to go. Though I can think of a few failures, I can't think of one contender in the last 2 decades that started a backcourt as small as Lillard and Ant. Heck, Dame and CJ is probably the best of the bunch and Simons gives up even more size to 2 guards then CJ. Neither Lillard or Simons has shown the ability to flourish off the ball and of course they'll get killed defensively.

STOMP
 
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STOMP said:
I'm assuming they're trying to win games and predicting that (barring injuries) this will be the starting lineup for most of the season. If the lunacy that you project starts the season, I don't think it will take long to establish thats not the way to go. Though I can think of a few failures, I can't think of one contender in the last 2 decades that started a backcourt as small as Lillard and Ant. Heck, Dame and CJ is probably the best of the bunch and Simons gives up even more size to 2 guards then CJ. Neither Lillard or Simons has shown the ability to flourish off the ball and of course they'll get killed defensively.

STOMP
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Ant is going to start the entire season, unless he gets hurt. This team isn't a contender with Ant starting and they won't be a contender with Ant as the 6th man (without any other roster moves).

I can't think of the last time a team signed a guy to be their 2nd highest paid player and had them come off the bench the entire season.
 
Ginobili was a top 3 in salaries in SA for three years between 2011 and 2013. He even had the highest salary in 2013. Started none of the 60 games he appeared in that year.

But besides the point, even if it sorta makes sense on paper, Ant is starting. He'll just also lead the second unit and be a token starter and full time finisher.
 
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