Why the disrespect to Ant

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The Organizer

The Organizer

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He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...
Who is hating on Ant?
Saying he's not as good as Dame is just an obvious fact. That's not hate.
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...
He’s a short chucker who doesn’t play defense
 
He had Dame Lillard as a sidekick and still didn’t impact winning. Cj did. Granted it wasn’t anything great but they won. Ant for whatever reason isn’t a winning player.
 
Dame is disrespecting Ant if anybody as he doesn't consider him a "win now" NBA vet if you consider his trade demand. He's actually insulted every vet on the team and the coaching staff by demanding a trade. Ant is not an alpha leader. He's also as good as he's going to get with the years and minutes he's played. Fact is we should have sold high on Ant and Nas two seasons ago when their trade value was peaking and Dame had his surgery. Some people like him but I think he's overrated. If anything he's a Jamal Crawford 6 man type who comes off the bench to score in bunches. In my view Ant lacks serious lower core strength. The difference between a Scoot pass and an Ant pass is about double speed. We haven't had a stellar passing pt guard since Andre Miller in my view. Scoot is a stellar passing pt guard. Ant is not.
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...

I think it is partly because combo guards are often tweeners and although they are valuable to have on your bench they are not ideal as starters. Ant is best as a shooting guard but his 181 lb frame is not ideal to guard bigger SGs. His length is fine with a 6'9" wing span.

Fans also have a tough time separating a player's salary from his production. And because fans think there are plenty of 2-way players out there that would be better....when there really aren't.

For me, it comes down to who he is surrounded by. For example, let's say we had a point forward who was a great defender (i.e. Ben Simmons), and let's say Shae improved his defense and played SG...... and we had a SF who was also a great defender and could slash to the basket, and we had a center who was a great rim protector........Ant would be a great guard to have on the court with those guys. Not so much next to Dame, Hart, and Grant.

With Scoot as our PG, I think Ant is best as a 6th man.....forget about his salary. If Dame is gone, Ant becomes the best outside shooter on the team....is that even debatable? That is not good enough for some fans but it is still a nice skill set to have at the end of games when we have to score.
 
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Pinwheel1 said:
I think it is partly because combo guards are often tweeners and although they are valuable to have on your bench they are not ideal as starters. Ant is best as a shooting guard but his 181 lb frame is not ideal to guard bigger SGs. His length is fine with a 6'9" wing span.

Fans also have a tough time separating a player's salary from his production. And because fans think there are plenty of 2-way players out there that would be better....when there really aren't.

For me, it comes down to who he is surrounded by. For example, let's say we had a point forward who was a great defender (i.e. Ben Simmons), and let's say Shae improved his defense and played SG...... and we had a SF who was also a great defender and could slash to the basket, and we had a center who was a great rim protector........Ant would be a great guard to have on the court with those guys. Not so much next to Dame, Hart, and Grant.

With Scoop as our PG, I think Ant is best as a 6th man.....forget about his salary. If Dame is gone, Ant becomes the best outside shooter on the team....is that even debatable? That is not good enough for some fans but it is still a nice skill set to have at the end of games when we have to score.
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Who is Scoop? (just kidding)
 
define "disrespect"

evaluating him as an undersized SG is not disrespect. Someone saying they'd rather have Josh Hart than Ant is not disrespect. Saying Ant is a terrible defender is just factual and not disrespect. Saying he's more suited to a 6th man role than a starter is not disrespect, it's 'accurately' evaluating his strengths and flaws

saying that you're tired of Portland trotting out short starting lineups that play poor defense and identifying Ant, at SG, as a reason why it happens is not disrespect. Wishing for a 2-way wing at SG instead of a 1-way 6'3 guy is not disrespect. Saying Ant has low value in a evolving NBA is not disrespect. Seeing the Blazers with Scoot at PG and Sharpe at SG and not seeing a role for Ant other than a backup is not disrespect

Ant can be one of those micro-wave players. A guy who can get incredibly hot and shoot you into a win...every once in a while. But he always gives back a lot to the other team on their end of the floor. Ant is more efficient than CJ, and certainly more watchable than MeJ, but he's got some MeJ traits he's been developing. Hopefully, that is curbed because I don't think Portland will find a trade for him, even though I wish they could
 
Depending on what the return for Dame includes I'd either like to see Ant in a three guard rotation with Scoot and Shae starting or I'd like to see him moved to a team in need of an offense first lead guard, with a coach who thinks they can get a lot more out of him at the 1 than we have at the 2 given all of Ant's athletic gifts. I like Ant and besides times where we've been tanking I don't think he's ever been given a chance to really succeed because he needs to be decidedly the smallest guy in any 5 man lineup and he's only been that when a our team has had very little else to complement him.
 
Yes, it is the complete lack of defense. Stellar scoring potential but ZERO defense. Calls into question BBIQ and/or effort.
 
I'm worried that Billups will give him more minutes and importance than he should be getting.

I'm tired of coaches who overlook the big picture of how a player affects how the team plays.
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...
The cumulative advanced stats aren't particularly kind to Ant (PER, WS, BPM, VORP). He scores a lot, but his efficiency (TS%) is basically average. I don't think he's necessarily done enough to earn the classification of "superior offensive talent".
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...

While I'm not sure he's getting a lot of hate, this is that natural progression of how players are viewed on this board:
  1. High hopes after being drafted
  2. Increased expectations after minimal production
  3. Considerably more expectations after they sign their 2nd deal, not based on their actual play
  4. Start crapping on him in favor of the newest draft pick with high hopes
 
Tince said:
While I'm not sure he's getting a lot of hate, this is that natural progression of how players are viewed on this board:
  1. High hopes after being drafted
  2. Increased expectations after minimal production
  3. Considerably more expectations after they sign their 2nd deal, not based on their actual play
  4. Start crapping on him in favor of the newest draft pick with high hopes
Click to expand...
Does this apply for coaches as well?
 
The Organizer said:
He's getting No love in this forum. I see people wanting him out? why? is it because he's a defensive liability? Lillard is a much bigger liability on defense and you hold on to him like it's your lives.
Ant is a superior offensive talent, gonna be unleashed with Lillard gone, and his combination with Scoot is gonna be absolutely lethal.
Stop the hate!
Click to expand...
I think it's taking for granted what Dames strengths are, so many years of duplicate guard with DameCJ.

If we had come off a run of Telfair, Andre Miller, Jarred Bayless, Raymond Felton, Steve Blake as our guards fans here would be ecstatic to see the growth of Ant and his potential in the year ahead.

I'm a huge Ant fan, but do recognize he has weaknesses and room to improve. He has some elite skills very few in this league have as well.

Excited to see how he plays next season. Was a bit more excited when a Dame trade seemed imminent, and now am a tad less excited to run back the same starters less Hart though.
 
Natebishop3 said:
This is not what the numbers say. Ant was one of the worst defenders in the entire league last year.
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That's not conclusive, Ant ranks much higher than Lillard ever has in many defensive metrics. He can get through screens better.

Sharpe was worse than both.
 
riverman said:
Dame is disrespecting Ant if anybody as he doesn't consider him a "win now" NBA vet if you consider his trade demand. He's actually insulted every vet on the team and the coaching staff by demanding a trade. Ant is not an alpha leader. He's also as good as he's going to get with the years and minutes he's played. Fact is we should have sold high on Ant and Nas two seasons ago when their trade value was peaking and Dame had his surgery. Some people like him but I think he's overrated. If anything he's a Jamal Crawford 6 man type who comes off the bench to score in bunches. In my view Ant lacks serious lower core strength. The difference between a Scoot pass and an Ant pass is about double speed. We haven't had a stellar passing pt guard since Andre Miller in my view. Scoot is a stellar passing pt guard. Ant is not.
Click to expand...
No, the Blazers players wont look at it that way. They all saw the team wasn't good enough last year even with Hart, and the only addition was a 19 year old.
 
Tince said:
While I'm not sure he's getting a lot of hate, this is that natural progression of how players are viewed on this board:
  1. High hopes after being drafted
  2. Increased expectations after minimal production
  3. Considerably more expectations after they sign their 2nd deal, not based on their actual play
  4. Start crapping on him in favor of the newest draft pick with high hopes
Click to expand...
Yeah the forum always needs Blazers to hate, it's odd. When CJ was here it was him, and Ant was the golden prodigy of the future. If we send out Ant people here will be ripping on one of Scoot or Sharpe in 4 years for whoever the Blazers next rookie is.
 
I don't care for the revolving door of guards being drafted and then being traded away before they can get their legs underneath them, but I see Ant for what he is.

Ant is a hell of a shooter. He can get to the basket. But, that's it. He isn't a good leader nor does he play defense to any helpful degree. He is overpaid and belongs on the bench.
 
I started the trade Ant bandwagon 2 years ago and had almost zero support on the forum at the time. I don't think Ant has gotten all this hate over the last two years but my prediction of what he is as a player has proven itself to me already...when Dame came back from surgery it was really apparent to me that Ant wasn't a needle mover by a long stretch. I felt the same way about Nas. I'd trade them both tomorrow for an upgrade if possible.
 
Chris Craig said:
I don't care for the revolving door of guards being drafted and then being traded away before they can get their legs underneath them, but I see Ant for what he is.

Ant is a hell of a shooter. He can get to the basket. But, that's it. He isn't a good leader nor does he play defense to any helpful degree. He is overpaid and belongs on the bench.
Click to expand...

Do you mean he belongs on the bench or do you mean he needs to come off the bench? You said he is a hell of a shooter and can get to the basket.....which is a pretty valuable skill set, so I assume you are saying he needs to play but not start.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Do you mean he belongs on the bench or do you mean he needs to come off the bench? You said he is a hell of a shooter and can get to the basket.....which is a pretty valuable skill set, so I assume you are saying he needs to play but not start.
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I think he's like CJ...a 6 man..a Crawford or Ginobli or Jason Terry if used in that role off the bench. I'd have less problem with Ant as a 6 man than as a starter
 
riverman said:
I think he's like CJ...a 6 man..a Crawford or Ginobli or Jason Terry if used in that role off the bench. I'd have less problem with Ant as a 6 man than as a starter
Click to expand...

Yes, I would agree, I think he is perfect for that role and have felt that way from the beginning. And I also don't think he would have a problem with it. Sometimes young players pout because they want to start in order to get a big payday, but he has already gotten paid.
 
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