The NBENFANT Thread (NBA): 2014-15 Edition

[JasonStern]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/status/619208455077896192[/tweet]

Rondo / Collison? / Gay / Smith / Cousins
coach: Karl

maybe add in JR Smith at shooting guard...

well, it took 15 years, but welcome back, Trader Bob.

[Wickzki]

LOL @ Brooklyn trading Blake.

[Shem]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqQWyVEBKoI[/youtube]

[GreenRiddler]

Well Morey doesn't give a lick about character, just signed Lawson after he got his 2nd DUI and was very unprofessional in that video on draft day when he was smoking Hookah.

That is something I like about the Blazers, when we were a good team, we never sacrificed character for additions. LMA Lillard Batum Wes Rolo Mo Williams Blake Kaman Meyers McCollum Wright Price Freeland Barton Crabbe Hickson Robinson AAA. None of them had issues off the court, other than a JJ tweet and Robinson speeding that 1 time and the time Dame's body-gaurds allegedly beat someone up.

but no DUIs or anything criminal/ locker-room problem. Hopefully things stay that way with this new iteration.

[GreenRiddler]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2530899-josh-smith-claims-69-million-salary-with-clippers-will-be-harder-on-family

Damn, how is that hard? 6.9 million for 1 year? Then again it just shows you how much of Smith's 8 figure salary he got as a piston, was spent and how much was invested. smh why don't Pro athletes learn from the mistakes of others?

And who do they think will be shedding tears for their gargantuan annual income that they (like smith here) think is inadequate to fit their lifestyle?

If I was cut like Smith was and teams were treating me like cancer I would count my blessings that a team was even willingly to offer me a little over 1 million for a year like the Clippers did, because at the end of the day he can have a really good year on a big stage like LA and get a piece of that cap increase pie.

[Shem]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiO-zJ_kuYU[/youtube]

[Wickzki]

Sad to see Exum's horrific knee injury live.

[Masterfully]

I wonder how much Tristan Thompson asked from Portland. Frankly, I'd rather offer the max to Thompson than Kanter.

[GreenRiddler]

Looking at Brandon knight, I think CJ can develop as a PG. Brandon started out as a high turnover decent asts but mainly scoring PG in Det. His percentages were low and people were giving up on him ever being a PG, but he kept getting mins and learned the position at a adequate rate and now has a decent ast/To ratio. unlike CJ he had the mins out of the gate, I wonder if CJ would have put up similar ast/to numbers if he went to a team and tried to be their PG like the Jazz instead of them drafting Burke.

I think what Knight did now is a good measurement/benchmark. He is a borderline allstar right now averaging 17ppg 5asts and shooting good percentages from the field and from 3. Hopefully CJ reaches there.

Still a really dumb trade by the Bucks. I get not wanting to pay Knight, but MCWs? Tat team needed a combo Guard like knight, not a inefficient scorer who has a low ast/to ratio and looks like he may never reach knights scoring output.

[Goudelock]

Anyone here want to jump on the bandwagon?

[zzaj]

Anyone here want to jump on the bandwagon?

I like your bandwagon, but the problem with your bandwagon is that he'll be playing behind Hendo, CJ and Lillard at SG. I seriously doubt he'll get enough minutes to really be in contention for ROY...Pat won't have the same sizeable roll on their respective team as say, Stanley Johnson, Mudiay, Turner, Okafor, Kaminsky, Townes, or Russell.

[GreenRiddler]

Damn I am not sure if Batum ever took pressure off of Lillard as a ball handler. Sure he got a lot of assists, but it wasn't from breaking down the D and kicking it out, it was kinda like being a secondary playmaker, more passer than playmaker.

I am surprised to find both Wes and CJ had more PPP as a PnR Ball-handler. I guess Batum only passed out of such plays and never really scored out of them. Which is good, but it would've been nice if he developed as a scorer out of those plays.

I am interested to see Harkless under Stotts, I think he has better dribbling skills than Batum did before his Asts jump, and unlike Batum he has shown he can score out of the PnR.

In the perfect world, those two are starting in the front court with Meyers at Center. Vonleh is no superman and needs at least a year before he makes a run at the starting gig. I just hope this talk about Plumlee being similar to JJ isn't true, he was my most hated Blazer since Felton and Crawford.

SO many story lines, we may very well lose 50 games, but it isn't gonna be like the Lakers or something last year, with a bunch of vets who have no question marks about thier game, where they all just stink (Except for the guard and Davis). And at he end of the dya we got Lillard to fast track this project.

[GreenRiddler]

Rewatching that Utah game, and Booker just had one of those nights. A meaningless game, but he isn't exactly guaranteed to stick in the league, so he'll take advantage and bring energy.

I thought it was Meyers being killed, but no Booker was just making shots he had no business taking. He was doing the same thing to Freeland and Kaman whenever they defended him. Mostly off Pn pops where the big doesn't close out all the way. For good reason too, he isn't much of a threat from out there. You just gotta tip your hat.

[GreenRiddler]

It is interesting to read Stotts say he doesn't wanna go away from shooting threes because he doesn't have the same kinda 3 point shooters. I don't know how they attempt as much threes as last year with this group of players. If Stotts doesn't adjust his offense he could be in for a whirlwind of a season.

Half our wings won't look they belongs in the NBA with last years offensive system being followed to the t.


Aminu Career 28% (on 1 attempt per game
Harkless 30% (on 1.5 attempts)
Hendo 30% (on 1.2 attempts)

Vs
CJ 38% ( on 5 attempts per 36 )
Crabbe 36.4%(on 4.6 attempts per 36, but good PPP on catch and shoot)
Pat(no mins IMO)

Throw in Dame, Meyers and maybe Vonleh (even though I suspect he won't see a lot of mins from Stotts given he has alternatives and based on the pressor, where he said young players can learn in ways where they don't have to get mins ) and that is 6 three point shooters, where I would only really count on Dame McCollum and Crabbe/Meyers as guys I would rely on to shoot the 3 ball.

But what about Hendo, Aminu and Harkless? 2 of whom should be getting 25+mins, what will they be able to give us on offense playing the Wes role? Bricks I reckon. Stotts has to see this and change this team into a fast paced points in the paint team. Granted that will give us a bad offensive team, but it won't be worse than forcing non-three point shooters to shoot the 3 pointer in the hope they become avg- good.

not that there is much expectations, but Stotts has relied heavily on LMA, too heavy IMO, and he has shown the least amount of trust in his bench over the past 2 years(other than Doc Rivers), than any coach in Basketball, probably would have been a lot less if not for injuries. I don't think the Bench deserved that last year, plenty of games they could've helped if they got more mins, or were given a different role (Barton).

We have a better bench than we did the past 2 years(Kaman was good, but Blake is not much and those were the only 2 players that got consistent mins off the bench), I wonder if he is gonna give them the least amount of mins in the NBA again like he has averaged over the past 2 years.

I like having stability in the coaching department, but I don't know if that should cost underutilizing a bench, over using 1 player, not making personnel and scheme adjustments and being fickle on developing players.

I remember how much of a non-factor Rolo was in the final 3 games of that Meme series, and how much of an asset Meyers was, especially to Lillard getting points at the rim without Gasol being there. Yet Rolo started every half of every game.

I feel like we are the GSWs with Mark Jackson, who held his team back offensively by being not in the top 10 even though they had one of the best offensive players in the league. In this case Stotts seems to be unable to make needed changes that are pretty blaring. Kerr would have sat Rolo facing a 0-3 deficit, let alone in the elimination games to follow, this is seen when he sat a equal non-factor in that finals series in Bogut who sat out of the starting lineup.

Maybe its been too much non-blazer stuff around here and I am just talking non-sense, but I think I'll get my answers based on how how Stotts performs with these players. Not wins and losses, but lineups and him deciding who should play and who shouldn't. He can't afford to make a lot of misses there. Not with this much young talent.

[GreenRiddler]

Anyone here want to jump on the bandwagon?

Joking right, he may be in contention, for rookie who gets least amount of mins in his rookie class, other than the DNP 0 mins players.

[Masterfully]

Anyone here want to jump on the bandwagon?

Joking right, he may be in contention, for rookie who gets least amount of mins in his rookie class, other than the DNP 0 mins players.

Honestly, I think with Pat's ability to hit the 3, Harkless might be the odd man out.

I could see a rotation like this:
PG: Lillard 36 - McCollum 8 - Frazier/Pressey 4
SG: McCollum 24 - Henderson 12 - Connaughton 12
SF: Aminu 28 - Henderson 16 - Harkless 4

[GreenRiddler]

Hendo being a vet, I think he plays 30-33 mpg, and Stotts isn't the kinda coach who likes to tinker with lineups and play 10 guys in his rotation. So I doubt he would reduce a player who he likes to less mins so that a iffy second round pick can get mins.

I think he will play similar to Crabbe's rookie year, a lot of the time in a suit or in the D League.

On another note, guys have already come to workout as a team, Vonleh looks slimmer since July.

[GreenRiddler]

baseless rumor about Rubio to PDX has me intrigued, I think he would help ease the loss of Batum's playmaking immensely, and would accelerate our bigs growth across the board.

He is the picture perfect guard for the fast break. He played barely at all for Minny and can't shoot or score to save his life, but if you got scorers and athletic finishers, he is a damn good weapon.

I just wonder what it would take and if we would be interested, given he would have to start.

[GreenRiddler]

damn, looking at his stats, and 1 thing jumps out at you, he has never shot over 40% in his career. Damn. I totally buy the rumors that the Wolves are frustrated by his growth and don;t think he is the answer at pg long term, in this league if you wanna be a star pg, you have to be able to score.

[GreenRiddler]

JJ hickson had a better opponents fg% at the rim (52%) than Plumlee (55% on 6.4 attempts) Yikes! I don't think this will end well. Meyres had 42% on 3.5 attempts per games, Ed Davis was 53% at 5.3 attempts per game