Game 17: Portland vs Indiana 4:00pm Root, Root+

[RTG HD]

Sharpe fell of a cliff. He's going to lose his starting spot when Simons returns.

Given how insanely gifted Sharp is it is sad that Sharp is blowing his opportunity. He could do so much better.

[Moonbeam]

Nice to get a win! As much as many of us (myself included) are looking for a nice lottery position, we don't want a culture of losing to be so prevalent that it impacts development of the players and the team.

I agree with DBR that Scoot isn't ready to carry the load yet. That's ok! It may be disappointing that he hasn't played particularly well up to this point, but the benefit of being on a team with no expectations is that he has a lot of time to grow into a prominent role. He's had some flashes of brilliance in certain games, but there are quite obviously a lot of areas in his game that will require a lot of work. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders and a great work ethic, so there's every reason to believe he'll only improve with time.

[GreenRiddler]

The biggest issue with Scoot is his shot selection. He is a good facilitator and it’ll take time to cut down on turnovers as he develops, but he use to get a lot of midrange shots in the g league now he barley takes any and takes 3S instead. I wonder if the coaching staff got in his head over this

If you remove his 3 pointers or at least cut them in half his FG% jumps he’s not shooting bad at the rim and is 40% in the mid range not great but not bad.

[Dame Lizard]

Victory GLB pic

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Scoot is not there yet. I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom for his future but you don't send a guy out there every night knowing he is going to fail, especially when it is going to put everything and everybody else on pause. That isn't going to develop him at it certainly isn't going to do any of our other players any favors and would be a horrible way to micromanage yourself to poor results, getting lost overcommitting to the details rather than focusing on the big picture.

Scoot might never be that franchise guy. It's getting a bit hard to see the exact upside with him not really being excellent at anything in particular, as a lot of talented jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none players have failed. He also could develop in many ways and be a 2-way player that contributes in variety of different ways, but whether he is over-worked his first year or not isn't what will make or break him. He cannot be who you put all your chips on because busts happen all the freaking time, especially to players that look an awfully lot like Scoot. You have to play the game the right way, he will get better and he will be able to carry a bigger load and you hope he gets there far and fast enough but if you try and rush the process stacking all your chips on one player you are going to mismanage the team as a whole.

Grant needs to eat if we want to not be stuck with a bad contract. Brogdon and Ayton and Simons as well. If you want to have these players buying in and doing what they need to do them you have to respect them. Forcing them to carry a rookie PG, running the majority of possessions through him, when he is turn-over prone and inefficient as a scorer, when he makes rookie mistakes and cant go left, as the scouting report grows on him and his flaws become even more exposed every game, it is just an absolutely bone-headed thing to do. There are a lot of things the team needs to work with Scoot on behind closed doors, I know it sucks for the fans but the truth is it is better if fans and other teams do not know everything he is working and developing in his game.

We will get there. Brogdon will get moved by the trade deadline, maybe Simons too. We will see Scoot unleased later in the season when it is more appropriate to do so. But we aren't there yet and this is not a time for short-cuts.

Great post.

Agree. Great post by DBR.

[zzaj]

What a player wants, what a coach wants, what a fanbase wants, what the NBA wants, what teammates want, what a GM wants, and what is actually good for the team...all can be different.

My hope is that the Blazers coaching staff are giving Scoot simple things to focus on and to try and build upon, starting on the defensive side of the ball. Sadly, Scott Brooks is the defensive assistant...he might be the worst coach in the league. Why he has a job, I'll never know.

Scoot has 100% been a disappointment based on the hype and the draft position, I don't think anybody can argue that. But I also think he's shown enough that there is hope that he can be a solid two-way player in the NBA.

[The Sebastian Express]

I wish people didn't use less than seventeen games to evaluate someone. It just makes engaging in fandom miserable.

[JasonStern]

Read on Twitter

I love how Grant getting 7 rebounds is viewed as a huge accomplishment.

[zzaj]

Read on Twitter

I love how Grant getting 7 rebounds is viewed as a huge accomplishment.

(cough)futuresmallforward(cough)

[Norm2953]

It's great for Grant

[monopoman]

What's hilarious is even with Scoot being disappointing this season the records of win/losses heavily favor Scoot. Now this might be because of the lack of a PG with both Anfernee and Scoot being injured but Scoot comes back and immediately after this team looks better and wins more games.

The team is .500 if you go over the stats of every single game Scoot has logged at least 1 minute. Meanwhile their overall record is nowhere near that, so Scoot does have one of the most important stats in his favor. It also appears that the contacts he has recently gotten has improved his ability to see by quite a bit, I really wonder how bad his vision was before he got these.

I still believe in the kid and think he has all-star potential it might just be a slower process. **** if it's a slower process at least we have more time to try to build the team around Scoot+Sharpe and maybe Simons.

[JasonStern]

I still believe in the kid and think he has all-star potential it might just be a slower process. **** if it's a slower process at least we have more time to try to build the team around Scoot+Sharpe and maybe Simons.

Scoot is a project. He didn't put up insane numbers in the g-league. Just showed a ton of potential. Thus, putting him in the NBA and expecting a star from day 1 wasn't realistic. Kid has a Ricky Rubio floor and a Russel Westbrook ceiling. Not a bad thing to have. And the Blazers have a history of player development when it comes to guards. Both CJ and Simons were unplayable in their rookie seasons.