Is it time to start to be worried about Scoot being a bust?

[Pattycakes]

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“Meaningless games, yes but losses tho, blah blah”

Anyway. Good for the kid. Do you see what I see

[Tim Lehrbach]

I'm still bearish on Scoot, I can't lie, but I sure like the kid. He did everything right -- work hard, stay humble, show no fear, set the tone for the team -- except play solid basketball in year one.

[Blazers98]

The degree of his success will be based upon the degree his shooting improves.

[cdubbz]

I'm still bearish on Scoot, I can't lie, but I sure like the kid. He did everything right -- work hard, stay humble, show no fear, set the tone for the team -- except play solid basketball in year one.

Yeah. I agree. Just shows how hard it is to scout players & G-league vs NCAA. I wasn't high on Miller and thought Scoot would be the perfect guard to replace a star in Dame.

After year 1: What skill is Scoot good at? What is he a natural at. Or does every game seem like a roller coaster of 'what will he be good at tonight's?

[Tim Lehrbach]

I'm still bearish on Scoot, I can't lie, but I sure like the kid. He did everything right -- work hard, stay humble, show no fear, set the tone for the team -- except play solid basketball in year one.

Yeah. I agree. Just shows how hard it is to scout players & G-league vs NCAA. I wasn't high on Miller and thought Scoot would be the perfect guard to replace a star in Dame.

After year 1: What skill is Scoot good at? What is he a natural at. Or does every game seem like a roller coaster of 'what will he be good at tonight's?

Here is where I will just admit that I only watched a handful of Blazers games this year. But here's what I saw.

He's good at getting downhill and he has good vision. But those advantages are limited by his finishing and his poor passing for a point guard. The ball isn't getting snapped into his teammates' pockets. The shooting is all over the place, he takes too long to initiate offense, and his defense is promising but barely impactful. He doesn't have the speed or the "bag" we were promised, nor the tempo to keep defenses imbalanced. That latter is something that can be learned from experience, but he won't become AI or D-Rose under any circumstances.

I see his best case as becoming a steady, all-around floor general kind of player, especially if he works on shooting in all types of situations, becomes a crisper, more accurate passer, and catches up to the speed of the game. That can be a valuable player, especially if leadership follows from his other high intangibles. But it'll be a long road to get there, IMO.

[Pattycakes]

I'm still bearish on Scoot, I can't lie, but I sure like the kid. He did everything right -- work hard, stay humble, show no fear, set the tone for the team -- except play solid basketball in year one.

Yeah. I agree. Just shows how hard it is to scout players & G-league vs NCAA. I wasn't high on Miller and thought Scoot would be the perfect guard to replace a star in Dame.

After year 1: What skill is Scoot good at? What is he a natural at. Or does every game seem like a roller coaster of 'what will he be good at tonight's?

Here is where I will just admit that I only watched a handful of Blazers games this year. But here's what I saw.

He's good at getting downhill and he has good vision. But those advantages are limited by his finishing and his poor passing for a point guard. The ball isn't getting snapped into his teammates' pockets. The shooting is all over the place, he takes too long to initiate offense, and his defense is promising but barely impactful. He doesn't have the speed or the "bag" we were promised, nor the tempo to keep defenses imbalanced. That latter is something that can be learned from experience, but he won't become AI or D-Rose under any circumstances.

I see his best case as becoming a steady, all-around floor general kind of player, especially if he works on shooting in all types of situations, becomes a crisper, more accurate passer, and catches up to the speed of the game. That can be a valuable player, especially if leadership follows from his other high intangibles. But it'll be a long road to get there, IMO.

My aspiration for scoot has always been to play like a poor man’s Steve nash.

I’ve always looked for anything regarding potential in the design of a Steve nash led team - all I mean by that is fast paced, leading to lots of setting guys up for 3s, hit floaters, be unpredictable in some ways/play with some guided chaos.

I said Poor man’s nash, so no one go holding me to HOF expectations. I’m personally very high on scoots potential and saw a lot of glimpses of it this year.

If he’s up to 20 and 8-9 assists on decent shooting by year 2 or 3, all of this fear about him will subside.

So let’s all sit back a little and give the man some room to breathe, eh?

[BlazersBroncos]

I dont see how anyone who is as poor a shooter as Scoot can be compared to Nash.

Kenny Anderson / Rod Strickland are closer comps IMO. W/ Scoot being easily a better athlete than either w/ more defensive potential.

[TheDraftGuy]

I’ve always looked for anything regarding potential in the design of a Steve nash led team - all I mean by that is fast paced, leading to lots of setting guys up for 3s, hit floaters, be unpredictable in some ways/play with some guided chaos.

That sounds more like Reed Sheppard tbh.

I agree with Tim and Bronco above that Scoot is more Kenny Anderson/Rod Strickland where there is elite talent but also a streakiness and limited fundamentals. Could be steady under control but probably not the superstar people expected

If that's the case and in accordance to a "Steve Nash" type PG and system, Scoot could fetch a Top 10 pick for Williams or Holland and the Blazers could just draft Reed Sheppard now.

[Tim Lehrbach]

My aspiration for scoot has always been to play like a poor man’s Steve nash.

I’ve always looked for anything regarding potential in the design of a Steve nash led team - all I mean by that is fast paced, leading to lots of setting guys up for 3s, hit floaters, be unpredictable in some ways/play with some guided chaos.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about young players is that they enter the league suited to fast-paced offense by virtue of being young. It takes quick reactions, not end-to-end speed, to play fast relative to NBA standards. Few players enter the league ready for that. It can be learned as one adjusts to NBA speed, but it takes time, and not everybody can think and act faster than defenses anticipate.

Scoot doesn't have it, at least not yet. So far he's a half-court player, and a ball-stopping one at that.

The other issue with playing fast is that you need to force misses or turnovers and get rebounds. Unless you ARE Steve Nash and you can generate good looks in seven seconds or less off an opponent's make.

As for setting up threes, I saw a lot of passes that required teammates to take a beat, rather than zipping it into the pocket for a quick release. This too can be improved. I believe Scoot has the will and work ethic to master this, but again, it's gonna take experience and practice.

Unpredictability requires a "bag," as they say, and the ability to read the defense. Scoot's abilities were oversold to us. He can develop these, too...

...but at this point, we're talking about so many questions and areas for growth that it gets harder to sustain optimism about Scoot's prospects.

I know we disagree on what we've observed, and I too am rooting for Scoot. He seems like a character guy who will set the tone for working hard and playing selflessly (although he's gotta stop with the dribbling into trouble errors in judgment, which typify iso-heavy players, rather than team-oriented ones). But you have to squint to see a finished product that is much better than average.

Keep us honest, though. It's easy to give up on a player too quickly, when at least SOME growth is nearly guaranteed.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Scoot is like an overhyped blockbuster movie. You get all primed and hyped up on trailers and everyone is talking about it as the next great thing and then it just ends up being your average movie. It's not that it is very bad, but it feels bad because your expectations were high.

He's a rookie PG and looked like a rookie PG rather than a savant basketball player that happens to play PG.

[ebott]

I'm real interested to see how this class does next year. As much as Scooot has been a disappointment I don't look down the draft board and think we would be significantly better if we had picked someone else.

[m0ng0]

People will be unhappy no matter what, just tune it out. Management, coaching, a whole team of bust players, Dame is not here...blah blah blah. I think we were getting competitive at times. If we can hit a few more picks with Schmitz we could become much better

[Tim Lehrbach]

If we can hit a few more picks with Schmitz we could become much better

Of course. I mean, every team in the league could say the same thing, but sure.

[red_power]

The degree of his success will be based upon the degree his shooting improves.

Frankly, his inability to finish around the rim has even been a bigger issue. And it could be harder to fix because it's very likely to be tied to the limitations of his athleticism.

[JasonStern]

The degree of his success will be based upon the degree his shooting improves.

Frankly, his inability to finish around the rim has even been a bigger issue. And it could be harder to fix because it's very likely to be tied to the limitations of his athleticism.

Combination of both. If Scoot could shoot, he'd keep defenses honest and free up the paint for guys like Ayton. If he relied on driving and could finish, then you could surround him with shooters to clear up the paint. But if he can do neither, and his usage rate remains high, you can force him into taking either bad shots or making bad passes. And that's mostly what we've seen in his rookie season.

[Norm2953]

Let's see if Scoot works on his game this summer.

Team will bring him back to work with the rookies in summer camp/league. Come fall camp,
assuming he stays healthy, he will be expected to be a better player as a soph for he will have
had time to adjust to how the league is playing him. Its up to him to force the league to adjust to
the 2024/25 version of Scoot.

[HoopsFanAZ]

I’ve been hoping from the beginning that Scoot becomes a PG in the mold of Billups. Given his improvement in the last quarter of the season, it will be interesting to see (1) the jump he makes in the off-season, (2) skills improved upon, and (3) whether he is the 2nd season, Day1 PG.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/billuch01.html