All in!! Anfernee Simons 2.0

[basketballRob]

I’ll say again Portlands last TWO games they have shown their hand. The lineup of Scoot, Sharpe, and Simons doesn’t work. People talk about us not paying a bench player ( Simons could start for us ) $24M next two season do you think Portland as non contenders would want to pay him that. Hell no they don’t, nor can they justify not playing Scoot and Sharpe together. They have to make a decision and we have a VERY CLEAR need for Simons.

The more they play all three of those guys together the more clear it is that it’s not going to work. Again look at Simons stats the last two games of that lineup. Hopefully it drives the price down more on Anfernee as everyone sees the writing on the wall.

Don't say the "starts" thing...everybody gets their undies in a twist

Just get him in here and see how it looks...I secretly LOVE a second unit of Simons/AB beating the crap out of the starters in practice.

Only in Orlando lol, imagine any other team being top 2 in defense and bottom 3 in offense arguing against a player that’s really good offensively because he’s questionable on defense. Like hello the answer to your problem is staring you in your face, oh and by the way he’s home grown right from your back yard and named after your greatest point guard in franchise history.

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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[pepe1991]

Don't say the "starts" thing...everybody gets their undies in a twist

Just get him in here and see how it looks...I secretly LOVE a second unit of Simons/AB beating the crap out of the starters in practice.

Only in Orlando lol, imagine any other team being top 2 in defense and bottom 3 in offense arguing against a player that’s really good offensively because he’s questionable on defense. Like hello the answer to your problem is staring you in your face, oh and by the way he’s home grown right from your back yard and named after your greatest point guard in franchise history.

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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This is same roster from 2023-24. Add Gary Harris twin brother, take Fultz out.
That fully healthy roster was 9th worst offense, worst offense that got to playoffs.

Magic sucking on offense is nothing new.

[RichCollab]

Only in Orlando lol, imagine any other team being top 2 in defense and bottom 3 in offense arguing against a player that’s really good offensively because he’s questionable on defense. Like hello the answer to your problem is staring you in your face, oh and by the way he’s home grown right from your back yard and named after your greatest point guard in franchise history.

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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This is same roster from 2023-24. Add Gary Harris twin brother, take Fultz out.
That fully healthy roster was 9th worst offense, worst offense that got to playoffs.

Magic sucking on offense is nothing new.

Cavs are the same team as last year and took a major leap.

[three3d]

Don't say the "starts" thing...everybody gets their undies in a twist

Just get him in here and see how it looks...I secretly LOVE a second unit of Simons/AB beating the crap out of the starters in practice.

Only in Orlando lol, imagine any other team being top 2 in defense and bottom 3 in offense arguing against a player that’s really good offensively because he’s questionable on defense. Like hello the answer to your problem is staring you in your face, oh and by the way he’s home grown right from your back yard and named after your greatest point guard in franchise history.

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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Yea did that last season and this season we’ve lost or leading scorer off the bench. Wash rinse repeat mentality around here.

[three3d]

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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This is same roster from 2023-24. Add Gary Harris twin brother, take Fultz out.
That fully healthy roster was 9th worst offense, worst offense that got to playoffs.

Magic sucking on offense is nothing new.

Cavs are the same team as last year and took a major leap.

Yea it’s amazing what having a guy like Donovan Mitchell can do for your team.

[pepe1991]

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

This is same roster from 2023-24. Add Gary Harris twin brother, take Fultz out.
That fully healthy roster was 9th worst offense, worst offense that got to playoffs.

Magic sucking on offense is nothing new.

Cavs are the same team as last year and took a major leap.

Ehh. Cavs in 2022-23, with similar "big 4" were 8th best offense.

2023-24 Cavs were walking hospital. Their "big 4" only had 28 games together whole season.

In addition, in contrast of current roles they also:
- lost Ty Jerome for whole season + playoffs. This year he is one of their most important connectors
- lost Dean Wade for second half of season + playoffs. That guy is now starter
- lost Merrill for 20 games. Guy is solid contributor off bench now


To understand how brutal season was for them , due fact they were so banged up they ended up using 18 men. 6 out of 18 men are no longer in nba That's a one third of a damn roster.

In game vs Wolves last year , they had starting 5 of: Niang, Okoro ; Garland, Levert, Allen. On bench they had Tristan Thompson, Morris and Merrill. And rest of a bench was G league guy, other G league guy, other G league guy, and guy with broken ankle

[basketballRob]

Only in Orlando lol, imagine any other team being top 2 in defense and bottom 3 in offense arguing against a player that’s really good offensively because he’s questionable on defense. Like hello the answer to your problem is staring you in your face, oh and by the way he’s home grown right from your back yard and named after your greatest point guard in franchise history.

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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This is same roster from 2023-24. Add Gary Harris twin brother, take Fultz out.
That fully healthy roster was 9th worst offense, worst offense that got to playoffs.

Magic sucking on offense is nothing new.

They are older and better.

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[CarraT]

If every GM needs a „whole season of total healthy team to evaluate if it’s maybe a good idea to trade role players for in theory way better fitting other role players“, there would be no trades at all on whole league.
Pathetic.

[basketballRob]

If every GM needs a „whole season of total healthy team to evaluate if it’s maybe a good idea to trade role players for in theory way better fitting other role players“, there would be no trades at all on whole league.
Pathetic.

Our role players are 5th in the East.

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[The-Stallion70]

Losing Mo was big, he was our third or fourth best offensive player on a bottom 10 offense.

Our team is different with Goga starting and i feel that our offense is even worse. Goga is an inside presence and probably our best rebounder but our offense and spacing are even worse now and it is an awkward look having Wendell come off the bench with the bigger contract. Our team had balance before that we are still trying to find it appears.

I think that management understands the sense of urgency you should have when you have talent on the team like Banchero and Franz and imo they will try to make a trade.

[DusterBuster]

This is where what you are saying makes no sense; if they were in constant contact, if they truly wanted to keep Dame, and they knew what his redline was? Yet still drafted Scoot. How does this not tell you they did not push him out? The Heat literally kept assets knowing that Dame would get traded. I feel like you are giving these reports way too much credit instead of seeing what was actually happening.

Everyone knew that Scoot was the 3rd best prospect in that draft, everyone knew that Portland would likely draft Scoot, and everyone knew drafting Scoot would likely force Dame out. Everyone knew that Portland needed to go in another direction. I find it hard to believe Cronin didn't know any of this.

If you want to believe that Simons won't be traded based off the "reports" fine, but I would be shocked if Simons is still on that team in two years.

That’s not how it looked from POR.

There was hope through draft day that the pick would be moved for talent to help Lillard win. The word was that the offers were underwhelming so they made the pick.

Also there were questions as to whether Scoot or Miller would go #2.

I didn’t want either; I wanted AB if POR kept the pick.

given the data, I'd say it would have been malpractice to pick anybody outside of Scoot, Wemby, or Marshall in the Top 3 of that draft. They could have traded it, but I still think Scoot will be the right pick at 3...even if not for POR. Send him over.

Marshall…?

[basketballRob]

That’s not how it looked from POR.

There was hope through draft day that the pick would be moved for talent to help Lillard win. The word was that the offers were underwhelming so they made the pick.

Also there were questions as to whether Scoot or Miller would go #2.

I didn’t want either; I wanted AB if POR kept the pick.

given the data, I'd say it would have been malpractice to pick anybody outside of Scoot, Wemby, or Marshall in the Top 3 of that draft. They could have traded it, but I still think Scoot will be the right pick at 3...even if not for POR. Send him over.

Marshall…?

Yes, Marshall Mathers hoops like Brandon Miller.

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[Skybox]

Imagine having a fully healthy team all season to evaluate. We were around 12th in offense prior to the injuries.

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Yes. Evaluating is awesome. Let’s just do it forever.

[Skybox]

given the data, I'd say it would have been malpractice to pick anybody outside of Scoot, Wemby, or Marshall in the Top 3 of that draft. They could have traded it, but I still think Scoot will be the right pick at 3...even if not for POR. Send him over.

Marshall…?

Yes, Marshall Mathers hoops like Brandon Miller.

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Man…I had Brandon Marshallin my head…he was the UCF QB right?

[CarraT]

If every GM needs a „whole season of total healthy team to evaluate if it’s maybe a good idea to trade role players for in theory way better fitting other role players“, there would be no trades at all on whole league.
Pathetic.

Our role players are 5th in the East.

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So why are we so bad on offense?

[basketballRob]

If every GM needs a „whole season of total healthy team to evaluate if it’s maybe a good idea to trade role players for in theory way better fitting other role players“, there would be no trades at all on whole league.
Pathetic.

Our role players are 5th in the East.

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So why are we so bad on offense?

We were missing 6 players last night. Take 6 players off any team, and their offense will be bad. Common sense

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[Idiosyncratic]

Our role players are 5th in the East.

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So why are we so bad on offense?

We were missing 6 players last night. Take 6 players off any team, and their offense will be bad. Common sense

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Thunder just failed to score 100 against the Mavs without Shai, Chet and Hartenstein. Even the deepest team in the league can suck when missing 3 starters.

[Idiosyncratic]

Simons getting outplayed by Scoot has been a trend as of late.

Simons now has the worst plus/minus on the Blazers and advanced stats have them significantly worse on both offense and defense when he is on the floor.

He is a great offensive player with a TS% below 55 now. Average for a 2 guard is 57%.

I'm on record, I like the potential fit. I'd be OK taking a chance. But let's not talk about the guy like he should have trade value at 27 million.

[CarraT]

Our role players are 5th in the East.

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So why are we so bad on offense?

We were missing 6 players last night. Take 6 players off any team, and their offense will be bad. Common sense

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We were super healthy last year and still sucked on offense. This is just a lazy excuse for the FO to sit on their hands doing nothing avoiding every little bit of risk.

[SOUL]

So why are we so bad on offense?

We were missing 6 players last night. Take 6 players off any team, and their offense will be bad. Common sense

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We were super healthy last year and still sucked on offense. This is just a lazy excuse for the FO to sit on their hands doing nothing avoiding every little bit of risk.

Teams being led by 21-22 year olds will have bad/inefficient offense like last year, especially if they're the first options and super young. This year it's a mix of guys just flat out sucking and massive injuries. That being said, offensive ceiling among team as a whole isn't that talented outside of a few guys.

Now that we have identified those guys and know what Paolo/Franz/even Suggs to some degree are capable of, the job is to stack the perfect rotational pieces around them over the next few years. Obviously don't think we're as bad as what we've shown this year, but even healthy, there are areas we can add to. Would advocate for moves myself, just don't think bringing up last year really matters since it was a season everybody was shocked about.

We're basically in that area back on the Dwight teams where we added Lewis to pair with Dwight + our guys to start actually making noise. Dwight missed playoffs first two years, got swept, THEN we added Lewis and really started shaping those championship contending rosters. Feel like we're in that stage now where it's important not to screw up who we add, but we do need to add more. The people complaining about the last 2 years or whatever and not having a fully fleshed out team around 2-3 year players are totally missing the plot though.