Hassan Whiteside

[Blazinaway]

Let him go! I don't "how serious" his hip injury is but unless its bad he should be out there playing. I wanted him not to come back in any case before this bubble, and even when he did play bubble games he looked lazy IMO, good riddance after this season.

[PDXKnight]

As nice as it is to dream It’d be really hard to sign and trade whiteside for any quality player in today’s day and age I’d guess especially if it’s for anyone worthwhile. I suppose something is better than nothing but I don’t want a crap contract unless we get something pretty good with it and I’m talking and nba legit starter not a 7th man

With that said I say sign and trade because of the second part of the clause but I stress that part that it be someone the blazers want and can use. And certainly not just for a mediocre guy

[DaVoiceMaster]

I'd S&T if there was a worthwhile return. If not, bye bye. He won't get enough minutes to be effective; we are seeing that in the bubble. Bring Skal Labisserie and Noah vonleh back, as well as Melo!!!

[JRoy]

He needs to go.

He will want a contract far exceeding his actual worth.

Would love to sign and trade him but what team would send us what we need for him?

[Goldbum]

Does anyone feel like Whiteside is a better fit as a 2rd big along Nurkic and Collins than Wenyen Gabriel will be next year? I'm curious Wenyen seems to have added a little strength and quickness since Covid hit and he can play effectively next to either guy...maybe even a few minutes at the 3 in the right lineup

[Village Idiot]

I'd S&T if there was a worthwhile return. If not, bye bye. He won't get enough minutes to be effective; we are seeing that in the bubble. Bring Skal Labisserie and Noah vonleh back, as well as Melo!!!

I was pretty happy with Skal and was sorry to see him go. The Hawks have his bird rights but if they don't re-sign him I'd be very happy with him as our back-up C.

Does anyone feel like Whiteside is a better fit as a 2rd big along Nurkic and Collins than Wenyen Gabriel will be next year? I'm curious Wenyen seems to have added a little strength and quickness since Covid hit and he can play effectively next to either guy...maybe even a few minutes at the 3 in the right lineup

I really like Gabriel but at this point he's a 5th big or a combo forward and not a back-up center. He doesn't have the bulk to deal with many 5s. If his ball handling improves I can see him as more of a Pascal Siakam type of combo forward. I was checking out Wenyen's g-league stats and was shocked to find out he connected on 46.2% of his 3s on 3.7 attempts per game. It was only a 7 game sample size but it has carried over well to this season with the Blazers where he has made 41.7% in his 18 games with us.

[d-train]

Originally, I believed Blazers would want to re-sign Hassan. This was when the budget was $142M. Now the budget is $120M. I believe Hassan will likely be a budget casualty. I'm not saying this because I think Hassan will be expensive. I believe some team is going to get him cheap. There will be lots of good cheap players this off-season. Blazers will fill the roster using MLE, BAE, $7M TPE, $2.4 TPE, VME, and 1st round pick exception(s). Our total salary will be under the tax, around $120M.

[Goldbum]

Originally, I believed Blazers would want to re-sign Hassan. This was when the budget was $142M. Now the budget is $120M. I believe Hassan will likely be a budget casualty. I'm not saying this because I think Hassan will be expensive. I believe some team is going to get him cheap. There will be lots of good cheap players this off-season. Blazers will fill the roster using MLE, BAE, $7M TPE, $2.4 TPE, VME, and 1st round pick exception(s). Our total salary will be under the tax, around $120M.

That's with Portland declining Ariza correct?
Anyone know when all those stretched salaries drop off?

[enzino]

to BOS Rubio, Whiteside, #10
to PHO: Walker, #16
to POR; Kanter, Oubre, #27

[d-train]

Originally, I believed Blazers would want to re-sign Hassan. This was when the budget was $142M. Now the budget is $120M. I believe Hassan will likely be a budget casualty. I'm not saying this because I think Hassan will be expensive. I believe some team is going to get him cheap. There will be lots of good cheap players this off-season. Blazers will fill the roster using MLE, BAE, $7M TPE, $2.4 TPE, VME, and 1st round pick exception(s). Our total salary will be under the tax, around $120M.

That's with Portland declining Ariza correct?
Anyone know when all those stretched salaries drop off?

Blazers will waive Ariza, that's a given IMO.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Does anyone feel like Whiteside is a better fit as a 2rd big along Nurkic and Collins than Wenyen Gabriel will be next year? I'm curious Wenyen seems to have added a little strength and quickness since Covid hit and he can play effectively next to either guy...maybe even a few minutes at the 3 in the right lineup

What are the chances Gabriel plays better than Collins next year? Any time Collins gets a rebound under the basket, he should simply kick it back out because he takes forever and a day to go back up and typically either loses the ball or gets snuffed and loses the ball. Gabriel on the otherhand, goes up strong immediately and puts it in as we saw yesterday.

[d-train]

to BOS Rubio, Whiteside, #10
to PHO: Walker, #16
to POR; Kanter, Oubre, #27

No from Blazers on this deal.

We will take Kanter packaged with a 2020 1st for a TPE. We won't take Oubre. We can only sign and trade Whiteside. We would s&t him straight across for *Whiteside. Celtics would need to dump a lot of salary before they would be allowed to do a s&t.

*Kanter

[Roy The Natural]

Does anyone feel like Whiteside is a better fit as a 2rd big along Nurkic and Collins than Wenyen Gabriel will be next year? I'm curious Wenyen seems to have added a little strength and quickness since Covid hit and he can play effectively next to either guy...maybe even a few minutes at the 3 in the right lineup

What are the chances Gabriel plays better than Collins next year? Any time Collins gets a rebound under the basket, he should simply kick it back out because he takes forever and a day to go back up and typically either loses the ball or gets snuffed and loses the ball. Gabriel on the otherhand, goes up strong immediately and puts it in as we saw yesterday.

I'd say the chances are zero. Gabriel is aboslutely awful defensively.

[Epicurus]

Seems to me on defense Gabriel is very aware of the court, ball, and his man. He is very quick with his first step and his slides are fast and correct. He also seems unafraid to put his head on the ball. How is he "absolutely awful defensively?"

[d-train]

I like the defense of all our players. Keeping in mind Melo, Lillard, and CJ aren't great because of their defense. They also aren't the liabilities they are tagged as either. Gabriel has good potential on defense. Nurk and Collins are our star defensive players.

[Roy The Natural]

Seems to me on defense Gabriel is very aware of the court, ball, and his man. He is very quick with his first step and his slides are fast and correct. He also seems unafraid to put his head on the ball. How is he "absolutely awful defensively?"

I see the opposite. I see a guy who's regularly late recovering, can't stay in front of his man, has ZERO idea how to position defensively, and is living purely on hustle. I thought he was abysmal in his 12 minutes against the Clippers, and not much better against the 76ers.

Against the 76ers. Al Horford's 3, 9:32 into the 1st quarter. I think this is just terrible help defense. I don't know what he was doing here, but it wasn't smart. Lillard had already effectively cut off the ball-handlers angle to the rim. I can't see this as good defense.

https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=201143&TeamID=1610612755&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=FG3M&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

At 8:20 in the first quarter he committed a really dumb foul on Embiid, somehow fouling Embiid on a turnaround fadeaway jumper from a double team. It was a super stupid double-team where even if the double team was an acceptable idea, the execution was awful. Dumb foul and bad defense.

https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=203954&TeamID=1610612755&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=FGM&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

He basically had 4 posessions which he was involved in in his first stint. Those were 2 of them. The others were: an iso attempt by Tobias Harris from the mid-range where Harris jab stepped and then put up a midrange jumper that was decently contested by Gabriel, but a very easy possession defensively.. and a floater by Richardson that neither Gabriel nor Collins left their man to effectively contest.

Meanwhile while Gabriel was in Collins playing on Embiid put up these 3 beauty's:

https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=1&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=BLK&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

Funny thing is Gabriel actually fouls Embiid on this play on the putback attempt but doesn't get called for it, clearly bringing his arms down on Embiid as Embiid goes up.

https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=1&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=1628380&TeamID=1610612757&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=STL&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

Collins battles well and deflects the entry pass here. Really shows how much he's grown as a gritty defender against a very strong player like Embiid.


https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=1&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=202699&TeamID=1610612755&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=OREB&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

I thought this was really excellent defense by Collins twice. The first help defense forces the miss, but Harris gets a really lucky bounce and the rebound comes right back to him. I think that Hezonja did a really poor job here of playing with hustle and energy and seems to almost lackadaiscally give up on the play after the initial contest. With how important these games are you'd think he'd play with some energy and look to get right back into the play. Anyways, Collins recovers and does a really good job of attempting to contest/block the followup shot but it goes in.


Back to Gabriel

https://stats.nba.com/events/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=203658&TeamID=1610612755&GameID=0021901289&ContextMeasure=FGA&Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&RangeType=0&StartPeriod=1&EndPeriod=10&StartRange=0&EndRange=28800&section=game&sct=plot

I don't know. He's put in a tough position here, but he put up absolutely no resistance to either the ball-handler or the bigman. This was an easy alley oop that the 76ers should have finished. Gabriel didn't hedge out far enough to begin with, and then never really attempted to hold up the ball-handler or recover to the big... he just sat in no-man's land the entire time. He didn't get much help from teammates here though. I still very much doubt this is how the Blazers would like to play the pick and roll and both Trent and Gabriel did a poor job here of communicating and let the ball-handler and big do exactly what they wanted without any resistance.

Korkmaz also drew him into the air for a 3 point foul before his stint was over here, the 3 pointer didn't go in, so I can't bring it up on the website, but it was a bad foul.



I could go over more, but after watching again I'll amend my statement. Gabriel isn't awful defensively. He passable in simple situations such as from the triple threat, or just playing on his man. He struggles tremendously from what I've seen when put in a more complex situation, such as help defense, pick and roll defense, or just in general with shading the ball-handler and positioning. In my opinion he lacks awareness on the defensive end of the court, and has marginal instincts there. He has a lot of hustle though and that's good. He's kind of like Ed Davis was here defensively in that he has moments where he does something pretty good, most of the time in a simple uncomplex situation. However, he gets lost fairly frequently, and in general has a hard time with the subtleties of positioning and help defense.

Like I said, I could keep rewatching the last two games, and running over to NBA.com/stats for the video, but it's just not worth the time. I agree that I was a bit hyperbolic in my initial statement/assessment, but he has nowhere near the impact that Collins shows regularly. Collins still has issues with consistency on the defensive end, but Collins impacts the defense to a far higher degree when he's playing well.

[Epicurus]

Perhaps I discounted to greatly Gabriel's negatives. On the other hand, you seemed to have discounted his positives. His getting called for a couple of the fouls you mentioned was largely the lack of reputation. Ilike his quickness and how much ground he covers. But yes, he has faults.

[Roy The Natural]

Perhaps I discounted to greatly Gabriel's negatives. On the other hand, you seemed to have discounted his positives. His getting called for a couple of the fouls you mentioned was largely the lack of reputation. Ilike his quickness and how much ground he covers. But yes, he has faults.

I think we can agree there. I think maybe we both were a bit off in "memory assessment."

I have to contest the reputation foul argument though. The Korkmaz foul on the 3 was an easy call and he smashed into a 3pt shooter as they were going up. The Embiid foul was a legit undercut. Those aren't reputation fouls. They're dumb fouls. They're the type of fouls that a young player often makes, but they're not good defense none-the-less.

I think that Collins and Gabriel are different players with different strengths. Collins has a really nice looking jumper that is likely to start translating to good games shooting the ball sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, jumpshooting is normally the last thing to come back after a long injury hiatus, especially one where you couldn't move your arm for months. In some way Nurkic was really fortunate that his injury basically allowed him to practice many facets of his game that needed work. Nurk's likely been able to shoot and practice free throws for 5-6 months now, if not longer. Collins on the other hand likely lost 3-5 months of working on his touch and shooting due to the nature of his injury.

I don't think we should over-magnify anything that either Nurk/Collins is doing in the bubble. It's nice to see them back and they've both added some positive to the court since returning. I really like how Collins is rebounding right now though. I think that's a clear sign of progression and getting stronger. I'm not going to overly concern myself with the touch around the rim for Collins considering his injury and how it likely affected his ability to practice offense while recovering.

Even if Collins never develops into anything other than a decent outside spot-up shooter offensively, I feel confident projecting him as a plus defender who quite possibly is turning into a solid rebounder as well. That's a good combo to have for a mobile 7' player. I think it's likely he'll turn into a 10-12 ppg, 7-8rpg player with plus defense and versatility to guard the 4/5, while even spending some time guarding some 3's. I'm fine with that, and that's what I've projected all along.

I think Gabriel will be more limited to a more Moe Harkless type role. Gabriel if he hits his best case ceiling is maybe a mostly locked in Moe Harkless, which is a really solid player.

Let's hope they both can breakout next year/or even better to finish this year and we don't have to worry about who does what better.

[Epicurus]

I really wasn't comparing the two. Also I think if Gabriel was an established defender in the league, his block of the Embid turnaround would not have merited a whistle. You are correct it is a call that always goes against younger players. i seem also to recall a good contest on a three from someone by Gabriel. I'm sure Collins had the same somewhere in the game.

[Roy The Natural]

I really wasn't comparing the two. Also I think if Gabriel was an established defender in the league, his block of the Embid turnaround would not have merited a whistle. You are correct it is a call that always goes against younger players. i seem also to recall a good contest on a three from someone by Gabriel. I'm sure Collins had the same somewhere in the game.

Yes.. Gabriel contested a Trey Burke 3 really well that went in anyways. Collins also had numerous good contests at the arc. I'll say this, I'd much rather have Gabriel out there than Hezonja. I know the team seems to want to use Hezonja as a secondary ball-handler to give Dame and CJ a rest and let them run off some screens to setup mismatches, but I don't think that there's much of anything that Hezonja does dribbling the ball up the court that Gary Trent couldn't do.

You obviously know I'm not a big Stotts fan, so I won't go into all that... but I do think that the team should look to get either Gabriel or Little on the floor a bit more each game. They play with a ton of heart and hustly, and I think this team really goes through stretches where it has too many "cool customers" on the court. I find that there is a distinct lack of energy on the court at times where either Collins/Trent aren't out there.