The backcourt

[Blazers98]

It looks more and more likely that Dame will be staying. We have an amazing backcourt and but not enough minutes.
Lillard
Scoot
Sharpe
Ant

Can Sharpe play SF? Should he play SF, I mean if given time, could he grow into the role and be a decent defender there? If he can, then there might be room for all 4 players. And can come off the bench. If he can't, we really need to find a trade for Ant IMO. Scoot and Sharpe need the minutes to develop.

[DusterBuster]

While no one knows what Dame is going to do, I would say categorizing it as "more and more likely that Dame is staying" would not be how I would see it.

[m0ng0]

Get creative with coaching, there is a way to keep all 4, they could become the 4 horseman if coached properly, Sharpe could play limited 3 based on matchups

[ebott]

Anyone can play at any position if you don't care about defense. I say we just always have a 3 or 4 guard lineup. Start Dame, Ant, Shaedon, Jeremy and Nurk. Scoot is the 6th man.
And don't forget about Keon Johnson and Matisse Thybulle.

Now I've taken what I meant to be a sincere post and turned it into a real snarky facetious post. Oh well, this whole thing just sucks.

[DusterBuster]

Anyone can play at any position if you don't care about defense. I say we just always have a 3 or 4 guard lineup. Start Dame, Ant, Shaedon, Jeremy and Nurk. Scoot is the 6th man.
And don't forget about Keon Johnson and Matisse Thybulle.

Now I've taken what I meant to be a sincere post and turned it into a real snarky facetious post. Oh well, this whole thing just sucks.

If for whatever weird reason Dame decides to stay, this is EXACTLY what I think the roster will look like on opening night.

Which is literally the worst possible outcome imo. You've continue to pick no path whatsoever and still plugging along on this undersized backcourt **** we've watched for 10+ years now and playing guys out of position. It makes no one happy. Dame is still not on a contending team in Portland, Scoot who expected to start from Day 1 is coming off the bench to start his career, Sharpe is playing out of position and is at best a 4th option on offense - decreasing his ability to grow in Season 2... Literally a terrible position for nearly everyone on the roster save for Grant and Nurkic?

[I_like_Defence]

Scoot can't really shoot

to maximize his potential its best he plays the 1 and Dame at the 2

[DusterBuster]

Scoot can't really shoot

to maximize his potential its best he plays the 1 and Dame at the 2

FWIW, I'm reserving judgment on that until I seem him in person.

[The Sebastian Express]

As Clyde on the draft board pointed out, Scoot shot 33% from the NBA three point line where Miller shot 34% from the NBA three point line (but on greater volume). And people were saying Scoot's shots were often either too long or shot, rather than off the rim to the side. He's an acceptable, though not great, free throw shooter - so there's room for improvement. I don't think he'll ever become an elite shooter, but I think he can become passable.

[BNM]

Get creative with coaching, there is a way to keep all 4, they could become the 4 horseman if coached properly, Sharpe could play limited 3 based on matchups

Creative coaching and if coached properly? Bwahahaha... Have you forgotten who our coach is?

If Chauncey is sill our coach, he will start Dame an Ant in the backcourt, bury Sharpe on the bench and peopbably play him out of position when he does play him.

What needs to happen:

1) FIRE CHAUNCEY and hire Mike Budenholzer while he is still available.

2) Trade Ant for a solid back up 5. Doesn't need to be a scorer, just someone who can rebound and defend.

3) Start Sharpe at SG. For the love of god, do NOT force him to play most of his minutes out of position at SG. An occasional 4 - 5 minute stretch of small ball is fine, but Sharpe's best position is SG and that's where he should play 85% - 90% of his minutes. Haven't we seen enough of miniature, no defense backcourts (Dame + CJ, Dame + Ant) and playing guys like Norm Powell and Josh Hart out of position at SF?

4) Make Scoot our 6th man on opening night and get him as many minutes as possible. Dame will be a great mentor/teacher, but Scoot/Sharpe is our backcourt of the future and both players need as many minutes as possible to develop.

5) Resign Thybulle to a reasonable contract and groom Rayan Rupert as his eventual replacement. That means either leave Rupert in NZ for another year or bring him over for our G League team.

6) Now that we have a G League team, USE IT. Don't be afraid to give young guys like Rupert, Murray and Walker lots of PT in the G League, but don't hesitate to move them up and down between the Blazers and the G League wherever they are ready/needed for rotation minutes. I think Murray will surprise people with how soon he will be ready to contribute as part of the regular rotation.

[mighty_duck]

2) Trade Ant for a solid back up 5. Doesn't need to be a scorer, just someone who can rebound and defend.

I agree 100% with everything you wrote, except for this point.
Ant has a lot more value than a backup 5. Those can be had for a fraction of the MLE.

We need either a solid starter in return, or a young player who could grow with Scoot and Sharpe (obviously not another guard)

[BNM]

And don't forget about Keon Johnson and Matisse Thybulle.

Can we please forget about Keon? He is AWFUL. I get that he's young, but he's not awfully young, he's young and AWFUL.

He's a terrible shooter, who shoots way too much and ALL of his advanced stats are NEGATIVE - by a lot. Given our depth at guard, do we really need a guy with a .465 TS% on 25% USG%, who commits almost as many TOVs as assists?

Yeah, he's athletic, but he's extremely unskilled. I don't want him taking a single minute of PT from any of our other young guards. I'd gladly trade him for a top 55 protected future 2nd round pick, or just give him away to a team with a $2.8 million TPE. For god's sake, do not pick up his $4.47 million team option for 2024-25.

[BNM]

2) Trade Ant for a solid back up 5. Doesn't need to be a scorer, just someone who can rebound and defend.

I agree 100% with everything you wrote, except for this point.
Ant has a lot more value than a backup 5. Those can be had for a fraction of the MLE.

We need either a solid starter in return, or a young player who could grow with Scoot and Sharpe (obviously not another guard)

I should have been more clear. Given Nurk's injury history, we need a back up 5 that can fill in for starter minutes when needed. I love Eubanks energy and effort, he's not big enough to be relied on to start 30+ games at the 5 when Nurk goes down.

So yeah, a young back up 5 who can potentially play starter minutes when needed and grow with our young core would be ideal.

We do need to trade Ant though. If not, Chauncey will continue to start him at SG and he will take minutes away from both Sharpe and Scoot.

[red_power]

Can Sharpe play SF? Should he play SF, I mean if given time, could he grow into the role and be a decent defender there? If he can, then there might be room for all 4 players.

Hey man, do you want to see that Dame-CJ-Powell dwarf show all over again?

Anyway Cronin should shop Ant hard around the league at the moment

[Blazers98]

Can Sharpe play SF? Should he play SF, I mean if given time, could he grow into the role and be a decent defender there? If he can, then there might be room for all 4 players.

Hey man, do you want to see that Dame-CJ-Powell dwarf show all over again?

Anyway Cronin should shop Ant hard around the league at the moment

LOL No....no I do not. Point taken.

[Wizenheimer]

Sharpe is not a SF. That does not mean he can't switch onto a SF occasionally in defensive rotations. But there was a draft express aggregations of measurements from the last 10-15 combines of heights w/o shoes by position. IIRC, Sharpe was about 1.5-1.75 inches shorter than the average SF. But he was about 1/2 inch taller than the average SG

after seeing the last few years of Blazer basketball; seeing the Blazers constantly playing people out of position because for some wacky reason their GM's can't find suitable height; after seeing how Denver dominated Miami with their front-line length...I am amazed that anybody would want Portland to put Sharpe at SF and go back to small ball. It's never worked for Portland

a 3 guard rotation of Dame-Sharpe-Scoot, with Thybulle as a backup offers good possibilities. There may be some mesh issues at first if it's Dame/Scoot back there, but if Scoot is as massively talented as so many believe it should not create the same problems as Dame/CJ and Dame/Ant

on the other hand, a 4 guard rotation of Dame-Ant-Sharpe-Scoot is simply awkward, size-deprived, cluttered, and messy. Ant is the odd man out. He's has the least amount of talent, the least amount of versatility, and he's making 26M/year meaning he's going to steal development time from Scoot and Sharpe. I know CJ and Ant aren't the same player but they have the same deficiencies of size and defense. Only Ant is much more of a defensive sieve than CJ...and that's saying something

I know some people like Ant, but in my view he needs to be traded, and that's true if Dame stays or Dame goes. The Blazers need to stop stubbornly holding onto role players as if they are core players. Ant isn't core

[Blazers98]

I know some people like Ant, but in my view he needs to be traded, and that's true if Dame stays or Dame goes. The Blazers need to stop stubbornly holding onto role players as if they are core players. Ant isn't core

Not a huge Ant fan but IF we trade Dame, I kinda like Ant as a 6th man who can fill in when Scoot gets injured.
Not a bad change of pace to keep defenses on their toes. Scoot attacks the basket and Ant shoots it.
Of course if we can leverage Ant for a frontcourt player, then we need to do it.

[Wizenheimer]

I know some people like Ant, but in my view he needs to be traded, and that's true if Dame stays or Dame goes. The Blazers need to stop stubbornly holding onto role players as if they are core players. Ant isn't core

Not a huge Ant fan but IF we trade Dame, I kinda like Ant as a 6th man who can fill in when Scoot gets injured.
Not a bad change of pace to keep defenses on their toes. Scoot attacks the basket and Ant shoots it.
Of course if we can leverage Ant for a frontcourt player, then we need to do it.

under the new CBA, having a 6th man making 26M/year doesn't make any sense. If Portland trades Dame, they need to stop straddling fences and go full rebuild. Keeping Ant around is just straddling another fence

[Tim Lehrbach]

I like Simons just fine and love Sharpe's potential, but Scoot should start day one. He's the most likely of the three to make a difference on the team's results early in the season, particularly defensively. If Dame is still around, we need to know what we have in this roster ASAP to maximize the possibility for success next year. Also, to put it more simply, I think Scoot is probably already going to be the best player of the three. Whether he holds off Shaedon long-term, I don't know, but Scoot's gonna come in like a wrecking ball and win us some games right away, I feel. Probably lose some others, too, but he raises the 2023-2024 Blazers' ceiling the most.

[Pattycakes]

I like Simons just fine and love Sharpe's potential, but Scoot should start day one. He's the most likely of the three to make a difference on the team's results early in the season, particularly defensively. If Dame is still around, we need to know what we have in this roster ASAP to maximize the possibility for success next year. Also, to put it more simply, I think Scoot is probably already going to be the best player of the three. Whether he holds off Shaedon long-term, I don't know, but Scoot's gonna come in like a wrecking ball and win us some games right away, I feel. Probably lose some others, too, but he raises the 2023-2024 Blazers' ceiling the most.

Well said! Scoot has the ‘it’ factor like Shaedon had, except scoot has both point guard skills and league level experience going into his rookie season - he’s going to be rookie cp3, d rose and westbrook combined imo. People don’t realize the blazers weren’t that far off from being competitors last year. Need more talent and roster balance, scoot achieves talent, and also gives dame a rest from the PG load. Win - Win.

[dunlop212]

Hey Wiz; friendly question. You post about height a lot, and I am generally in agreement, but I notice that you never mention wingspan. Is this an irrelevant number? IIRC Scoot and Simons have wingspans that arguably mitigate their height issues.

My own feeling is that PDX has a guard glut, and Simons is the logical one to go, since he is the worst defender, even if he is taller than Dame or Scoot.