Blazers trade for Robert Covington

d-train · Post #81 » by **d-train** » Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:00 pm

I would take Collins, DJJ, Simons, Trent, and Little over some of the lottery picks in this draft.

d-train · Post #82 » by **d-train** » Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:10 pm

The difference between a player like Lillard and Lebron is when the defense "sells out," LeBron makes them pay.

d-train · Post #83 » by **d-train** » Wed Dec 2, 2020 5:51 am

Did Rockets do us a favor by taking our 16th pick and the $3.4M salary obligation it carried?

If we didn't free up this money, we can't trade for Kanter, or we can't use the full MLE to attract DJJ.

JasonStern · Post #84 » by **JasonStern** » Wed Dec 2, 2020 6:58 pm

d-train wrote:Did Rockets do us a favor by taking our 16th pick and the $3.4M salary obligation it carried?

If we didn't free up this money, we can't trade for Kanter, or we can't use the full MLE to attract DJJ.

The Grizzlies did us the favor by taking on Mario Hezonja. Expect their GM to never answer Olshey's calls ever again after about 3 games into the season.

d-train · Post #85 » by **d-train** » Wed Dec 2, 2020 8:22 pm

JasonStern wrote:
d-train wrote:Did Rockets do us a favor by taking our 16th pick and the $3.4M salary obligation it carried?

If we didn't free up this money, we can't trade for Kanter, or we can't use the full MLE to attract DJJ.

The Grizzlies did us the favor by taking on Mario Hezonja. Expect their GM to never answer Olshey's calls ever again after about 3 games into the season.

Mario is separate from having money to use our TPE and the full MLE. Trading Mario instead of taking additional draft compensation from Celtics allowed us to create an open roster spot used on Giles. So, the Mario trade gets us Giles instead of Mario.

Goldbum · Post #86 » by **Goldbum** » Wed Dec 2, 2020 9:06 pm

Spot on D-Train

JasonStern · Post #87 » by **JasonStern** » Wed Dec 2, 2020 9:35 pm

d-train wrote:
JasonStern wrote:
d-train wrote:Did Rockets do us a favor by taking our 16th pick and the $3.4M salary obligation it carried?

If we didn't free up this money, we can't trade for Kanter, or we can't use the full MLE to attract DJJ.

The Grizzlies did us the favor by taking on Mario Hezonja. Expect their GM to never answer Olshey's calls ever again after about 3 games into the season.

Mario is separate from having money to use our TPE and the full MLE. Trading Mario instead of taking additional draft compensation from Celtics allowed us to create an open roster spot used on Giles. So, the Mario trade gets us Giles instead of Mario.

I was speaking generally. Portland could have stashed the draft rights to Aleksej Pokusevski to get out of the salary obligation while still retaining a future or tradeable asset.

Sinobas · Post #88 » by **Sinobas** » Thu Dec 3, 2020 4:37 am

How much better is this guy going to be than Aminu?

d-train · Post #89 » by **d-train** » Thu Dec 3, 2020 7:49 am

Sinobas wrote:How much better is this guy going to be than Aminu?

Aminu is a better 4, RoCo is a better 3. There is not a big difference. I'm not sure DJJ is going to be a huge improvement over Mo. A healthy Collins would be our biggest improvement at forward. Also, the depth provided by Melo, Hood, Giles, Trent, and Little is an improvement.

Our biggest improvement from last season will be Nurk, Collins, and depth. I don't see RoCo and DJJ being a lot better than Melo, Ariza, and Hood were last season. However, we ended last season with just Melo, Trent, and Gabriel. RoCo, DJJ, Melo, Hood, Giles, and Trent are a huge improvement over what we ended last season with.

The story last season was injuries. This season is a new chance to be healthier. We have a chance to get to the place we were 1 1/2 years ago before Nurk broke his leg, plus we have better depth.

Village Idiot · Post #90 » by **Village Idiot** » Thu Dec 3, 2020 8:26 am

Sinobas wrote:How much better is this guy going to be than Aminu?

Covington is what we all hoped Aminu would become. We won't cringe watching him shoot. His form is pure and smooth. No weird side of head catapult. If Cov brings the ball up the floor you won't look away, like we did with Aminu, knowing he'll find some way to turn the ball over. He'll take care of it. Defensively RoCo is at a high level consistently rather than sporadically like Chief.

Pattycakes · Post #91 » by **Pattycakes** » Thu Dec 3, 2020 1:10 pm

Sinobas wrote:How much better is this guy going to be than Aminu?

Less stonery faced, better at every other element of the game

BlazersBroncos · Post #92 » by **BlazersBroncos** » Thu Dec 3, 2020 2:02 pm

RoCo posted a 3.8 DBPM in the playoffs, the best of any qualifying player. He is miles better than Aminu.

Sinobas · Post #93 » by **Sinobas** » Fri Dec 4, 2020 12:37 am

Players have historically raised their 3pt% when coming to Portland. Both Harkless and Aminu had theirs go up after coming here and it has dipped back down after leaving. Hopefully that hold's true because Covington shot it worse last year than Aminu ever did in Portland.

The Blazers missed the defense of Harkless and Aminu last year. I hope DJ Jones and Covington are better versions of those 2.

BlazersBroncos · Post #94 » by **BlazersBroncos** » Fri Dec 4, 2020 1:03 am

The Blazers missed the defense of Harkless and Aminu last year. I hope DJ Jones and Covington are better versions of those 2.

I think RoCo will be about as good as Harkless in terms of man defense, potentially a bit worse. Mo is a tremendously underrated man to man defender. Where RoCo is great, maybe the best, is team defense.

DJJ had some nice advanced defensive stats in Miami. Last season he posted a better DBPM and WS/48 than Aminu ever did in Portland.

dunlop212 · Post #95 » by **dunlop212** » Sun Dec 6, 2020 3:04 pm

A really good analysis of Covington's defense. Makes you wonder why Minn and Houston traded him.

Watch on YouTube

Sinobas · Post #96 » by **Sinobas** » Sun Dec 6, 2020 5:53 pm

d-train wrote:
Sinobas wrote:How much better is this guy going to be than Aminu?

Aminu is a better 4, RoCo is a better 3. There is not a big difference. I'm not sure DJJ is going to be a huge improvement over Mo. A healthy Collins would be our biggest improvement at forward. Also, the depth provided by Melo, Hood, Giles, Trent, and Little is an improvement.

Our biggest improvement from last season will be Nurk, Collins, and depth. I don't see RoCo and DJJ being a lot better than Melo, Ariza, and Hood were last season. However, we ended last season with just Melo, Trent, and Gabriel. RoCo, DJJ, Melo, Hood, Giles, and Trent are a huge improvement over what we ended last season with.

The story last season was injuries. This season is a new chance to be healthier. We have a chance to get to the place we were 1 1/2 years ago before Nurk broke his leg, plus we have better depth.

Right, I think Covington and DJJ are like getting Aminu and Harkless back. We did miss their defense last year. But if everyone can stay healthy we should have a deep bench with Hood, Kanter and Melo.

Post #97 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Sun Dec 6, 2020 6:14 pm

Sinobas wrote:Players have historically raised their 3pt% when coming to Portland. Both Harkless and Aminu had theirs go up after coming here and it has dipped back down after leaving. Hopefully that hold's true because Covington shot it worse last year than Aminu ever did in Portland.

The Blazers missed the defense of Harkless and Aminu last year. I hope DJ Jones and Covington are better versions of those 2.

Covington is for sure an updgrade to Aminu. He might have shot it worse by percentage in that wacky high volume Houston offense, but Covington has averaged >6 attempts from 3 his entire career while Aminu has broken 4 attempts just twice. So their comfortability with the shot and how defenses will react to them behind the arc is pretty different.

DJJ we will have to see if he is as good or better than Harkless. Certainly some reasons for optimism, he doesn't seem to be thought of as inconsistent like Harkless was and seems a tad more athletic, even if Harkless had a couple inches and better shooting stats prior to coming to Portland.

dunlop212 · Post #98 » by **dunlop212** » Mon Dec 7, 2020 12:45 am

An extreme statement, but I can't think of a better PDX defender than Covington other than Walton.

JasonStern · Post #99 » by **JasonStern** » Mon Dec 7, 2020 7:54 pm

dunlop212 wrote:An extreme statement, but I can't think of a better PDX defender than Covington other than Walton.

Ruben Patterson - the "Kobe Stopper"..?

Watch on YouTube

Waynearchetype · Post #100 » by **Waynearchetype** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 8:07 pm

Not sure his defense is outweighing his lack of shooting at this point. Real ugly season from him.