His plus/minus over that span was only +1, but that’s not terrible considering the team went a cumulative -54 and went 4-7 over those 11 games (3 home, 8 away). Stats per [Statmuse](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/simons-without-dame-on-the-blazers-2023-advanced-stats).
I know 11 games is a tiny sample size, but he just turned 24 a few months ago and is on a steal of a contract compared to other guards in the $24m/year range (Poole, Herro, Conley, Barrett, Clarkson, Brooks). As a comparison, Dame averaged 21/4.6/6.2 on 43/34/86 splits when he was 24 back in ’14-’15. That was over the course of a full season and on a much different team with LA, Wes, and Batum – but point-being that it took Dame a few years to bulk up and round out his game.
All that to say I’m stoked to see how Scoot and Shaeden play in their rookie/sophomore seasons, but I think we’re going to be most surprised by improvements in Ant’s game and his potential leap to all-star status as our primary scoring threat.
by Upbeat-Resource-5000
13 Comments
I agree. The best-case scenario is we have an all-star to flip at the trade deadline or next Summer to flip for a 4/5.
He is going to play a similar role this year. Scoot is going to have the ball in his hands if Dame/gets injured leaves and and if Dame stays, he is going to play the same role as he did last year.
It’s wild how much people are underrating Ant. If any of Scoot or Shaedon are as good as he is right now in the next 5 years I’d be delighted
Idk if ant really impacts winning. I wish I’m wrong. Dame use to average those numbers and will his team to winning even with a sorry squad.
I still don’t know how all three can coexist in the starting lineup… something has to give
Ant has a basketball IQ problem. Can he catch fire and absolutely torch a team? For sure. But how often does that happen compared to the amount of times he jacks up contested deep threes in order to “get it going?”
For next season, I am most excited to see how Ant does without Dame.
#Defense
That’s what we need. It’s the reason we never had a shot with Dame and CJ.
Id love to see Ant learn to facilitate a bit more and get his teammates involved. He seems to do best when he’s shooting off the catch or clearing out for his own shot. He’s a good player but I think he has more growth to do.
It all depends on what happens with Dame.
If there are two (or even three) PG’s on the roster, if everyone is healthy, there are 0 minutes for Ant at PG. He can play all 36 as the off guard, and CB can scheme for that offensively/defensively.
If there is only one PG on the roster, Ant will still have to play about 40-50% of his minutes at PG. You have to run different schemes for that, because now your 1a/1b scoring option is on the ball.
If Grant is exclusively a 4, and Ant is exclusively a 2, as your primaries, then you can keep things simpler for all the younguns, who don’t yet know how to read and react as a unit.
You mentioned Dame’s age 24 season in comparison. Five starters at five positions, and no bench. 🙂 Just getting the starting five positions sorted, creates consistency in the starters over time. We$ wasn’t a part time PG. LMA was adamantly not a center. Dame exclusively a PG. RoLo exclusively a center that played in his space. Even though Nic could be flexible, that made him exclusively the SF in that lineup, because the four other positions were set.
He will be our best player next season. Grant 2nd. Scoot 3rd. Shae 4th.
If he does average close to those numbers, do you think we could flip him for OG? Should we?
As someone who isn’t really high or low on Ant, my pushback would be that he will have to share more on ball touches with Scoot and Shae now than he did when Lillard was out the past couple seasons.
I like going back a little further, as if you include 2021-22 it’s a 41 game sample without Dame where he went 24/3/6 on 46/41/90. That type of output with a lower assist total seems reasonable to expect, but that’s not close to an all-star when you don’t offer much on the other end.
I don’t think Ant is totally empty calories and I do think he can contribute to winning, but ultimately I think he’ll be a 6MOTY type somewhat like a modern Jason Terry.