When that black and white bunch of pixels passed that orange blob of pixels to another black and white bunch of pixels, phew.
Seriously though, if (and it’s a big if) guys knock down the good looks Scoot gets them, he’s going to average double digit assists.
Forget everything, Friendship ended with ~~Dame~~ ~~Ant~~ ~~Sharpe~~ ~~Scoot~~ Now Camara is my best friend
Piano9717
**BASKETBALL IS BACK! it’s been a while god damn.**
My takeaways from this game:
The positives:
* Scoot’s passing and court vision are both as advertised. I know it wasn’t against an NBA opponent tonight, but the way he manipulates defenses with his eyes and zips passes crosscourt with either hand are things you rarely see from a rookie. Also, he looked quicker than he’s looked sometimes in the G league – last year he often struggled to get by people off the dribble, whereas he was getting by his defender at will tonight.
* Ant’s defensive effort was pretty good tonight. Much better than he’s been so far in his career, and you can tell it’s been a point of emphasis this offseason.
* Mays looks like a real NBA PG, and I would love for him to get minutes when/if Brogdon gets moved. He never gets sped up and always makes the right decisions – gives me a lot of Steve Blake vibes.
* Thybulle’s shooting – he’s going to way overperform that contract if he can actually shoot the ball. He’s got no pressure this year and a coaching staff that seems to want him to shoot the ball, so here’s to hoping it’s sustainable. Reath looked pretty intriguing on both ends of the floor. He’s a pretty fluid athlete and I think he will surprise a lot of people if he gets minutes.
* Kris Murray reminds me a lot of young Batum. He’s not really great at any one thing, but he’s a super high IQ player, moves the ball, and seems to be a fantastic connective piece on offense. Every team needs these players and I like what I see from him so far, especially for a rookie.
* Camara looked fantastic. A couple of those drives were a bit out of control and don’t look replicable against NBA competition, but he’s LONG and ATHLETIC, and the shooting stroke looked fantastic today. He also had some nice plays to force deflections on defense. Wouldn’t surprise me if he turned into something a few years down the road.
The negatives:
* Chauncey’s 2-3 zone – just like last season, we are guarding spaces on the floor and not actually matching up out of the zone and it’s just way too easy to break down. Really not a fan of this zone at all. The Breakers seemed like they were getting a wide open look every time against the zone, and it’s a good thing they were so bad at shooting (jetlagged?) and bricked these looks, but the zone will get exposed if we keep going to it like we did last year.
* Sharpe has to add some more shake to his game. He’s never going to be a primary scorer in this league if he doesn’t add a way to get by or through NBA forwards (either a craftier handle, or more strength to overpower forwards). Otherwise he is going to be taking a ton of tough stepbacks every game and that’s just a tough way to make a living. Unlike other people, I don’t think this is really a motor issue or not trying hard enough – I think his handle is visibly holding him back and not allowing him to change direction and it’s forcing him into contested jumpshots. It’s very similar to watching Andrew Wiggins in Minnesota, who had the same problem (all of these problems magically went away as soon as he went to the Warriors and started playing next to Steph). As of now, I think Sharpe is going to be dependent on a PG to set him up for good looks (remember how much better he looked last season after we signed Mays, versus with Arcidiacono he was just chucking up bricks?)
* Ant’s turnovers were a bit frustrating. He committed the same turnover 3 or 4 times against hard pressure and blitzes, which has been a weakness so far for him.
* Ayton’s decision making was not great today. He had a good pass out of the short roll to Scoot for an open three, but he had several curious looking moments where he tried to finish over 2 guys instead of just kicking it out. He also didn’t box out his man several times leading to easy putbacks. I don’t mind the missed jump hook shots (just like I didn’t mind them with Nurk), but the bricked flip shots over 2 guys in the paint needs to stop. He also had a horrible possession where he couldn’t back down 6’5 Zylem Cheatham and settled for a 13 foot jump hook – not a good sign if we are banking on him to be able to create his own shot. He was pigeonholed into catching lobs and collecting putbacks in Phoenix and I still do think he’s capable of more than that, but I don’t like what I saw at all today when he had the ball in his hands.
* Ayton dropped a couple bounce passes leading to turnovers. Normally I wouldn’t put too much stock into this, but this was a problem of his in Phoenix as well, so I thought it was worth noting.
* Grant’s mid-post touches have to go away. It seemed like (just like last year) we are trying to way too hard to run offense through Grant mid-post ISO which was one of our most inefficient high-volume plays last year. That needs to be permanently shelved unless he has a clear mismatch.
* Fuck Root Sports. enough said.
TubbzMcGee
Okay, I’ll drink the Kool-Aid Toumani.
Such-Egg-7584
Too many cameras was looking pretty good
Bieberkinz
* Root doesnt broadcast the game * Only working links are a sketchy lookin French stream site and some dudes YouTube * Kev and Lamar doing with some weird cues and Travis giving an Oscar worthy performance as Chauncey * Whoops we weren’t to see that, that was a test run * Rupert is still a Breaker according to ESPN’s live tracker * At least Scoot/Ant/Ayton looked good, deep bench provided some good second half action, Toumani REALLY gave us some highlights at the end
Peak preseason experience, but it feels great to be back with all of you
JohnGreek
WEEEE ARE THE CHAAAAMPIONS
SlamDunkleyKong
Wellp–Don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say if we don’t win the championship this season is a failure.
NachoMuncher420
Camara… Stoked on him. Dude is gonna be good
X_SkeletonCandy
Toumani balled tf out goddamn
toadtruck
stupid sexy scoot
Carcrusher3
I’ve only seen him for 15 minutes of gametime and I’d die for Too Many Camera’s.
MookieV
Really wasn’t expecting the bench to outplay the starters, but it was kind of encouraging. Scoot looks like he’s gonna be fine.
trebbihm
Shoutout to Breakers great R. Rupert, with a team high +32
beatrailblazer
Only watched the first half (using “watched” very lightly here), but I liked what I saw from Scoot. Everyone else was a bit meh, hopefully they’re just working off the rust
Scalmaa
Camara gonna end up being better than both Murray and Rupert I can feel it
Montigue
As someone that was unable to watch the game because of League Pass reasons I gotta say that we [overreaction] for [player] and [hot take that’s actually ice cold]
tomhalejr
I didn’t get to see the game, but listening and following along with the game cast, the most interesting thing to me was CB’s first half rotation. Plug Timelord or Brown into that slot, and that’s a 9 player rotation.
Not to read too much into a single half of a pre season game, but maybe coach is thinking the developmental minutes are for the Remix, not the Blazers?
Foyerfan
If you asked any Suns fan we would have told you Camara was a steal. Dude can ball
19 Comments
Man im excited for the future.
When that black and white bunch of pixels passed that orange blob of pixels to another black and white bunch of pixels, phew.
Seriously though, if (and it’s a big if) guys knock down the good looks Scoot gets them, he’s going to average double digit assists.
Forget everything, Friendship ended with ~~Dame~~ ~~Ant~~ ~~Sharpe~~ ~~Scoot~~ Now Camara is my best friend
**BASKETBALL IS BACK! it’s been a while god damn.**
My takeaways from this game:
The positives:
* Scoot’s passing and court vision are both as advertised. I know it wasn’t against an NBA opponent tonight, but the way he manipulates defenses with his eyes and zips passes crosscourt with either hand are things you rarely see from a rookie. Also, he looked quicker than he’s looked sometimes in the G league – last year he often struggled to get by people off the dribble, whereas he was getting by his defender at will tonight.
* Ant’s defensive effort was pretty good tonight. Much better than he’s been so far in his career, and you can tell it’s been a point of emphasis this offseason.
* Mays looks like a real NBA PG, and I would love for him to get minutes when/if Brogdon gets moved. He never gets sped up and always makes the right decisions – gives me a lot of Steve Blake vibes.
* Thybulle’s shooting – he’s going to way overperform that contract if he can actually shoot the ball. He’s got no pressure this year and a coaching staff that seems to want him to shoot the ball, so here’s to hoping it’s sustainable.
Reath looked pretty intriguing on both ends of the floor. He’s a pretty fluid athlete and I think he will surprise a lot of people if he gets minutes.
* Kris Murray reminds me a lot of young Batum. He’s not really great at any one thing, but he’s a super high IQ player, moves the ball, and seems to be a fantastic connective piece on offense. Every team needs these players and I like what I see from him so far, especially for a rookie.
* Camara looked fantastic. A couple of those drives were a bit out of control and don’t look replicable against NBA competition, but he’s LONG and ATHLETIC, and the shooting stroke looked fantastic today. He also had some nice plays to force deflections on defense. Wouldn’t surprise me if he turned into something a few years down the road.
The negatives:
* Chauncey’s 2-3 zone – just like last season, we are guarding spaces on the floor and not actually matching up out of the zone and it’s just way too easy to break down. Really not a fan of this zone at all. The Breakers seemed like they were getting a wide open look every time against the zone, and it’s a good thing they were so bad at shooting (jetlagged?) and bricked these looks, but the zone will get exposed if we keep going to it like we did last year.
* Sharpe has to add some more shake to his game. He’s never going to be a primary scorer in this league if he doesn’t add a way to get by or through NBA forwards (either a craftier handle, or more strength to overpower forwards). Otherwise he is going to be taking a ton of tough stepbacks every game and that’s just a tough way to make a living. Unlike other people, I don’t think this is really a motor issue or not trying hard enough – I think his handle is visibly holding him back and not allowing him to change direction and it’s forcing him into contested jumpshots. It’s very similar to watching Andrew Wiggins in Minnesota, who had the same problem (all of these problems magically went away as soon as he went to the Warriors and started playing next to Steph). As of now, I think Sharpe is going to be dependent on a PG to set him up for good looks (remember how much better he looked last season after we signed Mays, versus with Arcidiacono he was just chucking up bricks?)
* Ant’s turnovers were a bit frustrating. He committed the same turnover 3 or 4 times against hard pressure and blitzes, which has been a weakness so far for him.
* Ayton’s decision making was not great today. He had a good pass out of the short roll to Scoot for an open three, but he had several curious looking moments where he tried to finish over 2 guys instead of just kicking it out. He also didn’t box out his man several times leading to easy putbacks. I don’t mind the missed jump hook shots (just like I didn’t mind them with Nurk), but the bricked flip shots over 2 guys in the paint needs to stop. He also had a horrible possession where he couldn’t back down 6’5 Zylem Cheatham and settled for a 13 foot jump hook – not a good sign if we are banking on him to be able to create his own shot. He was pigeonholed into catching lobs and collecting putbacks in Phoenix and I still do think he’s capable of more than that, but I don’t like what I saw at all today when he had the ball in his hands.
* Ayton dropped a couple bounce passes leading to turnovers. Normally I wouldn’t put too much stock into this, but this was a problem of his in Phoenix as well, so I thought it was worth noting.
* Grant’s mid-post touches have to go away. It seemed like (just like last year) we are trying to way too hard to run offense through Grant mid-post ISO which was one of our most inefficient high-volume plays last year. That needs to be permanently shelved unless he has a clear mismatch.
* Fuck Root Sports. enough said.
Okay, I’ll drink the Kool-Aid Toumani.
Too many cameras was looking pretty good
* Root doesnt broadcast the game
* Only working links are a sketchy lookin French stream site and some dudes YouTube
* Kev and Lamar doing with some weird cues and Travis giving an Oscar worthy performance as Chauncey
* Whoops we weren’t to see that, that was a test run
* Rupert is still a Breaker according to ESPN’s live tracker
* At least Scoot/Ant/Ayton looked good, deep bench provided some good second half action, Toumani REALLY gave us some highlights at the end
Peak preseason experience, but it feels great to be back with all of you
WEEEE ARE THE CHAAAAMPIONS
Wellp–Don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say if we don’t win the championship this season is a failure.
Camara… Stoked on him. Dude is gonna be good
Toumani balled tf out goddamn
stupid sexy scoot
I’ve only seen him for 15 minutes of gametime and I’d die for Too Many Camera’s.
Really wasn’t expecting the bench to outplay the starters, but it was kind of encouraging. Scoot looks like he’s gonna be fine.
Shoutout to Breakers great R. Rupert, with a team high +32
Only watched the first half (using “watched” very lightly here), but I liked what I saw from Scoot. Everyone else was a bit meh, hopefully they’re just working off the rust
Camara gonna end up being better than both Murray and Rupert I can feel it
As someone that was unable to watch the game because of League Pass reasons I gotta say that we [overreaction] for [player] and [hot take that’s actually ice cold]
I didn’t get to see the game, but listening and following along with the game cast, the most interesting thing to me was CB’s first half rotation. Plug Timelord or Brown into that slot, and that’s a 9 player rotation.
Not to read too much into a single half of a pre season game, but maybe coach is thinking the developmental minutes are for the Remix, not the Blazers?
If you asked any Suns fan we would have told you Camara was a steal. Dude can ball