Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Good thoughts, Phalanx, but you're forgetting the biggest X factor of them all:

YANG HANSEN!!!!

I finally got around to listening to this interview with Sean Highkin from several days ago. Pretty interesting stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AJKHUiIwzI&t=608s

Highkin is much nicer about Lillard than I am, but basically comes to all the same conclusions, saying that starting Ja and Dame is untenable and might only be done initially for 'political reasons', but Jrue has to be one of the starters as he is one of the all-time great guard defenders. He points out that Ja is the highest-paid guy on the team, so he is going to play if healthy. He thinks they might bring Lillard off the bench and that he could be 6th man of the year with his shooting (I laughed). He acknowledges that Lillard won't be a fan of this idea, and he looks to Coach Nori to figure it out.

He also says of the guards, Shaedon is likely the odd man out and most likely to be traded. I agree that he is most likely to be traded, but I don't think he will be traded, because I don't think the Blazers actually intend to do a trade - at least not until they see what they have with Ja. I think they will be content to wait for someone to approach them with an overpay for Jrue or Shaedon that brings back youth or picks. Unlike fans, management has to look past this season and realize that Lillard won't be around long, and Jrue is only going to be here two more years as well. After that, it will still be Scoot and Shaedon and maybe Ja if the experiment with him works out. That's probably what Scoot is being reminded of daily right now. This gets messy with contract negotiations though. Scoot needs to play. That's why I believe Lillard's minutes will not be high as the season wears on. He doesn't fit in to the team's future, and they aren't built to do more than lose in the early rounds of the playoffs right now. Elevating him to any kind of focal point beyond PR puppet would be detrimental to team development.

Highkin is much nicer about Lillard than I am, but basically comes to all the same conclusions, saying that starting Ja and Dame is untenable and might only be done initially for 'political reasons', but Jrue has to be one of the starters as he is one of the all-time great guard defenders. He points out that Ja is the highest-paid guy on the team, so he is going to play if healthy. He thinks they might bring Lillard off the bench and that he could be 6th man of the year with his shooting (I laughed). He acknowledges that Lillard won't be a fan of this idea, and he looks to Coach Nori to figure it out.

I'm not going to say he's wrong, because it's just hard to imagine Ja and Dame playing alongside each other. But I'd have an easier time seeing Ja as sixth man and Dame/Jru starting alongside each other, assuming Dame is healthy. Dame is a significantly better player than Ja both in this era and with how our roster is constructed. Ja would actually be the perfect sixth man, a guy who could come off the bench and provide instant energy and scoring even if he had to do it by himself.

Jru is still going to get a ton of minutes, but he'll be rotated more between the 1 and 2. I don't really put too much stock in Ja's pay amounting to playing time, and I'm honestly surprised Highkin had that take. Jerami Grant was a max contract player last season (trailing Jru's bad contract by only like $500k) and usually came off the bench. Ja has a ton of potential and we got him without giving up any meaningful parts of our core, but his game has some massive flaws. He can't defend, can't shoot, and his once-otherworldly athleticism is questionable after some serious injuries.

Here's my prediction that we can revisit in December... Ja and Dame will be our starters, with Ja at the point. Dame and Jru will be our closers, with Dame at the point.

I still don't really understand why we traded for Ja.