All Things Ayton

[Superbone]

Only in Ayton's and JeremyG's mind is Ayton viewed as the second coming of Giannis; if he only had the right teammates/coach. Reality has him with the basketball desire of Luther Wright.

Wonder where he will fit in with the Pantheon of Blazers centers: Walton, Bowie, and Oden.

The crazy thing is he could be Giannis with a better jump shot with his body and size but he just doesn't have the desire to get there and put in that kind of effort into the game of basketball. Basketball is just a tool for him to get those big contracts.

[Kryptonic]

[Shabazz]

I'm curious to see what it would take for the Ayton stans to admit they were wrong about him. If he puts up 18 and 10 again with his typical lack of defensive stats, free throw attempts and a negative a/to ratio and Portland sucks, will it be because of their coach and roster or will the White Knights of Aytonistan finally admit that 5 years in, this dude just does not drive winning basketball.

[Split T]

And he scored 4 points in his season opener. You can’t trust him. He can’t create his own shot. He’d be dependent on our guards getting him the ball. You think Goodwin, Allen, and Gordon are getting him the ball in position to take 20 shots? Not a chance.

He played 4 whole games last year without either CP3 or Booker. He scored 24, 18, 14, and 11…so 16.8 ppg. That’s probably what he would’ve given us.

So now you're basing your argument on a 4-game sample? We also didn't have Cam Payne in those games, who I said should have been our point guard this year. (He averaged 7.1 apg in 15 games as a starter last season btw.)

Regardless, assuming no Payne and assuming 17 points from Ayton last night...what did we get from Allen+Little+Nurkic? 12 points. So we were missing 5 points. How many points did we lose by? 5 points.

I was kinda shocked it was only 4 games. You were talking up Ayton as the teams leading scorer with Booker out and mentioned CP3 missed some too over those couple months. So my point wasn’t to emphasize a 4 game sample. It was to call you out on saying he did some of that without CP3. He did 4 games without CP3 and didn’t exactly fair that great in those 4.

The point remains. He can’t generate his own shot. Our team had no one last night to generate shots for him. He wasn’t scoring 30. He’s a weapon when you have good ball handlers that can find him near the basket. Not a reliable option to replace their scoring when they are out. Not without a pg to find him. It’s amazing to me how much you continue to bend over backwards to support DA. He’s not even on the team anymore.

I said 25-30 originally. And you just pointed out that he scored 24 with no CP3, Booker, or Payne to feed him. So this argument is ridiculous. My whole point is that he could have helped our offense and lack of scoring last night.

And you're ignoring the fact that I never advocated for keeping him on the roster without having a point guard. I think that last night shows we need a point guard anyway.

Mikal did have 9 assists in that game…so he probably wasn’t creating his own shot, Mikal was. Which is my overall point. He can’t create his own shot. You understand that, which is why you want a pg…which makes me wonder why you were anti-cp3…very few players are going to get Ayton the looks CP3 got him.

And I think last night shows we need Booker and Beal. Yes a pg would be nice for when they are both out, but I don’t care enough in the regular season and we have bigger problems if they’re out in the playoffs.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to be both an Ayton stan and accept the reality of who he is and isn't as an NBA player.

[JeremyG]

And he scored 4 points in his season opener. You can’t trust him. He can’t create his own shot. He’d be dependent on our guards getting him the ball. You think Goodwin, Allen, and Gordon are getting him the ball in position to take 20 shots? Not a chance.

He played 4 whole games last year without either CP3 or Booker. He scored 24, 18, 14, and 11…so 16.8 ppg. That’s probably what he would’ve given us.

So now you're basing your argument on a 4-game sample? We also didn't have Cam Payne in those games, who I said should have been our point guard this year. (He averaged 7.1 apg in 15 games as a starter last season btw.)

Regardless, assuming no Payne and assuming 17 points from Ayton last night...what did we get from Allen+Little+Nurkic? 12 points. So we were missing 5 points. How many points did we lose by? 5 points.

I was kinda shocked it was only 4 games. You were talking up Ayton as the teams leading scorer with Booker out and mentioned CP3 missed some too over those couple months. So my point wasn’t to emphasize a 4 game sample. It was to call you out on saying he did some of that without CP3. He did 4 games without CP3 and didn’t exactly fair that great in those 4.

The point remains. He can’t generate his own shot. Our team had no one last night to generate shots for him. He wasn’t scoring 30. He’s a weapon when you have good ball handlers that can find him near the basket. Not a reliable option to replace their scoring when they are out. Not without a pg to find him. It’s amazing to me how much you continue to bend over backwards to support DA. He’s not even on the team anymore.

I said 25-30 originally. And you just pointed out that he scored 24 with no CP3, Booker, or Payne to feed him. So this argument is ridiculous. My whole point is that he could have helped our offense and lack of scoring last night.

And you're ignoring the fact that I never advocated for keeping him on the roster without having a point guard. I think that last night shows we need a point guard anyway.

Mikal did have 9 assists in that game…so he probably wasn’t creating his own shot, Mikal was. Which is my overall point. He can’t create his own shot. You understand that, which is why you want a pg…which makes me wonder why you were anti-cp3…very few players are going to get Ayton the looks CP3 got him.

And I think last night shows we need Booker and Beal. Yes a pg would be nice for when they are both out, but I don’t care enough in the regular season and we have bigger problems if they’re out in the playoffs.

He has historically scored just fine without CP3. But I was only "anti-CP3" when he got too old--it had nothing to do with Ayton.

And you might start caring about the regular season if Booker and/or Beal keep missing games and we keep having trouble scoring.

[JeremyG]

I'm curious to see what it would take for the Ayton stans to admit they were wrong about him. If he puts up 18 and 10 again with his typical lack of defensive stats, free throw attempts and a negative a/to ratio and Portland sucks, will it be because of their coach and roster or will the White Knights of Aytonistan finally admit that 5 years in, this dude just does not drive winning basketball.

You must have missed this post:

While averaging only 30.7 mpg in those seasons. There's no way his minutes are that low this season.

I can’t wait to hear the excuses when his averages are all the same next year if not worse

How about this? If that happens, I will admit I was wrong about Deandre Ayton.

[Superbone]

Ayton scored 14 points in the Blazers home opening loss to the Orlando Magic. He scored the first 4 points of the game and then had another basket half way through the first quarter. His next basket didn't come until 3.5 minutes into the 2nd half. Then another lull until he scored his final 6 points in the last 3 minutes of the game.

The good: He had 15 rebounds.
The bad: Once again he shot 0 FTs. He also had a couple turnovers we're accustomed to where he tries to make a dribble move and gets the ball stripped from behind. Also fumbled a couple passes.

Much better than game one overall though.

[ShelC]

Yea I caught most of the 1st qtr and he was active and engaged. Simons being out will help him because it's one less ballhandler, ISO guy out there. And maybe Brogdan sticks around and helps him get more looks. But pretty typical DA game, thought he'd have a bounce back game against the Magic because Wagner and Banchero are more PFs than Cs who wouldn't give him trouble in the post.

[Kryptonic]

Ayton scored 14 points in the Blazers home opening loss to the Orlando Magic. He scored the first 4 points of the game and then had another basket half way through the first quarter. His next basket didn't come until 3.5 minutes into the 2nd half. Then another lull until he scored his final 6 points in the last 3 minutes of the game.

The good: He had 15 rebounds.
The bad: Once again he shot 0 FTs. He also had a couple turnovers we're accustomed to where he tries to make a dribble move and gets the ball stripped from behind. Also fumbled a couple passes.

Much better than game one overall though.

I’m sure there an excuse for why…. It has to be the better quality weed up there, right?

[Kryptonic]

Will today be the day?

[virtual9mm]

Race to 200 haha.

Trying not to care too much about Ayton but right now he's looking more like Joe Barry Carroll than David Robinson. WTF is up with him? He has a golden opportunity and he's letting it slip through his fingers.

If I end up being wrong about him, so be it.

[ShelC]

Here's Monty on his bullshit again, holding back Jalen Duren in Detroit.

[TOO]

Duren, good hands, roll hard, use size, finish with authority. Amazing what happens when you just do what you're asked.

[Cap]

Got some Amare in him.

[Mori Chu]

Durenation!!

[Cap]

Duren Duren

[Split T]

Those highlights look like what we all hoped Ayton would be. Attacking the rim and dunking where Ayton would’ve put up a little 6 foot hook

[specialsauce]

Damn looks good

[Kryptonic]

Durenation!!

Too close to urinAyton.