What will Luke Babbitt's role be this season?
by looster401 on Oct 7, 2010 1:09 AM PDT
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If the Blazers are to be successful and contend in the playoffs this year, what part in that, if any, do you expect Luke Babbitt to have? BARRING INJURIES to key rotation players (arguably the only reason we know anything about Dante Cunningham or Jeff Pendergraph's skills going into this season), do you expect Babbitt to get any meaningful minutes?
Reasons he might be a factor this year: 1. Since playoff-caliber teams generally pick later in the draft and have fairly established rosters already, it's common for their rookies to see little to no action except in garbage time. However, Babbitt was a highly touted prospect coming into this year's draft and several scouts thought he could have been a lottery pick. 2. His varied but controlled offensive game has the potential to give the blazers something they've sorely lacked the past couple of seasons, and something maybe no one else on the roster is quite as suited for: reliable and CONSISTENT instant offense off the bench.
Reasons he might not: 1. Even with the departure of Martell Webster, we're crowded at the small forward position. Babbitt will have to fight for time against Batum, Matthews, and Cunningham, and Rudy. 2. As the roster has been solidified over the last few seasons, Nate McMillan has had issues with putting rookies in the rotation in general (last season being an exception of course, due to injuries). 3. Babbitt's defense is expected to be somewhat of a liability. He may yet develop it, but perhaps not enough to keep him on the floor this season.
Thoughts?
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Can say really, not until he’s shown he can keep his head above water in a real game.
This is my sig file. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
He'll start a little slow but by December he'll be keeping Dante on the bench and forcing Nate to give him some of Batum's minutes
By the end of the season, he’ll be in the top 5 in rookie of the year candidates.
The name's tominhawaii, but everybody calls me LukeBabbittFTW. Any of you guys call me tominhawaii, and I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody replying to my comments. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys replying to my comments, I'll kill you. Also, I don't like nobody flagging me. Now, any of you Zachs flag me, and I'll kill you.
He can't take Nico's minutes
He can have Brandon’s, but you don’t take minutes away from your All-Star for a rookie’s sake.
When the world knows Nico Batum as "The Inevitable", I'll be very happy with where he is as a player.
Bench warmer
And late 4th period spot-up shooter when the game is out of reach or we are way far ahead
Damn the Blazers. Damn them to hell. - 'The Sports Guy' Bill Simmons
He'll be on the bench except
He’ll spend most of his time getting garbage minutes. However, if there’s an injury to Camby, LMA, Cunningham or Batum he will get some time at the backup 4 or 3.
With our Injury luck and the nature of the 82 game season I expect him to have 5-10 games where he get’s decent minutes.
towel waver
not because he’s bad but because they are too many guys ahead of him.
His assets are very usable.
Three point shooter. He will spread the floor.
He can back down with the ball to bring a second defender and hit the open man.
Can drive to the basket and dunk.
Can defend the pick and roll. He ran the guard off the pick and got back to his man beautifully.
This is pretty good stuff.
Not being able to handle a hangover will lead to a level of maturity.
Wheels to Jason Quick
His role:
Nail some threes. Drive it to the rack when played tight. Grab some boards. And dance, dance, dance.
My favorite teams are the Blazers and any team that is playing the Lakers.
Corner 3 sniper, in late game situations
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
My very early judgement of luke babbit
Is that he has a whole bunch of very useful skills, but has yet to put them all together.
I doubt he’ll see any meaningful minutes this year, but i also have extremely high hopes for him long term. he can do some things (hehehe.) But if you look a little “deer in the headlights” during the pre-season and summer league, you’re probably not ready to contribute yet.
I don't think the 3 is all that crowded.
The only Blazers with the right skill-set and size are Batum and Matthews. I’m finally convinced that Dante is indeed a 4 and Rudy is causing to much distraction to remain with the team.
I think if Luke shakes off the nerves he’ll be getting a steady diet of minutes, though not over 10 averaged (knock on wood).
No no no.
In most games, he’ll play the entire second half after we salt the game away during the first 24 minutes ;)
Realistically, though, I expect him to be more towel boy than spot-up threat. Not cracking the rotation until late in the fourth quarter of a preseason blowout is not exactly indicative of a prominent role to come…
It's quite possible.
One preseason game is a really small sample size, and his skill set could prove very useful. I just think between the depth at his position and Nate’s preference for veterans there won’t be many opportunities for him to get on the court.
Of course, this is assuming people don’t get injured. knock on wood
as I said above
I don’t think there’s a logjam at the 3. Also, I think Nate will play the best lineups regardless of years. So I’m looking for Luke to get some good burn after the All-Star game then being brought in as a sharpshooter late in games during the playoffs (not many minutes in that).
Could very well happen.
Dante has supposedly been trying to extend his range in order to be able to play some SF, but I agree that he’ll probably get most of his minutes as a backup 4. That leaves only Batum and Matthews, and more minutes should be available given that Wes will play plenty of SG. Plus, Nate does love him some shooters.
I don't see Dante as a PF in the NBA.
He got steady minutes at the 4 last season because of our injury-thinned rotation, but I don’t think he has quite enough size to be an everyday bench 4 for the Blazers. That’s another issue worthy of its own thread. Can Dante be an effective backup PF for a team like the Blazers? If not, is there room for both he and Babbitt in the team’s future plans? Players like Charles Barkley made up for their lack of size at the 4 with offensive talents Dante will likely never develop… Unfortunately I see him as a breed of “combo-forward” that rarely finds success in the NBA. His hustle and defense could make him a valuable trade piece, though, and if I had to predict I’d say that’s the route we’ll eventually take with him.
I agree with the "combo-forward" assessment
but don’t see that as a negative since his qualities and Luke’s don’t overlap so much. Dante plays bigger than he is due to his use of (I credit two4larue with this realization) body leverage. He knows how to place his feet and body for maximum effect, like Barkley did, coincidentally. No, he does not have the patented Butt-Bumpin’-turnaround jumper but he is quite effective as a pick-n-pop 4 (AK led me to this one). As far as talents go I think intelligence is top on Dante’s list and ability is top on Luke’s. Luke will be strong once he develops his skills to suit a complimentary role (how that’s done the Assistant Coaches are the ones to know) rather than the go-to man role he had in college. Now that I think of it the more they come to overlap their skillsets the more complete players they’ll be… but I still think they can mesh on the court as a tandem rather than having to replace one another from the bench.
I agree with all of that, EXCEPT
Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews both figure to be with the club for the long-haul, and simply because of that I’m not confident that there will be room for both Dante and Luke later on down the road, even if they do bring different skills to the table.
I think Dante will be a relatively inexpensive pickup after his rookie contract ends
precisely because of his status as a bench tweener. I don’t think this takes away from his skills at all though. I’ve got a feeling that Luke might blow up and become a coveted asset to some other team, so if one is to go it’ll be Luke due to our signing 3 rookies this year. My ideal sitch for the 2012-13 season:
Bayless AJ
Roy Matthews
Batum Babbitt
Aldridge Dante
Oden ???
I can see those combinations playing off each other quite well in theory, but alas I won’t see it in fact for some time.
Cunningham is strong fundamentally
he has a great motor and a real nose for out of area rebounds
Dante can play PF alongside Oden, or Przybilla (not so much Camby/LMA)
We haven’t seen it yet, but I suspect he’ll extend his range to the corner 3, eventually. He had great footwork on the pick-and-pop coming out of ’Nova, as we saw in Vegas as early as ’09 (with Pooh Jeter setting him up)
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Stretch 4
Opening up the floor with his shooting.
Dante covers the faster of the 3/4 on the floor and plays inside while Luke bombs away from the perimeter.
He will play the Travis role if needed but will not take the volume of shots that Travis did.
No offense to Luke's abilities...
But his chances for meaningful minutes as a rookie on a team with Nicolas, Rudy, Wes Matthews, Dante Cunningham, and probably Brandon Roy playing ahead of him at the 3 (his natural position) mean that his chances for any real game minutes will be practically non-existent.
Think Jermaine O’Neal rookie minutes.
It’s not that the guy doesn’t have a bright future. He’s just got to develop, and right now he’s just not ready to play at the level this team is going to be playing at.
Given the situation at backup 4, I guess it’s possible he might see spot duty there on occasions; but I’ll wager we’ll see Camby and Dante playing there more often than Luke.
Portland Trail Blazers, Future World Champions 2011-2021.
Brandon Roy playing ahead of him at the 3 (his natural position)
No, he’s a SG who now weighs less than 210. With Batum and Matthews covering 48 minutes at the 3, Brandon should be able to stay healthier defending guards for the rest of his career
When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!
Babbitt is a garbage time / injury sub player this year
He’s behind 2 other legit players at SF and at least 2 other legit players at the 4, one of which is also going to be swinging to the 3 (Cunningham).
Babbitt didn’t look great in summer league. He had been described as maybe playing a Travis Outlaw role of shooting creating offense off the bench, but he looked more like Adam Morrison to me. Either way though, the rotation is full at the moment. Hopefully LB stays healthy though, because you never know when someone’s going to get injured…
3rd string 3/4
He will not get significant minutes in front of Dante at the backup 4…and as long as we have Rudy I think Rudy/Bayless/Wes are the backup 1-3. If Rudy gets moved I could see him getting spot minutes at the backup 3. When (If) Joel and Greg come back, it will slide Camby to the backup 4 spot. This will slide Dante to more of a backup 3 role, further pinching Babbit’s minutes.
0000000000000000000000000
Hopefully he only plays garbage time, if he plays any meaning full minutes we are in trouble. He is very lucky to have been picked as high as he was in the draft. His best years will be when the blazers let him go and maybe he can catch on with some team in Europe.
Well, tonight's injury to Jeff Pendergraph
may have an effect on this discussion. We’ll have to see how serious it is.
Sound like he'll be starting at center
The name's tominhawaii, but everybody calls me LukeBabbittFTW. Any of you guys call me tominhawaii, and I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody replying to my comments. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys replying to my comments, I'll kill you. Also, I don't like nobody flagging me. Now, any of you Zachs flag me, and I'll kill you.
by LukeBabbittFTW on Oct 8, 2010 1:52 AM PDT up reply actions
Blazer fans really don't give Babbitt much credit.
He’s better than any of our rookies last year and they got playing time so I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. That’s probably why his rookie class peers voted him the 2nd biggest sleeper in their class. Not to mention the best shooter in their class. You’d almost think Patty Mills was better than Babbitt judging by comments on this site. Babbitt will be a solid player in the NBA and has shown anything to believe otherwise yet.
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