https://youtu.be/iifdMwkyIHU
It must be a unique kind of pain for LeBron James, who has always needed “shooters” put around him, to look over at the opposing bench and see a shooter who is way better than any shooter on his own team. To get beat by a Blazers squad let by off-the-bench sharpshooter Gary Trent Jr. and his 28 points is bad enough, but then, to walk back into the locker room and have to look at the likes of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Markieff Morris adds another layer of agony to the proceedings. That’s the kind of situation where I march straight to my GM and say, “if you sign any more Troy Danielses, I’m taking my talents to the Clippers. Get me a Gary Trent Jr.”. Then, if your GM goes out and acquires a Tony Snell instead of a Gary Trent Jr., you can make a public trade request and nobody will even blame you.
GTJ is exactly what you want out of a second-round pick: a high-end role-player who can provide a few years of cheap production before that first big payday. Every team wants more shooters, and every team especially wants more shooters who are paid way under market rate so that they can stuff their salary cap with overpaid garbage. The way to do that is to find gems in the draft and that’s exactly what the Blazers did.
Now all we need is more GTJ smirks. He was smirking a ton in the Bubble. I want to see his smirking mojo come back. Smirks are like the ultimate insult on the basketball court.