DownToBuck doesn’t normally feel emotions like happiness. In fact, DownToBuck has largely forgotten what happiness feels like. Contentment, sure, DownToBuck feels content sometimes. He even sometimes feels pleased. But happiness? DownToBuck’s flattened emotional seismograph doesn’t allow for extreme emotions like that. On the plus side, DownToBuck is not really capable of sadness or frustration either. He just kind of exists.
Nevertheless, I’m fairly certain that the feelings bubbling up inside me when I think about Skal Labissiere’s role on the Blazers could be classified as happy feelings. Labissiere was getting misused hard for all of last season (“misused” in this case meaning “not used at all”), but now he has a real, consistent role on the team and it’s awesome. I’m trying not to think about what happens to his minutes when both Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic return to the lineup. If I think about that too hard, those fleeting sensations of legitimate happiness are likely to disappear and not be seen again for months. So I’m just enjoying the here and now.
I will say that the Blazers might still be misusing Skal, not just minutes-wise, but midrange-jumper-wise as well. Skal is a splashmaster from anywhere inside the arc. His jimbos are pure like a freshly-opened jar of peanut butter. We need to see nonstop Lillard-Labissiere (“Lillissiere”) pick-and-pops until defenders figure it out, which they’re never gonna do because it’s an unstoppable combination.