Travis still doesn't get it.

I am pretty sure that there were 99 points for Portland when Travis went for the shot. Weren't there?

 

Couldashouldawoulda.

Didn't.

 

Actually you're wrong. He did. Go back and watch the last 2 minutes. Kleiza finally missed from deep, and it was Roy who had a hand in his face. Barrett even commented on Roy closing out on him.

 

Thank you for confirming. It is unfortunate that Maris61 did not understand my statement as fact.

 

Yes they were at 99 when Travis "stupidly" went for the shot. While Travis was on the FT line ready to miss the first FT, Billups got a "T". Roy stepped up and made the technical. Outlaw then missed the first and made the second giving us 101.

 

Yeah, he did.

And the point is that Roy knew where his man was and played D on him. Travis didn't, multiple times.

 

TO must GO just like zBO!!!

 

We don't win the Phoenix game without him. Roy was on fire but we needed someone to help and take the pressure off of him and Travis did it. He can hit big time shots with the pressure on and he can get his own shot.

 

Travis is an enigma. He can win you some games and can lose you some games. But at the end of the day - he is our backup SF (and might be our backup PF) - he does not make tons of money holding the team captive with his cap space, he does not cause locker-room issues, he is not punching team-mates, he does not run into the stands, he does not shoot his gun in parking lots - so there is an awful lot of hate for the guy that should really not be there. He is not a star - but he is a good backup NBA player, since he plays backup in Portland - we should be happy and lucky we have him.

 

Barnes doesn't get all the open looks at the end of the game w/o TO either sadly. If we have a consistent scorer and solid defender at SF, we don't need miracle games from Roy to pull out wins.

 

Even Reggie Miller called him out specifically wondering what the hell he was doing defensively. He doesn't make the right call on switches, leaving his man to help, fighting through picks, etc. I am so sick of his 2 dribbles jab step elevate and shoot a fade-away against 2 people in the lane crap when he gets the ball. Just spend a game a and ignore everyone else and watch how many times TO is out of position on both ends of the floor. Pryzbilla, Roy, and Sergio, are always pointing telling him where he should be.

The sooner we can dump him the better. Webster needs to rehab as fast as he can, I can only scream at my TV so long before the wife thinks I am crazy. Until then MacMillan needs to take away his green light on offense.

 

Yet another negative thread about Outlaw, a back-up player.

 

You can say the same thing about Rudy's fade away shots from 20 feet as well. Not always the smartest thing to do , but we don't have many players on this team that can create their own shot . So lets dump Outlaw for a star player. I mean there are so many examples of teams trading away good players for shit players it should be easy. I am sure we can trade all the crap we don't want for ones we do. (Yes that was fucking sarcasm.)

 

I'm not going to defend Outlaw's defense last night, but the Kleiza thing was not always his fault. With about two minutes to go in the third I watched Lamarcus Aldridge end up on Kleiza out on the wing during a Denver fastbreak. He then inexplicably leaves Kleiza all by himself in order to go help Joel & someone else TRIPLE TEAM someone down in the post (I think Kenyon). Kenyon (?) then found Kleiza all by himself for the open three. I don't care if Kleiza wasn't who Lamarcus should have been on, YOU DON'T JUST LEAVE HIM WIDE OPEN FOR ESSENTIALLY NO REASON. I recorded the game and watched the play a few times and I still don't have a fucking clue what Aldridge was trying to do.

And our gaurds, my God... They couldn't stay in front of their man for two steps if their lives depended on it. Even Greg is now trying to defend by colliding with the opposition as they run to the lane. Note to Greg: Not a good strategy.

I keep hearing that Nate always has them work on defense in practice... And after a stretch where they only played two games in ten days, meaning they had a lot of practice, their defense has even gotten worse, which is really saying something. I don't know what they work on in practice, but it ain't defense. I mean these defensive problems are BASIC.

 

A backup player who is often on the floor at critical times late in the game. That can lead to to consequences, he can either be a hero (as he helped in the Phoenix game) or he can be a goat (the boneheaded plays).

If he was a backup player who got playing time like Channing Frye, this wouldn't be an issue. However, he is a backup player who gets time like Manu Ginobelli and hence, is frequently a "backup" in name only and thus he boneheaded plays can have serious consequences for the team.

I've been on both sides of the fence about Travis and I would be fine with him if his minutes were more limited and he wasn't in the game at critical times (I know, that could cost us some games, but it could also win us some games). However, as long as he is going to play at critical times, I have issues with his low BBall IQ.

Gramps...

 

True, the lack of an overall team defensive strategy (or apparently so) exacerbates, or exposes, the defensive problems of specific individuals. There are a lot of guys on the team with defensive issues, but Travis is one of the worst IMO.

Gramps...