So I'm looking around for a "WTF Sergio?!?!" Thread...

Yeah, I agree. It's not that I hate Sergio- it's just that, while he is exciting to watch at times, I don't think he fits in the current system.

 

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/12/is_jerryd_bayless_the_shot_in.html

Looks like El Chacho is working his way back into Nate's doghouse.

 

Interesting. I've been of the opinion that if Blake and/or Sergio aren't doing well, there isn't really a reason to not put Bayless in, and was hoping to see more of him. I would have liked to have seen Nate try this a bit more, but I guess Bayless' chance may be coming sooner than I thought.

 

"Yeah, the pick-and-roll ...'' I said, noting the Blazers' team-wide problem that night. But before I could finish, McMillan was already shaking his head. "No, just defense period,'' McMillan said. "He has to play better defense.''

Nate seems blind to the obvious, that nobody on his team except Joel is consistently playing good defense. If he's laying the blame on 1, 2 or 3 bench guys we're never going to see improvement from the starters, and that's where we need it come playoff time.

 

LOL I just posted a thread of this... sorry, should have checked first.

That article made me

 

I was at the Dallas game and Sergio seemed to have a nice game - especially with the offense - but I watched the game again on the DVR (painful experience) - and paid more attention to Sergio's D - and it was right - the Mavs went on a big run with him in the game.

 

Thank you, Brian.

 

Your details of the run forget the following:

1. Before even 1 second of play Sergio fouls Jason Terry (before they inbound the ball) - the Mavs score 2 points.
2. Kidd going around Sergio, Roy rotating forcing a pass to Jason Terry, Joel has to run over to him and foul. Terry sinks two shots.
3. At the 10:41 Sergio with a bad pass on the break

That's 3 mistakes by Sergio in the first half, 2 of them defensive.

I am too tired to re-live the loss of the 4th quarter lead with Sergio in the game - so I am not going to re-watch it again...

Blake did not have a good defensive game - but it looked better than Sergio in this re-run of the game that I just watched. There is a reason Sergio had the worst +/- - he did not create offense enough to offset his defense.

Add the fact that Travis played all the minutes that Sergio was on the court - and since he finished with a -7 for the game - it means that he was +3 next to Blake. Same with Rudy - played all the minutes that Sergio did and finished with -8 - so he was +2 next to Blake...

Yes, Frye was bad (big surprise) - but he only played next to Sergio for about 1/2 of Sergio's minutes - so it's not all on Outlaw (who was + next to Blake) or Frye (Frye was not in the game in the 2nd quarter when we went from +3 to -1 during Sergio's brief run.

 

You mean fouling when you do not need to is not bad defense? So a foul when the ball is not even in play is good? Of course it was a stupid mistake and of course it was bad defense - it lead to 2 points before the ball even entered the court.

The 1-4 of his man is the culprit - if you take a look - Dallas also had 3 offensive rebounds in this time from these 3 misses - because the bigs that went to rotate to cover for Sergio losing his man and caused the misses could not recover to get the rebounds. Yes, his man went 1-4 - but the possessions really ended as 4-4 because of the 3 offensive rebounds taken when our bigs were away from the basket trying to contain the penetration.

 

Unfortunately (or fortunately) - I deleted the game from my DVR - but that was my distinct impression re-watching that game - that all of these break-downs started with Sergio's man blowing by him, the ball swung around with people out of position and the offensive rebound taken by Dallas because our bigs were out of play.

If you have that stretch to re-watch it - I will be willing to accept that my impression was wrong (if you re-read the thread - my impression during the game was not that Sergio had a bad game - but it appeared after I re-watched it on my TV). But - as I said - since I did re-watch it (yes, I am a masochist) - it seemed like his defensive breakdowns were a big issue during that stretch.

 

Barea was lighting up Blake in the 4th quarter not Sergio...come on now people....

You know the bottom line is that Sergio is not long for this team..it is becoming very apparent that Nate doesn't like the guy...or in more "professional" terms...He isn't his kind of player....whatever...

I'll give Blake his due, he has been surprisingly solid offensively...by=ut his defense isn't much better than Sergio's...I don't know what games most of you people are watching...and he may have a shining assist to To ratio, but he has some CRUCIAL turnovers, misses, misplays that have cost POR games....

Sergio isn't great but he doesn't deserve half of the blame he is getting here and from Nate...that is a joke....Whay doesn't Nate just come out and admit to Pritchard that he doesn't like the guy and get this whole charade over with....

Maybe he has...

 

Excellent posts, Brian. It is absolutely ridiculous for Nate to call out Sergio publicly, while our other guards have been just as bad defensively. He is clearly going after his favorite whipping boy, while protecting his favorites. Very professional.

Does anyone dispute this claim now?

 

Calling out Sergio on defense on this team is like Oprah telling Roseanne Barr to go on a diet.

 

Not true.

http://sportstwo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132001