Harsh. That's good news. It's been fun seeing what Sergio and Bayless can do with extended minutes but we've been missing Blake's outside shooting.
Yeah I remember seeing him shake hands and kind of do a little "hug-bump" thingie with Juan Dixon the other night with his bum shoulder and I thought to myself, "Whoa, he looks like he could be close to coming back." If he's able to go, I think his presence does a lot to settle the team down and get them into rhythm, by providing Brandon with a reliable safety valve in the corner. Then again we might as well see what we've got in Bayless and Sergio against a team like the Clips.
listen...im gonna make this real simple. blake is 1000000000 times better then either of the other pgs. if you think sergio or bayless is gonna beat a good team....get your head examined. we miss blake...end of story
I guess I need my head examined. I'll say one thing, though...as the starter Sergio is 4-11 (36.4%) from 3, and 16-36 (44.4%) overall. Blake's 43.4% from 3 and 43.6% overall. Sure, it's a small sample size. Sergio also has a 39:7 (5.6) A/To ratio. Against a "good" team? 7pt, 5ast, 0 TO on 3-5 shooting. If Sergio's even CLOSE to Steve in shooting, it could be lights out for Blake.
Like I have said before, all of our PG have a big hole in their game. You trade one strength for a different weakness. Outside shooting for playmaking or defense or interior pentration and scoring. Pick your poison. The reason I like the other PG, is I feel the Blazers shoot too many 3 pointers. I prefer a team that wins in the paint.
I agree Sergio has done a pretty good job running the offense in Blake's absence, but he's still brutal on the defensive end of the court and that isn't going to fly long term if he were to ever be named the starter. More likely in my mind I think Sergio has potential as a change-of-pace backup, but as a starter he dribbles far too much, and doesn't seem particularly well suited as a running mate for Brandon.
I'm with you, Nik, but I don't see Blake as being that far away from Sergio in defense, and not in the same universe in passing/floor vision/etc. As far as well-suited to run with Brandon, I tend to agree. However, I think that quite shortly "being well-suited to run with GREG" will be the more important criteria, and Brandon will adjust his game accordingly.
Wow. Why all the Blake hate? Anyone who thinks he isn't absolutely vital to our success just needs to take a look at our assists, turnovers and three-point shooting since he went down. I know we would have beaten Charlotte with him, and you could make a pretty strong argument that we could have beaten Cleveland with him. I would like to see him get some rest tonight and potentially on Wednesday so he's healthy for the game vs. Utah. There's no reason we should drop tonight's game or Wednesday's game, even without Blake. -Pop
Sergio has outplayed Bayless the last few games. But it was far from an outstanding performance, although I was encouraged to see some chemistry building with Oden the last game in the second half. . The question is not necessarily "how are you playing now" but the question is, who does the team see starting on a playoff ready competitive team a few years down the line. Then when you answer that question and figure out that it's smarter to be building towards integrating that player into the mix rather than fart around for a couple of years with a mediocre backup starting and eating up PT of the guy with upside.
I really am impressed with Sergio lately. And I love Bayless and Blake.... Damn, it's really a fun position to be in
Since it's looking more and more like our hot-shooting start was an outlier, I started with the Boston game (about a month's worth). Since this is just for fun, I thought you'd maybe like to see something. From Boston (Dec. 4, iirc) to Blake's injury, we were 119/341 (34.9%) from 3. We had 19.3 assists and 12 TO's per game for a 1.6 A/TO ratio. Since Sergio's the starter, we're shooting 36.8% from 3, with 18 assists and 9.6 TO's (1.9 A/TO ratio). We didn't lose to CHA b/c of PG play. If you want to say Oden screwed us by fouling out in 18 minutes, fine. Roy going 3-10 from the line? No problem. Our PGs combining for 10-16, 24pts, 5 assist and 1 turnover? Highly unlikely that Blake was doing any better than that. And if you're saying that Mo Williams would NOT have torched Blake just like Sergio, Bayless and everyone else...I don't know what to say. Our PGs there were 5-8. 17pts, 5assists, 1 TO. Not sure Blake would've done better than that, either.
I see part of your point, but I would stretch that a degree further: whomever our starting point guard is needs to be able to play well with both Brandon and Greg and must be able to play good perimeter defense -- I think Bayless has a lot of promise in this respect, but he's going to have to put in a lot of work showing that he can get the ball to people where they can use it at least part of the time (I think most of his assists are going to come on drive and kicks to the wing or on the break where he already seems pretty comfortable). Regarding the backup spot, If Sergio could get his shooting up to even a semi-respectable 42% on 2s and 36% on 3s (for a whole season, not just a handful of games) I'd be perfectly happy with him as this team's second unit point guard (where defensive deficiencies won't be as critical), but there are a lot of "ifs" that he needs to answer.
