Bayless has to earn his time. If Sergio was the rookie and Bayless was in his 3rd year (and they were as good as they are now) Bayless would be playing. Even if they were both rookies, I think Bayless would be playing. Just like Sergio had to sit behind Jack, Bayless has to sit behind Sergio. THing is though, even though he made mistakes it was hard to argue that Sergio desreved PT over Jack. Its not hard to argue that Bayless deserves PT over Sergio as he brings things we need, and also he is the future. Playing him now will pay dividends, and even Portland Blazer writers have been saying to commit to Bayless. Its not really a dropoff at all (And I think better on ball defense and being able to get to the rim helps the team more than what Sergio does well... which is.... pass?) with playing him 15mpg, and it will pay off in the future as he continues to develop at the PG position. At least that is how I see it. Bayless averaged about 10, 3 and 2 while Blake was out in 20mpg. For a rookie I think that is phenominal considering it was his first stretch of playing guaranteed minutes in his NBA career. Oh well, I just really hope we make the playoffs... we gotta go 17-12 the rest of the way to get to 50 wins, and I think we can def. do it. And I think most of us know that Bayless will be in the rotation next year (possibly even starting even though I doubt Nate would do that even if he is the best PG we have on the team, which I think there will be a good chance he will be)... maybe this is good for him to work even harder at developing his weaknesses. At the same time, I think Sergio has been playing pretty well. I cringe sometimes, but I think he is a solid backup PG. Overall, I don't think he has improved from his first yearin overall production, but i'm pretty proud of the guy. Its hard for me to think highly of him after he was pouting and his spanish agent asked to be traded, but w/e.
I don't see Bayless as a loser at all. We have seen he has talent but needs seasoning. He will probably play summer league. I think that because the Blazers have had some stellar rookies - Roy, Oden, Fernandez - , and because a rookie, Batum, has been forced by injuries into a starting role, that we tend to forget that a rookie is very rarely a starter on a playoff team. He works hard, keeps learning, his time will come. I think one thing nearly all of us agree on is that the team will not carry 3 point guards forever. We disagree on who will go. But as soon as one of them does, very likely this summer, Bayless will get significant PT.
Sergio sat behind Jack because he was clearly the worse player. Bayless is sitting behind Sergio because ??? You must not be seeing what I'm seeing.
I have no problems with Bayless as a Nba player...i just think SR is a better point guard. JB has avery bright future ahead of him. ....but i do not see him as a long term solution to the point guard situation...if so why were many of you wanting Andre Miller??....Ramon Sessions??
The same reason a lot of people wanted VC or RJ. They thought VC could be a good SF for us until Batum is ready to take over in a couple years. Many people on this forum wanted VC (I didn't) but still wanted to keep Batum. It is the same thing with Bayless. Many people wanted Sergio to be traded for Miller or Bibby thinking Bayless would take over in a couple years. Sessions is a little different and people like Sessions maybe better then Bayless and just wanted to trade for an upgrade. I'm not sure Sessions will be better then Bayless as a PG but I do like Sessions.
Hopefully Nate uses Sergio as the bench PG in the first half. If Sergio is having (one of his many) off nights, he puts in Bayless as the bench PG in the second half. You defer to the more veteran PG (who, let's face it, is less turnover prone), but you also give Bayless a shot at moving up. After a few weeks of doing this, you then evaluate if it's time to reverse those roles.
I don't see the PG as a linear progression: 1st string; 2nd string; etc. I see Blake being our steadiest PG, I see Sergio as our best PG with our White Unit (specifically with Rudy, Travis and Joel) and I see Bayless as the future starting PG for this team. I suspect that when the Blazers feel the time is right, Blake will either get traded or move to the 3rd string. Bayless will become the starter and Sergio will stay as a change-of-pace 2nd string PG.
I truly believe maxiep is on to it...Blake to me could be the odd man out..renouncing his contract in the off season???? We would have to keep a watch on Mike Barrett tho..he has a huge crush on Steve Blake!
I do think there is a good chance even if Nate doesn't want to do this that Bayless will be the starter next year with Blake being renounced or traded. If we only keep Outlaw out of Blake, Frye and Outlaw we should have like 9-10 million in cap space this summer. I would think that should give us enough money in this economy to get almost any FA we want or trade for a player.
You are right on Tortimer..I truly expect this to happen. Our point guard would be Jbay running with the first unit and SR with the second unit.
