Ric Bucher Likes OKC Over Blazers In A Few Years

I agree that it is Bayless vs. Westbrook in the long run (unless KP pulls a rabbit out of his hat with Kopo or a trade) - but the funny thing is that both of these guys are combo-guards - and I am not certain that Westbrook, of the two - is the one that falls more to the PG side.

As for Presti being a good GM - no doubt, but he clearly made 2 mistakes already:

1. Taking Green in the same draft as Durant - where they both are natural small-forwards - one of them is going to be playing out of position unless he just took a guy he plans on bringing from the bench with a #5 pick
2. PJ as their first coach. Ugh does not even start to describe it.

I still think that if OKC wants to be successful they need to play Westbrook as mostly a SG and run most of the offense through him and not Durant. Time will tell.

 

For the record - going on the whole Roy thing - I absolutely believe Roy is a top-10 player this year, I think anyone that does not think he can improve is missing something, I do not consider statistics as the only measure of how good a player is/will be and PER specifically to be used for comparing two players who are not close in defense is very questionable.

If Roy and Durant were somewhat close in their defensive abilities - saying that Durant has a 20+ PER in his 2nd year vs.. Roy in his 3rd would have had some merit - but since Roy is a very good defender in short spurts and above average usually - while Durant is miserably bad at it - makes the entire argument very questionable.

Another thing I would like to point is that being a "good player" should include issues like leadership abilities - and Roy is clearly superior to Durant in this aspect of the game. I am also doubt that this is something most people can "develop". For the most part - you either have it or you do not. Billups is a better player than Kevin Martin - even if his stats are not as good. Same is Roy vs. Durant.

As for the entire "Superstar" label - in my opinion, you get that label not by being in the top-10 or 5 in the league - but with being successful in the playoffs while being in the top-10 in the league at some point in your career. Roy has a chance to become that this year just as CP3 became one last year.

Durant on the other hand - has a long way to go to get there - and while it is not all his fault - some of it most certainly is, especially when you consider his defensive struggles.

 

You may be right about running the offense through Westbrook, the guy is relentless when he attacks. Both he and Durant (and Green to a certain extent) are amazing at rebounding and taking the ball the length of the floor to the basket. I can't get over the handles that Durant possesses on the fast break for a guy his height.

In a half court game however (as most playoff games tend to be) they are not as impressive..... yet.

 

Man, I was sooo Westbrook's #1 supporter before the draft... i was pissed he went at 4 but it seems to be an amazing selection now. He would look great in our uni (defensive PG and he would learn the game the right way from Nate). Oh well... I'm still holding out hope for Bayless i've just been slightly disappointed with his play for someone with a top 5 talent.

 

The Triangle offense doesn't rely on a point guard. I think you could argue that Harper still played shooting guard on those teams. There just happened to be another shooting guard on the floor at the same time. The same could be said for Fisher.

Kerr, Hodges, and Paxson were pretty much shooters as well. Little to no actual point guard skills.

 

I just wanted to thank Rick Bucher for adding to the fire. In case you haven't read Jason Quicks read on the pre game:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/04/trail_blazers_trounce_thunder.html

So if Ric wants to talk any more shit before the Houston game, that would be great. Keep it up.

 

I guess Ric accomplished his goal... this is a hot topic now.

If you'll excuse me, I have to go back and read like six pages of posts to get caught up now....

 

Thanks Ric!!! We need ya to thrash our boys for the next three games!!!! As for your superstar KD he had what 11 points?

Must say though..... could any of you imagine LA and KD on the same Texas team over the last two years in the NCAA's? That could have happened! Scary!

 

Had the Texas boys stayed, their lineup:

G DJ Augustin
G Daniel Gibson
G AJ Abrams
F Kevin Durant
F LaMarcus Aldridge

Yikes.

 

Just hand them the NCAA championship no need for a tourni! HA!

 

Many people thought Carmelo Anthony was the shit when he first came out because he was such a talented scorer, then they realized that's pretty much all he was. Didn't help defensively, and didn't make his team mates much better. I think Durant is going to be a Carmelo Anthony type...not a superstar.

 

Holy shit... I just read six pages and my head hurts.

Okay, so my questions/arguments are as follows (from what I read):

1) At what point does someone STOP being a top-10 player? 1 year? 3 years? This would help me understand the timeline a little better.

2) Bosh has Calderon (a point guard by Bucher's definition) and they're not even in the playoffs.... IN THE EAST..... I just really don't think you can count Bosh as a superstar when he can't even get his team in the fucking playoffs IN THE EAST. Dwyane Wade is carrying the Heat on his back like a llama, but at least the Heat are in the 6th spot. Bosh and his Raptors are 13th IN THE EAST... And Bosh has played in all 69 games.

3) I'm convinced that Roy's numbers will continue to climb, and I have three reasons:
A) As this team improves, and Oden becomes a more integral part of the offense, Roy will have less of a scoring burden and will be able to focus on other things like assists, rebounds, etc. I think his numbers will actually go up in a lot of areas as the Blazers grow as a team.
B) In each of the last three seasons (counting this one) Roy has either improved on his numbers, or stayed about the same. His scoring is up, his FG% is up, his three point percentage is up, and his rebounding is slightly up. His assists are slightly down, and his steals are at the same as last year. I think as this team improves, his assists will go up, his steals should go up, and his rebounding will improve, while his scoring will probably stay about the same. I don't expect Brandon to average 30 in a season. It would actually probably be a bad sign of the teams improvement as a whole.
C) Free throws are a big factor, and I think we've seen Roy take a step towards Superstar status, simply because the refs treat him as such. Roy has already eclipsed his free throw attempts from last season to this season, with 459 attempts this year, to only 378 last year. He's almost doubled his attempts from his ROY season, and we still have six (?) games left. He is 19th in the league in FTA, and I think that will continue to rise.

4) That's another point that really needs to be touched on. If Roy isn't a superstar, why are the refs treating him as such? I think Roy definitely gets the benefit of the doubt more often than not from the refs.

Anyway, that's all I can come up with now.. I'll probably remember a few things after I post this though

 

All I can say is THANK YOU Ric Bucher for allowing coach McMillian a night of coaching off. Your motivation was all we needed to prove you wrong. Now Nate can really have our guys ready to clinch against Houston if Phoenix beats Dallas tomorrow.

 

Ah, the joys of NOT being a mod:

Don't have to deal with *edited* like this.

 

Question for Ed, so I can try understand his definitions:

1) If Roy puts up an identical season as this one, next year, would he be a top 5-10 player and / or a superstar?

2) If Durant makes a large improvement and produces a season next year equal to what Roy did this year, would he be a top 5-10 player and / or a superstar?

(When I say identical season, I mean similar PER and other aggregated stat rankings in the league)

 

Personal insult? Nice touch. How about arguing with my posts instead of calling me names? I expect your insult to not be edited, BTW. What's your take on this thread? Or was your sole purpose of reading it to insult me? That said, I had a few jack**f posts.

 

Oh. Forgot about the new rule about players having a say in who drafts them.

And OKC, for the reasons I mentioned, has a lot more room to improve their roster, rather than the Blazers, who have all their pieces, and now just have to wait for them to develop completely.

 

Yup, and Kevin Durant has reached his peak and his career will stagnate from here on out. WINNR IZ U!!

 

Maybe their teams have been so bad all year that they haven't gotten nearly as much recognition (Bosh), or they're seeing their stats go down due to three all stars playing on the same team together, and having to share (Pierce and KG).

 

JE I have an unrelated question... but I have to ask. Do you play world of warcraft?