Well the truth has come back to bite us...

Blake IS a vet. Been in the league 6 years.

 

He is a vet, but he isn't really a PG.

Blake, when he is on, has value as a designated shooter....though in game 1 he wasn't even a factor in that department. We need a *real* PG - someone who will keep the offense running even when the other team plays tough defense. If they would make half an effort to guard their counterpart on the other team, that would also be nice!

 

LMA was horrible tonight - but he had company. LMA/Outlaw/Frye combined had fewer rebounds than Scola alone (and barely outscored him).

As for Roy, he barely outscored Artest, despite taking twice as many shots. He didn't embarass himself, but he didn't exactly step up and carry the team either.

 

that would probably do well, but then who would we sub in at center? and if all th bigs pick up a couple fouls, we would have ruffin and frye playing...not good.

 

so brooks/2nd year player > blake/6 year vet, but we need a vet? because brooks is better than blake?

???

 

A vet? You mean like Brooks?

 

I'm not going to get all down on the team just because of one loss where they pretty clearly forgot what it was that got them in the playoffs in the first place, but this is the reason there were so many rumors about KP trying as hard as hell to get a point guard through trade. Blake is a bit like Joel in that he'd be the best backup at his position in the league if that was his role, but thrust into the starting lineup he's got some deficiencies you can't quite mask against an elite athlete like Brooks and especially against an elite defensive team like the Rockets.

Then you have our backups:
Bayless has the elite body to match another opposing point guard stride for stride on the defensive end, but his offensive game is so raw and un-NBA ready that you can't count on him to be out there either

Sergio has elite passing ability, but not the strength to fight through picks, or to prevent post-ups from bigger guards so he gets pushed around and in a starting role wouldn't be able to prevent an opponent from getting to their spots.

Look on the bright side (such as it is) the playoffs are going to reveal this team's warts in full living colour, and give KP a pretty clear idea of what needs to be addressed in the off-season -- this is where we find out who they are.

 

is brooks better than bayless? if so what the fuck are we doing? if brooks is a legit starter, we need to do a better job of drafting pgs.

 

I think Bayless' problem is experience, not overall talent; a player with 600 NBA minutes under his belt at this level and a single season of college is just too little floor time to trust an offense to -- especially a point like Jerryd who was/is more of a scorer than table-setter.

Give him two more years and I think Bayless has the potential to be a real player ... in the meantime though, we need somebody like Andre Miller or Kirk Hinrich (or somebody like that) that can run the point 35 minutes a night and has the offensive and defensive chops to be a full time starter.

 

How many times has Nate McMoron been like, "Oh, I have a brilliant idea, I'll put Frye into the game to stretch the defense, he can hit the outside shot." Only to have Frye come in, get destroyed on defense, not rebound, and hit his outside shots at the rate of 40%.

This is one thing I hate about McMillen, HE DOESN'T FUCKING LEARN! We lose ground whenever Frye is put in, and he played in A FUCKING PLAYOFF GAME!!!

But ya, our PG position could certainly be upgraded. KP should be scouting the Bulls heavily to see if Kirk is still an all-nba defender. Perhaps we can trade Blake and Outlaw for Kirk, then sign Andre Miller. Totally re-vamped PG position.

 

Meh. Frye in the game is the teaspoon in the bucket of reasons this game was lost.

 

A few things:

1) If you recall, KP traded up in last year's draft to get Augustine as he wanted a true PG. However, when he was picked ahead of us we reverted to option #2- picking the best player available. That was a SG, Bayless. Now, we are trying to teach him to play PG and it's been a rocky experience. All in all, it's unlikly to work. We still need an upgrade at that position. I think we can make a small trade up and get Lawson from UNC in this years draft.

2) Why was Fry playing? Easy. Yao gets bothered by pesky and manueverable players guarding him. He eats centers alive who can't front him (like Joel & Oden). It's been that way for years. Nate wanted to see if Channing could do better denying Yao the ball. We're one of the only teams left that allow Yao to get the ball where he pleases without challenging him. If we continue to do that, series over.

3) Houston played the refs perfectly last night. They held, grabbed and hit us- but never overtly and the refs let it all go. It was true playoff officiating. They flopped smartly and we didn't. There was a huge lesson for us to learn. In addition to that, we clearly paniced and let Houston fully take us out of our game.

4) So what would I do? I'd play LA & Channing on Yao and also collapse on him. AND FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, FOUL THAT BIG CHINK HARD! Yao should be knocked to the floor 7-10 times at a minimum. I promise you it will take the steam out of his laundry. If we're not willing to fight for a win, we don't deserve to be here.

 

Whoa! Easy with the racism buddy.

 

I think the Blazers should try and play small ball. Bayless/Roy/Rudy/Batum/Aldridge. Then we can try to out-rebound the hell out of the bench by playing twin towers Oden and Joel.

 

Heh, it was ment as a compliment.

 

Not at all, that's a silly notion.

Sergio/Blake > Brooks/Lowry

Bake it!

 

WTF???

Fucking weird, not cool dude.

You ruined what was a very good post.

 

Welcome to 'reverso' land.