Portland led the NBA in rebounding differential and rebound percentage. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/statistics?stat=teamstatreb&season=2009&seasontype=2&league=nba Rebounding is the least of this team's worries.
Houston outrebounded Portland in 3 games, Portland outrebounded Houston in 3 games. The outlier was Game 1, which Houston won 44-30 on the boards and skewed the entire series. Rebounding wasn't the problem for last year's team.
Not passing the ball to the 7'1 guy in the middle with the almost 60% FG% and the 22% fouls-against rate....moreso than rebounding, imho.
I agree. We had only one above average defender on the court in our starting line up and that was a rookie (Batum). For everyone that wants to upgrade the SF position, we had better get a person who defends or expect, Joel, Greg and LA to continue to be in foul trouble. My personal opinion is let Batum develop and replace Blake with Hinrich. More GO on the floor is better for this team. Batum could be a top 10 player on defense in a year or two and that is just as important as someone who can score. Look at Bowen in SA. Like four rings and always had to take the best player on the other team. As for Bass, like him as a back up, but not if we can't make a decent trade with the cap space. As for his poor D, Nate will require him to be a better defender. He couldn't be any worse then Frye.
Here inlies the problem as I see it. Joel is a low post player who can't score, so bringing in a low post player who can that is on the floor with Joel would do nothing but clog up the middle in theory.
The "unit" doesn't need anything, since they won't play as a unit except in garbage time. Assuming Oden plays proper minutes, it isn't tricky to keep one of Oden or Aldridge on the floor at all times. The team just needs useful role-players to bring in now and again as starters take rests at different times.
Adding to that, how many bench players are "consistent" low-post scorers? Many teams can't find a consistent low-post scorer for their first unit, and of those that do, some have to give up a lot at the defensive end to get that scoring (Z-BO, Al Jefferson, and Carlos Boozer immediately come to mind for me). I'd actually like to see a tighter rotation this year, especially late in the year and in the playoffs. Bayless, Outlaw, Rudy, and Joel with a few minutes for Pendergraph if LMA gets into foul trouble.
Last year, Outlaw came in ~ 6 minutes left in the first for Batum, Oden/Rudy came in with ~ 2 minutes left. Not exactly a unit approach.
I see that as more of a scrimmage ploy to try and motivate the benchies, although there were times last year when Rudy/Outlaw/Oden/Sergio/Frye were on the court together and the game wasn't in garbage time.
lol heeeeeeeeere we go. in all seriousness though.. the dude would not be happy playing behind someone.
