It's nice to hear that he knows he needs to make a lot of improvements and strives to improve his game rather than receiving personal accolades like an MVP award. This year is going to be huge for his development and he'll be going into this coming season with the right mind set. Stay hungry, JB.
Is this the year he translates an outstanding summer league into a solid regular season? I'm still not sold on him being able to play the point in the NBA.
Only time will tell. I will say this, I'm more worried about our pg position now then I was a few weeks ago and I was pretty worried about it then.
Yes indeed ... but then again, I'm not sure the two guys are an apples to apples comparison. Batum just looked flat out intimidated and wide-eyed last year which in turn made him very passive on offense in summer league and even when he made it into the regular rotation last year he was mostly tasked with two "simple" goals: play great defense and take the open shot. J-bay on the other hand has never had to play the role he's been tasked with (despite his claims to the contrary that he's always been a "point guard") and he's being asked to do something that is anything but simple -- he's got to try and show he can run a team; a set of responsibilities that are far more difficult to master than what Nicolas was given. I really hope he's able to figure it out this year because god knows we're up shit's creek without a paddle if we can't get at least some reliable production out of the backup point guard spot and it sure looks like KP is committed to keeping the guards he's got.
My point is that too much is made up about the summer league #s. Both good and bad. It might give you some insight into how a player might do, but it also might give you nothing to go on. Although I'm not sure of it, I really doubt that Pooh Jeter will be a player in the league next year and I bet Bayless will. He might not be a player in Portland, but I bet he's in the league.
we won't know bayless has really made it until he has a dance video [video=youtube;QO2OSrskR-M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO2OSrskR-M[/video]
I actually remember being impressed with the way he played... not in terms of production but in terms of being in the right spots and having good court awareness defensively. Given he was so young it surprised me. I didn't think it would necessarily translate into a starting gig, but I didn't foresee Webster getting hurt. Ed O.
... Let's see where else we weren't able to get reliable production from during the "real" season. Starting PG... Backup SG... Starting SF... Backup SF... Backup PF... Starting C... Backup C... It seems that the backup point guard isn't the only "problem" with our roster.
You're right it isn't the only problem, but with current NBA rules (hand-checking prohibition primarily) having either a play-maker or a defensive presence at the point of attack sure does make life easier for the rest of the team (God bless 'em if they can do both). Don't you think it would help all of those positions if there was a point guard on the team who can reliably fight through a screen or cut off dribble penetration to help the bigs stay out of foul trouble, or maybe even get into the lane himself to make something happen for the bigs or kick it out to the wing ... somebody besides Brandon? I'm not putting the team's potential success or failure next season all on getting reliable point guard play for 48 minutes, but it sure seems like a good place to start.
That's fine, but it seems like your beef should be with replacing the starting point guard first, before worrying about the backup.
My beef? I have zero beef with Bayless -- in fact you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who's rooting harder for him to succeed (well Ben from Blazersedge.com probably has me beat). I'm just worried that he's probably a good year or two away from being able to get it done. My real angst stems from the fact that KP seems to be in love with Steve Blake and is showing no signs that he's looking to trade him for a legitimate upgrade at the one. If on the other other hand KP somehow swings a deal for a veteran like Hinrich and wants to keep Bayless around to slowly groom for the future then I'd be much less worried about what happens this coming season, because I'd be pretty confident with a Hinrich/Roy/Rudy 3 guard lineup assuming Jerryd isn't able to make it happen.
