Yeah. The beauty of this summer is that it will eventually end. We'll go back to being excited about all our nice young talent. Damon Stoudamire was on our team for 8 seasons. How bad could this be? Hey, I think I found my new "Serenity now!" phrase.
I tend to agree with you. Roy is a pretty good distributor for a shooting guard, but he's not really a point. I'd rather see him focus on scoring and let somebody else manage setting up the offense.
I'm not really sure why everyone is so opposed to potentially signing Miller via a sign in trade for most likely Blake and or Outlaw. The money for which Miller was looking to sign for is not being offered. Now he has reserved himself to the mid-level type deals or slightly above. I think a bargain for a starting level PG. Also, while he is a bit older he also is a bigger guard who can get in the lane, draw fouls and distribute (something Blake doesn't do at all). He is also a much better defender then Blake. Sign him on a 2-3 year deal and have Bayless be the primary back up and if it all works out he takes over in 2-3 years. Plus by doing a sign and trade we save our capspace for a potential upgrade to our roster at another position, maybe even in a lopsided trade. In short, I think this would be a great deal for the Blazers.
The problem with Sessions and Miller is that they are purely distributional point guards. Without the ball in their hands, they are not very useful at all. In the end, would you rather have Roy handling the ball or Sessions?
I thought the major problem in the playoffs was that we relied too much on Roy and we needed another guy that could create plays (like Hedo), so Roy would love him. Miller is good at finding guys in traffic, so Oden & Joel would love him. He's better on defense and quickly turning defense into offense on the fastbreak, so Lamarcus and Rudy would love him. Plus, he's a much more efficient shooter than someone like Blake. He's great at posting up other PG's, nice mid-range game. I think it would be a clear cut upgrade and if we signed him for only two years and kept our capspace I'd be pretty happy. Although I'd rather trade Bayless than Blake.
Miller/Sessions would create, but then Roy wouldn't. If you have both Roy and Miller/Sessions on the floor at the same time, one of the players will have their strengths mitigated. Either Miller/Sessions creates or Roy creates. Neither player is good playing off the ball, so I don't think it would work very well. I think Hedo would have worked because not only is he able to create for others, but he's also able to work off the ball with his shooting.
Both work well off the ball. Roy has a deadly mid range game that would flourish on kickouts from a PG.
Roy is pretty bad off the ball. When Roy played with Sergio, he barely ever touched the basketball. He just stands in a corner and waits for the ball so he can create for himself. It's something Roy himself has acknowledged but hasn't changed.
I think you're seeing things too black and white. At any rate Roy, like Hedo, can work off the ball with his shooting and he wouldn't wear down as much over the course of a season. I was a big proponent of Hedo for exactly the reason you just stated, but that didn't work out, so I say if we can upgrade the PG position on defense, toughness, experience, and playmaking ability, I say we do it. It may not be perfect but I don't think it's as bad as you believe either.
None of this is meaningful unless they re-sign the 2 major pieces that got them here in the first place. All of the free agents they are talking about signing now are guys who I could care less about. Re-sign the impact players, and move forward. It is getting to the point where guys are opting not to work on their game in environments where it would really help them moving forward. Everybody who has gone through the Olympic program has came back motivated to play defense, and recommitted to bringing their game to a higher level. Now because of contract problems, at least 2 of our guys are not going there, and that is a valuable experience opportunity that is being wasted. Miller, and the rest of the free agents at this point, are a waste of time IMO.
I thnk it's a joke that it's not done Hasoos, but I think as soon as anything get's done in free agency they will turn their attention to our own players. It's more like KP and the Blazers KNOW we have them already. I also think that if we sign them before any moves are made we will not make one this summer.
There are no moves to be made this summer unless it is a trade. None of the free agents left are worth the money they are asking for. Does anybody here look at the players available, and just go "Hey we would be way better with this guy on our team." I don't see it. None of the players left are going to really upgrade the team. They are siging a player not because they fit, but because of unhappyness with the status quo. I don't see that as a successful path. So making no moves, is not so bad at this point IMO. If thats the case, then sign the guys important to the team and move forward.
I'm not sure that you can extrapolate Roy's abilities based on how he played with just Sergio. Sergio may not even be in the league in another year. There are probably quite a few NBA players who wouldn't play that great with him. Besides, it's not that Roy was horrible next to Sergio. He just didn't look quite as good. It may be that he just needed a little more time to adjust, and it never happened because Sergio mostly played backup, and the coach generally liked to pair Sergio with his buddy Rudy. Anyway, I think people get too caught up in Roy's playmaking ability. Yeah, he has it. Just like he has a nice shot, a nice ability to drive, good defense (when he tries), good rebounding....he's pretty much the best jack-of-all-trades in the league. You put in guys who are lousy playmakers (Jack, Blake) and he's naturally going to focus on that more. I think if you put in a guy who can make plays, he'll just focus on scoring more. Most of the time with a superstar, you try to make the other guys fit around that guy's particular skillset. You get guys who can play off the ball around LeBron. You get guys who create space for Dirk to take the midrange jumper. You get perimeter shooters to put around Howard. The interesting thing with Roy is that he doesn't really have a particular skillset. He does it all pretty well. With any acquisition, I wonder how they'll fit in with Aldridge and Oden, since those are the other two big workhorses and they aren't nearly as versatile. But with Roy? I think you find the best player to man the position. Let Roy figure out for himself how Roy will fit in.
Well he's defintely old, but if by washed up you mean is coming off of two of his better years as a pro with a very high efficiency rating of 18+, then yes, he's pretty much washed up. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/players/hollinger?playerId=557
Yeah, he certainly didn't choke on his team in the playoffs. We sure could've used a point guard who put up 21 ppg, 47.5%FG, 5 assists and 6 rebounds in the first round.
^^This. His demands are more than the Sixers are willing to spend for an aging point guard probably because Philly is nowhere near competing for a championship and spending more than the MLE for a guy who isn't going to push them into that title contending window wouldn't exactly be money well spent. I'm not sure he pushes the Blazers into title contention, but I'd say we are helluva lot closer than the Sixers, so a deal for him at least makes a little more sense.
10 ppg, 49%FG, 6 assists and 4 rebounds isn't exactly awful, is it? Blake probably should have received more shots.
