Its time for Nate to realize that

They call it "having a career year" for a reason. yes im looking at you steve blake....

32 min, 1-7, 2 assists, 3 points... eww, yuck

Bayless has consistenly outplayed Blake this year, in the mins he has played, and that is saying a lot. The guy can play 10-15 min a game, but not 32. This is getting bad....

And i know i know 5 in a row, lets just say those wins had little to do with Blake...

 

couldn't agree more about blake and his excessive playing time. this is just getting absurd. i would say though that bayless isn't the answer for who should be getting more burn. i think both rudy and martell are guys that needs some minutes to get into a flow and neither one has found that groove yet. blakes excess minutes should be going to those two guys as the last thing this team needs is another body thrown into the mix.

 

Bayless is looking pretty good in his end of quarters, Vinnie Johnson/energizer role, but something tells me he's still not quite ready to be given real big minutes ... maybe by mid-season or by the end of the season, but not yet.

As for Blake, I agree he's looked pretty brutal at times on the court and is clearly not performing at the level he did last year.

The Blazers certainly aren't getting enough production out of their reserves and role-players, that's for sure. Blech

 

Blake only scored three points but that was a HUGE three pointer that got us going in the second half when we really needed to see a shot like that fall.

 

So let's just discount the other six and call it good.

 

You guys must not be paying attention to the games. Blake is playing great ball this year. Try to look at what he does on the court, besides the box score. There is more to basketball then scoring. Not sure why this has to be explained after every game to some of you posters.

 

Not a Blake fan, but I have to agree with you. Something about Blake being on the court, and playing some nice defense that really helps our starting unit. Also, it really seems Blake, Roy and Miller are starting to get more and more comfortable playing on the same unit.

I love seeing Bayless coming off the bench, giving us energy defensively and offensively. I also, see some chemistry between him and Fernandez. Eventually Bayless may work himself into the starting role, but I like were the team is now.

 

Is this a joke?

I HAVE watched the games and Steve Blake in particular, and he is NOWHERE near playing "great basketball" , piss poor shooting aside, the fact that he gets more minutes than Rudy is a travesty.

 

Wait a minute. I thought we were all hateing on Travis Outlaw. Make up your mind people, this is getting confusing.

 

Blake has experience, Bayless doesn't. Get over it, get used to it. Any coach playing for wins would play Blake ahead of Bayless.

Someday Bayless may be better than Blake but he isn't now. Bayless is too young and too raw.

 

I'm sorry, but this is dumb.

Any coach playing for wins would play the better player, and so far this season Bayless has been better than Blake.


Young players start all the time if they are better than the person in front of them.

 

to be accurate, his 2005-6 season was every bit as good as last year

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/blakest01.html

on this we agree. I'd guess that his shooting percentages return to the norm... hope so too

regardless, I'd like to see more of Bayless and Rudy

STOMP

 

Yeah but I don't believe that Bayless is better than Blake at this point. I'm not a huge Blake fan but at least he has a knowledge of team basketball that Bayless does not yet have.

 

That's kind of broad, could you explain how he has a "knowledge of team basketball that Bayless does not yet have?"

 

I agree, but Bayless has to get minutes in game situations to be better. He is insanely talented and busts his ass during practice and work outs. I think he can learn a bit more in practice and in the gym for sure. That said, Bayless needs to get minutes in the game if he is ever going to take it to the next level. It's like last year where Oden would be benched seemingly arbitrarily by McMillan rather then letting him play through his mistakes and compensate. This year Nate has given Oden a longer leash and allows Oden to play through mistakes. For godsake he lets Blake play through a fuck load of mistakes that's for sure. Bayless needs more minutes.

With Outlaw now hurt if you play Martell purely at the 3 and LMA at the 4 (no more center ugh) you can give Rudy and Bayless more minutes at the 2 and 1 as you move Brandon around. I think Roy is playing too many minutes and should shed a few in favor of Martell/Rudy/Bayless who ever is hot that night. Roy plays to many minutes and I think that's a problem. We need to preserve him for the long haul.

 

Yeah but Nate has to worry about things like consistent roles for the players. Comfort level with eachother (Roy loves Blake). Team morale. Blake works hard too, and he's older, and wiser. Paying your dues. Sure if Bayless was THAT good it wouldn't matter, you play him, but he's not.

Blake understands game tempo. He knows how to play point guard in the NBA.

Right now Bayless is a put-your-head-down and drive to the hoop gym-style player.

Playing Bayless more than Blake doesn't give us a better chance to win.

 

Prior to last season, most people recognized that Blake was a streak shooter. Some nights he was money, other nights he couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. Blake has simply returned to being Blake.

This is the fallacy of "let it bake". Many people just assumed that the team would "naturally" improve over last season. Instead, Blake, Outlaw, Rudy, and even Roy have regressed. It happens all the time in sports.