Roy says we blew the 4th quarter lead because Outlaw was out

"Some of it is missing Travis," Roy said about the fourth quarter. "That's his time to come in and get some easy baskets for us in that fourth quarter to keep our rhythm. We've just got to learn that he's not going to be there so we need guys like Martell [Webster] and Rudy to continue to step up."

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=291118022

Unlike most of the fans in here, Roy understands Travis' value to the team.

 

Roy is selfish. Scary thoughts run through my head.

 

this is as pathetic as saying the poor shooting night was because of the ball. guess what roy, travis is out for the season, get used to it. they all need to pick their games up and stop making lame excuses.

 

Roy was right. The team has leaned on Travis to create shots in the 4th. Who is going to step up and fill that void?

 

I stopped reading when Brandon said Travis gave them easy buckets. LMAO.

 

Rudy?

 

Travis is Roy's best friend. Of course he is going to say stuff like this.


Oden is my favorite player, so I say things like "they should have gone into him more in the 4th quarter"

 

That really matches what your thread title is, doesn't it? Deleted. You are becoming a MIXUM type poster and annoying a lot of people.

 

To pretend Travis wasn't a big part of this team's second unit is to ignore reality. He was our sixth man and our primary offensive threat on the second unit. Of course we miss him in that respect.

That being said, what we miss isn't Travis so much but what we could get for Travis in a trade. Outlaw doesn't fit on this team, but we've built the second unit to play to TO's strengths.

 

agree and its become very apparent we badly need an SF with Batum and Trav out for the year or most of it. as much as I root for Webs he just ain't cutting it. I think Trav and whoever (Blake, Bayless others?) should try to be packaged for a solid SF.

 

The reason we lost our 4th quarter lead is that the Pistons scored more points than us in the 4th quarter. Now, if we could find a way to score more points in the 4th quarter or stop the other team from scoring as many points in the 4th quarter, maybe we wouldn't lose our 4th quarter lead. Also if we could find a way to do this for 48 minutes, maybe we could go 82-0.

 

The biggest issue with our depth has been the last year or so, all of our guys are good, just inconsistent. The nice thing of having Rudy, Outlaw and Webster on the bench is, you can assume one of them will be on each game, even if the other 2 aren't. And that's generally enough to get us by. Now, we have narrowed that down to Rudy and Webster. Now, as opposed to only having to be on 33% of the time, they have to be on at least every other game. I haven't beena supporter of Outlaw at all on these boards, but was still confused by the people saying we wouldn't miss him.

 

I thought that was funny too. Travis has seldom created or seen an "easy bucket" for himself or his teammates.

Still, the fact is that those high degree of difficulty jumpers often went in. And in the 4th quarter, they were back breakers. How many times would the shot clock be down at 5 . . 4 . . 3 . . 2 . . and if you are on defense, you're happy with forcing him to shoot a contested jumper from 20 ft. Somehow, they went in. Lucky shots? They looked that way, but he did it too often to be called "lucky".

We do miss Travis right now in the 4th quarter. Other than Brandon, there is nobody else you can run Iso plays for. Maybe that's a good thing. They will have to learn how to win with ball movement and execution.

 

dont need to be roy to figure out we need scoring

 

I think the team definitely misses Travis' scoring late in games and quarters because he's a mismatch and he can create his own shot (such as it is).

But the biggest reason they miss him is that they are still running the same plays that would typically free up Travis to take his crazy ass shots (hey they go in way more than I think they should, so I won't harp on it too much) but instead of "Big shot Trav" we've got Steve, Rudy and Martell taking those isolation jumpers and the trouble is you can actually guard those three without too much trouble -- they are the kinds of players who need somebody to get them the ball for the most part because they aren't really able to create separation from their defender with their dribble.

No two ways about it, this team is going to need to adjust the way it plays the game. Love him or hate him (or somewhere in between) Travis was this team's sixth man.

 

This is exactly right, especially the second part. Nate carved out a role for Travis and the team is used to it. They need to now get used to something else. The worst thing to me about Travis' injury is that now it is severly unlikely we can use him in a trade to improve the backup PF or PG spots.

Moreover, I interpret Roy's comments not so much as crying about missing Travis, but stating the fact that Rudy and Martell can and must take over Travis' scoring role off the bench. (And giving them a bit of a dig for not having done so in last night's game.)

Rudy had some good games on the road with Travis out; last night not so much. He needs to take over that role. But it's not like he's less consistent than Travis.

Once Rudy gets that rythm going, I expect him to be in fact more consistent than Travis has been, and I expect for him to do many, many more positive things on the court than Travis.

But it will be a team effort. No more "give Travis the ball and everyone stand back and watch." We are going to have to run an actual offense now if we expect to get Rudy and Martell decent looks. The team just needs to adjust and play like a team.

 

Yeah, what Niko said.

 

I was of the opinion that we missed Travis last night, and said so in another thread.

Let's remember that we have been without Travis in the 4th quarter for 3 games now, and in all 3 games the other team came back and either got much closer or overtook us (ATL) in the 4th.

If you want to ignore it - go ahead and do so - but it is a pretty clear trend. Travis has his faults as a player - that's why he is not a starter, why he played in the 20 mpg and not in the 30 on average, and why he is not paid like a star - but he has a unique talent - the ability to get his shot off no matter how focused the defense is - and hit it at a nice clip.

This is a unique talent in a league with such athletic defenders, coaching and defensive schemes. To ignore it - is simply silly.

The biggest thing going forward is to think if we can look at alternatives.

If Miller is in the game to close them - we need to change our game-plan, he is not a 3 point shooter and the defense can sag of him to clog the middle (making it hard for Roy to attack the rim) and help on the other 3-pt shooters. If we do not want to keep Miller on the bench - the scheme has to change. If he stays on the bench, we can hope that Rudy and Martell can finish by scoring as well as Travis did in the 4th.

EDIT - I see that by taking my time to craft this post - Nik basically said the same.

 

Your opinion versus Roy's opinion. Hmmm.

An "easy basket" also includes when somebody can create their own shot when the offense breaks down. Roy does it. Outlaw did it. Somebody else needs to prove that they can do it when the defense gets tighter at the end of close games.

 

They need to shift more of the scoring load to Aldridge. He can take and make a lot of the same shots Outlaw can. Run him in more pick-and-pop situations, and give him the green light to shoot-shoot-shoot. They need to pour over footage of Dirk Nowitzki and run pretty much the same plays for Aldridge.

It was encouraging to see he got 16 shots and 38 minutes last night. The minutes are there, but I'd like to see him take 20+ shots in games like last night where the bench is cold.

If Aldridge averages 22-24 ppg this year like I think he could, there isn't going to be a lot of pressure on the bench for a lot of scoring.