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

Just to add---Outlaw was shooting 38% FG this year to Aldridge's 50%. If they do use this as an opportunity to shift the offensive load to Aldridge, the offensive system could suddenly look much, much better.

 

Yep. There is no reason that Aldridge can't bump up his minute to ~ 38 mpg. He averaged over 37 mpg last season. That leaves roughly 14 minutes of playing stime to fill with Outlaw out. I'd like to see Oden take another 10 of those minutes, and Rudy the other 4 minutes, with 8 more taken from Blake by Rudy. This is an excellent opportunity for Nate to tighten the rotation. Juwan Howard and Dante Cunningham should only see the court in cases of foul trouble, injury, or a blowout.

 

Well they aren't going to have much success going to Aldridge Friday night at GS. Not with defensive stalwart Vladamir Rodmonovic on him. Seriously, with Biedrins and Turiaf out the Warriors front line is laughable. Mikki Moore, Vlad Ro, and Anthony Randolph. If the Blazers don't pound the ball into Lamarcus and Oden tomorrow night, then they never will.

 

yeah, who does this Brandon dude think he is anyways . . .

 

Man, Aldridge really is becoming the new Rasheed Wallace (minus the T's) for me. All those old frustrations I used to feel about using Sheed more in the offense. We really came close to maximizing his offensive talent for only about two years.

The difference is that it required the massive basketball IQ's of Pippen, Smith and Sabonis to make it happen, along with an enormous effort by Coach Dunleavy that seemed to burn him out, to do it.

It seems like, from the players to the coach to the fans to Aldridge himself, there's this universal shrug. It seems like everybody is saying, "Yeah, I guess our former #2 draft pick who has amazing size, length, speed and range, could probably do more than 15-18 ppg. Whatever. Anyway, let's talk about Roy/Miller/Blake/etc!"

I don't get it. Aldridge should be The Big Rising Story right now after Roy has established himself as a superstar. And he's not even on anybody's radar.

 

It was obvious that they missed Travis last night. Whether Travis' shots were easy or difficult is irrelevant. He made them. Does he have weaknesses? Of course. But he is one of the better shooters in the league off the bench.

Someone will step up, but right now there will be games that they suffer from his absence.

 

He's also played in many more NBA games than anybody on this board. He knows better than either of us, or any other posters, what an "easy" shot is. According to the metrics of others, that makes us "clueless".

Of course it doesn't make it an "easy" shot. It makes it a "stupid" shot based on percentages. I agree with Roy in that Outlaw can get off "easy" shots that aren't actually half-court heaves.

That's a great opinion. Again, I'll side with the All-NBA player and my own eyes.

Well, when you put it that way, it does make it easy to say Outlaw would have helped. Which seems to be Roy's point.

Perhaps they wouldn't be as tired with Outlaw available.

Honestly, I don't understand your entire post, it seems to be based on strawmen and hypotheticals, but since you addressed me, I thought I'd respond to the best of my ability.

 

How is this false? We miss Travis' 4-6 points he would always score in the 4th. Rudy and Martell do need to step up. I see nothing wrong with Brandon's statement.

 

Yeah Rudy, step up!!!

Oh wait, nobody will pass the ball to you while we watch Roy go 1v2 and then dish to "his boy" Blake...

Was that you watching from the bench at te end of the game?

what a joke...

 

That is complete bullshit that we almost lost that game because Outlaw was out. The Blazers almost lost that game, because the played the NBA equivelent of the prevent defense in the 4th quarter instead of playinng to kick somebodies teeth in. Every posession they were looking over at Nate for the call, then they were milking the clock down and jacking up a forced shot with little time left. They were passing up easy shots and open shots for bad shots. In fact, since that seems to be Travis specialty these days, making easy shots into tough ones, he might have felt right at home there.

 

The good Travis will be missed. The bad Travis where he goes 1-9, 1-8 or 3-11 will not. But I don't think Detroit makes their comeback last night either if Travis is in there.

 

I think the team is worse because Outlaw is out. Outlaw wasn't a star, but he was a solid contributor (on average, even if his night-to-night variance was significant). Losing a roughly average player hurts the team, since it will force less-than-average options to fill that void.

So yes, the team will miss Outlaw's play. As they will miss Batum's play.

 

The frustrating part is that of the 1 or 3 shots Travis made, they were almost always huge down the stretch!

 

It was promising to see Blake hit that huge three with the Blazers up by 1 with 25 seconds left in the game. I also like how he sealed the game by hitting two dagger FTs.

I also like what LMA had to say about Blake, and his confidence in him, after the game.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/11/post_6.html

LMA had better not read this board, because I'm sure the experts here would sway his opinion.

 

Blake is a solid reserve point guard. I'm not a huge fan of his playing starter minutes, but I like that he's on the team.

 

One could also argue that not having Outlaw's inconsistency is what allowed us to build those leads through the first 3 quarters. He's always been a guy that drives you crazy for 75% of the game and then makes you bit your tongue the last 25%.

 

Roy and Aldridge, come on, those guys don't have a clue.

 

Neither of them have ever coached in the NBA, just like us!