Oh jeez. Jerryd's playing fine as a backup right now. Of course his stats are gonna look shitty if he plays 10-15 sporadic minutes every game. If anything I say increase his minutes to finish out the season so that he can develop a rhythm and some sort of confidence before the playoffs. That leash is too short.
I guess it depends on a couple of things. Jerryd's confidence looks pretty shot right now and I'm not so sure the answer is more PT, but is Diener really the answer? I have trouble believing that.
Mush Mouth Jaynes. I had to turn off the MSP this morning because the sound of his old mush mouth combined with Harvey's inability to express a clear thought. That show needs a lot of help. First, get rid of mush mouth. He sounds so gross on the radio.
This is ANOTHER example of why nobody takes this Jabba the Hut lookin' fool seriously. He has no credibility.
Not really. It's not his stats that look bad, Bayless looks bad period. That said, Denier isn't any kind of upgrade so I can't see why Portland would make that kind of roster move at this time. Denier is a homeless man's Steve Blake.
Bayless will be fine once he finds his step back jumper from that quick-ass drive he has..... dude, if miller can get those shots up, bayless can eventually.
Neither will ever be a PG getting minutes in this league, but it's amazing Denier is still on a team. The Tub o' Goo conveniently left out Bayless's best asset, his ability to get to the line and draw fouls. Bayless is a pretty good backup SG, which Denier is not.
Isn't Raja Bell available? I realize he isn't a point guard, but his defense would be great to have in the playoffs. I'd rather have Bell than Diener.
Trouble is, when he drives he commits a lot of fouls and turnovers. Its not all good. On top of that he can't hit the step back jumper or three pointer. How long does he get to prove himself? Sebastian Telfair was given a couple of years to cut the mustard before the team decided to go in another direction, as was Sergio Rodriguez and Jarrett Jack. With the trade of Steve Blake Jerryd has been given another shot at proving himself. And he hasn't impressed anyone. Maybe the team should cut him loose this summer like the others before him. There was a time everyone argued Sergio would learn to hit the jumper too....but he never did, and still hasn't.
Because his stats actually don't look bad. He has a league average PER, his scoring efficiency is solid (thanks largely to his ability to get and make free throws) and his Assist Rate and Turnover Rate are actually fairly solid. Even his rebounding is okay for a point guard. His offensive improvements over last season have actually encouraged me. It's his defensive game that has disappointed me a bit...I expected him to look a bit better on defense. Overall, though, he's currently an asset as a backup point guard, regardless of how he "looks," in my opinion. And at 21, he has plenty of chance to be a lot more than that.
Bayless, he has a big head and tiny little arms. [video=youtube;93B072j-E3I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93B072j-E3I[/video]
If you look at yearly average Bayless comes out ok. The last 3 weeks he sucked, though no worse then his benchmates. Bad turnovers, poor defense and tunnel vision have ruined what would otherwise have been a improved second year. I am not advocating ditching the kid, but Portland can ill afford Bayless' growing pains in the playoffs. (They can't afford the garbage play of Rudy or Martell either.) Perhaps he will get back on track in the next 5 games. If he doesn't then I think Nate won't have much choice but to sit him down for the post season.
When bayless was getting 25+ minutes a game he was playing great. Putting up nice numbers in most categories and getting to the foul line a ton. Now that he is back down to the 15m mark his play has become what it was last year... really really inconstant jumper and being out of control when on a fast break.
Chicken or egg. Was he playing well because he was getting minutes, or was he getting more minutes because he was playing well? Or are the two simply colinear but unrelated?
