The bench of this team needs a facelift and we all know kpee wont do it. There is NOBODY on our bench who can score consistently. We simply dont have a 6th man. If at all possible, I would do whatever it took to bring Ray Allen here. He knows Nate and could provide a greta scoring punch off our bench. The Rudy era ends on Monday IMO. Bayless is a below average backup pg. I suppose webster is a decent option but he needs weapons around him. Obvioulsy we are set at center but until this team gets more scoring, it will never beat a suns type team in a 7 game series. Just not enough fire power. With that said... MArk W can fix thsi mess. Kpee cannot and has taken us as far as possible. To take the next step... we need a proven GM. Our problem isnt coaching, it isnt injuries, its the benches lack of scoring. You cannot count on Rudy, Howard, Bayless and Webster to provide a nightly scoring punch. Just isnt gonna happen. And the cold hard truth.... we lose the last 2 games with Roy... maybe by 8-10 instead of 20+ Fix the bench and theres no excuse left not to advance.
yeaaaa except for bayless and martell both come off your bench...and they have been our best players alongside andre..sooooooooo
in garbage time... and yes bayless played well game 1 but hes not a backup pg thats gonna take you anywher in playoffs. jumper is too inconsistent. hell i say keepem both as long as bayless is 3rd option.
I'm sorry HCP. Mixum is making valid points. Webster, Rudy have all been flaky with scoring. We have no one consistent scorers except, LA, ROY, and Miller on a nightly basis. This bench needs to be changed. Bayless is a SG not a PG. Camby is an awesome addition with Oden next year. ROY is done til next year. 2010 playoffs are done for the blazers. Blazers are done in 5 against the suns.
Last time the team had to blown up, everyone knew the GM couldn't bear to undo all his own trades, so they got rid of Bob Whitsitt. This blowup, someone besides Pritchard will have to do it. Let's hope it doesn't last years this time, and they clear everyone out this summer and get the pain over with in 3 months.
Yes, the trouble with Whitsitt was that he was unwilling to make more trades. We need a complete rebuild, aside from maybe Miller, Roy, Batum, Aldridge, Camby, Oden. The scrubs must go! barfo
Mixum, again has good points. He doesn't need to go away because crunch time this team is choking. HCP, do you have any supportive insight on how our team is lacking at the 3 point shot, Rudy trying to do behind the back passes to LA in the inside? No he hasn't. Rudy has been playing out near the 3 point key the whole year. Rudy can't blame his back for this season. He needs to get some training to get over his hurdle. Either Rudy needs to step up his game and be determined to join this team again, or I am willing to trade his ass. Webster has been a cluster fuck having a great January, shitty February, lost in March, and then suddenly a block monster in April? Webster where is your role man? Webster go figure yourself out dude. The team is a deer blinded by lights when Miller is double teamed during this round with Phoenix. We need other guys to step it up and we are running out of time now.
You can't judge this series on our bench when you consider that with the loss of Nic, 3 of our bench players are starting. A second unit of Bayless, Rudy, Webster, Camby and Pryzbilla doesn't sound so bad to me - especially if spelling a starting unit of Miller, Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Oden.
KP needs to parlay the expiring contract of Joel + filler into a legit 2nd scorer for this squad next season. LMA needs to be de-emphasized in the offense next season. Although knowing KP, he'll just draft another player with knees as strong as graham crackers. We have the most talented IR in the NBA.
jaynes is right on as usual.... Yeah, I think Game 3 of this series Thursday night was worse than the first game of the Houston series last season. What a fiasco. And sorry, you aren’t going to read anything about gutty fourth-quarter comebacks here. If that’s what you came for, move on please. The Suns got so far ahead they quit paying attention for a few moments. Dunks and wide open — and I mean WIDE OPEN — jump shots for Phoenix. And contested jump shots for the Trail Blazers. For. Ever. Or so it seemed. I swear, at halftime of this one, Paul Allen, the Vulcans and the whole Trail Blazers roster should have been standing by the exits giving refunds to fans on their way out of the arena. I cannot remember seeing a home team go out and puke on itself like the Blazers did — uh, except that Houston game, of course. Boos were raining down from the crowd with 20 seconds to go in the first half and my only question at that point was, “What took them so long?” How could one team have been so poorly prepared for a home playoff game two contests into a series? It simply cannot happen. Hell, Oklahoma City was down 0-2 to the Lakers and went home and beat them. The Bulls came out down 0-2 at home to the Cavaliers and beat them. Look, I know Brandon Roy isn’t playing and that Nic Batum is hurt. I’m not saying Portland can win this series. I’m just saying — there are still some talented players here and all I ask is that they play hard and smart. But it wasn’t even close to that Thursday in either department. That was all Portland could muster in the Rose Garden? Against the Suns? Sorry, Blazer fans, but that’s a joke. And questions have to be asked. Serious questions about the direction of this franchise and the way it’s been handled. Questions like this: – Is there any real system for playing defense? Suns coach Alvin Gentry did a great job prior to the series setting up the Blazers — talking about how great their pick-and-roll defense is. Yeah, sure, Alvin — and your nose is growing quicker than LaMarcus Aldridge’s reputation for softness. I lost track of how many times ill-advised switching on that pick-and-roll ended up with Portland big men guarding little guys — or trying in vain to guard them. The Blazers — since Nate McMillan got here — have not been able to defend a pick-and-roll. It’s like a bad joke. – And about that offense. I mean, you just can’t expect, in the playoffs, to rely on jump shots. It’s been said over and over and it’s true. Especially when you really don’t have good shooters in the first place. It’s an isolation team and in the playoffs, when teams have time to really prepare for them, the Blazers are sunk. Dead in the water. They can’t get anything going unless one player simply carries them on his shoulders, the way Miller did in Game 1. No ball movement. No player movement. How many times have I said that over the last few years? One more time with emphasis — NO BALL MOVEMENT AND NO PLAYER MOVEMENT! – Rudy Fernandez, what the hell is going on, man? If you want to get yourself shipped out of here, you’re certainly on your way. In fact, I was surprised he wasn’t on a flight at halftime. Those fourth-quarter shots? Seriously — do it while it’s still a game. – Nothing quite says “choke job” like 12 missed free throws, does it? – LaMarcus Aldridge, what the hell is going on, man? You going to complain again about seeing double teams?You aren’t “the kind of guy” who is going to shoot over double teams? Well, uh, when you make that kind of money, you’re SUPPOSED to get double-teamed. That’s kind of how it works. And that grandstanding little set-to with Amare Stoudemire in the third quarter? Yeah, right. The guy tries to elbow you in the chops and you make a big show of doing something — well, next time why don’t you just wait until the next trip down and throw one of those ‘bows of your own? – Yeah, I know — all those injuries. Well, sorry — that doesn’t explain away that game. Not in the slightest. Not in ANY way. Forget about that excuse. I made this point before, this team overachieved only a little during the regular season. There are still talented players here. This team won 50 games during the regular season amid a season that, on the morning of each game, was favored to win 48. – Jason Richardson? Uh, fellas, he can MAKE that shot, OK? Might be a good idea not to leave him open every FREAKING time from the three-point line, don’t you think? – I investigated this personally and I can report to you that it wasn’t those new compost bins every 15 feet in the concourse that were responsible for that stink emanating from the Rose Garden. Nope. – The Suns were really dumb to engage in any sort of physical altercations with Portland in the second half. I mean, let sleeping dogs lie. And I do mean dogs. – Oh well, Saturday’s another day. if the Blazers can muster enough courage to show up, it ought to be a better game. Well, just about ANYTHING would be a better game, wouldn’t it?
oh and kpee is gone. 150% if this team loses 4 straight. i think though its already been decided he wont be returning. time to ditch the hcp type excuses and move to make the team a legit contender. however with the team being so injury prone... that might be a impossible task.
Jaynes sounds pretty riled up ... but I can't really argue with anything he said in there. This team has more question marks than answers right now, and I suspect the same would be true even with a mostly healthy roster.
Too bad Dwight is sugar coating this. Actually, I'd have to agree with everything he wrote. Just an absolute disaster of a game without even a single ray of sunlight to be found to put a postive spin on it. Pressure tends to reveal the truth about people, and what's been revealed about the guys in Blazer uniforms who are still playing is not pretty.
I disagree. The biggest question mark the organization has right now is the status of Oden. Having a guy who can score in the blocks changes how a team has to defend you (As we have seen first hand in this series. When the ball goes to Amare and we collapse - it leaves open shooters) Lamarcus can post up too, just not for 40 minutes. If we were able to explore that inside/out offense, the roles of Rudy & Webster change - all they would be asked to do (for the most part) offensively is to knock down shots. So really, they aren't question marks in that scenario. We already know how they fit into the roster. But because we don't know what we can expect from Greg in the future, we need a Plan B. And it's hard to say if guys like Rudy, Martell, & Bayless fit into our Plan B. If there is any good that came out of the injuries this year, it's that we got to see what we have on the roster. So what do we do? "Let it bake" doesn't have the same ring w/o Oden. Also with Brandon down, we've seen 1st hand what Rudy can (or should I say can't) do when given the opportunity to play big minutes at SG. So now the question is what do you do with him? That probably isn't an issue if everybody is healthy and all Rudy has to do is chuck open 3's. I remember the struggles Roy, LA, & Oden had early in the year but they are too good of players not to figure it out over time. That's not a big question mark as far as I'm concerned.
I don't care for Mixum's posts....but the he is right regarding the bench.....it needs to be COMPLETELY overhauled... Bayless and Webster generaly give good\great effort night in\night out but it is becoming apparent to me that the talent just isn't there, at least the talent to be relied on to provide consistent performances.... Same goes for Rudy, who IMO is really playing like a guy who doesn't want to be here anymore...guess what Rudy? Your going to get your wish.....
I think Jaynes is right on with the article. I also have to agree with Mixum about needing a new GM. I think we need a new GM and coach but that probably won't happen. I'm still thinking if KP is fired that I hope Nate only sign's another one year contract and the new GM can then see what he has with Nate and fire or keep him next year depending on what happens. I don't hate KP but I don't like how he gets attached to his young players and never trades them. We run Sergio's value to nothing and doing the same thing with Rudy. I think when we had the Rlec we could have traded Rudy and Rlec for something that would have really helped us. I'm sure KP wouldn't part with Rudy and now we probably can't get much for him even if he would trade him.
