Moving forward: this season and beyond

Okay... Brandon is having knee problems (again). Oden is getting another opinion on his knee. That's two of our big three right there. Who knows when Oden will be back, and Roy's health HAS to be concerning to anyone who cares about this team. It raises some serious questions about the team this season and beyond.

Roy said he wants a second opinion. That could mean a number of things, but my concern is that he's going to need major knee surgery, possibly MF surgery. That doesn't bode well, especially for someone with a history of knee problems like BRoy.

This season:

Losing Roy leaves a gigantic gaping hole in the shooting guard spot. We have Matthews and Rudy to fill in, and that's fine, but where are we going to find that scoring? Who starts? Rudy? Matthews? I'm wondering if Nate was auditioning tonight. Rudy played well.

Who becomes our first option on offense? LMA? It sure seems that way. He played very well tonight, and hopefully he can adjust to being "the man". He certainly struggled in that role last season during the playoffs.

If Oden is gone for longer than expected, and by that I mean late December, it would mean that we're going to have to rely on Camby and Joel to man that position. To this date, we really know very little about Joel's comeback. Supposedly he'll be back by late November, and that's great, but how will he do? Is he the same Joel, or has the knee injury hurt his game? Definitely some concerns there.

The Future:
We've discussed it here before, but one has to wonder if Roy's knee injuries have cost him the explosiveness and vertical that has made him the All-Star that we have come to know over the past four seasons. If Roy has lost his athleticism, it means he will have to adjust his game. This creates a lot of uncertainty about Roy and how he will adjust. Can he become a pure shooter? Ray Allen is a good example of a guy who changed his game as he grew older. Roy has a nice shot, it's not outside the realm of possibility, but he'll have to spend a ton of time in the gym shooting jumpers.

Oden is a whole other problem. It's extremely concerning that he hasn't healed up to this point, and that he is going to see a specialist in LA has to raise red flags. They have yet to set a timeline for him, which some have dismissed, but I think it's definitely a bad sign. If Oden does not return this year, how does that effect our future? How should we proceed? At what point do we stop being optimistic and plan for a future without Oden?

I'm not ready to write this team off. We have a lot of talent and I think these guys can still make the playoffs. I'm just concerned about our ability to contend without Oden or Roy. We've already sunk a huge contract on Roy, and Oden's status will have to be dealt with this summer. What do we do? Let him walk? Sign him? Too many damn question marks about the future of this team.

 

Definitely a lot of questions about the team. I am kind of going into bunker mentality; realizing that it could be a long wait for a championship. Since Oden's latest major injury I have not counted on him for anything; so anything we get will be a bonus for me. I don't think there will be a primary scorer; I don't think Aldridge is mentally tough enough to persist when he gets stopped early, so we will need scoring from a lot of guys, but i think we have a lot of guys who can contribute. When Joel is back we will need to take on the personality of a tough, good defensive and rebounding team that scores in a lot of ways. It's difficult to plan when we don't really know the future readiness of Oden and Roy. I think we just need to do the best we can and also start developing young players on the roster like Johnson, Matthews, Batum and Babbit (too bad Eliott Williams is out).

 

If Roy is out, I think Matthews should start. Rudy's game if perfect for a spark off the bench. They should get about equal minutes.

LaMarcus needs to step up and play like he did tonight every night. If he has an off night, it will be extremely hard for us to win.

Joel doesn't really worry me at this point. It may just be because there are so many other things to worry about and I want to be optimistic about something, but I think his game wasn't really about explosiveness. It was more about timing and being in the right places.

Considering Roy's inability or lack of desire to change his style, I'm not too optimistic about this if he really has lost his explosiveness forever. Granted, it has only been a short time, but he doesn't seem to want to change at this point.

I still think he deserves another chance. If after he is healthy, he gets injured badly again, or isn't producing for some reason, I think we need to look at other options.

I'm not ready to write this team off. We have a lot of talent and I think these guys can still make the playoffs. I'm just concerned about our ability to contend without Oden or Roy. We've already sunk a huge contract on Roy, and Oden's status will have to be dealt with this summer. What do we do? Let him walk? Sign him? Too many damn question marks about the future of this team.[/QUOTE]

 

Losing Roy could be a good thing if you think he was holding us back from running, which some people hypothesize is the right system for this team. If Roy is indeed out for any length of time, this will give us a glimpse of what the team would look like with a running system in place. We will see what the world would look like without Brandon Roy.

 

Coming into the season, I believed we had the best chance to beat the Lakers of any of the 29 teams out there. Then I watch Roy do Zero against the Lakers and watch the rest of the team follow suit except for Miller who is never hurt and stupidly got criticized for trying to help make it a game. Now Oden needs a second opinion. I'm sorry. We're done. I will still watch the games but this sucks. You can only get so far with just Heart. I have followed this team for 20 years and have stuck with them because we lost in 90 & 92 and every year is "next year" for me even though I haven't lived in Oregon in years. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

What really truly sucks is that we had a chance to get Chris Paul and didn't pull it out.

Fuck. Lemme predict the future. Blazers make playoffs, lose in first round again. LeBron chokes I'm second round (even with Wade and Bosh), Hornets or Thunder reach WCF. Lakers beat Celtics in 7 again. Ugh.

 

Speaking of Miller, i think this explains why he seemed to be trying too hard to take over in a couple games; he knew there was something wrong physically with Roy.

 

That's a good point, possibly the team could be more enjoyable to watch even if they don't win as much (and I'm not ready to concede that they will do any worse than last year).

Of course this depends on what Roy does; if he continues to play but adjusts his game to an even slower pace, that doesn't sound too attractive.

 

I imagine the whole team has known because they practice with the guy every day. This would also explain why the team signed Matthews.

 

Yep. Makes me respect Andre Miller even more. Every game, all he tries to do is what the team needs. On Sunday, he saw Roy in trouble so he picked up his scoring and an idiot in here blasted him for it.

 

Great post. I feel like Andre has been one of the few players on the team that has been pouring everything into every game. The guy is very underrated by this fanbase.

 

Yep. He singlehandedly beat the Knicks and he tried, admirably, to singlehandedly beat the Thunder.

 

I think he's been very underrated his whole career. I've always liked his game, and I think he's going to be key if we're going to make the playoffs this year.

 

Is it Nicolas Batum's time to really shine?

 

It's really hard to get hyped for this team with all the injuries.

You can't rely on Greg Oden at all. What if his body just can't take it? Since graduating HS his body started to fall apart from the seams. He now has two bum knees and is likely psychologically scarred. I'd have terrible anxiety by merely jumping if I had the types of injuries he had, and how they happened.

Brandon Roy is looking like a shell of his former self at the ripe age of 26. It just so happens he's on the first year of his 5-year $85m contract. He could be out for a while, certainly he's not going to get better by just resting. This is something that's lingering, apparently. I just hope he doesn't have a decline like T-Mac where MF surgery killed what was left of his career.

If we lose Roy for a lot of this season we wont have a go-to-guy. LaMarcus is barely a second option. If Andre Miller is our first option we're pretty much fucked.

The real hope for the future?

 

I think its because his game isn't really aesthetically pleasing.

 

I'm afraid so my friend, I'm afraid so.

 

I think it's the whole team's time to shine, but I think we will be counting on Nic, Dre, and Aldridge the most. I hope to God that Aldridge is ready to earn that fatty paycheck of his.

 

Andre definitely deserves some credit. You can tell he wisely picks his spots when he feels he needs to score, or just be a distributor. He's in no way a selfish player.

 

Despite the whole stigma behind it, MF surgery has come to a stage where it's so precise and on such a mini-scale that it can actually help a guy. If Roy needs some of that cartilage strengthened within his knee, it CAN be a viable option.

And if they do decide to do it, I hope they can get on with it asap, and have him back for the finish of the season (I do think we can get a playoff spot without him).

(BUT GOD DAMN! IF ONLY THE LOCKOUT HAPPENED THIS YEAR)

 

LMA is already earning his "fat paycheck" as you say, easily so, If he keeps playing like this the guys contract was a steal.