How We Look Position by Position

Let's take a realistic look at the state of the team, position by position. Or at least, my opinion...

Center- Camby- Still has some rebounding and defensive skills, but at the very tail end of his career. Great to keep as a backup and for veteran leadership. Obviously, not part of the future.

Godzilla- Somewhat injury prone and coming off a very serious injury and surgery. Last year of expiring contract. Unless he comes back very strongly, this should be his final season with us. And if he does stay, with his injury history and age, it's hard to see in any role other than backup.

Oden- More or less injured his entire basketball life. Still his potential demands we not give up on him for a while. Impossible to predict how he will fit in with our future plans

OVERALL- Dismal. Many teams have won NBA titles without centers worth their weight in manure (or barely so). We can too. But, we need healthy defensive minded centers. Maybe between these three we can make do until we can draft an average center that can stay healthy.

Power Forward- LA- A better player than given credit for. Probably rates a "B" grade overall. Stays healthy and can run the floor. Fits our future plans.

OVERALL- Marks doesn't count as he isn't an NBA talent. We have no backup at this position whatsoever (and do NOT tell me how Cunningham is a true PF. Nate has repeatedly stated he is a SF forced to play PF and he doesn't like him there. If you're going to insist Nate is wrong, get a life and skip this thread). Clearly, a backup PF is a critical need. But finding one in the draft isn't that much of a problem. The outlook is pretty good.

Small Forward- Batum- Excellent all around game. Definite keeper. Has a tendency to disappear in games still, but each year he shows improvement.

Cunningham- A very strong backup SF. Can defensively dominate at this position and has a better then average mid range shot. Plays within himself. I would think he easily fits the future of this team, but he may want to leave so he can try and start somewhere and more fully develop his game. Who could blame him? I hope we can keep him as he has a near warrior mentality.

Babbitt- Has shown an NBA shot in practice (or so it's reported). But can he get it done on the floor? uncertain as he's a rookie that hasn't been good enough in practice to earn floor minutes on an injury riddled team. Doesn't speak well, but it is his rookie season. We'll just have to see over the next couple of years how he pans out. That said, he seems destined for reserve minutes at best.

OVERALL- Very solid if we can keep Cunningham.

Shooting Guard- Roy- His effective career appears to be over. A slow player losing his athleticism to injury. If so, he essentially has no role on the team and should be placed on the inactive list for the duration of his contract. I mean, who wants a slow injured player off the bench? If he can overcome his serious knee issues, maybe a decent bench player. It was embarrassing seeing him try and play last night.

Matthews- Heir apparent SG. I think that he's a "C" player overall. We could do better and we could do worse as a starter. If we can't find a better SG, he'll do.

Rudy- I'm taking him at his word he's going home for good when his contract is up. Therefore, he doesn't fit our future plans.

Williams- injured rookie. Be he a SG or a PG is up for debate. But with multiple knee injuries, maybe we should "see Roy". To me, he's a non factor until he shows up and plays a season or so.

OVERALL- Nor very good. The Roy soap opera will pathetically play out for a season or two. Maybe three. Matthews is OK and Rudy is a lame duck. We are in dire need of help at this position.

Point Guard- Miller- Very crafty and savy veteran. But, starting to get long in the tooth and basically acting as a place holder until we find his replacement. No future due to age.

Johnson- Well, he's a rookie. He has some skills but needs more time for evaluation. Overall, were I to guess, I'd say he doesn't have a real big future. Maybe I'm wrong- it's hard to tell at this time. Just a feeling I get as he was passed over by so many teams in a weak draft. Makes me think there was a reason for that.

Mills- Just filling a roster spot. And maybe that's for the best.

OVERALL- Not good. We need a replacement for Miller and fast.

I'd say the overall outlook is not very good. But a shrewd GM and good coaching does have some talent to work with and build on. We may or may not make the playoffs this year, but I think in a couple of years we might be able to be a consistent playoff team. It's probably the best we can hope for at this point, but I'll take it. Build a consistent playoff team first, then tweak it from there and who knows what we'll have.

 

i think sg is 50/50.... cant comment till seasons end. roy might be a decent option but his defense is bad. yes.... we need an upgrade at pg badly and pray oden can someday play. i also fee like we need a scorer off the bench and have always needed a backup pf. those 2 are mut fix for next or even this year.

 

Didn't I basically make this pst a week or so ago and got killed for it?

 

Yes. you did. As I got slayed a few weeks ago for daring to question Roy.

But I wanted to know how others see the team, position by position.

 

The depth at center is bad but Camby is still playing at a high level.

However, the future of our center position long-term looks horribly bleak.

 

I think the Blazers have gone from having two very good positions (SG & PF), one average (SF), and two highly questionable (PG & C), to having three questionable (SG is added), but SF appears to be a little better than I'd given it credit for.

The bottom line, to me, is how the Blazers are going to generate sufficient offense with a shaky Brandon Roy. I think defensively, Camby and Przybilla can cover some of the deficiencies of Roy, but on offense, if Roy can't score 20-25 points in an efficient manner, the Blazers' whole offensive strategy is hosed.

Blazers need to either replace Roy at SG - with someone probably better than either Rudy or Mathews - or find a different position to build around. In an ideal world, it'd be Aldridge, but he hasn't shown the ability to carry the team as the #1 option. I would keep Batum, regardless, but the big question is "who's the Blazers first option on offense, if it can't be Roy?"

 

Dante Cunningham has played power forward his entire NBA and college careers. You, or Nate McMillan, saying he should be playing small forward does not change the fact that he was always been a power forward.

 

Against New Orleans, Roy scored 27 on moderately efficient scoring. It was the rest of the team that didn't show up offensively.

Against New Orleans, they just seemed dispirited. I'm hopeful, though, that Roy can continue to produce and the rest of the team will pick it up.

 

PG - Great improvement. Finally, the backup PG and PGOTF we wanted. Miller still playing at a high level.
SG - It's Roy, Rudy, then Mathewss, plus Mathewss could actualy be more of the backup SF. Anyway, the only problem I have with this position now that Roy is back, is that Mathewss seems to be much less productive as bench player.
SF - Batum. A premier player, very important piece of the puzzle. When he's not playing well, the team will most likely lose.
PF - LMA. I usualy don't watch the 1st-half so LMA continues to be kind of an urban-legend to me. If he can stretch his aggressiveness through an entire game we would be a much better team. Did make some key shots for us in crunch time (against Phoenix when Roy had 50+) but not effective enough in the 3rd and 4th. Dante is a player I absolutely love, probably a PF more then SF, IMO.
C - Camby is still a great player. Joel coming back I think will make us much stronger. If he's the same player he was before the injury, I would also want us to re-sign him.

 

Still harping on DC as a SF. Ridiculous. Haven't you been proved wrong on that hundreds of times now?

 

Dante has a SF body but a PF's game. The way he pops-out for that mid-range-jumper is that of a PF. On defense, he guards Power-forwards as good as Lamarcus and if he gets mis-matched with a Center he'll probably send him to earn his points from the line. I hope Babbitt can become that other forward of the bench. I've said it before, with Dante you don't need another PF or another SF, you need the other player to be the "right" forward, and I think that could be Babbitt.

 

Prophet, you underrate experience and overrate potential. You write off Camby and Miller, and promote the infrequently visible virtues of Batum. We'll lose the experienced guys in 2 years, so worry about that when it happens, the distant future. The roster will be quite different by then. Meanwhile, those 2 players are 2 of our biggest strengths.

 

Points are very well taken.

It'll just have to be a team approach. LA, Matthews, Batum, Rudy and Miller (within 16') can score. We also have an advantage of teams not being able to key in on Roy. Remember, he has consistently failed in the playoffs and regular season lately late in games as he is too selfish and teams trap him into driving the lane 1 on 3.

 

True, out of necessity. And Nate has stressed that point.

 

No, it's not me harping on it, but Nate. So, he's wrong and you're right. Let's start calling you coach since you proclaim yourself more knowledgeable that Nate.

OK, coach.

 

I'm talking about the future of the team- not the present. What's the base we have now for 2 or 3 seasons down the road. I would agree with you if I were talking about this season.

 

Sadly, the Roy conundrum will increasingly rise as the season progresses. Wish I had a crystal ball to see how that ends up. I don't think it's gonna be a pretty conclusion.

The Miller situation is such a dilemma to me. While I think he'll soon have great trade value, he's been one of the more consistent players on this team. Long-term, though, is still an issue.

BP, as you and I had discussed, it would be great to see how Freeland and/or Koponen might fare at this point

 

Agreed. This is the perfect time to bring those two over.

 

The rest of the team is limited offensively is the problem, though. Without Roy scoring 27 - imagine what a world of hurt the team would be in!

Can we really expect the rest of the team to go from inadequate helpers of Roy to able to win games without him?

 

Well, it's largely the same cast of characters that won 50 games last year, a chunk of that without Roy. The main difference we're contemplating is the possibility of Roy no longer being Roy. But against New Orleans, Roy was (basically) Roy...he may have looked a bit more laboured, but his production was solid even for him. The problem was the supporting cast and the recent past (the last year or two) suggests that this last game was an aberration for them. Unless they've given up, which would surprise me.