He didn't look all that great and maybe was a little nervous. I would maybe give him one more game starting and the other game try the 3 guard lineup of Blake/Roy/Rudy with LMA and Oden.
It was good to see Blake and Frye back, it felt like a real team was out there again for the whole game. And Nate's starting to play the main guys big minutes. Aldridge can be flat out dominate. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he could actually turn out to be our best player, although even if he just gets close to that, that would be awesome. And I think he's already there. Oden looked pretty good. 5 turnovers, but he really seemed to fill the stat sheet tonight and once again, he had no foul trouble, this time in big minutes. That, and his good freethrow shooting are huge. However, for long stretches, he seemed to get no touches on the offensive end. I think they're still figuring out how to play together. What the hell is with Oden/Aldridge doubling Blake/Roy in the assist department... ? Batum fell back down to earth tonight. Looked like he was in over his head. But he did rebound well. I have no idea why we had him on Kevin Martin, that's just not going to work. It seemed like there were no fast-breaks till the 4th quarter. Soooo much isolation on offense... I hate to say it, but it looked a lot like last year for the majority of the game. And I mean that in a bad way. We seemed to run more in the 4th, and wow, we outscored our opponent by ten. Coincidence? No. One other thing looked a lot like last year... Our defense. Or lack thereof. For a team that preaches defense, that was a pretty sorry effort for the most part. Everyone getting beat off the dribble, help defense a step late and a buck short. Way too many layins and open jump-shots. We're going to have to do better than that or we're in for a rude awakening when the real season starts.
You mean the Quick article, where even Quick says Outlaw talking about more shots was really just woofing with his boys in Starkville? If you see Travis as a malcontent, I want to know exactly why you feel this way. Those are pretty harsh words for a player who is fine with coming off of the bench.
I'm happy Oden doesn't look like he is going to be in as much foul trouble as I thought. I know it is only pre-season but he seems to be able to stay out of a lot of foul trouble. At least we have Joel that can fill in when he does get in foul trouble. I thought Oden had a couple of nice hook shots tonight. I know people might still be a little disappointed by Oden but this is better then I thought he would be this early. Just what to he gets in game shape. I think he looks like he is getting there but still could get a little better game shape.
I think Travis would rather come off the bench here then be traded to a losing team and start...wouldn't you want that if you were him? He might not have an oppurtunity to make as much money because he's not the focal point of the team, but contributing to something special like this team for seasons to come is a pretty cool thing and I think he knows that.
I remember Gasol saying that Nate wouldn't play Rudy enough minutes. I know some of the Blazer fans were worried he wouldn't get enough minutes but I don't think we have to worry now. I think Rudy is at least our 4th best player and needs to get minutes if we are really going to be good.
He said he was worried because of Sergio's minutes in past years...I think Rudy is clearly a more well rounded player than Sergio. Sergio is coming around though!
I agree and I do think Sergio is coming around and I could see him getting 10-15 minutes per game at least until Bayless gets better or Webster gets back.
At this point Bayless probably won't see a lot of minutes this year...Sergio looks like he has that backup spot right now...it's up to him to keep it.
The whole "Nate doesn't play rookies" thing is completely bogus. Nate just doesn't play rookies who aren't ready. He clearly trusts Rudy and knows that he is not a bigger liability than he is an asset ... in fact it's pretty clear that he knows Rudy is probably essential to this team succeeding this year.
Interesting that either Przybilla or Oden was on the court for the entire game. Add up their minutes and you get 48. You expect that in theory, but in most games there's a minute or two when your main guy or your main backup aren't in the game, or they both are. That just didn't happen this time. That's the advantage of having two healthy, starting quality, legit seven foot centers. Roy seemed to coast for most of the game. Kind of reminded me of how Pippen did that for big stretches. Then with 7 minutes left BAM suddenly the other team was reminded just how good Roy is. Everything looked so easy tonight. When Rudy or Outlaw was on the break, you didn't feel like there was going to be a screwup. When guys were left open at the three point line, you knew there was a high likelihood the shot was going in. When Aldridge took some contested jumpers in the post that really weren't great shots, they went in anyway. Injuries are going to be less of a problem this year, just because key guys like Roy and Aldridge won't have to work so hard for the team to win. There's just an aura of competence about this team I haven't seen since 2000. Sure, it was against a sad sack Kings team, but still. When you drive a porsche down a crummy potholed road, you can still feel it's a porsche.
Just checked on the game thread over at BBF. 20 total posts and EVERY SINGLE POST WAS BY MGB!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMN!!!!
