This is like the perfect storm for this post (I've been waiting to minimize the aspect and get real discussion)...with Hank's post, seeing BayRex play the last few games, etc... Trade Blake for Bayless. Is it viable that, in the interests of cake-baking, we would divvy up the PG minutes between Bayless and Sergio? As much as I personally like Blake, and he's been playing the best ball of his career...but in the last few games I'm starting to see regression. And I don't know that anyone in here thinks Blakie is part of the batter baking. So why is he playing so much? Watching tonight, I am starting to come to the opinion that I'd rather see the future get some burn than see the past stay average--even at the risk of losing a couple more games. I'll even agree in principle with those that say Bayless should start in front of Sergio. I think if he got the same profile of run as Batum does (guaranteed 15 minutes with starters, more if he's playing well), and kept Sergio in his role right now, it'd be fine (unless you're Blake or his agent). It's not a matter of "if Bayless is better than Sergio"...it's "does the dropoff from Blake to Bayless outweigh the potential for our future starter to get acclimated into the league". Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Nash in Blake's spot on our team for the next 2 years until he falls apart, but that's probably not happening. Hinrich might be ok, but I'm still not sexified by that. Unleash Bayless and Sergio. That's letting the cake bake. What say you?
I think that having 3 rookies on the starting unit is a bit much for Nate to accept when we actually expect the team to make the playoffs - and that's probably the main reason it is unlikely we will see it until later in the year - if there is no trade - maybe after Webster comes back to the starting unit and Nate replaces Frye with Travis at the 2nd unit PF position and Batum gets back into the 2nd unit. But, I honestly think that one of two things is going to happen this year - we deal one of our current PG's (or 2 for a better PG) opening minutes for Bayless - or Nate is demoting Sergio if he falls apart. I do not think Nate is ready to trust Sergio as his primary PG at this point - and he is not going with Sergio/rookie as his PG players.
I'm perfectly fine with Bayless continuing to work his ass off behind the scenes, and once one of either Sergio or Blake regress or get injured (god forbid) I think he's going to get his opportunities later on in the year. Part of the reason Bayless isn't being thrown into the starter's role is because so much is demanded from the point guard position, demands that far outstrip what's been asked of Batum (play D, hustle for boards), Rudy (hit the open three), and Greg (rebound and block shots), the second reason is that Nate needs to fully trust him and that's very hard for a team that has playoff aspirations this season -- sure development needs to occur, but this can happen behind the scenes in practice as well as in game situations, I think last night's brief garbage time run gave glimpses of that development (and no I don't point to those 8 minutes as a good metric). We'll see what happens, but I think there's a decent chance we'll see a trade before the deadline that involves a point guard and Bayless might get 10 minutes a night thereafter.
Bayless will play this year, just wait when the playoffs come look for him to shine because no one has seen him play in a long time.
Been on the start Bayless bandwagon since draft day. We aint winning it all this year, take our lumps now and sneak into the payoffs and we'll have a seasoned JB for the rest of his career. Simple as that.
It's easy for me to say I'd do it -- I'm not going to lose a multi-million dollar job over it. I think a Bayless-Sergio-Koponen PG lineup will be quite good -- someday. For now I can see why it would be awefully hard for Nate to insert yet another rookie into the starting lineup.
Having 3 rooks in the rotation is probably straining Nate to the limit. Left on his own, I'm guessing he keeps Bayless locked in the basement. If KP really wants Bayless to get minures - and we don't know that for a fact - his best move would be to trade Sergio. Nate would still have his security blanket in Blake, but Bayless would have to get a chance.
I'm not opposed to a 'sink or swim' approach per se, but we're making the playoffs this year, so why screw that up by playing Bayless. He is clearly clueless out there and why lose more than half our games just to try and see if he can take it? I like what someone said about letting him learn behind the scenes. It gives him more confidence and makes the team better. I mean, go ask the players if they would like to skip the playoffds for 2-3 years just to let Bayless start. Go ahead. Most of the players will probably either laugh at you or kick your ass. In fact, even Bayless would laugh at the idea. You think he wants to be THE reason we start losing game after game? Guess again.
Interesting approach. I'm not close to positive that starting Bayless would cause us to skip the playoffs for 2-3 years. Blake's nowhere near that good. Bayless is nowhere near that bad,
Hyperbole much? And nice use of the 'false dilemma' fallacy. Look, I don't think most people are seriously calling for Bayless to be inserted into the starting lineup tomorrow (well OK, some people are) but to say that he's clueless and would be the catalyst for the team tanking and missing the playoffs sells him pretty short. The fact of the matter is that we haven't seen enough of Bayless to know if he's ready for heavy minutes or not, but every time I've seen him play this season I've noticed incremental improvement ... then again the sample sizes have been so minuscule you can't really determine anything positive or negative.
Would you be willing to see the team lose games you thought they should win with Bayless playing significant minutes and Blake being the 3rd PG? I'm not saying they would lose games, but if they did, who would get the brunt of the blame (outside of Outlaw, of course).
That wasn't the point of my post at all. But to answer your question, "no." But I also don't think Bayless should be the starter or leaned on heavily for some time -- 10 minutes a game on the other hand? Sure, why not.
Fair question. Right now, Blake is playing some of the best ball of his career. The problem is, his history says he can't sustain this pace. When his shot stops falling, I would rather see Bayless get minutes than see them force-fed to Blake. Personally, I would give him Sergio's minutes...but I know that isn't going to happen. Of the 3 PG candidates, I believe he is the worst fit with Roy - but I know many folks don't share that opinion.
If Roy is all that, he should be able to play with anyone...his game should be versatile enough that he should be able to fit with just about anyone. If not, it says more about Roy as a would-be-superstar than it does about any of our three non-star PGs. If we feel that Blake needs to go as starting PG, then I'd first switch him and Sergio. If that works, then try switching Blake and Bayless as the 2nd and 3rd PGs. Bayless going from 3rd string to starter seems a little bit abrupt (even though it sort of worked with Batum). I don't think Bayless is ready for more minutes, and I think that because Nate doesn't think it, and Nate is clearly no fan of Sergio's. If Nate is playing Sergio above Jerryd, it means he really really really isn't comfortable with Jerryd. barfo
