I'm comfortable with Jerryd as long as he gets consistent minutes, his game will get into a rhythm. Right now he never knows when he will see the court and is obviously affecting his game. I think he would shine given enough PT
The only thing I would disagree with is "IKE can't miss lay ups forever". I think he can. I think he is just too short. We do need another backup PF.
I still think you need a vet PG on this team, replace Blake with Sergio and I'm fine with it. Give Bayless backup PG minutes.
I wonder if Jerryd's minutes tonight means he'll be the backup PG, or if he'll go back to being the 12th man. I'd like to see him get the second-quarter minutes tomorrow. And I wonder if Frye is back to being the backup PF. There was a lot of interesting stuff tonight..
Long term? Absolutely, we should look to upgrade that position. I prefer Ike's game of getting offensive boards-and-shooting free throws to Frye's game... even if it means missing some layups. If we want a jump shooting backup 4, hopefully we can put Outlaw there when Webster gets back. Ed O.
I know we passed on CP and Deron for marty, but man, Granger would look mighty good slotted in that SF position for us.
Oh I know its unrealistic to acquire him, just using hindsight about that terrible 05 draft ( I like Martell, but we really screwed the pooch!)
there is absolutely no chance shavlik randolph would be better than frye or diogu in any way. he's absolute garbage. one of the worst players in the league.
Yeah.. the '05 Draft is like 2000 WCF Game 7. It hurts, but I guess not everything can go right especially when you had Patternash running the show.
Tonights Loss . . . depressing? From the opening tip tonight, Denver wanted it more than we did. They got to the 1st loose ball of the game and didn't stop working all night. I was severely dissapointed in the effort tonight. We came out flat, and we're in foul trouble all game. Can't blame the refs either. Oden continues to not move his feet. He slaps, reaches, hip checks, holds . . . if only he brought the kind of energy that Nene, Martin, and Anderson did tonight. MOVE YOUR FEET. I know, I know - his knee is < 100'%. Still, it looks like he's sleepwalking some nights. Our guards can't stop dribble penetration. Our B/U PG comes in and misses a layup and throws the ball away a couple of times, one of them on a would be/easy 2 on 1 break. Sergio just continues to dissapoint - can't make a layup and can't defend. Hmmm, this guy wants more playing time? Go play for Oklahoma city. You can tell Nate is stuck. The Diogu experiment went bad again - more turnovers and missed shots under the basket (Dude, stop trying to put the ball on the deck!) He played so bad that Nate stuck Frey back in . . . in the 4th quarter!! Same with Sergio, he stunk so bad that Nate finally "Freed Bayless" . . . in the 4th quater. So, how are Bayless and Frey going to do in a nail biter close game for 1st place on the road? When neither has any reason to feel confident these days? Well, you can criticize Nate but I don't think it would have made a difference. The fate of this team hinges on Brandon Roy. When he plays like an MVP, we look decent. He gets to the basket/free throw line, opens things up, and we're off to the races. When he isn't making shots, or the opposing team is locking him down - we look bad. Other than Roy, we have no playmakers. Just jump shooters. The thing that makes me mad is the effort. That game was for 1st place fellas. The hustle board was all Denver tonight - more steals, blocks, and rebounds. More easy baskets, more free throws, more assists, more points in the paint (by a BUNCH) Why did the team come out so flat tonight? After 3 days off? 14 points in the 4th quarter? 3 pointers kept us in the game for a while, but sooner or later you're tempting fate when that's your bread and butter. Here's to hoping Brandon "MVP" Roy comes to the rescue tomorrow night.
Re: Tonights Loss . . . depressing? I didn't come one here and post so as not to sound like a weirdo but I knew, just KNEW that they were going to lose tonight and I didn't even get angry about it. The same way I knew the Jazz would come back from being down 27-7 after the first the other night, that is just the way the NBA goes.
Re: Tonights Loss . . . depressing? Tonight showed our glaring weakness of not being able to get easy buckets as well as another other in the last few seasons. Roy is the only guy on the teams that's capable of getting to the rim on a fairly consistent basis. LaMarcus 20-foot jumpers aren't a great #2 option if we want to make the playoffs in the West. We need more slashing to the rim (to get to the FT line) which will also keep the other team from running fast breaks on all of our long range misses. Unfortunately we stacked a roster full of jump shooters and raw big men right now.
A generally poor defensive team shuts down our best player. We were out hustled and muscled on the boards. We were also on the wrong end of a big FT disparity. All-in-all, a formula for a bad night. If the team bounces back in the second game, it probably isn't a big deal. If it happens again.......
Re: Tonights Loss . . . depressing? Completely agree. We struggle mightily in Denver and it doesn't matter who suits up for us or them. They've got our number. However, I think we'll come back and spank them tomorrow night in front of a crowd of 37 people. For those of you that have tickets, are you going?
I disagree. Just the opposite happened. Nate went away from the guys who've performed well off the bench and threw in Bayless and Diogu, which pretty much doomed us by throwing everyone out of whack. He regressed to his "I hate Sergio" form and went without any recognizable team offense in the second half. Sergio is our only PG who includes the rest of the team in the offense (3 assists in 5 mins) and it showed glaringly in his absence. Billups had more assists than Blake and Roy combined. Joel and Rudy should have played more also. Joel had 8 rbs and 3 pf in 21 minutes, Greg had 3 rbs and 6 pf in 21 minutes. We had no center for 6 mins in a game where we got killed on the boards. The last 4-5 games smell disturbingly similar to when Nate ended our 13 game streak last year by "fixing what wasn't broke". Hopefully, this doesn't have as devastating of an effect this year.
Tomorrow's game will tell the story of our team's character. We need to come out with passion and determination. But there shouldn't be a gut check game tomorrow. We had a HUGE chance to put distance between us and the rest of the NW and we fell flat on our faces. I am very disappointed with the game tonight, esp with 3 days rest.
Yeah it was a somewhat depressing game with a chance to take first, and seeing the guys not play with the type of energy we know they can play with. I know it's been talked about a lot, but we should really be running more with as young of a group that we have. We have Rudy, Travis, Nicolas who are young, lively and can finish on the breaks, Brandon can finish when he feels like running, and LaMarcus is one of the quickest, fastest PFs in the league. We have Greg and Joel who can dominate the boards, and outlet to start a break. We need the easy baskets, and it just gets hard to watch when we have to grind out every possession in the half court with a Roy ISO, or in the case of tonight... seeing Outlaw ISO from the top three, four times down the stretch.
