Why not put Shavlik on the active roster (in place of Ike) and give him a few minutes at back-up power forward? After accusing other posters of being overly negative, I won't be too hard on Channing and Ike, but they aren't getting the job done. After the way Channing finished last season, I had high hopes for him backing-up LaMarcus this season, Last year, due to Oden's injury, Channing spent most of his minutes playing out of position at center. This year, with Oden and Przybilla manning the center position, I thought Channing would excel at his natural position, power forward, with the second unit. It hasn't really worked out that well. Ike is exactly what I expected. When a guy can't get minutes on bad teams, there's no reason to expect he'll deserve minutes on a good team. Every time he touches the ball, you know he's going to force up a bad shot. He has zero assists for the season, and a TS% of 0.308. Ironically, his rebounding has picked up lately, but it's almost all offensive rebounds of his his own missed/blocked shots. In preseason, Shavlick played well, brought a lot of energy and seemed to mesh well with his teammates. I thought he deserved the 15th roster spot, would be a good practice player and an adequate extra big to hold down the 12th spot in case of an injury. With Frye and Diogu struggling, why not give Shavlik a shot. Seriously, neither Frye nor Diogu are playing big minutes. And, they aren't really effective when they do play. How much can it hurt to give Shavlik their minutes for a game or two? At the very least, I think he'd bring more energy than Frye or Diogu. And, I think it will send a message - hustle and work hard and you'll be rewarded. We keep reading quotes from Nate about a shake-up, but let's face it, he's reluctant to mess with the top 8 or 9 guys in the rotation. Activating Shavlik and giving him a couple minutes of PT will get the other guys' attention without impacting the top of the rotation. If it doesn't work, you'd still have one of Frye or Diogu on the bench next to him. Seems like a low risk chance to take, and who knows, it might actually improve our back-up power forward situation. All we really need is a little energy and some rebounding from that spot, and I think Shavlik would give us that - and least more of that than we are currently getting from Frye and Diogu. BNM
I'm all about letting the unknowns getting a shot. Ike and Shav for sure. I just remember how long ZBO and JO stayed on the bench and then eventually turned into pretty good players.
And Diogu isn't? In what way could Shavlik possibly be worse than Ike? For his career, Shavlik is a better rebounder. Ike is shooting 0.308 from the field and makes Zach Randolph look like a good defender and a capable passer. Ike has ZERO assists and ZERO steals. Shavlik looked decent in preseason - totally outplayed Ike. Frye had his chance. Diogu has had his. Neither have done very well. So, now it's time to give Shavlik a turn. Seriously, what could it hurt? If by some miracle he's actually worse than Ike, he can go back to being the 15th man and sitting at the end of the bench in street clothes. BNM
^ IDK, Ike didn't have as much play time as Frye, but I bet if he did, he'd do well. I would love to see both S-Bo and Ike get some good minutes...
Do well at what? Every time he touches the ball you know he's going to force up a bad shot. He plays poor defense and doesn't even look to pass. Seeing the ball go into him reminds me of of the old Zach Randolph days - only Zach was a much more capable scorer and would occasionally look to pass out of the triple teams. Ike is just flat out bad. He couldn't get minutes on lottery teams in Golden State or Indiana, and he's certainly done nothing to warrant minutes on a play-off contending team here in Portland. Shavlik out played him in all ways during the preseason. I know it's only preseason, but Shavlik shot the ball better, rebounded better and turned the ball over less than Ike. So, why is Ike ahead of him in the rotation? Preseason: Ike Diogu - 14.1 pts, 6.3 reb and 6.3 TO per 36 minutes on 0.400 FG% - that's right, Ike has as many TOs as reb in the preseason. Shavlik Randolph - 15.0 pts, 8.9 reb and 3.2 TO per 36 minutes on 0.538 FG%. From watching the preseason games, Shavlik brought more energy, played smarter and produced better results than Ike. It won't make a lot of difference, but I do think Shavlik deserves a chance given how poorly Ike has played. BNM
shavlik wasn't even good at duke. and he hasn't done anything in the nba either. ike and frye have both proven to be much better players than shavlik at the nba level. it's a better idea to let them play through their struggles or look for an upgrade than play a worse player just because he haven't played for the blazers yet.
I agree about Shavlik's energy. He also seemed not to take shots that were as ill-advised at Ike or Frye. I like to see an energy guy that knows his strengths and plays to them.
Ike is crap? I don't think so. He's an effective offensive player. He's only shot 30% from the field this season, but given the type of shots he was taking (and, in many cases, CREATING by getting offensive rebounds) there is no way it would stay that low. He gets to the line and he is a reasonably good shotblocker. There's simply no reason to give Shavlik a chance when we haven't even given Ike--a far superior talent and player--one. Why Frye is still playing is beyond me. Ed O.
Didn't Shavlik score 19 on 9 of 9 shooting in pre-season? Or was that summer league? Anyway, I'm all for activating Shavlik for a few games to give him a try. He seems like an Ime Udoka/Viktor Krhyappa in the "overachieving stiff" mold. That said, I'd much rather see Frye and Bayless together in the bench unit instead. I noticed that, when the bench unit (Ike/Frye, Joel, Travis, Rudy, Sergio) is in the game, we only have 3 legitimate shooters. Our starting lineup has 4 legit guys who can score if passed the ball (5 when Webster returns). When Sergio starts the offense at 12 seconds left, and the defense stops the guy he passes to, we're sunk. Let's say Rudy gets doubled and passes it back to Sergio. Sergio then has 5 seconds to dump it to another guy who can shoot who also isn't Rudy. That leaves Travis or Frye shooting a jumper as time expires. In the starting lineup, if Roy's doubled, he can pass back to Blake, who can and will shoot the open shot, and can make it at a decent clip. Anyway, I think the worst part of our bench play, specifically a guy like Frye, is that he's Sergio's bailout. Frye will get the ball in a bad position because Sergio can't shoot and there's only 3 on the shot clock. He misses, and looks bad. Same with Ike. Get a legitimate scorer running the point, and suddenly you have a decent number of options. It's much harder to defend 4 scoring threats than 3. So, fixing our backup PF problem might be as simple as chaning the number of options we have on the bench, since either of our backup PFs will likely play batter as option #4 instead of option #3.
He also shot 0.400 in preseason. And he's NOT creating his own shots by getting offensive rebounds. Both of his offensive rebounds in the Denver game came when he got his shot blocked right back in his face. He has a grand total of 2 BLK this season. He's had his own shot blocked 4 times. He's not a good shot blocker. Shavlik actually has a higher career BLK% than Ike (and a higher STL% and a higher AST% and a lower TOV%). And again ZERO assists and ZERO steals for Ike so far this season. I wonder what the NBA record is for most consectutives games without an assist. Ike's currently at 13 and counting. I disagree. Shavlik, today, is a better player than Ike. Shavlik outplayed him in preseason and is a better defender and better rebounder. Prior to his season ending ankle injury in 2006-07, Shavlik has worked his way into the starting line-up in Philadelphia. Ike scores more becuase that's all he does. He doesn't pass the ball and he plays awful defense. In a back-up power forward, especially with Outlaw and Rudy taking most of the shots, I'd like to see some energy, rebounding and defense. Not some guy who forces up a bad shot everytime he touches the ball. Because, as bad as he's been playing, Frye is still better than Diogu. BNM
It was preseason. Shavlik wasn't on our Summer League team. In less than 20 minutes against Atlanta, he had 19 points on 9 - 9 shooting, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks. In three preseason games, he averaged 12.3 PPG, 8.9 RPG and 2.3 BPG on 0.538 FG% In six preseason games, Ike averaged 4.5 PPG, 2.0 RPG and 1.2 BPG on 0.400 FG% Yeah, it was preseason and a small sample size, but it's pretty clear that Shavlik totally outplayed Ike in preseason. BNM
He's never been a good offensive player, but he was a good rebounder and defender prior to his injury. Based on his preseason performance (all we have to base anything on at this point), that hasn't changed. BNM
