Given how bad they both played last night lets hope both of them improve. it's hard for me to believe they can play worse. My biggest concern is their outside shooting, both are shooting very poorly for the season. I had thought Bayless was a better shooter than he has shown "so far", hopefully with more play he will settle in and improve his percentages. Last night they were laying off both guards and letting them have the outside shot - a strategy we will see a lot of unless they can start hitting some shots. If not may KP will have a change of heart regarding "in-season" trades, Felton or Hinrich anyone?
I'm hoping KP isn't 100% sold on this "no in-season trades" idea, because I would be very disappointed if we passed up something good just because he doesn't like to mess with chemistry. I'm not sold on cap space this summer, especially now with Miles' 10th game inevitable, so I think we should move RLEC and get it over with. Please. Stop the insanity.
Quick calling out any other media for laziness and reporting BS rumors as fact... hey Jason, how is Blazer coach Iavaroni working out? Have you bothered to learn the basics of the salary cap yet? STOMP
Seriously? You guys think that they are just going to give up on Sergio? I don't know; I really hope that Sergio just gets his chance, so we can all just find out for fact one way or another... specially for the team. There's nothing worse than just keeping that guy on a string; shit or get off the pot with him, right here, right now.
I think Sergio will start. Despite Bayless and his "toughness" (not as tough as he portrays, but he has some guts), we need someone right now to run the offense. That's not Bayless. See his stat line last night? 25 min, 1-11, 0 assists. I don't care if he is a rookie, that was terrible. And it's not like he was up against an all-star. He's a long ways away from being an NBA player. Probably 2-3 years. That said, Sergio wasn't a whole lot better, but at least we know he can play. Also, I don't buy stuff like, "let's start Bayless and hope in 2-4 years he learns to play". To me, let him learn to play at the NBA level at practice, the d-league, bit reserve minutes... and then throw him in. It's better for the "TEAM".
If we had a true point guard running this team, we would see a huge improvement in the offense. Someone like Andre Miller. I wouldn't trade for Miller simply because he's a free agent this summer (I think), but it would be interesting to see how much of a difference he would make. You're right though, Bayless isn't ready to run the team. Neither is Sergio. Blake doesn't really "run" the team either, but he's the most stable of the three. We're between a rock and a hard place right now.
I would be for starting Sergio over Bayless because Bayless's shot has been simply awful, and we need someone to shoot and spread the D... but Sergio is NOt that guy. Sergio overdribbles unlike any backup I can remember, and every time he gets the ball he runs up to the top of the key and restarts the offense... That isn't going to work with Roy, Oden and Aldridge... Bayless isn't a much better option though... but he brings defense and the threat of hitting a shot I guess... As much as I love sergio... I'm really getting tired of him not making the easy pass and rather waiting until the end of the clock to get an assist.
Yeah, it really doesn't help much when neither of our healthy point guards can hit a shot to save their life. Maybe we should start Roy at point guard, move Batum to shooting guard, and start Travis Roy Batum Outlaw Aldridge Oden
We really, really need Rudy back. Worst case though, we'd only have to start Sergio/Bayless 1 game and then start a Roy/Rudy backcourt, which isn't very good, but better than other options.
Anybody know what Dan Dickau is doing these days? As bad as he was/is, at least he can hit an open shot (well, better than Sergio and Bayless, anyway). I know he was going to sign with a team in Europe (Greece?), but then someone (Warriors?) invited him to training camp. He doesn't appear to currently be on any NBA roster. Perhaps a 10-day contract or two for Danny boy might not be such a bad thing until Blake gets back. He's not great, but he knows Nate's system and has played with about half the guys on the team before. Unfortunately, the Blazers would have to waive someone to clear a roster spot for him (or any other temporary solution). Might as well cut Shavlik as they obviously have no intention to play him (in spite of lackluster performance from Ike and Channing). Unless, of course, Pritchard's "I'm not a big proponent of in-season trades" line is just a smoke screen and he has a mid-season trade in the works. BNM
I'd give the starting nod to Sergio tonight. We need him over the next couple weeks. If he comes off the bench behind Jerryd, he'll just continue to sulk and play like crap. We'll get the same from Jerryd whether he comes off the bench or starts, but Sergio might get some confidence from starting. And if Sergio continues to play like a scrub, then it may be time to move on. But this is his big chance to prove to everyone he can play.
The opening lineup in the second half is the starting lineup for tomorrow. That is the only team that made a run in yesterdays game.
The insurance for RLEC kicks in on Monday, our 41st game, so nothing will happen before then. Sergio vs. Bayless..... Whoever starts, I'd like to see a bit more of Roy at the PG, Batum at SG, Outlaw (or hopefully Rudy) at SF. That should open things up a bit more for Roy to penetrate and kick it out for the 3, whereas B-Rex or Sergio dominate the ball a bit too much.
Just amazingly bad timing. We make it this far into the season with both Blake and Rudy healthy, and then bam, we lose both of them. *sigh* Anyway, I haven't been a big fan of Bayless, but I actually liked some of the things he did last night. He was diving for balls, aggressively defending, taking the ball into the middle. Overall he sucked, but he had his moments. I can't think of a single positive from Sergio's game last night. Overall, this season I'd say Bayless has been generally slightly better than Sergio, mostly because of his defense. You could argue it's a tie. But the difference is that Sergio's been in the NBA for 3 seasons, and this is Bayless' first. Sergio should be light years ahead of Bayless by now. I'd go with Bayless. He's had some horrible passing and shooting, but from what you hear about in practice maybe some of that is just rookie jitters. Those problems may go away with a few games of regular P/T. Sergio's problems are the same problems he's had since the day he was drafted, and aren't likely to go away any time soon.
Quick seems to have the trust of pretty much every player on the roster. I think we're lucky to have him as a beat reporter.
You know whats funny. If you mixed Sergio and Bayless. (We will call the theoreticall hybrid guard Sergless, or maybe Baylio) we would have one of the best damn point guards in the league.
