Bayless: "Now I am out of the stranglehold."

And Roy on Bayless:

"I have been telling him to stay patient, that the minutes would come," Roy said. "He is the first guy in the gym and the last one out. It paid off tonight. Once he gets comfortable, we are going to be dangerous. He is tough going to the basket and he opens up the floor. As he gets more confidence, we're going to be really tough."

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=290115017

After the draft, we all said that Bayless would be starting by midseason. I think it could actually happen this year.

Bayless/Blake
Roy/Rudy
Batum/Webster
LMA/Outlaw
Oden/Joel

That's the rotation I want in the playoffs.

 

Interesting peek behind the curtain (so to speak) sounds like Roy envisions him being his running mate.

Shhhhhh, don't let Maris see this, it will only cement his notion that there is an anti-Sergio contingent in the Blazers organization who are just jealous of Sergio's (obvious) future HOF talent, and only want to keep him down (Nate, Roy, Bayless and Blake as prime offenders).

 

Bayless was phenomenal tonight and especially in the fourth quarter. Once his outside jumper starts falling, he's going to be dangerous. He'll be a guy that will bring some much needed toughness to this team; and as Barret and Rice pointed out tonight, he'll be the one to get a technical to motivate the rest of the boys so Nate doesn't have to.

I know it's hard for some, but just you friggin' wait when he, Oden, and Rudy get it going.

 

So now we WANT a player who gets technicals? We had the best guy at that in the history of the league in Portland and I loved him but most everyone else wanted him gone so he won a title elsewhere.

 

It was certainly a great night for Jerryd, but he could easily go 1-11 in the next game. The next step will be when other teams start scouting him and probably force him to shoot jumpers to try to take away his drive. Kind of like the opposite of Rudy.

I hope Jerryd can be a consistent contributor til Blake comes back, and then it'll get interesting with Bayless and Sergio's minutes. But Bayless was awesome tonight, he deserves the game ball for it.

 

I can't wait til they try to throw a double team at him leaving Roy or Aldridge wide open.

 

Well, that usually takes two players defending a guard who can get to the rim at will, and that's only if the drive is the primary option for the offense.

I'll take Bayless being forced to shoot or pass.

 

Bayless was just awesome in the 4th quarter tonight. He just got it going, and there was nothing the Nets could do to stop him. I like that he had a couple of assists, too - he's not a one-dimensional player. He also played very smart, active defense. I can't say that he's "arrived" quite yet, until we see a few more games where he plays well, but I think we saw the player we should've expected to see eventually, when the Blazers drafted him.

Great game for Brandon Roy, too - but we're coming to expect that, eh?

 

yeah, it's insane. It's almost like it's pedestrian that he can put up 29 points, 8 boards and 5 assists with 2 steals and zero turnovers ... ridiculous!

 

That is crazy. All we're talking about is Outlaw, Bayless, and Oden. Roy was so great. And let's give mention to LMA too!

 

Roy has reached "safe bet" star numbers. That's such a luxury. Portland really hasn't had a player like that since, what, Drexler? Randolph was that way at times, though he brought a lot of negatives on the court in addition to his 20/10.

 

Yeah, LMA putting up 20, 6 and a couple of assists is starting to sounds pretty automatic ... he's going to round into one helluva player by the time he hits his prime in a couple of years. He's never going to be a bruiser, but I've come to appreciate if not love his game more and more -- this year especially.

 

One of the reasons I am really interested in the next game is because the Bobcats will have scouted Bayless. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

 

It's pretty impressive when you have three guys who put up 20+ points in a game, and realistically this is something we could see a lot in the future. I really think Bayless is the perfect option at the point guard (despite what some posters might say). We have three scorers in Roy, Bayless, and Aldridge, with Batum and Oden playing defense and scoring when the opportunity presents itself. It's hard not to be excited about the future.

 

I'm also excited because he'll be playing against another rookie PG.

 

Amen

 

Well when I was looking at when they drafted Bayless I considered a few things:

1. When they drafted Sergio, Phoenix was really big, and I don't know if the league knew if up tempo was going to dominate again or not. They also did not know how Roy was going to pan out to the level he is.

2. The team management seemed unsure to me as to what kind of a point guard would compliment Roy the best. Would it be a play maker? A shooter? We already had a pass first PG. They weren't sure if it was working out. Ok, grab defense and all around talent.

So when they picked Bayless, they were doing it to cover the possibilities as much as snag a highly talented player when available from a team that did not want the pick.

 

Augustin is hurt, doubt he will play

 

Well Roy sure seems convinced. Roy obviously loves Jerryd's game.

 

Yep it will probably be Felton, right?