Chris Wallace must be so proud of the team he's built. Bad team, talented players who look disinterested at times and an empty arena. He must be proud.
It doesn't necessarily matter now and might be a non-issue, but Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo are going to have to have a heart-to-heart sometime to figure out who the alpha dog is. Both appear to have a bit of a selfishness instead of making the extra pass to help the team. For example, Gay was on a 3-on-1 when he missed that dunk late in the 4th... a dish across the lane would've resulted in an easy two, but it seemed like he wanted to get his. And OJ Mayo not shooting the halfcourt shot at the buzzer at the end of the 1st (or 2nd...don't really remember) was a joke, too.
Darius has averaged 10 minutes a game over 26 games for the Teddy Bears, and I would think they would take it easy with him since they are going nowhere this year and he could be a key player for them next year if in great shape by then.
I agree with Maris. Well, not the second part, which really should read: "Most old school coaches would have benched him for that."
That I actually don't agree with. Sergio's problem is that in the last three seasons, he's always, always, always had to be apart of our coaches three-headed point guard monster. It's fucking ridiculous how we have three god damned PG's the last couple of years, that rotate minutes consistently. Seriously it's getting old. I'm not saying Sergio is fucking great, or Bayless is the answer, but more importantly, DO SOMETHING. Stringing these guys along, making everyone wonder how good they can be, but then ultimately disappoint b/c they get something like 5 minutes a game is terrible, and not really conducive to helping our team in the long run.
Blue32 is absolutely correct...Sergio truly never had a full chance in Portland. My quess next year.... They will bring in another PG and he will start with Blake coming off the bench and Bayless will be the new Sergio
There you go again always negative about Bayless. Next year Bayless will be at worse the main backup. That's even if we bring in another FA PG. If we don't I would guess Bayless will be starting sometime next year.
Conley has 2 assists to 3 TOs and had an abnormally good game from the field, including an incredible 3-4 from 3pt range. Yes, he had 20 points, but Blake had 13 points with 6 assists, and Blake's team won.
That's somewhat true. Looking at Sergio's stats as a starter while Blake was out, he averaged 7 pts/5 ast/3 rb on 44% shooting and 46% from 3pt, much better offensive statistics than he get off of the bench. The biggest problem Sergio has had is on the defensive end. I'm not sure if there is a worse perimeter defender in the NBA at the PG position. He'd do very well in on the Knicks or the Warriors, heck, in any situation where defense is not important.
I criticize Nate a lot, but I don't really have a problem with how he's handled the PG position lately. If you have first tier guys like Roy or Aldridge, it's pretty easy to cement them into the starting lineup. Blake is a second-tier starter. Somebody who's reasonably competent, but also an area where you'd love to upgrade. With third-tier players like Rodriguez and Bayless, you have to give each of them lots of opportunities to move up into the second or first tier, because Blake as the long-term solution is just aiming too low. I was happy to see Rodriguez get extended burn as the primary backup PG. I'm equally happy to see us move on to the next experiment with Bayless in that role.
the rosters expanded to 15 players a few years back... 15 spots / 5 positions = 3 players per position. STOMP
The difference between the Blazer bench at the start of the season, and the end of the season is pretty great. It is hard for me to believe how bad they have become. If Travis isn't shooting, nobody is scoring. Nobody rebounds. Top it all of with lately, that they can't even hit any outside shots, and it begs the question, can you fucking stink it up anymore? How can the bench play any worse? You can make cases for playing this player or that player, but the facts are in every situation you are comparing a player who has been playing like shit, against another player playing like shit. It's hard to win out if nobody plays well. No wonder Nate is going nuts trying to get something to work. No matter what he does, it is utter futility.
Rudy has been terrible since Douch Bag Ariza injured him. That's why the bench has been "struggling", although they are still one of the best benches in the league statistically. http://www.82games.com/0809/STSORT18.HTM
Nate gets in players' heads. For starters, they get a chance to play out of it. But the bench guys know that with one mistake, they can be pulled. So they second-guess themselves and think too much, and totally tie themselves in knots trying to please Nate. Sergio has suffered the most, but he's not the only one, for sure. iWatas
Well, with Oden out, Joel has been starrting and we no longer have a good rebounder and solid interior defender on the second unit. That's the biggest difference between early in the season and now. Once Oden is back, whether he or Joel is starting, rebounding and interior defense will no longer be a problem for the second unit. Also, Rudy missed two games and is struggling with his shooting touch after the injury. Get Oden and Rudy back to 100% and we once again have the best bench in the league. BNM
