holy shit me and nik agree. the guy was horrible tonight, don't let his 10 dimes fool you. like others have stated, the lack of running a fast break, creating shots for himself or others, his piss poor defense, etc. i am not so hot on miller but he'd have to be an upgrade over blake. outlaw, well outlaw is tough for me, can we get rid of him before game 4? this guy has been a no-show in the three games so far and is playing like a complete bone head. renounce them both and save us the 8 million to go after a decent free agent.
We blew HCA and we're getting owned by the refs. You're one of those guys who is happy with the silver medal. I'm the guy who puts the silver medal in a drawer somewhere and busts my ass to get the gold.
Yea this is the kind of crap that makes me wonder what would have happened if they would have traded for RJ, Carter, etc. I can guarantee the scoring drouts would not have happened. Every single one of those guys mentiones rises in the playoffs, not chokes.
veteran leadership is drastically under rated. those saying we didn't because roy plays like a veteran need a reality check, he might play like one, but he isn't. there's a difference when you need a vet to calm players down and tell them to get their head into the game. young players will always settle for easier shots by launching jumpers, while vets will get on them to make better basketball plays. this offseason, i would love to pick up bibby or andre miller to be that vet for next year, he can groom whoever our pg of the future is, bayless/sergio/kopenin, and will be a much better option in the playoffs
Now wait a sec....I will agree that Blake is NOT the answer at STARTING PG...but I have to give him a little credit...he played much better in the 2nd half than the 1st half, but it SHOULD be clear that he is NOT the starting PG for a championship caliber team...as a backup I could see that possibility, as a starter no way.... Regarding Outlaw, I am glad someone else posted this b\c I was going to...He has got to go...period....This is his what? 6th? year? You cannot blame jitters when you have been in the NBA for 6 years, playoffs or no...and he has been 100% horrendous through the 1st 3 games....how he got ANY time over Rudy is beyond me... The simple fact is that if Outlaw cannot score he is a DETRIMENT on the court, and that is exactly what he has been the last 3 games.... Roy & LA cannot carry this team on thier own...Rudy showed up big tonight....no one else did...Oden had his spurts, but he doesn't get enough opportunitie and he has to avoid the silly\stupid fouls so he can stay in the game...I give Batum a pass b\c he IS a rookie, and only 20yrs old, and its not like Nate played him a lot either..... This team is missing Martell Webster....I think he would have been a difference in this series.... Oh and one more thing....some vets would have been nice...I fully expect Pritchard to rectify that mistake....
yeah, somebody needs to teach oden not to throw his hip out when a pg is running passed him, that seems to be where he picks up a ton of cheap fouls. i think we need a better big man coach to work on oden's offense, anybody know what sabas is doing? maybe bill walton will want to do some teaching? i say we sign luke walton, and bring bill up with him to coach our bigs.
I've been saying it for years. Travis Outlaw is the kind of guy who makes the mistakes that lose you games in the playoffs. He has a TERRIBLE basketball IQ. He may be a great scorer off the bench during the regular season, but during the playoffs every possession counts. How many possessions did Outlaw cost us tonight?
Being owned by the refs is not the Blazers' fault. I guess I did kind of expect that a team that plays three rookies just might have a tough time in virtually the first playoff game of their careers. It cost them HCA. They nearly stole HCA back tonight, but let's not give them any love for that. Why stop with Travis and Steve? Might as well pile on the rest of the guys that had sub par games too. Steve played great tonight, less one play. I wish Trav was playing better, but I'm sure not going to turn on him in the middle of the series. Go Blazers Edit: I forgot to ask.....How many of those silver medals do you have in that drawer, Nate? Any gold ones?
I want this roster next year, and I think it's possible. Nash(24)/Fernandez(24)...StephCurry Roy(34)/Sergio(14)...Koponen Webster(24)/Batum(24) Aldridge(34)/Kurt Thomas(14)...Freeland Oden(28)/Pryzbilla(20) Blake/Bayless/Outlaw/pick for Steve Nash/Steph_Curry sign Kurt Thomas
Do we trade players because they are bad match-ups against Houston? I'm fine with trading Blake, as long as we getting a starting PG in return. Likewise, if we're going to get a top 6th man for Outlaw, I have no issue trading him either. I still think Blake is an excellent option as a backup PG.
Travis needs to stop playing like shit, especially after all the talk before the game about being more aggressive and he shows up with his worst game of the series and hasn't even made a 3 in 3 games. He just got burned so many times on the defensive end. The guy has all the athletic ability in the world, but just is not smart on the floor sometimes.
the beauty of it all is we don't have to trade either of these two, we can just renounce them and let them go on their own. and don't kid yourself, blake had a decent 6 minute stretch but was awful for most of the game. all you have to know is the look on rudys face when he got pulled in the fourth, dude was pissed because he knows the guys in there had no business playing in front of him.
I'm fine with keeping both here next year. We just need other options in the lineup that push them down the rotations a bit.
I wouldn't mind Blake coming back... either a Bayless/Blake backcourt or a FA PG/Blake backcourt. Depending on what FA (or trade) PG we get (young or older) we can either have Bayless or Blake as the backup PG. I think Blake would be a good backup PG for us, but he shouldn't be getting 20mpg.
Blake over handled the ball on offense which lead to guys forcing bad shots at the end of the clock. Just because some guys hit those shots means fuck all. He had a bad game no matter what the box score tells you, just like Oden played an awesome game when the box score would suggest otherwise. Outlaw has choked so far this series. I can understand playing a subpar game with Artest on him. But he is being guarded by Von Fucking Wafer nearly half the time. Outlaw not being able to dominate Wafer is pretty sad. These playoffs are the final round of tryouts for the future Blazer team. Some guys have shown up (Oden, Roy, and Rudy), LA has had flashes, Batum and Blake are over matched and some guys have flat out ate shit (Outlaw, and Sergio). I am guess the "ate shit" guys are in danger of losing their spots on the team unless they can get it going.
How and when has Sergio ate shit? When he took ridicules shots at the end of close games? Oh wait, that was Blake.
That's just bullshit that Blake only played six good minutes. That's saying he piled up ten assists in that time....NOT! If Blakey over dribbled, how about the possibility that the Rox played good D, and people weren't open? Whatever, you can believe what you want. My point is....I don't understand "fans" turning on the team in the middle of a playoff series. That sucks ass. You could at least wait until the playoffs end to start the 'trade the worthless bastards' threads.
I think Blake would be a great backup. I just don't think he is a starter on a contending team. Competitive? Yes. Last year we got rid of Jack because he would playhard all game, but make bonehead mistakes when games are on the line. But he made bonehead mistakes 5 times as many as Blake did, especially when the game was on the line, in fact so much so, you could almost guarandamntee it was going to happen. Jack was the only guy I ever watched play who came close to a triple double but one of the stats was turnovers...
You mean one shot? ONE FREAKING SHOT?!?!? How ridiculous and asinine. He came right back and popped an open 3 after that. He made several good plays during the game. And if you look at the box score, Mr. Brooks didn't do so hot. But keep going everyone, pile on Blake..gotta have someone to pick on. Never mind that our star players couldn't do jack shit during the game and the refs were again on valium. But it MUST be Blake or so you say...It must be Blake's fault that other people couldn't hit open shots, or wouldn't run to the basket when Yao was out, or couldn't stop Scola, or that the referees blew their whistles at every second step by Oden. Yes, it's all Blake.
