This part: six games is a tiny sample size, especially for a notoriously streaky player. His next playoff series, he may be on fire and be team MVP. Deciding that he's simply a terrible playoff player based on his first six games is clearly silly. Over the course of the regular season, there were plenty of six game stretches where Outlaw was awful or when he was really valuable.
Agreed... for all my criticism (past and present) of Outlaw, I don't think that he "choked" in the playoffs. He's just not a consistent player and he hit a cold stretch, fueled in part by very good defenders matched up against him. There are lots of reasons to want to move Outlaw, but I don't think that he was bad in 5 or so playoff games this year is one of them. Ed O.
the thing with outlaw is, he is what he is. as a 6th year pro we are not going to see leaps and bounds made in his game. and you can toss bbiq into that as well, as that seems to be something you are born with and he obviously wasn't. travis is great at creating his own shot, if only he didn't jack up all those ugly ass shots but then he saves you like the two games in memphis. i can live with the shooting, what i can't live with is the boneheadedness on defense. it's like he isn't even trying most of the time. to call him an above average anything defender is laughable, and to qualify it with "when he's paying attention" is more of a knock on the guy because he being paid to "pay attention."
It's probably been said but if the Blazers could find one more consistent scorer(PG/Oden), then Outlaw wouldn't have to be relied on so much. Even so, Outlaw is one of the best players off the bench in the league. He's a valuable asset to the Blazers, and worth keeping. I thought Travis played pretty poorly in the playoffs but I'm not going to let one series be my deciding factor.
Travis at the 4 regularly? Hmmm. Well, Outlaw IS better than Frye, no question there. And he does create matchup problems since most PFs can't keep up with him. Of course then again he also doesn't rebound well, and rebounding is one of the key elements of the 4 spot. So it's a double-edged sword. Of course another problem is that LA is a stud and played 37 minutes per game this season, so Trav would have to accept much less PT than what he's used to.
His dirt cheap contract. You can't replace him, let alone upgrade the position, without spending quite a bit more money. The team has more important priorities than back-up SF to use cap space on.
But other than scoring, what does he do? He's not going to step in and contribute as a rebounder or a passer or a defender. He's a scorer and he's going to shoot his shots irrespective of who's on the floor, IMO. It's just a question of whether they go in or not, and that's not dependent on who else is on the floor. Ed O.
I think the point is that, as a scorer, Outlaw isn't reliable enough to be the third-best scorer on a championship-level team. If a couple of players surpass him in scoring ability (like, Oden and Rudy for example) and Outlaw is the team's fifth-best scorer, I think that's a role he can play on a championship-level team. He's a reserve...if the team needs him to fill a starter-importance role (like third option), then the team won't be very good. As a reserve and with a role commensurate to being a reserve, he's valuable.
Your reply is laughable...the only defensive area i said he was above average in was man defense. This entire year, McMillan quite often put Outlaw on the opposing team's best player. Why would he do that, if his man defense is as terrible as you make it out to be? I'm pretty sure McMillan knows just a little bit more about defense than you do..
