Brandon Roy is our best player, hands down. He's amazingly talented and versatile, young, humble, clutch, all that. He's certainly a top ten player in the league and moving closer to top 5. BUT... Is he the player we want to structure our entire team around? Do we want to be picking the PG solely by how well he will work with Roy? I hear this all the time - "we don't need a typical PG because of Roy - we need someone who can play off the ball". Well, that's Blake. Blake is great at that. He defends pretty well, brings up the ball fine and shoots open threes at a high percentage. And I HATE that style. Our offense is SLOW and BORING, and as we saw against Houston, a team without one of its star players (who at his best was probably better than Roy will ever be) just managed to shut us down. As a result, we were forced to have Brandon Roy dominate the ball, and it just didn't work. It was like what Orlando did to Cleveland - forced them to put the ball in James's hands and just go one-on-five. I say: we DON'T build the team round Roy's strengths. He's versatile, right? He can adapt. In fact, last year I remember he worked on being better off the ball. I say we target a PG who's best for the team. Somebody who can actually break down a defense AND (before everybody says "Bayless!") get everybody involved. MOST IMPORTANTLY (and I know I harp on about this, but somebody has to piss into the wind) GET ODEN INVOLVED. Yes, Oden has a primitive post game. So what? He'll never get better unless you spend time getting him confident and involved. He would KILL for Dwight Howard's touches (and look at how Howard bitches about even them!). And furthermore, Oden would already be great at the pick and roll. Remember everybody's fave pre-injury summer league highlight where Sergio runs the pick and roll and Oden throws down a MONSTER slam? More of that, please. Is there anyone other than the much-maligned Sergio who can run the pick and roll on this team? I am alarmed by the suggestions that the team is targeting Curry. Tempering this somewhat is the feeling that if that's out there, then they probably aren't. Also there are rumours that Curry is actually a gifted passer. But Curry sounds like a pick made with Roy in mind ("Curry can play off the ball!") rather than Oden or the rest of the team. Of course, if we could put Sergio and Rudy into a blender and combine their skills, all of this would be moot, because we'd have the perfect other guard. Anyway: what do you think? Is Roy the guy we build round to the extent of picking PGs solely with him in mind, or is he just the most important piece, but someone better moved off the ball just like (sound of dead horse being flogged) Larry Brown moving Iverson off the ball, or even Jordan being moved off the ball even after averaging a triple double as the Bulls PG? (And I know the Bulls had shooters at the PG spot, but Jordan still wasn't their primary ball-handler, Pippen was.)
I think you bring in players that can play well with both Roy and Oden. You can't construct the team without considering the adverse effects a player would have on either one. That's my take at least.
I think the league is shifting to having players that can play multiple positions (Gordon, Hedo, Odom, Roy, etc.) and not the prototypical PG, SG, SF... Having Roy is a real luxury and we should add players that help him (and Oden for that matter) be better players. We need a PG that can run a team (Blake is boring I agree) and one that can hit the 3 when needed. I think more than anything, we need a PG with a high BB-IQ and the skills to play the position. With that said, I know Roy can play PG and SG and will work with whoever we bring in. I think Bayless brings that combo guard/toughness/drive the lane mentality that we need. I just think we need to also have a great starting PG with the qualities I listed above. Who is that?...I am not sure if that is Nash, Kidd, Sessions, others? Of course, my two favorites are CP3 and Parker, but that will probably not happen.
I'm sure the point of Bayless and Oden working out together this summer is so they can build chemistry.
I agree...I think Bayless will be here for awhile if him and Oden hit it off and Bayless can really turn into that PG we need/want.
Purely as a way of helping answer your question, ask yourself if you would trade Roy for Paul. FWIW, Maybeso
Damnint. I am stuck with Jerry West on my team. Do I really want to build around him? What a conundrum!
You're thinking too much, Rastapopoulos. We've got a great young team and a great young superstar in Roy. I would submit that it's all falling into place, and all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. In short, I trust KP. The guy lives and breathes this team 24 hours a day, and you can be sure he's going to get the right pieces around Roy and Aldridge and Oden. It's a no-brainer. No team has to be built a certain way. What you need is a lot of talented guys who get along with each other, and magic can happen. That's what we've got in Portland.
1. Brandon Roy's great - but he's not Jerry West. 2. It's more like "I'm stuck with Jerry West and Bill Russell - whom should I build around?"
You structure things around your best players. Your system, your supporting players, etc. The NBA is superstar-driven, moreso than any other team sport. The vast majority of titles are won by teams carried by their 2-3 best players. So, yes, you do structure things around Roy (and, to a lesser extent, Aldridge). In the future, things may be structured around Oden, if he becomes a big-time player. Also, I don't think saying that the team doesn't need a conventional point guard alongside Roy is an issue of limiting yourself in order to "build around Roy," as you're implying. I would say that it's taking advantage of Roy's talent to unlimit yourself. You can still drop a conventional point guard alongside Roy, if that's what you have. But you don't have to have one. Roy expands the universe of guards that can be played in the starting backcourt beside him. If you had a Rip Hamilton or Reggie Miller (forgetting about the talent drop), you'd be locked into a conventional point guard as the other starting guard. There'd be no other option (unless you happen to have Pippen, Bird, Grant Hill or LeBron at small forward). Roy allows the team to look at a much larger group of guards, and looking at a larger pool gives Portland a better chance at finding another star. So, I would say that aspect of "building around Roy" is an advantage, an exploiting of Roy's talent to the betterment of the team, rather than a draw-back.
It's better to play off of Roy's strength's than to force him into something he's not good at. Most everyone here thinks that bringing in a PG like Kidd, Miller, or Sessions would be a huge improvement, even if most of those guys don't have an outside shot.
With the comments about Roy opening up the options at guard, does that mean that Portland might actually move up in the draft and take a SG that can play 1 and 2? Harden, Curry, others? I have read about some SG's the Blazers have looked at and I keep wondering why?? We have Roy and Rudy...why even look at SG's, but maybe you guys are right about Roy being so good at 1 and 2 that we open up the options rather than limit ourselves to just getting a PG.
Bayless! 4.3 assists per 36 minutes is not bad, and it will get better as he gets better, more comfortable and all that jazz. And especially if he plays more with first unit players (including Oden). To me, if he gets good chemistry with Oden on entry passes and/or lobs, I'd be ecstatic. And yes I think building around Roy is a good idea.
I don't think you build around Roy exclusively, but on the other hand you'd be a fool to try and pair him up with a high usage player that is completely ineffective without the ball in his hands. Ideally players should compliment each other across the entire roster, but you give greater weight to your core players and especially your all-star, all-nba players -- if LMA and Oden show that they are this caliber you give them greater weight when their game dictates it. If you keep trying to reinvent how players should play and the roles and styles they execute it's a bit like a college student constantly changing their major because they just can't quite make up their mind. I think the key to look for in any backcourt mate you pair up with Brandon is versatility, with a premium placed on an ability to shoot the ball off the catch, this doesn't mean they can't be a pure point guard and it doesn't mean that Brandon can or can't move off the ball more it just means you need players that fit the core, not necessarily trying to fit the core to new players.
Roy has better chance of being compared with West than Oden has of ever being (seriously) compared to Russell. At this point, I wouldn't build around Oden any more than I would build around Rudy. Roy is our best player, and he is the guy you build around until/unless someone surpasses him.
Ummm... Greg Oden has to step up and at least be 20% of what Russell was before you make that comparison. And he didn't need "touches" to block shots and rebound. You can compare Roy to West, sure. But Oden to Russell?? They're not even close.
Portland has waited since the days of Drexler to find a franchise/All-Star player, and now people are wondering about building around him?
