The summer of silence stops.... NOW. Mixum Returns!

Yeah, Hedon't should elevate the Raps almost to the level of also-rans.

 

LOL. Toronto. What a joke...

The "Failzers" was a nice touch, though.

 

Lol, thanks

I'm just joking around any. Just cause MIXUM is back, I felt like cause a ruckus.

 

Nice to see you back, mixum. You're like the crushed garlic in our ice cream sunday. Wouldn't taste the same without it.

Pretty good point about Vince Carter. I was really on the Ron Artest bandwagon (which was a bandwagon of pretty much one), but Carter would look good on this team.

I disagree that you have to get more than 5-10 a night to win in the playoffs, though. That pretty much describes the career of Bruce Bowen, and the Spurs won three championships with him as a starter. Trevor Ariza averaged 9 ppg with the Championship Lakers. Udonis Haslem averaged 9.3 for the champ Heat. Pistons even had that with Prince, who only averaged 10.3 ppg that year. The Kobe/Shaq Lakers won three rings with Rick Fox averaging under 10.

Fact is that if you look at recent champions, the model is to have a 6'6-6'8 defensive specialist on your roster who isn't relied on much for scoring. (The only recent exception was the Celtics, and they had Pierce and Ray Allen.) Why? Because invariably you wind up facing a McGrady, Kobe, Arenas, LeBron, Joe Johnson, etc, and you don't want your own star swing man burning up his energy trying to guard him.

If you follow history, Hedo was exactly the WRONG kind of small forward to add to a championship roster. He's not a defensive stopper, and he's not a Paul Pierce-quality SF. He didn't solve any problem other than problem of Aldridge, Roy and Oden getting too many shots.

 

What did hcp do this summer? Spent most of his days reminding everyone on here that he's friends with travis outlaw. thats gonna suck for good ole h-c-p when he gets traded lol.

seriously... without a doubt the biggest ego award goes to...

 

nice grammar there, smartass.

 

Oh boy.

 

no... im not the smartass at all. i didnt attack anyone or make comments about other posters.

think u have it wrong purple koolaid

 

Welcome back Maxi, I mean Mixum. Good post, and I pretty much agree with it, except I was less excited about Hedo. When we "signed" him, I took to convincing myself that he was our man, but I felt that he was a minor upgrade for a huge contract. Miller on the other hand I think will be a really nice addition, but still won't be a huge difference maker.

As far as quickly dismissing Batum at SF, did you watch any of his play this summer? I was really impressed by what I saw, and I think he very well could be the main improvement on the Blazers. Only time will tell, but his already heady defense now infused with some actual offense will hopefully lead to a quality starting SF. As for Webster, it doesn't hurt to have him back, but until he shows me something, I think he is nothing of importance.

Our improvement next year hinges on 3 players, the meshing of Miller and the growth of Batum and Oden. We already know what we are getting from LMA and Roy, which is great, but those other three will determine if we are now contenders.

 

LOL

 

listen i think batum is a nice player but hes too limited on offense to start at SF. hopefully he proves me wrong but i dont think you can start him and miller. just doesnt work.

starting 5 should be

milller/blake
roy/rudy
webster/batum
aldridge/outhouse
oden/pryz

 

Webster has had one great quarter in his career. you remove that quarter and he sucks. Batum is already as good as Web on O and 10 times better on D.

 

A lot of folks predicted this the day we traded Zach. This is the thing that makes me soooooo unenthusiastic about this off-season. Two years ago people were saying "Worse comes to worst we can sign Andre Miller" and it came to fruition. What a let down.

You know it's a lame off-season when the most exciting thing is that your second second round pick does well in summer league. But who knows, maybe Dante Cunningham will tear it up and be that scoring small forward you so desperately want.

 

yah this summer was a major letdown. even worse if LA doesn't resign.

And i just dont think batum is the answer at SF. 5 years from mow... maybe he is. right now.... NO. In todays NBA you need scoring from your SF. Not 5 points a game with decent defense. Thats why webster needs to start. Without Blake... we need a 3 point shooter to bust the zone.

 

Same 'ol MIXUM. Just keep repeating the same thing over and over. Did you even read what Mook said?

 

The big problem with Batum in the playoffs wasn't his offense. It was his defense. If he could've contained Artest, it wouldn't have mattered that he was on track to put up 6-7 ppg in 30 minutes. Batum's big problem is that he just doesn't have the strength to handle really brawny SF's like Artest, Carmello and LeBron. However, in a midseason interview he was quoted as saying he'd added about 10 pounds of muscle, and if he can stay on that track by the time the playoffs roll around this coming season he should be much better equipped for that kind of duty.

The tradeoff with him getting stronger, of course, is that he'll risk being slower and heavier. And our weakest defensive position right now is PG. It's really handy to be able to switch him over onto a Tony Parker or Chris Paul for a few minutes, and I'd hate to see us lose that capability if he gets too big. He really needs to walk that Shawn Marion-in-his-prime balance between speed and strength.

Now that Roy's lost a little more weight, though, it's going to be that much more important to add some strength at SF.

It's going to be really interesting to see what kind of a body type the Blazers try to mold Batum into.

 

I actually had a great summer. Loss some work, but that allowed me to spend a bunch of time with the family. And this place wasn't really full of stressed out HATERS! I didn't see Trav this summer though.

 

MIXEDUP, you broke your promise; it's not officially Autumn until 2:18 today. I think you really ought consider a one month self imposed ban for such a heinous faux pas.

 

Mook, I usually agree with you butnot on Batum. What happens when teams take away LA and Roy like Houston did? Basically they are saying "someone else beat us" and guess what... there is nobody else. Miller might get us 17 but hes not a legit 3rd option. Thats why we need a Sf who can score and defend. Also dont forget by blake coming off the bench... we need to start webster so someone can hit a three.