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

come on dude, don't pretend to be obtuse. Teams largely play the way they do because of the talent that they have. If Steve Blake is your PG, you're not going to fastbreak much because (relative to other NBA PGs) he's slow, not a great passer and can't finish. Roy Batum & Lamarcus are all above average NBA athletes/finishers at their respective positions and Portland led the league in rebounding differential last season. The results of adding a PG that can both push the ball and finish to whats in place will not be surprising.... they're going to get a lot more easy baskets in the first 7 seconds of the shotclock. When they're in half court sets, Miller will give them another proven player who can create for himself and others. They've a team stacked with outside shooting to compliment his ability to drive and dish.

The reason he was the most talked about UFA last spring here at the S2 Blazer board is because he made a ton of sense. I'm sure some fans are very concerned about how he's going to work out here... they should be

STOMP

 

I don't really know about that. I suspect Nate will go with who has been hot that game more than anything else.

If neither Miller nor Blake have been playing well, then yeah, you go with Blake because in his worse off-night he's still a guy who can kill three pointers in the fourth quarter. Robert Horry made a career out of doing that.

 

Isn't that kind of anti-Nate? It seems to me he was frequently yanking "hot" players in favor of maintaining a consistent rotation...

That said, I think who is in at the end will vary depending on situation and who we're playing. Having 2 distinctly different PGs will be fun to watch!

 

Nate's favorite 4th quarter play has been Roy iso at the top of the key surrounded by shooters and Joel/Greg setting a pick... sometimes it seems thats exclusively what they run with the game on the line. It's proven pretty tough to keep someone on Portland from getting an open look or Roy a layup so I suspect he's going to keep it as his primary crunch time play. If the ball is going to be in Roy's hands primarily with the game on the line, I suspect they'll be putting their best spread the court shooters around him... and thats not Andre.

STOMP

 

Seems to me he runs a pretty set rotation for quarters 1-3, and then tends to favor who was hot in the fourth quarter. Generally speaking, though, he tends to slide Aldridge to center and leave Pryz/Oden on the bench. Probably because Oden was foul-prone and neither were reliable free throw shooters, and Outlaw generally did pretty well in crunch time at PF.

 

Welcome back, MIXUM, now I can finally use my moderator tools...

 

I agree with your first part, and fixed your second part.

 

Yeah i could see

Blake
Roy
Fernandez
Outlaw/Batum
Aldridge

being the ideal 4th quarter combo

 

So when do ElCap and myself get our apologies STOMP and several others? (about Andre Miller)

 

Ugh ... how I long for the days of the "summer of silence."

 

Our coach sucks and can't take advantage of the talent he has been given...we get it. Have fun rubbing our noses in it.

In case you haven't noticed, Nate is running the "heave and pray" offense you and ElCap advocate. It isn't working.

 

well soda, i have to wonder how many threads you have started that got 2500 views that arent anything to do with actual blazer news?

 

: Never gonna happen, but great post.

 

Uh what? We were saying an uptempo guard like Miller is the opposite of your team foundation

 

Really? Getting attention is your goal? That's the saddest thing I've read on these boards in a long, long time.

 

i never ask anyone to read... i just post my views. they all have the ignore feature.

 

Sad indeed, but not surprising...

 

no he was saying that he wished i stayed silent. 2500 reads say hes wrong