No lineup has performed anywhere near as well as that one so far, especially on defense. Other than maybe Rudy instead of Blake, I'd expect that to be our lineup most of the year.
I want to revise my opinion above, not a disaster, just a weird clusterfuck. In what universe does your number 1 pick, 22 year old center put up 17 points and 10.5 rebounds in 25ish minutes for the first 4 games of the preseason equate to "how do you feel about coming off the bench buddy?" I'm not saying Oden won't be getting good minutes (hopefully) and Miller won't also, but if Roy, Aldridge and Oden are so incompatible that they can't all be on the court to start a game what exactly are you building toward? Maybe this all works out in the long haul, but I'm feeling pretty "unenthusiastic" about this move.
Miller is not one of our "main guys", and you're delusional if you think he is. Rudy, Joel and Travis are, and you're delusional if you think they aren't.
Thanks for dropping in MARIS. It's always nice to hear an outsider's opinion. I would like to point, however, that Travis, Rudy and Joel have not, yet, to a great disappointment to you, I am sure, been traded to the Kings. What are your opinions about Caspi coming off the bench? Do you think he should start instead of Nocioni or not?
Another way to look at this: if Nate started Oden despite his preseason success and he did poorly as a starter for the first few games of the season, it would wreck the confidence he had going the past few weeks if Nate was forced to re-bench him.
Although I've never been impressed with Nocioni at all, I wouldn't know since I don't follow the Kings.
I think this is the dumbest thing I have heard a coach do in years. It is going to be the downfall of Nate's career IMO. I think not starting Oden after how he has played in pre-season is just crazy. It's not even like Joel has played well. I also think Miller deserves to start but not starting Oden is a fucking joke. I'm a huge Blazer fan but this is really bothering me and I'm sort of glad I can't get Comcast where I live and don't have to watch this first game.
21+32+41+54+40 means Nate is fired! Actually the best chance we have is Jackson retires for the Lakers next year and they hire Nate.
Their defense is they want a "devastating" bench with Miller and Oden. I wonder if L.A. will start Walton over Artest to strengthen their bench? or Gortat over Howard Humphries over Dirk..
i'm glad you brought up the lakers. last year they brought their 3rd best player off the bench. same with the spurs. same with the mavs. same with lots of teams. jr smith, kirilenko, michael beasley, outlaw and rudy. all these guys came off the bench last year on playoff teams even though they were better than one or more of the starters(playing a similar position). did everyone call for phil jackson or greg popovich or jerry sloan to get fired?
Their starting units were better than ours. There is a difference. See that difference being that all of the teams you listed above, could score when an upper tier western conference opponent had the defensive clamps on. Portland, cannot. See you fail to mention that even though that their guy was coming off the bench, that all the players in the starting unit can score. Where here in Portland, we basically have 2 guys that can score, one that can hit an open jump shot, and 2 guys who play defense on the starting unit. When the shit hits the fan and you are playing a high level opponent, they make you go to your 3rd, 4th and 5th option to get a shot. When it gets to the 3rd guy and he doesn't have an open jumper, and it gets to the tentative Euro who passes up a shot, or gets to Joel "Hands of Stone" Pryzbilla and your lucky if he even catches the ball, that doesn't work so well.
I am hoping Nate is doing this so Miller and GO can play together. I am hoping Nate sees something we don't and is making the right decision. I HOPE!
At the same time they'll be playing with something like Rudy/Webster/Outlaw That's a lot of 3pt attempts.
are you watching the same nba as me? apparently not if all the teams i mentioned were somehow superior to portland. i mean, the spurs for years started bruce bowen and whatever random big man they could find. the mavs started antonie wright, jason kidd, and eric dampier. the nuggets started dahntay jones. please at least somewhat know what you're talking about before trying to argue.
