I noticed that. I also noticed, that despite that, even in the first half, the team was a net negative when Oden was on the floor. And for all the good things Oden has done this preseason, we've lost two in a row (and the other two don't count, because they were against the fucking Kings) and neither of our BEST TWO PLAYERS has looked in sync. If I was Nate, I'd be getting alarmed and reach for the security of a system that worked, at least to start the season. What did we learn this preseason? That Oden is much improved? Absolutely. Does that mean he "deserves" to start? Of course not. Where does this idea of "deserves" come from? You deserve to start if having you in the starting lineup means we win more. Has that been proved? Of course not.
Times change, so do players. Back then my argument was valid. Rajon Rondo was not a good PG back then. Amazingly enough, his career started turning around when a player named KG and Ray Allen showed up. Hindsight is 20/20. My money is also on the fact that had they not shown up, he would still be as bad as he was then.
Like I said, it would be stunting the growth of chemistry between our core players by not going with that lineup more during the preseason. Why keep switching lineups at this point? We should be trying to get a rotation down, right? Get a rythm? I think this just adds to the confusion and adds to the out-of-sync problems we've clearly had so far in the preseason. None of that is as bad as a message board freaking out, but it's still worth mentioning. Anyways, I'm still waiting to hear what good can come out of this that wouldn't otherwise...
Back then, as now, you didn't have an "argument". What you had was a "claim". Remind me who these 4 PGs were again? Wasn't one of them Taurean Green? May the Gods of PGness touch Bayless as apparently they touched Rondo and miraculously convert him too. And funny how so many other people disagreed with you even then. That's a funny-named player. And it's amazing that Rondo now looks even better when KG doesn't play (see last year's playoffs). In a parallel world, you owe me a lot of your counterfactual money.
i can't see any good or bad that could come of it. switching up lineups in preseason games makes sense. you want to get an idea about how all of the players play with everyone else to figure what works best. if you try to only play a set rotation, there's no way to know if that's the best or the worst one.
Are you seriously suggesting Webster and Outlaw pass like those guys? Rudy I'll give you, but the other 2 are black holes.
"Finding their own shot"? If you mean creating their own shot, then Travis and Rudy are better than Lewis at that. And Rudy is also better than Lewis (and, I would argue, Jameer Nelson, who is more of a gunner than a passer) at creating for others. In fact, Rudy was the best at setting up Oden last year. Rudy is very unselfish and very good at feeding Oden in the post. I agree that Travis is a problem. I would gladly trade him for somebody like Boris Diaw or Udonis Haslem. But we may be stuck with him, and I'm sure he's good for chemistry, which I've learned to value since the days of Bob Whitsitt.
This is about two things as far as I can tell. Roy can't play with Andre, when he gets double teamed and wants to kick it out for a 3-ball, Andre can't hit it. Greg is far better with Andre, so he follows Andre to the second unit. Perhaps Webster could be starting with the first unit, but I think they want more points on the second and perhaps he plays a faster pace. I think we'll see slow, careful, first unit. Run and gun second unit.
OH Memphis that powerhouse? Yea I am sure they are going to do really well this year. You amazingly enough fail to mention that the players you listed above, are total cancers incapable of playing team ball. Detroit did pretty fucking good after they traded Billups for AI didn't they? All because AI is such a good player. I am pretty sure Memphis is going to suck dick this year, with the "All selfish" team like we have never seen. add on the fact you are comparing Oden to Zach Randolph right now. You are a fucking madman. Zach Randolph the offensive black hole. Zach Randolph who never played defense. Zach Randolph who constantly got arrested off the court. Zach Randolph who never ran the court a day in his life. Your comaprison of Oden to Zbo, is offensive at best. I have seen nothing from Oden but for him to work hard, improve his game, play hard on defense (to a fault of collecting a lot of fouls as a rookie), and to say the right thing and keep his nose clean. Greg Oden so far in the pre-season has averaged more points and rebounds than Joel Pryzbilla has in his best games of his career. Sometimes Greg eclipsed his numbers in a single half, let alone a whole game. Whats his reward? Shafted to the bench.
They may not pass as well (although since when has Rashard Lewis been known for his passing?) but they also shoot a lot less, so it evens out. Turkoglu and Nelson were asked to create. With the second unit, that job will be Miller's or Rudy's. Travis and Webster can run around and create spacing.
I think you are overrating our players. Travis MAY be better than creating his own shot than Lewis, but Rudy certainly is not. Rudy has the potential to be good in that regards, but last year, he just couldn't create for himself. And Rudy averaged 2 assists in 26 minutes last year, not nearly as good as Nelson. Rudy has handles, but he's not very good at setting people up.
Actually it's the reverse. Rudy's handles are shaky but he's a better and more creative passer than Nelson. And don't you think the fact that Nelson averaged more assists had a bit to do with the fact that he had the ball A HELL OF A LOT MORE? If you could prove that Nelson averaged more assists per minute he had the ball then I would be impressed. But I very much doubt you could.
Good try dude. Back then, Rondo did suck dick. By the way, its a well known fact that players who spend time around all stars tend to get better. One thing about all stars is, they tend to make the players around them better and teach them things. One of those things is often, humility of being next to a player they know is better than them. That often humbles them and makes them teachable. Then they become better players for the rest of their career. The other being, that reaching the finals with a team tends to give most players a confidence they carry for the rest of their career. Rajon Rondo was on his way out of the league until that trade. He was a bad shooting shoot first PG. He couldn't even beat bassy out for playing time. But I guess I was wrong. He was just so good, they never needed to get KG and Ray Allen there to win it all. That would have definitly happened all without them showing up, because Rajon Rondo was just so awesome. His 6.4 pts, 3 assist and 2 turnovers the game while shooting 40% from the field and 20% from the 3 point line would have definitly powered them over the top. Yep he is just completely awesome. You got me there.
So why is it not ok to make these same statements to Roy and Aldridge? Say Roy, you will still get your touches, whether they come in the first 5 minutes, or the last 5, or time sin between, we will still run our offense primarily through you. We just paid you a shit load of money, now why don't you worry about the TEAM, instead of your stats. Sign LMA and tell him the same. It works both ways. Why can we only reason with some guys, and others it's ok, just cowtail to Roy? I like Brandon Roy. A lot. He's my favorite basketball player, and the reason I have season tickets. I wouldn't trade him for a single player in the NBA. I don't care how ridiculous that is. But he's shown himself to be enough of a team player to figure out a way to make it work with Oden starting. Novel idea is focus on defense for the first few periods, as opposed to worry about "getting his" and then take over in the 4th, when he's quite possibly a little fresher, because he didn't have to carry us through the first 3 quarters. He might struggle the first few weeks figuring out how it works. That's what preseason is for as well.A nd practice. Have him run with Oden and LMA and get used to the idea that those 3 will be playing topgether the next 10 years, and one of the 3 isn't always going to come off the bench. is it better to go with what worked, with lesser players now, because it worked before, and put off even further developing better chemistry between the three of them? Or would it be better to deal with a few lumps in the beginning of this season, when we have a few weaker opponents. Houston twice without Yao, OKC, Minnesota three times in the first month, Memphis twice, NJ. Why not work out some kinks in the chemistry against those guys? If not then, when? Next offseason, when we're forced to, because Joel could leave. I understand that Oden will see plenty of minutes each game, and plenty of them with Brandon and LMA in the game. So how will it be effective for those 20 minutes, but it can't be effective in the first 5 minutes of each game?
I'd have replied earlier but I was caught in a laughter-fit between those other two going at it... I think what he meant is the Oden can be THE star of the second unit with most of the touches going through him. When they finally figure out they need to stop Oden he punches it the outside. I, for one, don't think if this move even does materialize that it will last throughout the season. Eventually Oden will go to the starting lineup. But when Pryz leaves at the end of this season (and he will leave, barring injury) you're going to have to replace him with a scoring center who maybe is weak on D so that you can have someone to balance out the probable outside shooters.... If only we'd be so blessed as to use the term "outside shooters" with the Blazers.
