He's back to putting up super star numbers. The offense is running through him. One little problem... we're losing. Can Roy be a dominant scorer, playing in the offense that makes him comfortable, without sacrificing ball movement and flow?
As much as fans want to bitch about what he said, missing 2 starters and and 2 bench players, kind of makes a difference. But we need someone to blame. Nate, KP, Roy, Blake, Miller or LMA. I prefer to blame the team for sucking shit.
I'm just saying, his scoring is back up, but the team isn't doing well. Do you think we can have a balanced scoring effort across the board, and Roy still average 25+ ppg?
We're 2-5 in games in which Roy has scored 25 or more pts. So, that's 11-4 in the other games. Not good.
We are definitely depleted. In 2007-08, when we were waiting for Oden to get better, we had Webster, Jones, Jack, Outlaw, Roy, Blake, LMA, Joel, and Channing Frye as our main 9-man rotation. 7 of those players had range beyond 15 feet. This year, when we are forced back into that mode, we have Roy, Blake, Webster, LMA, Joel, Cunningham, Miller, Howard, and Bayless. 9 men, but only 5 have range beyond 15 feet. This means there's less reason for defenses to play honest with Roy. He won't get the room to operate that he used to get. I have to say, it doesn't look promising from a pure basketball perspective. Having Outlaw and Batum would have made the loss of Oden significant but bearable. But now, after losing so many other offensive weapons? I'm just not sure how many games we can eek wins out of now. EDIT: Wow, I forgot Rudy. Shows you how little he's contributed recently.
One game. We lost one game to a hot team that blew out the Phoenix Suns. Don't forget that we won the Houston game. Let's reserve judgement til the trip is over. If we win 2, we finish the trip at 15-10. I'm happy with that given all the injuries.
I was amazed to look at the boxscore, and see that Roy had 27 points. He must have gone berserk in garbage time, because he was doing diddly when the Knicks were building that ginormous lead. Superstar numbers? Only in the most superficial sense. Zach put up more meaningful stats than what Roy did tonight. (yes, I went there)
So does "Roybe" become "Roybo?" I don't think it's fair to say Roy's stats weren't meaningful. Or, if they weren't, it's because his teammates' combined lack of production made them non-meaningful. I think Roy held up his end of the bargain tonight. He didn't have his best game, but he showed up and produced.
All I will say is that Wade put up fantastic individual numbers last year and that was barely a 41 win team (or something close to it), that doesn't mean he's selfish, it just means he wasn't surrounded by enough go to talent to make his big numbers mean anything. Brandon isn't being selfish by putting up big numbers, we're going to need everything he's got to give just to stay afloat and other people are going to have to step up. But right now we've got 3 starters who average single digit scoring and a couple of them are big minute players. Minus a trade -- and even then don't expect too much -- this team is going to struggle to break 90 points most nights. About their only hope is to give Bayless more minutes, and put Miller in the starting lineup where he's most comfortable and productive. It's going to get ugly folks.
I wouldn't hold out much hope for a trade. We're going from baking the cake to moving it to the bunson burner and subjecting it to the heat of the crucible. We're going to see who has character and who doesn't. Who is willing to play hard every night and who isn't. Who is willing to be a team player and who is going to look out for themselves. There's simply no reason to make a trade that will benefit us in the short term but cost us in the long term. We've lost 4 of 5 and have trailed significantly in every single game. This trend is likely to continue until we find our spine. Right now, it's just fleshy tissue.
This. And as for the title of this thread - I don't think this is ANYTHING like what Roy wants. He didn't look very happy out there tonight. Sure he wants to put up numbers, what All Star doesn't? But he wants to win.
Keeping Miller costs us in the long term. His best years are behind him. By the time Roy, LMA, Batum, and Oden hit their prime, Miller will be out of the league but players like Bayless and Blake will still be playing decent ball.
