As reported on 95.5 this morning, Bayless personally has not requested a trade, but "a trade has been requested on his behalf"- presummably by his agent. No surprise. Many players either think they're better then they really are and have to prove it by playing on other teams, or, are grossly misued by their current team and need a change. In the case of Bayless, it's a little of both.
I'm sure it doesn't hurt the agent either if Bayless plays more, shows a little something, and gets a big cash payout from a new team..or his old team.
I don't really care what an unproven player on a rookie contract wants. If they want to play in the NBA and get paid market value, they belong to us.
I would have to disagree about the "a little of both". Bayless has IMO done everything asked of him and been very professional, he works his ass off and sees a guy like Blake ahead of him simply sucking and he has hardly got minutes until the last 3-4 games. He also sees Andre Miller playing better than Blake overall and not starting. WTF is a guy to think? I'd be pissed and fed up and requesting a trade as well, especially when his limited play has show vast improvement and he is not rewarded. We have a coach who always talks about "earning" time, Blake has "earned" a demotion and Bayless a promotion, but Nates actions have not been true to what the FACTS clearly say. I will say this, I think if his minutes keep increasing as they should we can nip this potential problem in the bud.
This. I swear Spanishfly, we must have been seperated from birth or something. I find myself agreeing w/you more and more lately. lol. It's a damn shame, when a coach says "play dictates minutes" and Bayless/Miller out perform the starter, and in some cases, Bayless out performs both!
Even if he did ask for a trade, I'd hardly hold it against him. He's a great worker by all accounts, so it's not like it's his work ethic or attitude that have kept off the floor, he's played well in the limited minutes he's gotten this year so it's not like he's a hopeless bust, and finally he's a young lottery pick who absolutely needs to play and be seen if he wants a second contract (like a lot of our other guys). At this point though, I doubt KP moves him, his value would be too low in a trade, and his value too high as an actual rotation player with all of the time freed up by injuries.
It's possible the request was made weeks ago, and it's only now being reported. It seems to me a lot of this chatter started after Dwight Jaynes wrote on his blog about trades in the wake of Greg Oden going down. He probably talked to some agents he used to have as sources and picked up on it then.
I think what baffles me the most is McMillan's insistence that for the Blazers to get better and get back to how we were last season that we need to get after it, and get scrappy. Bayless is the most scrappy guy we have on our team. He goes hard to the hole (as evidence by his high number of free throw attempts in limited minutes and way more then Blake), his aggressive play on defense, his improved jump shot and handles. He is far more efficient when he is on the court then either of our other PG's have been. If we lose Bayless because we keep playing Blake when he is obviously not part of our future I would be pretty upset. Bayless seems like a perfect fit next to Roy. He is a PG that doesn't need to control the ball (which works well with Roy allowing him to control the offense). He can "D" up the other PG so Roy doesn't have to, and at 6'3 he is very physical for his size and draws fouls at an alarming rate. He is the ONLY player other then Oden that attack the rim on a regular basis. It is obvious to me that Bayless thrives on this and it gets him pumped up and into the game. He is a very emotional player that plays with a chip on his shoulder and for us that is a good thing. We need to get this guy more minutes because I really want to see how he handles it. IMO, Bayless and Miller should be getting almost all of the PG minutes.
There was a meeting between Bayless' agent and KP last week..I posted it in a thread and nobody really paid any attention haha...Funny how 95.5 "breaks" this info and its huge news.
There have been 4 or 5 threads already on this. This really is nothing new except we know it was the agent and not Bayless. Which is really splitting hairs.
