Mills probably won't play much - he may get shipped down to the D League. Apparently he gained some weight while injurred. Getting Rudy back is a good thing. Brandon can't play 40+ minutes all year - we know that. He needs to be around 35 MPG. Plus they like playing Brandon, JB, & Blake (a shooter and two guys who can get to the basket) with Blake mostly standing on the wing/baseline for catch-and-shoots. Rudy can do that just as good, and he's more of a threat to go back door behind the defense. Rudy takes some of Roy's minutes, and some of Blake's/Miller's. I don't expect to see Bayless play less, unless he's playing horrible for an extended period of time. Nic? I have no idea what to expect. How long will it take him to get in game shape? If he's playing well, he takes minutes from Martell. I've heard people say Martell is playing well during this win streak - not sure I agree. He's played pretty good defensively, and he's hit some timely 3's but he's 22-56 (39%) over the last 7 games, and has averaged 9/4 over that span. Basically, pretty close to what he's been doing all season. It all depends on how Nic is when he comes back.
Don't quote me on this...but I agree with you. There are certain players in this league that we need multiple guys to help guard. (Kobe being one) I would rather not have Roy in foul trouble trying to do it by himself. Although Webster has been doing a great job, we need the depth guarding those strong wing players.
That's the story! http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/12/rudy_fernandez_and_nic_batum_o.html
getting batum, rudy back is big... if we trade for a center... we will make the playoffs 100% im thinking its us or okc
Yeah, no doubt... we actually are pretty guard-heavy right now with Jerryd, Andre, Brandon and Blakey. We need some bigs in the worst way.
The Thunder are currently 1 game over .500. We are soon to be 10 games over .500 after the next two games. Thunder are an afterthought right now. You act like they are a legitimate threat to our playoff chances, its kind of funny.
The Thunder are playing nice. They are an interesting team to compare to us, with us having no centers (just like the... wait for it... Thunder), with a superstar wing (Roy vs. Durant) and lots of young talent. To be fair, however, I think Roy is much more of a bad-ass than Durant is at this point (but Durant is getting better, you have to admire that), and our quality big still standing (LMA) is a better player than any combination of bigs that OKC has. Our biggest advantage, quite frankly, is that we have 2 reliable scorers and one upcoming one, where the Thunder have 1 reliable scorer, one upcoming one (in Westbrook) and one probably where Bayless was last year (Harden). When Rudy/Nic and maybe Travis come back - our bench will be much better as well. But, with that said, OKC is a threat. There is no doubt about it. I would still think that realistically, we should be a better team, even without the centers, but you can not ignore them all-together.
Even with the injuries we are a better team. That team doesn't impress me really outside of Durant, Green and Harden. I'd take our main trio right now of Roy/LMA/Bayless anyday. Westbrook is a crazy athlete, but is a sloppy player with no jumpshot at all and has always been a horrible decision maker. They remind me of our 07/08 Blazer team that pulled off some big wins, but lost too many winnable games. For me, they aren't even a thought as a playoff team this year.
I am pretty sure that this is exactly what I said. I think we are a better team, but they are not out of the conversation. Another advantage we have, is that our coaching staff seems better as well...
I want folks to keep in mind that this kid played pretty much half of last season with one arm hanging down by his side, and he will come back and play too early if they let him. While I look forward to him coming back, I want him to come back healthy.
Batum was in the pre-game warmups taking shots from the free throw line. He disappeared before 6 pm at the 76'ers game last night.
