I read about people wanting to bring in a center like Brendan Haywood, but does Juwan really want that? I think he's been having the time of his life out there and he showed us, against New Orleans most recently, that he still has a more polished offensive game than either Joel or Greg. I personally think we are fine with Juwan/Jeff/LMA at the center position for the rest of the season. Also- we are especially effective with LMA at center when we have Travis to play PF. I'm all for staying with who we have. Let Roy and Travis come back and possibly Greg and we'll be fine.
Once again KS, you only see one end of the floor (the one where the Blazers are shooting their shots) and completely ignore the other end (the end where the opponent shoots theirs). Juwan -- who's been playing much better than I thought he could -- has been absolutely murdered inside and offers almost no defense in the paint ... and that's not his fault, becuase he's a 6'9", 37 year old power forward and not a center.
Howard is old enough and experienced enough to know he's not in his 20s anymore. I think he'd be perfectly content playing 15-25 mpg, with some of those minutes at the four.
Howard has a PER of 10.3. The quicker we can replace him with even an average player the better off we'd be. We shouldn't mortgage any of our future to do so, though. Ed O.
If we're building around Howard...we need to acquire players that Howard will feel comfortable playing with. We don't tell Howard he needs to change his game to accommodate newcomers.
On OFFENSE this is true half the time (when travis is making his shots and LA isn't left to fend off four guys for an offensive rebound), on defense all the time we're a complete damn joke.
I think this question really gets to a bigger question - how important is making the playoffs this season? KingSpeed is making the case, I think, that the Blazers can make the postseason with Juwan Howard as the starting center and that things will take care of themselves once other players begin coming back. I'm not sold on that. I think the Blazers will do a whole lot better once Brandon Roy is back, and should get even a little better with Travis Outlaw. But Aldridge is not a defensive presence inside, neither is Howard, and while Pendergraph is far more effective than I expected, he's not the answer there, either. One of the Blazers' strengths - the center spot - has become a major liability, in the absence of Oden and Przybilla. There's only one spot that's consistently a mismatch in the Blazers' favor - and that's when a healthy Brandon Roy is on the floor at shooting guard. Aldridge is underachieving, and can be neutralized far too easily by what should be inferior players. The center spot, as previously discussed, is not a strength. And point guard, in the thick competition in the West, is a draw at best most nights (and many nights, not even that). I'd like to put some faith in Batum as a mismatch at SF, and he's showing great promise, but it'll take time before I'm convinced. Ultimately, I don't see the Blazers making the playoffs without either an upgrade at C, or improved play out of our decent talent at PG and/or PF (since I don't think Andre Miller or LaMarcus Aldridge is going anywhere, I'm calling on them to play better). So, to me it's a question of "can Aldridge play better?" or "can Miller play better when everyone's healthy?". If the answer to either of those questions is "yes," than I like our chances of making the playoffs, even with Howard as starting C. But if the answer is "no" - then the Blazers need to upgrade somewhere, and the spot that would make the most sense is C.
When we were hot in late 07, our 4th quarter lineup was Jack-Roy-Jones-Outlaw-LMA and it was very effective. When LMA was hurt, Joel took his spot.
