BRoy gettin nasty (front page article from Yahoo)

Basically exactly what I meant when I was referring to Usage. Roy doesn't have the ball nearly as much as some people seem to think he does. 32% would be perfect for him, and I think the team would be better off for it. I'd love to see his usage stats the last three games.

 

You kind of were, though, and you just didn't realize it. Get the ball in his hands more, and he'll have a few more shots and another assist a game, at least in terms of raw data.

 

I like the contradiction about switches.

C'mon Kobe, is it a switch or isn't it?

 

There's a fine line between selfishness and lifting your team. As a rule of thumb I'd say it's a good thing that Brandon can isolate at the top of the key or on the wing and get a high percentage shot some of the time (particularly when other teams are clamping down on them and disrupting their flow), I'd say it's also a double edged sword when guys end up standing around watching him work.

There is no perfectly right or wrong answer to when 'taking over' is a detriment and when it's a life-saver, but based on how well Miller and Brandon seem to be sharing the ball lately and the way the team is playing off those two (Batum in particular) I'd say Roy's 'selfishness' has been just about right lately.

 

I'm going with "asshole" for $200 Alex.

I think it fits the sentence.

 

Or will they just stand and watch, when otherwise some would have led?

Roy has too many equal talents around him (we need consolidation trades), while Kobe is on a more stratefied team, so roles are more obvious. Kobe stands out more from his teammates, so he handles more offense than Roy. Kobe plays the way his roster and coach's system dictate, and so does Roy.

He slows down the game while he decides what to do. Centralizing the team around him allows the opponent's defense to focus on him.

I'd like to see his average usage for the last 5 minutes. McMillan structures everything around Roy then.

What a waste of a deep talented team, which many say we have. (I think our depth is quite average, but I'll put that out for the many in this case.)

 

I would love for Roy to be an asshole on the court. I remember last year he was talking shit to Paul Pierce in the middle of a possession then scored on him.

 

This is the best news I've read in a long time. Roy should go hard from the opening tip. I've been saying this ever since he came into the league.

 

He has always refrained from going 100% till the clutch minutes, even in college. He doesn't often dunk. The speculation I've read is that his heel bothers him more than he admits. The reason for keeping chronic pain quiet would be that he doesn't want defenders to take advantage.

 

go ahead and criticize Nate for his guys playing the right way and not forcing things throughout the game... it's a free country.

I think it's his high efficiency is tied to not forcing things. When he drives the paint (collapsing the D) he's a threat to pass it as well as to finish so defenders have to honor both. His ever present yell on drives might become annoying to the officials rather then effectively delivering him to the line so often. Spreading the wealth especially through the first 3 1/2 quarters keeps guys in the flow so they can be efficient too. I'm much more concerned with team victories then individual performance... oh well, to each their own

STOMP

 

I didn't mention usage or respond to a question about it... why are you lecturing me on it?

but since you asked... it would probably do more damage then good for Roy to dominate the ball more. I like having the ball in Miller's hands a lot. Besides being an excellent passer and floor general he doesn't exactly spread the court with his off the ball deep threat like Roy. I like LA to get plenty of touches. Rudy needs to have opportunities to score and create to be effective as does Bayless, etc... That Portland spreads the wealth is why we see different guys stepping up on different nights. It also keeps Brandon fresher for the finish... I'm guessing he's among the league's leading 4th quarter scorers as he's been in past years.

STOMP

 

Because I mentioned it before and I thought that your remark was in the flow of the conversation when you zeroed in on shot attempts.

Nothing more, nothing less. I just thought it was in context.

 

BRoy has said all of the right things to get a multi-million dollar contract.

When he rounds out his game on the court, and starts playing with consistent desire and hustle on the defensive end, is when I'll believe that "BRoy is getting Nasty".

 

Not a fan of Kobe...but nice compliments regarding Roy, and definitely some truth in what he said....

 

I'm a little conflicted. On one hand, teams with 28+ppg scorers tend to be really good. Not always, but most of the time. It puts so much pressure on the other team's defense that lesser players have a much easier time getting their buckets. The classic example is the Finals Iverson Sixers team. That team had virtually no scorers beyond AI, but he did such a great job of forcing defenses to adapt to him that the his teammates could focus on playing fantastic defense and cleaning up Iverson's huge volume of missed shots. The current Cavs are kind of a lesser example of that, in that they've got a few scorers besides LeBron, but they aren't that great.

On the other hand, I want Batum and Aldridge to get more shots. Those guys are pretty gifted offensive players and it's something of a waste to not have them scoring the ball.

I guess it comes down to team eFG%. If they can be among the league leaders in shooting accuracy, I don't really care that much who does the shooting.