I go back to my 2 themes. Pritchard needs to make consolidation trades. We should dump these young crappy players who don't know how to play and pick up about 3 Juwan Howards.
I find these statements to be illogical. You agree that his overall season has been solid but then say due to three weeks of play (which are already counted into his overall season numbers), his "improved second year" is ruined? So we should simply throw out everything but the last three weeks? His last three weeks have dropped his PER from about 15.6 to 15. Clearly below the level of play before that, but hardly catastrophic. As you said, he's been no worse than his benchmates. Are you advocating no bench use in the playoffs and 48 minutes per game for the starters? I don't think that will work. The bench has been pretty crap for the past few weeks. Their overall numbers suggest generally competent reserves. I think the larger data set is more reliable, going forward, than the smaller one, even if the smaller one is most recent. I think Portland will have to ride their starters as many minutes as possible in the playoffs, but that's generally the case for all playoff teams. I don't think Bayless, Fernandez, Webster and Howard should be shelved in the playoffs. Their roles should be, and will be, reduced. But they're all capable of giving reasonable performance for short stretches. IMO, one of Miller or Roy should always be on the court in the playoffs. That will reduce/remove the need for either Bayless or Rudy to function as primary play-maker, a role neither has shown themselves capable of. As just scorers off the bench, they're both streaky. But few teams have consistently good scorers off the bench. Inconsistently good or consistently forgettable are usually the choices.
Bayless' effectiveness per 48 minutes, later this season compared to the rest of this season +3.6 post-all star compared to before -5.5 last 10 games compared to before -5.5 last 5 games compared to before +2.6 last 3 games compared to before http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketbal...d-trail-blazers/team/profile/10/25/13-6-2-eff (also shows his changes in all stat categories, not just effectiveness)
Bayless can be a big difference-maker in the playoffs if we play the right team. For example, in three games against Denver this year he averaged 5 assists, 6 free throw attempts, 10 points, and 45% shooting in 20 minutes. That's pretty good productivity. If they're bench remains thin without Kenyon Martin, he could do even better. There's no playoff team I find myself thinking, "Oh, that's a good matchup for Travis Diener."
I think Dallas rings a bell. Our guards seem to tear there team up like none other. Perhaps the Lakers as well, he had decent games against them both times.
For what it's worth, here are Bayless' stats by opponent, up to March 31. Of course, garbage time in blowouts influences his stats. http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketbal...s/players/jerryd-bayless/byopponent/10/25/348 Here is that chart sorted by per minute. I put lines to show the extremes--the top 6 and the bottom 11. Western playoff teams have asterisks. Bayless 2009-10 eff per minute...opponent 0.721 ny 0.718 lal* 0.641 ind 0.637 bos 0.570 no 0.566 cha ----------- 0.523 sa* 0.512 chi 0.511 phi 0.507 mem 0.492 nj 0.467 sac 0.466 den* 0.463 uta* 0.452 hou 0.447 mil 0.440 min ----------- 0.408 pho* 0.395 dal* 0.382 was 0.313 mia 0.311 tor 0.306 lac 0.162 gs 0.088 cle 0.075 okc* 0.000 atl 0.000 orl
Prichard DID make a considation trade. He sent out Blake and Outlaw (our two best bench players) for a 4th center. I guess it was necessary because of the injuries to Joel and Greg, but it certainly cleared up regular time for Rudy, Martell, and Bayless. All three of them are failing unfortunately. Suddenly, we don't have the depth we had at the beginning of the season. I thought one of the reasons we parted with Outlaw was because Dante was coming on strong, but since the trade, he hasn't played much.
A fourth center huh? I'd say a more apt description is that we had 2 "4th" centers before Camby got here and now we actually have a "1st" As for Dante, his play isn't the issue, it's Nate tightening up the rotation and going with the vet Howard instead of the rook; he'll get his opportunities in seasons after this one. If it's any consoloation, the Clips aren't playing Outlaw much either, apparently he takes bad shots and has big lapses in defense which have dropped his stock in Kim Hughes eyes.
