I guess I can understand that sentiment, but it remains to be seen how much depth the Blazers may have left if KP makes some draft-day moves.
Too much depth for Nate. I'm not convinced that he is able to handle a roster full of good players. I didn't like what I saw early in the year, and that was without Batum and Travis
All the injuries last season greatly benefited this team’s morale and clearly defined players’ roles. There was complaining about touches and minutes, it wasn’t until Oden went down, then his shots got spread around to the rest of the team and players got plenty of PT with small ball lineup’s. Yes we won 50 games despite all the injuries, but I look at it as we were able to win 50 games because of injuries.
Nate had a full roster at the end of the season, except Greg. So Howard sits next year. No big deal. I see no problem unless they add more players. (except with Rudy, but that is his problem not Nates. The only issue I see next year is with fans who cry about Greg not getting enough touches. Greg needs to ease his way into the flow of the offense. He is the third option right now and will get his shot from penetration from the guards or from LMA. The offense should seldom be run through him IMO. I think Nate understands this. Not sure if most fans agree.
This is my take, and it's exactly what McMillan did with Greg last year. Greg was looking pretty good, too. He just needs to get his fouling under control so Nate knows he can rely on him every night.
First of all: I HOPE we're too deep to have a 22nd pick play a significant role this year. Secondly: players can avoid working out, but can't avoid being selected. The team should be able to make a good pick without private workouts. Thirdly: what other teams picking around there are NOT going to have similar depth? OK. As to that third one: wow, a lot of teams that are worse than we are pick BEHIND us: 23: Minnesota 24: Atlanta 25: Memphis 26: OKC 27: NJ 28: Memphis 29: Orlando 30: Washington With us losing the tie-breaker to teams like San Antonio and Boston, and with lots of good teams trading out, there's a plethora of bad teams picking after us, and I can see why an agent would want to avoid Portland rather than, say, Memphis or MN. Ed O.
Exactly. The problem is we don't have enough players who can separate themselves from the pack. If that happens, players and their spots in the rotation fall into place naturally.
I'm an honest attorney. We do that sometimes. Ed O. P.S. We also don't always answer questions directly.
I think Portland has a ton of width in that they have a bunch of guys at various positions, only one of which is super awesome. At point guard: Miller is the good but he can't shoot; Bayless is a long ways from being a solid player and Mills is quick but not much else. At shooting guard: Roy is awesome; Rudy is ass and Bayless is a short version of Roy with short arms and small hands. At small forward: Batum is great when he isn't injured; Martel is the very definition of inconsistent and Donte is power forward in a small forwards body. At power forward: LMA can shoot the ball well, rebound ok sometimes and run the floor but is a below average defender and wilts when double teamed, Camby is great when not injured (which is going to be pretty much 50% of the time), Donte is under sized and Pendergraph has the attitude without the skills to match. At center: All three centers are either currenly injured or injury prone. They are all good when healthy but that simply isn't a given. In short, we have a lot of guys with "Potential" but only one all star quality guy right now. Wouldn't depth imply more then one all star talent?
Bingo. If someone is scared to compete with Rudy, Webster, Pendergraph, et al - do you even want to waste time on them? The Blazer bench is not *that* good.
If the ages were spread out a little more, instead of being bunched up in the early twenties, then I think it would be less of an issue -- guys coming in would presumably see a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak, as guys retire or move on. The Blazers trouble is that they have too many guys of a similar age that overlap at certain positions and not much of a hierarchy between bench spots 6-10; this isn't uncommon when teams try to round out their non-starting roster with a lot of lottery type talent (Bayless and Webster by draft number, Rudy in his own mind). Having second round guys like Pendergraph and Dante who are probably just happy they made the league and vets like Howard who are happy they are still in the league makes it a little more bearable, but I still see areas where a couple of guys could be moved for an older veteran and some of this 'bunching up' that has occurred could be alleviated. Still, it's not the worst problem in the world to have, but it does need to be managed.
