Bayless, very interesting the conversation he had with Nate

It hasn't' happened sooner because.....this is for all my tech geeks out there.....01001110 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110011 01110011 01100011 01101100 01101111 01110111 01101110

 

Bayless hasn't shown great drive-and-kick court vision, though. His strength is getting to the hoop, rather than being a decoy, which I think is what MM was alluding to.

 

It is very hard in my eyes for us to ever know how good our team could be having Nate as the coach. He can't coach offense to save his life, and I dare say no one on this board would disagree with that!

We had the youngest team in the NBA playing a vet half court slow down style offense for the last three years....

Either let them run or put in a offense that anyone can understand NATE most importantly your players!!!!! How in the hell did Coach K ever pick this guy for the world games....

 

LOL, a lot of people on this board would disagree with that. They would point out that Nate's team has one of the most efficient offenses in the league, over and over and over and over again.

 

Maybe you two can start a club in Yardape's treehouse.

 

If Bananas are yellow, they are yellow - even if you buddies tell us that they are purple and only an assclown would say otherwise...

 

Guess if you look at it as a true fair play sportsman, every other team in the league knows we don't have a clear offense either so it makes the games so much closer and fun for their fan base!! Imagine if our boys actually moved with and without the ball? Our Blazers might be a superior team, that can't be right can it? Ya mean setting picks and finding the cutter could happen for us too? No way, so our freakishly long athletic team might be utilized properly? This is to much for me!! Must rest!!!

Come on now.... the first round of the playoffs and out isn't so bad... someone had to win right? Hmmmm.... Those guys with a real offensive sets seem to always beat us, wonder why their clear outs don't work like ours? OH yeah! They know their best player one on five doesn't get the desired results.

But hey we still won 50 games, that's good enough to show up to the playoffs every year and it's true we weren't even close to healthy! Why complain? I'm sure Nate will incorporate all that healthy talent into a deadly playoff team this year right? You know a well run clear out bring out the best in TEAM!!! No need for Andre to score 54 by himself while the team watches him... Nate's on the case! We can all rest assured, we are in the WCF's this year for sure!

Nice!

A load has definitely been taken off!!

 

Getting to the hoop is part of drive-and-dish. A good drive-and-dish guard doesn't already have a plan to be a decoy or scorer when he attacks...he takes what the defense gives him. If he can finish when he gets there, he does. If the defense collapses, preventing a good chance to finish, he passes.

It's certainly still questionable whether Bayless will prove to be good at dishing, but mocking McMillan for encouraging one of Portland's best slashers (and someone who played as an attacking point guard until asked to fill in for injury at two guard by Arizona) to work on using his drives to create open jump shots is silly. It suggests a fundamental confusion about how basketball offense works. A slasher who can get into the paint and draw the defense is one of the primary ways to create open opportunities in an offense. MM didn't say "I'm not sure Bayless has the vision to do this" which would have been reasonable. He used sarcasm implying that it's stupid to have a slasher create jump shots for others. It was worded as sarcasm about the very principle, not about Bayless' specific ability to pass.

 

And if it's worth saying, it's worth saying in binary.

 

I have heard that for several years. Let's take a moment to reflect on all the great point guards Nate has held back.

 

Speaking of offense, I heard Wheels say on Courtside something about the Blazers new offense. Have they change their offense? I've heard about a lot of work on D, but nothing much about offense. Has this to do with the new assistant coaches?

 

Except that I really wasn't bashing Nate. Just two entirely different styles.


It's not Nate's fault that every single PG drafted by his GM's over the years has sucked. All those lottery and 1st round picks were all misses by the GM's. Nate had nothing at all to do with their lack of development


However, I digress. I really was only suggesting that the two have entirely different styles.

 

Bananas are white. The skins come in many colors, depending on variety. Need to visit more produce markets, andalusian.

 

Where do you find produce markets where they sell bananas without skin? Is this a California thing?

Also, let me be the first to point that calling Bananas white is racist. I am not sure it's true - but I just wanted to be the first to point it out in the thread.

 

I believe that if you look at the lineup that was being run out there, with Bayless, Rudy, Mathews, that unit will get out and run some. It is fairly small, has quite a few players who can score, and has the capability for some defensive intensity. Rudy is the type of player that gets into lanes to get his hands on some passes, but is not a good 1 on 1 defender. Mathews is a good 1 on 1 guy so he can take whoever is hardest to defend. Bayless has shown the ability to get up into players grills defensively. I see plenty of tools for a smaller second unit that can change the pace of the game. Considering some of these guys are going to start getting over the "Nate Hump" where he starts seeing them as experienced players instead of rookies, hopefully he will start trusting them more.

 

What is racist is the insidious suggestion that there is an implicit "whiteness" underneath...even if one's skin is of a different colour.

 

See. That's why you can't improve on a Minstrel post. They are Puurfect!

 

I hear what you're saying, but Bayless currently lacks the double threat (driving for his own score and driving to dish) to make defenses react. Until he shows a consistent ability to do what presently does not come naturally, the rest is a moot point. Honestly, he really only drives for the foul right now. Play off him enough to block the scoop shot and he doesn't have a backup plan.

 

He does, but there is a reason that problem is there, and funny enough it's the same reason Sergio had problems finding consistency at the offensive end. It's the outside shot. When you don't have an outside shot, teams will scout you and play you for that weakness. If they are sagging off of you, it is hard to find any passing lanes, and harder to get to the hoop because they aren't respecting your outside shot. If the outside shot begins to fall, the rest of his game comes along with it.

I am sure over the last few years most folks have noticed how when our bigs get switched on the outside that smaller guards just take them outside and hit the jumper over them. Meanwhile Portland has been the opposite. When our PG get switched, they can't do jack dick. When Blake was here, he was the opposite, and that was the problem. He could shoot, but he wasn't a threat to attack the rim or to get assist. So instead of playing off of him, they played up on him to take away the outside shot. Either way, no matter what PG we had out on the floor, there was a way to take away the strength of their game.

In order for that to end, a PG has to step up and have a solid all around game to back him up. If not you just trade one weakness for another. It has to be a situation where if you take one thing away, another problem rises up to make the defense adjust. If not, you end up just like against Phoenix in the playoffs last year where they take away the option and you are screwed.