I think Dre will be slowly phased out. About 20-25 mpg in the regular season, and maybe a bit higher in the playoffs. I like what I am seeing/hearing about Bayless' and Matthews' PG skills. My rotation: Dre (20)/ Bayless (20)/ Matthews (8) Roy (32)/ Rudy (16) Batum (30)/ Matthews (18)
Love Wes. And I'm sure Nate does, too. Just seems like a prototypical Nate player. You know what you're going to get from him every night ... unlike the inconsistency of Martell and Travis.
I'm impressed. But, I'm going to wait until mid-way through the season before I completely judge this guy.
Like I said in the game thread, I can see a 1-2 scoring punch of Bayless-Matthews putting a lot of pressure on other teams benches.
Even if he's here during the regular season, I think his minutes will be spot at best; he can be such a liability on defense and Matthews appears to be good enough in that aspect of the game, that I just don't think there's going to be many opportunities for Rudy to play over him ... of course if Matthews is struggling to hit his shot or he doesn't live up to his billing as a defender that could change everything, but I see that as more situational than enduring.
If Matthews and Bayless can keep up even 2/3 of that great outside shooting, that pair is going to be High Powered coming off the bench.
What's interesting to me is that this unheralded, almost unheard-of player (who was not drafted) came in and led the team in scoring last night with 20 points. That's more than Roy and Aldridge and Miller and Batum. Watch out, he could be something special.
This is what worries me. I wouldn't expect anything near what we saw from him last night scoring wise during the reg season. I don't want peoples expectations to get out of wack because It was just one preseason game.
It would be stupid to get our expectations too high after one preaseason game, but after a preseason game and the Blazers Bash, now that's another story... It's serious evidence!
If everyone's healthy our 2nd unit is Bayless, Rudy, Wes, either Dante or Joel and Camby. A team with these players in it's starting-lineup could be playoff-bound, IMO.
Bayless, Rudy, Wes, Dante and Camby is a sick-ass lineup. I think also that we'll see a 10-man rotation in the regular season since we seem to have more guys off the bench who can make good decisions (and keep the offensive flow going) than we had two years ago (last year, we often didn't have ten guys, so it doesn't really count).
If we have this second unit and a 10 man rotation how many minutes will Matthews and Batum be playing?
I agreee with the point I think you are making. Not enough. I would love for Rudy to stay and give us more depth. If you know my history, I am not a "consolidation" guy who believes that you go out of your way to make the bench happy. Injuries occur. But I don't think Rudy will be around to take minutes away from Matthews, which means Matthews will not take too many minutes away from Batum. They both will get 25 minutes a game. I would love to keep Rudy too, but I don't see how. Either way I loved the Matthews acquisition at the time and I stil do.
