Opening Night..... Blazers vs Suns Game Thread 10/26/10

Steve Nash played 35 minutes, and demonstrated in the fourth quarter why he isn't a "big minutes" player anymore. He just seems to be a guy who plays great at his speed, but when he gets tired the mental mistakes, poor defense and bad shooting quickly escalate. That Suns team is in for a world of hurt this year. They still have hope, so they put up a good fight last night. But that looks like a 30 win team to me. Worse if they are smart and decide to do a full tear-down by trading Nash (and Richardson?) for prospects.

Matthews may wind up being a rich man's combination of Greg Anthony and Jarret Jack, which is a pretty exciting complementary player. Anthony's perimeter shooting and defense and total acceptance of his role, and Jack's ability to get in the lane and bang a little. Neither were great ball handlers, just like Matthews, but "adequate" is all we really need. It'll be interesting to see if Miller keeps his starting job this year.

Roy's defense somehow got worse. He looked great on offense, but jesus. Just watch him. Utterly apathetic. I watched a lot of that Miami game, and I know Roy sometimes gets compared to Wade, but it's completely undeserved. Wade was sucking massively tonight because he'd missed the preseason, but he was at least busting ass on the defensive end. The chasm between Roy and Wade is massive.

Is Batum 100%? Because again it sure looked puzzling how few minutes he played in the first half. He looked fantastic.

Fun game. Closer than I thought it'd be, but that's the NBA. Steve Nash has a lot of pride, and he gave it all he had last night to keep it competitive.

 

Wade may arguably be way better than Roy but right now the Blazers have a better record than the Heat.

 

I thought the Blazers played very well last night. The mistakes can be corrected.

B-Roy: I'm also in love with Wesley Matthews. Probably my favorite player right now. Love his game. Great signing.

With Oden, I think we are #2 in the West, easy. I know it was one game. But I think Oden would be perfect for this team.

 

We re on pace to win them all right now! 82 and 0

 

Who should he have played him over last night?

Wes? No
Armon? No
Miller? No
Roy? No
Dante? Maybe - but you want Dante to get some minutes to continue developing
Rudy? Maybe - but if you want to get contribution from Rudy over the year or at least build some value - you need to give him some burn-time
Oberto? - Sure, I guess. Here is 3 more minutes for you Nic. I guess he wanted to see Oberto for a couple of seconds, however
LMA? No
Camby? No

So, overall, this was very good minute distribution by Nate.

 

Batum should never play less than 30 minutes a night. I think it should be a no brainer to get this guy 30+ a night. Take 5 total minutes from Rudy and Miller and you have it pretty easily.


Batum = best overall player, or second best if you don't include defense. Nate should play him as such.

 

It makes little sense to take the time from Miller simply because it means less time with a real PG on the court, unless you are willing to live with offense initiated by Roy (which I suspect you will bitch about ISO).

Rudy - maybe, but again, if you want him to be happy and contribute or at least rebuild his trade-value, you can't play him less than 20 minutes a game. It just makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.

In other words, I think you are bitching about the wrong thing here. The rotation was fine, the team was close, it never got out of hand - I am sure that if playing Rudy was atrocious - Nate would have brought Nic earlier to replace him. As is, it was just very good, especially when you remember this team is playing back-to-back and he wants to keep these guys fresh for tonight.

Not buying this. I love Nic, but he is not even our 2nd best player even when you include defense, for the simple fact that he does not command a double team. Until this happens, he is firmly in 3rd place in the good he brings to this team.

 

I agree that Roy's defense was terrible at times last night. When we played the starting lineup to start the 3rd quarter Roy looked like he wasn't really trying on both ends of the floor. His lack of defensive intensity led to several Suns makes and it became almost not-worth-it to have him on the floor. But I think in the fourth quarter, when the entire team played better, so did Roy, and also on defense.

About Mathewss - there's a poster here called Public Defender that I remember having the name Augmon-Anthony in the Blazers-forums when it was a relevant name to have. They were our defense/effort/glue players of 99 and 2000.
One of the things I liked tonight is what I call the Dante-Cunningham-Experiment and others would call role-playing. Mathewss, in my eyes, is a superb role-player.

I see our minute distribution in this order (1/2/3) - Roy, Batum, Miller, Mathewss, Rudy, Armon.
Nate could keep juggling the lineup like he successfuly did against the Suns, but if you want to establish a regular-rotation, and according to the order I forsee, Mathewss should become Miller's backup, Rudy will sub for Batum and Armon would play mostly behind Roy.

 

I agree that Nic should play no less then 30 a night!

 

Maybe I am reading this wrong. But Wes is not really a pG, Rudy is not a SF, and Armon is not a SG. I think Match ups will determine minutes each game. I know some of you do not like that, but it makes sense to me.

 

Elliot Williams was the most timid. I thought for sure he was going down

 

Anyone at the game catch the phrase used by the announcer to start the season: "it's_GO_time"

 

First game of the season first rotation . . . really going to start questioning Nate on the very first substitution of the season?

If it helps, Nic played more that Miller.

 

^when i was at fanfest mason said the fans are gonna finish the phrase this year

 

All I'm saying is I think that was the very first substitution of the season and although I am used to the Nate bashing and questioning on this board, it takes it to a new level to question his very first substitution of the season, IMO.

Was it the right decision . . . I don't know? But we must watch games differently. I'm not looking to jump on a player or a coach for one decision or one bad play. He substituted Matthews for Nic instead of Miller in the first 6 minutes of the game . . . I'm guessing not many fans or meida are going to see a problem with it the way you do.

But anyways, no biggie. This is a chat board and you have all the right to question the coach. Personally, I see the decision as a non-factor in the game, but I understand you feel like it was a bad decision. There will be more by Nate . . . and every other coach in the NBA.

 

that's what she said