Wesley Matthews Inserted Into Starting Lineup

..for Nic Batum. Personally I'd rather see Roy get the axe, if he wants to slow down a unit it should be the second, then he can take all the shots he wants, while keeping his minutes down till the fourth.

I like the tempo, and defense when these two are in:



http://www.iamatrailblazersfan.com/ArticleDisplayPlaceholder/tabid/192/ItemID/2089/Default.aspx

 

I wonder if Nate's logic is something like this:

Plan: Prove Matthews improves as a starter

Step 1 - put Matthews in for the worst-performing starter (excepting Camby)
Step 2 - wait for Roy to break down again
Step 3 - insert Batum again
Step 4 - "ease" Roy back in by having him play of the bench
Step 5 - if winning occurs, don't change anything

 

beating philly and wiz are must wins at this point....

 

I have seen a report from CBS sports that says Roy is considering shutting it down for a season linked off of hoopworld.com. But it also doesn't mention many sources about that decision.

I also believe the team will not improve much until bigs are brought in to do the work needed to make the rest of the team better.

 

I think the thinking is for him to backup Aldridge, Roy or Matthews for the time being..which isn't so bad.

 

Stupid.... This is Batums and Aldridges team going forward, so lets bench him

 

If this is Batum and Aldridge's team then were done. Because a couple of average players aren't going to take you anywhere.

 

Another stupid move by Nate.


This might work short term, but long term you just told your pretty damn good SF of the future that he sucks.

 

By benching him for one game your telling him he sucks long term? How about your simply sending him a message to step it up...

 

Oh yes, I am sure it will only be for 1 game

 

He was anointed "SF of the future" mostly because the other options, Webster & TO, were terrible. If he's good enough to start for a playoff team, he should be good enough to reclaim his starting role.

 

If he is good enough to start for a playoff team, he shouldn't lose his starting spot in the first place.

 

Batum has played worse as his minutes have increased this season.

Maybe Nate knew what he was doing by limiting Nic's minutes last season.

 

How did you feel about Steve Blake starting over Andre Miller at the beginning of last season?

 

Andre won his starting spot eventually. If Batum is so good, he'll be able to do the same.

 

Exactly. I think Nate's just trying to inject some energy into the starting five. Batum looks like he is sleepwalking the past two weeks.

 

Well maybe you need to look at the question you just asked. Is he good enough to start for a real playoff team? Or was he the defacto starter because we had nobody else worth a damn. Who else was going to start? Webster? ROFL good one! If you go down the playoff basketball teams and list their starting SF, where do you see Batum on the ranking of that list? Can you name one team that went to the playoffs that didn't have a starting SF who wasn't better than Batum?

LA- Artest. Nuff said.
SA-RJ.
Utah-Kirilenko
PHX-Hill
Dallas-Shawn Marion
Denver-Carmello
OKC-Durant.

So you want to put Batum on that list? Because last I looked, all those guys have accomplished stuff in their careers. Last I looked with Batum, is he really hasn't accomplished anything besides stepping in when the chips were down and not stinking it up.

 

Artest was a 12 PER player in the regular season and postseason last year, and Jefferson was a 13 in the regular season and an 11 in the playoffs. Plus, Kirilenko only started 35 games last season for Utah, and was hurt for all but two games in the playoffs.

At this stage, I would take Batum over all three of those players, considering age, contract, and production.

 

def better then marion

 

Our best stretch of the Nets game was at the end of the first half. Matthews and Roy played very well off each other with Matthews playing a similar role that Steve Blake did. It made absolute sense to start Matthews at the beginning of the second half. We're on a losing streak. It's not so much what did Batum did wry g but what Matthews was doing right. He was making shots. I have no problem with this change, at least in the short term. Batum is very overrated on this board. If Batum was so great, it would be obvious to keep Batum in the starting lineup, but he's not that great. And I don't see him as good defensively as many in here do. Deng and Durant destroyed Batum. It was like Batum wasn't even there for various stretches.