From O-LIVE... It all begs the question: Do the Blazers have enough players to hang in the Western Conference? "It just depends," Roy said. "Do we have enough to win a game here and there? Yeah. But we're thin. I don't think that's a secret. "I just think we have to be realistic with how we continue to approach these games. We've almost stepped back into a developing phase. We're developing guys again. I think we're developing our bench. I think that's some of the frustrations we're having." It's early in the season and there's still plenty of time for the Blazers to right their listing ship. But there's little debate that a team once brimming with confidence has lost it. "Confidence is low," Roy said. "It hasn't been this low since my rookie year. It's hard to say exactly what's wrong, but I think some of it is definitely confidence." So roy thinks we can "win a game here or there" lol thats great. Maybe we can win 20 roy? Anyway I really think if Cho could get us a scorer (Jamal Crawford type or Jason Terry type) we would be fine. Roy can still play and start imo but the big issue is no coring form our bench. Its deflating to the starters to know we have no punch and its all up to them EVERY NIGHT. Armon Johnson blows, Cunningham is a joke and Rudy has always been garbage except year 1. Wes is teh only good guy off bench when batum gets his starting job back. And can you imagine how bad we would be without wes? Scary bad. Like worst then minny bad.
That is a very disappointing quote from B-Roy and I hope it was taken out of context. I don't think a guy who considers himself our best player yet couldn't manage a single point in the 4th quarter should be calling out anyone but himself. How about "I know this team counts on me to close out games and I haven't been able to get that done. This loss is on me." That I would respect. This quote, if accurate, is the kind of bullshit you hear from guys like Knee-Mac and Vince "Half-Man/Half-A-Season" Carter. Giving themselves an out for failure before they actually fail.
I think with a true center setting picks our bench would/will look considerably better. Excited for Joel to be back, it should make Camby a lot more effective in his minutes because he'll be fresher. Is this bench really that terrible? Johnson/Rudy/Batum/Cunningham/Pryz? There are a lot of shooters out there at 2/3/4 and with a big who sets great picks and a PG who can get to the hole, doesn't seem too bad to me.
So it's the Blazers bench that is blowing leads and gettng completely humiliated in every fourth quarter in recent memory? Is Nate closing out games playing the bench? That would be a problem. If it were true. The Blazers, more often than not, seem to be playing fine for three quarters then panicking in the fourth. In the fourth quarter they don't have any confidence, they don't know what to do, because they don't have a single go-to player or any coherent offense or game plan in the fourth. Our $80 million man is complaining about the bench? Say it aint so!
I guess I must have missed the part where Roy talked about his own petulance, his refusal to play with Miller, his dislike of the prospect of sharing the ball with Oden, his two bad knees making him a shell of his former self, his inability to make plays when the defense focuses on him, his lack of defense, and his contract that will go down as the worst in Blazers history after hamstringing the team for years to come?
he was being honest about what he thinks about the bench, but how about his being honest about his play in the 4th quarter and as someone above said the starters as well. From my recollection we've basically been "even" in the fourth and have lost those games mostly with the starters in.
Hey, even a little bit of honesty from a player is refreshing, trust me. Do you know what the question was? If he was asked something about the bench, I don't expect him to go on a tangent about his knees or his 4th quarter play. The questions could have been about the teams confidence and their bench. It didn't look to me like he was making excuses. It looked like he was answering a question candidly.
The bench shot 3-21 last night. No steals. 4 assists. 7 turnovers. 1 block. While that does not absolve the starters (and Roy, in particular) of anything, I think it's fair to say that the bench played terribly and that, unfortunately, it's nothing new. Couple that with the fact that the three guys that did not play are Marks, Mills and Babbitt... we're just a very very shallow team right now. Ed O.
Yeah I'm just being cranky, and nitpicky -- he didn't actually sum up 'everything' we've said on this board, LOL. I doubt the interview was long enough. And yeah, I know how you media types like to lead the witness!!
Once Roy has been given ample opportunity to succeed or fail, and ample opportunity to mentally accept the idea himself, it would at this moment seem inevitable. But I don't see it working until he literally decides himself it's the right thing to do.
What did Roy say that is so upsetting? He's right, the bench blows ... of course he did leave out the part about everybody else blowing too, but that doesn't erase the ineffectiveness of the subs.
Our bench DOES blow. I know Brandon was mad that they traded Bayless because he could score for us off the bench. Now moving Matthews in a starters role hurts it even more.
