Oh come on Nic . . . Vasquez does that to a lot of guys. He's a game changer defending the perimeter. Seriously, it was watching Brandon get his shot swatted by . . . just about everyone on the Grizzlies' front line that did it for me. And when he's not getting his shot erased, he's missed more lay-ins in the last month than he probably has in his whole career.
A lot of that, without sounding like I'm doing nothing but defending Roy, is poor spacing. Like he said. Finding the lane packed every time has to do with personnel. If he is getting inside, and there's too many guys in there. Or, he's unable to, because one defender has sagged to the free throw line.
Please God tell me you are joking? If that's the case I'd better start adding an extra choo. Choo choo choo
It's true. Steve Nash, who probably hasn't dunked in years, can still get to the rim and finish because he has teammates who can pull out defenders from the key.
After all this backlash against Roy, you would think Roy pulled a JailBlazer era move. Now people are questioning his character and saying OCD is affecting his mental state? This is nearly getting out of hand. What he is saying isn't as bad as fans are making it out to be, good lord.
He also has a bunch of player who are actually hitting their open shots instead of laying bricks. A lot of what Roy says is true in many ways. A lot of problems would be solved if some players on the team would nut up and hit their open shots. At the same time, he is clearly not the same player he was 2 years ago. So its a combination of the two things happening at the same time, which probably make it a bigger problem than imagined.
I'm amazed, and I've only lived in Portland for 8 years, so can't say I am a "lifelong" Blazers fan, I started rooting for them the moment I moved here. But I am amazed at how quickly the fans, and I know message boards are a small sampling, but how quickly the fans turn on their players. I can't recall a player recently this has not happened to. It's kind of sad to me.
That's a bit of my problem with this as well. This franchise, and a large part of the fandom, was dead before Brandon Roy entered our lives. I just wonder how many of those now bashing him were doing so when he was 2nd team All-NBA and a 3-time All-Star. I know there are some who were at the time, but it was a very small minority.
Nearly? Roy honestly gives his opinion WHEN ASKED what he thinks is wrong with the Blazers' crappy offense, and people take it as an opportunity to pile on with all sorts of negative spin. If I were Roy and the Quickster came and asked me what was wrong, after the way he sandbagged Roy on the radio today, I'd tell him to stick his pencil up his ass sideways and go ask Nate.
Roy was playing in the same crowded lane last year and still produced. The difference this year is his knees are gone. I'm still a huge fan--in fact such a huge fan it upsets me when a player is OBVIOUSLY holding the team back, when a simple move to the bench would help the team out TREMENDOUSLY. That is why I'm upset at Roy. He's being stubborn and I don't care if he was great the last couple of years. This is now, he's got his 88 million--go to the bench and be successful there. Roy says he doesn't have a ego but he has one right now. Oh and that sticky note on his locker "Stay Humble"...something tells me Roy has lost that spark.
And not even that, but there's absolutely no support for a guy who helped this franchise out? A bad week and a negative thought on his knee, and immediately, people yell to dump the guy. I know with technology and the internet, people lose focus very quickly now. And It's become so much of a what have you done for me lately world, but damn. It is just amazing to me that the same fan base that still nuts over a hobbled Sabonis wants to dump a guy this quickly into an injury, when no, maybe it won't get better. But he has shown he can play on it. Was half the fan base yelling for Sabonis to go back to Russia, or to be traded? I don't get it. I want to win a championship as well. I don't want to watch a crappy team. Especially as a season ticket holder, it sucks to pay for crap. I'm still happy going to the games I can. Some are frustrating,a nd I want changes. I just don't understand the need to throw every guy we have under the bus immediately upon any bad stuff.
You might not be talking about me, but I'm not saying to dump the guy. Just put him in a better situation. Roy would do GREAT on the second unit. And you know what....we actually might be able to score a bucket with our second unit! What a thought!
The "first unit" scored 9 points in the 4th quarter last night. Perhaps the "second unit" with Roy should be the "first unit"?
That is still not an excuse for those players to hit shots. Is Roy performing up to par? Nope. Is that an excuse for Rudy to shoot 36% when he shoots mostly open 3's? Or for Batum to register O'fers across the stat line? Is it an excuse for the backup PG to basically register 9 doughuts out of 10 games in the stat column? No it's not.
