..."scrappy" without Roy? The enthusiasm sure appears to be there. This picture depicts just one of many occurrences of the same type hustle during last night's game. Keep it up, fellas! Go Blazers!
Without a doubt they are! thats what we've been saying, keep the tempo up, and bring B-Roy off the bench to close em down. The old one two knockout punch.
Use Brandon to close the other team down? Barring him faking this (or making it out to be a lot more than it is) because he's upset about Miller, he can't close down anything.
They certainly appear to be, a lot less standing around and watching. BRoy has a huge effect on tempo and rarely wants to push the ball, something that every other player on this team does instinctively. In his current condition, it is a better team without him and definitely more entertaining.
Here is the thing I want to throw out there. We have had a ton of post on this board arguing if Nate's system is holding the team back from running. But could it be that the team was just deferring to Roy too much the whole time? Back when Nate came on board he didn't have a lot to work with. Zbo was better in half court. So was Roy. But yet it is obvious players like Aldridge, are not. Aldridge could easily average 6 to 8 points more a game if they pushed it up to him when he gets out on the break. But it doesn't happen. The last few games it has happened. It has also coincidentally been games where Roy was held out a large portion of, or did not play in.
Forget the whole "one-two-punch" theory. Sadly the team's best bet is Roy shutting it down for the year. If he stays in the lineup as is, a few things are going to happen whether as a starter or coming off the bench: 1) Roy by his nature takes a lot of shots, a lot of those come off the dribble with everybody else standing around waiting for a play to develop and usually against a set defense ... ultimately low percentage shots that I'd rather see other guys taking in the flow of the offense. 2) Roy playing for a few games then taking a few games off then back for a few more, makes building continuity almost impossible. This isn't going to go away just because Roy comes off the bench either. 3) I'm not sure his teammates like playing with him and right now and when he was a top ten player his production probably outweighs any chemistry hits, but with him looking like a barely adequate reserve player, the chemistry impact he's having on the team looks almost insurmountable. Maybe we'll witness a miracle and he'll find a way to bounce back and also integrate his game, but I doubt it's going to happen this year. Brandon is going to have to first embrace (or at least accept) his situation with his knees and then it's going to take a lot of off-season work to reinvent himself into more of a post-up and catch-and-shoot player.
Well, the Wolves are terrible defensively. That said, I wonder what Aaron Brooks could do in a "Patty Mills" role. The Blazers pushed pace very well without Roy and Miller.
Answer to ABM's question.... ABSOULTELY Much more uptempo, better team passing, better team defensively adn more aggresive. They function as a TEAM not an "I"
great reply, has nothing to do with "scrappy", it's all about pace and personnel that fit with pace as opposed to a more standing around offense. It's about using the assets you have to the best of their ability.
