This is a simply amazing fact (re: Blazers record)

Completely agree here - which is no knock on Wesley - it's just a further watering down of the roster. It is amazing watching quality teams like Dallas tank while their best player is out two weeks, while we keep moving along, slowly but surely.

 

Yes, good point. Matthews/Batum/Miller as a #2 option is not consistently at the level that Aldridge was last year. That's a difference. I think there are also intangibles, confidence, etc., that the Blazers had behind Roy that they don't have to quite the same degree behind Aldridge.

Oh, and the absence of Marcus Camby the last few weeks could well have translated into an extra loss or two --- and that alone could have evened the Blazers' current record with last year's.

 

No doubt about it. As good as LA has been, Roy was one of the best closers in the game. Say what you want about the offense stalling with all his iso play, but the guy made big shots. The intangible part is what it did for the psyches of guys like Outlaw, Blake, Rudy, etc. Not only did they benefit from the defense paying so much attention to Brandon late in games, but it gives you confidence to see your best player confidently take/make big shots. Again, LA has been great but you can't just give him the ball at the top of the circle and say "go win us a ballgame" like you could B-Roy. No knock on LA. not many PF's can create their own shot with the game on the line.

 

But we're not efficient?

 

Aldridge puts up numbers, but where we miss Roy is at the end of games. It's one of the reasons I think we're so inconsistent in the 4th quarter. We used to put the ball in Brandon's hands and he'd either score the bucket or get to the foul line.

 

I love what LMA is doing - but he does not had the ability to take a game over as consistently as Roy did - and that's not just a end of the game situation. Roy had plenty of good 2nd or 3rd quarters where he would just take over a game - and the rest was history.

 

It seems to me that some people have forgot that fact that we had a huge part of the middle of the season before we got Camby where we lost quite a few games and didn't perform that well, before winning quite a few games near the end of the season.

 

Didn't LMA have 18 points in the first quarter very recently? He's also put up double digit numbers in any quarter you can name in the last month or so.

 

Consistently was the key word I was trying to convey. Roy could take over a game almost game in, game out. LMA can't do it - which is not diminishing from what he is doing - but he just can't do it as consistently.

 

I disagree, but don't have the data to back me up, so I'll finish with a vague insult towards you. But I don't have one ready to go, so I'll just let this emoticon substitute for that vague insult.

 

Taking over down the stretch in a tight game is a whole 'nother story! End of game situations demand a certain type of player with that killer instinct. I don't think LA is there yet, and I mean YET! I love him, but BRoy was a killer down the stretch!

 

He certainly killed any offensive flow we might have had

 

Anyway, as I was saying...

I think we're seeing that consistency more than you think.

 

if la osnt consistent then batum is a fluke

 

I would love for it to happen. I am just not ready to call it that way. Would love if it continues.

 

After we got Camby, our CoolStandings expected wins improved only 3 (from 47 to the final result of 50). Those 3 wins can be credited to: McMillan always surges at the end of a season, McMillan & Miller got used to each other, McMillan learned his other personnel, Batum & Rudy & Pendergraph returned after missing half a season, etc.

I don't credit Camby for the 3-game improvement, unless you mean that he added depth at center. Now we had two, instead of just one, Juwan Howard.

 

Last year, the injure situation was much worse. Outlaw went out immediately and never played again. Batum was out the entire first half of the season. In December, Oden and Joel went out for the year. Rudy missed an extensive time as well. Then Roy had a hammy problem and missed a big patch of games. Even Aldridge had a short patch where he couldn't play. Finally, Roy needed surgery at the end of the year. Not to mention Pendergaph and Patty Mills both had substantial injuries and Nate McMillan missed a stretch of games because HE got hurt. Oh and Bayless tripped over something and Blake got hospitalized with the flu.