Fans Tweeting to PA, PA tweets back

This is true. The 49er's almost took him #1 overall. There were arguments over who was better Smith or Rogers in the 49er front office..

But the bottom line is the Packers saw enough of Rogers that they beleived he was ready to take over for Favre after 3 years of backing him up. Personally I was surprised about how much everyone was raiving about him. But they saw him in practice every day.

Maybe the Blazer have seen enough of the new Roy to make their decision. But since they have not seen him in 7 months, i am hoping that they wait another few weeks at least to be sure. Especially since we do not have too many SG's right now.

 

Elliot Williams! (We can all dream, right?)

 

A "clear thinking fan" is an oxymoron. If fans were rational, then none of them would be fans of Portland.

 

I don't know, maybe Aldridge needs a full year or thinking he's the man and knowing he's the man? Maybe Nic has a leap in production up his sleeves? I admit It's a blind leap from the fan's perspective.

Regardless, the Roy we knew and revered is probably gone. If he stays we don't get to find out if there's anybody like that on this roster ... and if they suck badly enough maybe they get a high enough draft pick to actually select a difference maker in what many consider a deep and very talented draft.

 

That's self-serving bullshit. You're Paul Allen, right?

 

You mean like death?

 

Rudy!

 

Our young players lost the whole off season (3 solid months) with the assistant coaches/trainers that normally would help with their development. That won't help either.

 

You joke, but I think we could use Martell right now coming off our bench.

 

That's a good point.

OK, you are begining to persuade me back to what I said over the summer: if the team is going to tank, maybe this is the year to do it. Many fans will never surrender the notion that Roy and Oden are super-duper-stars...but maybe another year of hard evidence will mitigate the PR backlash. Throw Babbitt, Williams and Smith into the deep end....if one of them actually survives, it's a bonus. Best case, Felton and Camby get off to decent starts and can be dumped on a contender for something useful. This is supposed to be a good draft - and after several weak drafts in a row, the team needs a talent influx. You certainly don't want to crash next year, when the team has no first round pick.

 

That doesn't happen in the NBA, guys go home and work out with each other in pickup games

 

no thanks. I'm happy to see Nic being the primary backup swing player at both spots and hanging hopes on what Elliott Williams and even Babbitt will someday bring then seeing more of MW.

STOMP

 

You still have summer league in July. They often have trainers and shooting coaches working with them in August, and as of late they have been back the first week in September in the practice facility playing with the vets. Let alone all of October for pre-season. This year no one has seen or talked to them since June. I am not expecting much from them at all.

The one true benefit the summer league has, is for a young PG like Smith to at least start to learn the offense. Not this year.

 

I'm not saying there's no benefit to Summer League and some of the other team NBA sanctioned activities, but it's really guys working out at UCLA with pros and individually with trainers like Joe Abunassar that I think has the biggest impact.

This isn't like football, where guys pore over film and have position coaches breaking down every last aspect of their technique in mini-camp, in the NBA largely you can either play or you can't

 

Summer is the one time that coaches get to work on fundamentals with younger players, though. Bill Bayno was famous for it when he was with the Blazers. Hell, he'd travel around the US to work with guys like LMA.

Having an experienced and well-rounded rookie like Nolan Smith may actually help this season, because some of the younger rookies are going to have had basically no coaching since last March.

 

If those young players wanted instruction it was within their power to go get it on their own dime.

 

That has literally nothing to do with working with Blazer coaches and learning how Nate does things, and for the rookies, they haven't even signed a contract, let alone cashed a professional check.

Oh, and the Blazers are bring Roy into Portland and are going to assess where he is at, and not just cut him sight unseen, as many here seemed to advocate.