He definitely is. He and I used to joke about it being "Baron Time" sarcastically. This season before the first POR/LAC game I said, "Now that Baron's gone, I have no idea how the fourth quarter will go anymore."
That bounce pass through the key from Nico to Aldridge was better than anything I saw out of those two.
I wonder what the NBA record is for worst winning % in close games. Couldn't be much worse than 10%. It just goes to show you how good we'd be if we had decent guard play. Camby, Wallace, Batum and LA are a very good collection of front court players, but the guards are just pathetic. Batum needs to get more involved in the offense. He's our best 3pt shooter, and he always gets so many few shots than Matthews, Felton and Crawford. Part of it is his fault. Many times tonight, I saw him pass up a wide open shot, pass it to Crawford who shots up a shot with a hand right in his face.
There are definitely shots Nico should take, like that one he passed up in overtime that lead to a desperation Felton brick. But other times in the games, I wonder how much of it is Nico and how much of it is that he isn't Nate's designated scorer. I think if Nate gave him the same green light he gives Crawchuck, told him to shoot every chance he gets, then yells at him when he doesn't (like Nate does with Crawchuck), you'd see a more offensively aggressive Batum. I've gotten the feeling over the years Nate's been a bit of a confidence buster to more than one young player.
When NBA players get the offensive rebound, why don't they put it back up??! Often I see LaMarcus get the rebound like 3 feet from the hoop and he passes it out to reset the offense. WTF for? He'd be lucky if a guard were able to get him the ball in that kind of position. Then he passes it out to Batum, who is wide open for a 3, and Batum passes it to a man who is covered...and the Blazers end up with a brick. Just a stupid team.
And even most of Felton's shots were good shots (why would anyone bother to guard him closely?); he just kept missing them!
