I don’t even care he was 1-6 last night. That was his best game of the season. I have a feeling Billups is realizing this too. Quit shooting 3s and be a Gerald Wallace type. I’ve always loved the type of player you don’t have to draw up any plays for. Ed Davis type. I just think, and it’s pretty obvious, that when these guys play with such ball dominant guards, they kinda just sit out on the wings. It becomes habit. See Chief,Mo and Nico.
I remember there was talk when we acquired RoCo that he was physically broken and may not return to his old form. I liked the acquisition, but it felt like an overpay at the time. (I think I mentioned we would have been better off keeping Ariza and the picks. Damn bubble.) In hindsight, it was a huge overpay. Think of all the future-injured big men we could have traded up for with those picks!
It's interesting you mention Nico because he was still dishing out 4-5 APG when he was still here with Dame. And that's with LaMarcus taking 20 possessions each game to pound the ball in the post. What they do on offense does not have to reflect what they do on defense, but I think it's natural that you don't play as hard on defense when you aren't getting the ball on offense. Hard to justify getting the ball on offense though when you can't do anything with it, like Chief, Mo and RoCo.
I think many national pundits have commented over the year how Roco is a very good help defender, and not a good one on one defender. Billups talked at the beginning of the year of Roco being our "stopper" on defense, and it's clear that isn't who he is. He needs to be able to float around like a safety and make plays and be disruptive, like yesterday.
I think Batum was a special case. Batum was basically LeBron for the French team and then came back to Portland and got treated like Bruce Bowen. Gotta suck when you know you're capable of more. I don't get the impression RoCo is really itching for more offensive touches. He's more like a Dennis Rodman type. Which is what makes it so odd that he's been out of sorts since Chauncey got here. You'd think those guys would be happy doing anything. But I guess if you know you're really talented at something, even if it's just defense, which the average fan doesn't give a crap about, it's got to be annoying to be told you're doing it wrong and just follow orders, dammit.
IF everyone was healthy, I think there could be a different starter at the 2-4 depending on match ups. I'll like how we threw a bunch of different PF's at KAT last night.
This team is tough to watch not sure if it’s because we lose so much or just missing star power (Dame struggling). Team/fans/Dame desperately need some new blood on this roster.
