First Round Playoffs: Blazers/Rockets Game 2 Thread

I remember when he used to insist he was the ghost of Maris.

 

No I don't take him seriously (in that I think he actually believes half of what he writes) but there's just enough doubt in my mind that he could be that thick that I feel somehow compelled to counter his endless raft of bullshit.

Just call me Sisyphus

 

Game bullets:

*The Rockets are going with the theory that they are going to let our big guys score and stop our role players. The reason being, they have a couple of good options to try and defend 1 on 1. It worked out in game 1, didn't in game 2. Will they continue this philosophy in game 3? Near the end of the game they started veering away from it. They might switch the defense just in order to confuse younger players, next game.

*Steve Blake was doing a very good job at pushing Aaron Brooks to one side so he could not get comfortable getting his shot off. If you watch him, he always moves to one side before he shoots. Blake was stopping him from doing this. My question is, why didn't the rest of the Blazers read the scouting report? They were not doing this.

*If I have to sit at the arena and listen to some dude behind me in section 301 bitch about Lamarcus Aldridge and how they should yank him out of the game when he damn near put down 27 and 12 and shooting over 50% I am going go postal.

*Dikembe Mutombo. I never wanted to see that guy go down to an injury like he had last night. We probably finally saw his final game last night. A true warrior in the post, and a player who took part on some very memorable series in the past (Like Denver knocking off Seattle, the first #8 taking out a #1 seed, ever).

 

Was he calling for LMA to be yanked and Sergio to be put in? If so, I think you just met Maris.

 

Name names. Who else besides Miller and Sessions? You can't just magically materialize the perfect PG for us. The guy has to actually exist. Sessions has no playoff experience and is not he vet than people are calling for. And Miller, like you said, is too old.

 

Neither is/was Roy or Aldridge. I'll take talent over experience. They'll all become veterans.

No, he's the perfect age. Gives Portland 2/3 years of very solid point guard play while Bayless develops. Miller retires or moves on, Bayless takes over.

 

We have our PG of the future, he's just not playing on the team right now.

 

I will too. But Nik said, and NateBishop agreed, that the Blazers needed "a veteran point who has a track record of high level performance and a starter's game." I responded by asking who that person is and Ramon Sessions was one of the answers. But Sessions hardly fits that description.

 

I'm fine with the point guards we have. If Avery Johnson can win a championship, then so can Blake.

 

Why stop there? If JR Rider can win a championship, then so can Blake. How about Brian Scalabrine?

 

I applaud your loyalty, but let's keep it real.

You don't want Miller or Sessions because they aren't perfect? There is no perfect player out there! Both of those guys are well ahead of Blake in both PER and WARP. We don't need "perfect", but when your starting PG doesn't even crack the top 20....that's a problem.

Speaking of WARP, at midseason, Blake was battling Joel to be our 3rd most valuable player. Since then, he has slipped to 6th.

 

According to Quick recently, Nic is the ONLY Blazer who reads the scouting reports.

 

There are plenty that fit that description, I just don't know any besides Miller, Kidd and Bibby that are unrestricted free agents this summer and absolutely available to the highest bidder. Sessions I threw in the mix because he's a solid young point guard who is a restricted free agent.

Naming other names that might or might not be available for trade is kind of a fruitless exercise because there's no point in talking about people unless there is at least a hint of availability -- the only one I think you could reasonably say will be on the block is Kirk Hinrich and if I were KP and neither Miller or Sessions was attainable then I'd make a strong play for him instead.

 

Hey, if Mark Madsen can win one . . .

 

We don't need Roy or Rudy, Eddie House has won a title.
We don't need Aldridge, Samaki Walker has won a title.
We don't need Oden, Bill Wennington has won a title
We don't need Batum or Outlaw, Jason Kapono has won a title.

That gives us a lot of players we can trade. The problem is, since we don't need anything...what do we trade them for?

 

Those were stat packets. Not scouting reports.