for how often people say Nate wouldn't like Nash...

I find these two quotes interesting:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/06/blazers_looking_for_some_grit.html

http://www.prosportsdaily.com/comments/nash-rambles-blazers-break-down-175279.html

Let's get some toughness.

Batum could mask his defensive struggles, and our players would grow tremendously being around Steve Nash. Buy Low.

 

how exactly would batum mask his defensive struggles?

nash would succeed in any system just because of how good of a shooter he is, but i don't see how one perimeter defender makes him any better defensively.

 

Nate also says he wants to push the ball every year, but we continue to have the one of slowest paces in the league.

In fact, our coach talks out of each ass cheek a lot.

 

Actually Sergio and Bayless are most comfortable running the break, and LaMarcus beats guards down the floor. We have two issues with running the break consistently. A) Brandon doesn't like to push tempo, and B) you can't run the break out of a made basket; if you really want high percentage fast break, up tempo basketball you have to get stops and despite how good we were on the glass last year we still allowed a very high FG%. If this team can generate more stops with their defense and then run out off of those perimeter stops then those are the kinds of fast break points I think Nate wants to see -- we'll never see the SSOL offense that D'Antoni runs.

 

You should also check some stats out. When Blake went out with his injured shoulder the Blazers had the exact same winning % that they ended up with the entire year. While not as pollished, both Sergio and Bayless showed they deserved to play.

 

That and they actually turned over the ball less than Blake. Which is another thing that so many pro Blake folks seem to deny reality about.

 

You should also check the list of opponents:

@NJN, @CHA, MIL, CLE, WAS, CHA, UTH, @NOH*, @DAL, @OKC, NYK, OKC, @GSW

CLE, UTH, NOH and DAL are the only winning teams in this group, UTH sucks on the road and the win at NOH comes with a big fat * - since we were whipped until CP3 went down...

Sure, if we played mostly cupcakes or teams that suck on the road at the RG or NOH without CP3 - we would be OK with these guys manning the PG playing time - but let's face it - this is not exactly an elite test so the winning percentage here is highly doubtful.

I am a big believer in stats - as long as you put them in context...

This is a small sample size against mostly easy competition - does not seem like a good way to make these decisions...

 

I just have to SMH at people who make snide comments about BRoy's supposed inability to play uptempo. They clearly didn't watch him at UW.

 

Mo Cheeks to Ass Cheeks?

 

Well, cupcake as you put it or not, about 1/2 of those games were on the road where Portland was below .500.


Those cupcake teams that we played also had some nice wins.

NJ beat up on Atlanta all year, and beat Utah in Utah.

Milwaukee beat the Spurs twice, Miami, Boston and Dallas.

Washington beat Cleveland twice and won at Houston.

Charlotte beat Miami, Boston and the L*kers twice



I think it's fair to say that regardless of the so called cupcake factor, you still have to play hard and well to beat teams.

 

Haha. I never thought of it that way.

 

If I recall correctly, and I am sure someone will point it out if I'm notrecalling it correctly, Roy has come out and said he prefers to play a more controlled pace.

 

Ding Ding Ding

People talk all the time about how Brandon doesn't like to run the break (as a reason why we don't want a running PG), I say Bullshit. If your SG is terrible on the break it makes it twice as important that your PG can adequately run the break and get your SF, PF some easy buckets. Roy's a good rebounder, he should be crashing D-boards while Aldridge leaks out at least five or six times a game.

 

Who said can't? I said doesn't -- Roy likes to play in the half-court and likes to evalute a set defense as he brings the ball up the floor before he attacks it and he's one of the best players in the league at doing it. It's not a knock, it's just his style of play (so far) in the NBA

 

I should have added this to my above post about this, but even if Brandon doesn't like to run, he would be an ideal player to trail.

Last year on the team I coached we had two pretty slow kids. I am a coach that pushes the ball every possession, and we get a lot of easy baskets because of it. What I do is after a miss have my two slower kids trail and if a score off the break doesn't happen, I have my two slower players run a high pick and roll while the guys running the break curl out.

Portland could easily do the same thing with their roster. PG on a break with Aldridge and Batum, with Brandon and Oden trailing ready to run pick and roll with Aldridge popping and Batum and the PG curling.

 

Yes, but it still does not change the fact that basing your claims on our other PG's efficiency against these teams and calling it the law of the land is still very suspect, mathematically.

Just like assuming we are an awful team because we lost the first playoffs game by 30 would be very suspect, mathematically.

Given a larger sample size that encompass all the competition and includes a more representative performance against better teams - Blake was the only PG we had last year that looked like a real NBA PG. Not that he was great, not that he is the one I think is the best PG for the this team going forward into eternity - but based on the full year body of work - Sergio and Bayless were not great options at PG last year.