Yea, the move was to have Nate quit going to Rudy when it was working fine. There was no reason to quite going to Rudy, he was still getting foul calls even when he wasn't hittin buckets. The flat out fact is, they just quit going to him, and then they put in Blake for that disasterous couple of minutes.
Blake was pretty bad, indeed. But Rudy was getting touches. He was just not open enough to do anything with them, so he'd pass back to Roy, who was getting to the line like none other.
Will somebody fire that idiot! After a loss like this, that kind of shite is not the least bit amusing.
At what minute mark did the quit going to him? The last 4 minutes of the game was a FT shooting contest.
but it's a lot easier to keep a guy from beating you when he's off the ball. ball denial is much easier than stopping roy with the ball. i think in end game and late game situations, the ball absolutely should be in roy's hands. that doesn't mean he always need to take the shot. i agree that rudy or outlaw(or webster or blake) left open is better than roy taking a contested shot. i mean, what happens when the team just plays off of miller and denies his penetration? do you have faith in a long jumper from miller to win the game? i don't.
It's easier to stop Roy...it's not easier to prevent the Blazers from scoring. If Roy attracts the attention of the defense to try to deny him the ball, as I don't think it is easy at all for a single defender to do it, that just creates an even better scoring opportunity elsewhere. Miller has a lot of value both in driving to the hoop and passing. I'd want to keep that value in play while still having Roy's shot-making value in play. I think an ideal end-game lineup would be Miller, Rudy, Roy, Outlaw and Aldridge. All of them can hit a shot, they all can occupy different parts of the court. You let Miller penetrate...if the defense doesn't collapse, Miller is excellent at getting free throws and/or a good chance at the rim. If the defense does collapse, even just one extra defender, you have either Roy or Aldridge open (one of your two best players) or Rudy or Outlaw...two of your best shooters. Webster could also be part of it instead of Outlaw, depending on who's shooting better that night. Blake can hit open shots, but Webster/Outlaw are superior at creating a shot if the defender closes out well or the ball gets swung to them when they're not wide open. So, I just don't see the point of playing Blake over any of Rudy, Roy, Miller, Webster, Outlaw or Aldridge.
I have been preaching this a long time. Outlaw only plays well when he has the right matchup. Watch his games and note the matchup. When he has a slow type power forward that he can take advantage of out on the perimeter, he does great on offense, but gets out banged on the boards. But if you put a faster type player on him, he struggles. Denver doesn't have any slow players in their second unit. Even the Birdman is fast enough to cover him from the perimeter. When you don't get any offense out of Travis, you basically get nothing. Thats why it's either "Travis had such a great game" or "Travis was frackin crappy". There is no middle ground.
Dan Crawford has to be the worst official in the NBA. He was whistle happy the entire night and disrupted the game with some terrible judgement.
The best way to approach this is through storytelling. Nothing spells baby steps for this still young team than through a loss. They're wild and uncontained and haven't found their rhythm yet. This is a different team from last year's Blazers. For better or for worse. I can't tell you how much dramatic flair there was in that last shot by Roy. Attempting to repeat his legendary exploits on national television, he misses it all. Nothing more heart wrenching than hearing Marv Albert say, "Not this time" and watching as Roy stutters back to the locker room with his head cast down. And what about the team? Our "big 3" missing their free-throws? While it was a team effort, Oden will take the most blame for the last two free throws. That's just the way it is. I'm sure it will definitely make a great story if he turns it around and grows up from this "injury prone wasted draft pick in the first few games of his second season" to "dominant center". It's tempting not to ignore his defensive presence and short bursts of dominance but he's still got a long way to go.
and you're ok with living the reality that there is a good chance the game is decided by an andre miller long jumper? they would play off of miller for the drive and go under any screens to dare miller to take that shot.
