none of them (who are all very athletic) get any easy buckets EVER with Blake in. A good PG gets a struggling guy an easy bucket to help him get going, simple as that.
I thought you said Roy was our PG. So, if Blake doesn't have the ball in his hands, why is it his fault his teammates aren't getting any easy baskets? BNM
First you people run Jarrett Jack, the one player off the bench that could get to the foul line, out of town for a rookie who doesn't play, and now Steve Blake is the target. Blake had 12 pts, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 rebounds last night, and some people want to trade him for a bust like Mike Conley. Wow.
I agree and think Blake has played pretty well lately. I'm still glad we traded Jack though. I think Bayless is going to be good for us when he gets a chance to play. I think eventually Blake would make a great backup PG if Bayless developes or we trade for a better PG.
Bayless, Sergio, Blake >> Conley. Just because Conley is young, was a high draft pick, and played with oden doesn't mean we should trade for him. It makes our team WORSE. Bad idea.
I tend to agree with this, but as for right now. with all of the handwringing about being a jump-shooting team, I find it hilarious that many of those same posters were criticizing Jarrett Jack for turning the ball over while penetrating the lane last season.
If Conley is so great at court vision, ballhandling and pushing the tempo, why is he only averaging 3.9 APG? He plays in Marc Iavaroni's run and gun D'Antoni-style offense, with two very athletic high scoring wing players, yet he averages fewer APG than Steve Blake who is basically a spot-up shooter and secondary ballhandler. If Conley is really what you claim (his stats say otherwise), wouldn't he just take the ball out of Brandon Roy's hands? Blake, with his ability to actually make an open shot - especially open 3-pointers, is a better fit next to Roy than Conley. I wish Blake was playing better defense, but it's not like Conley is a lock down defender. Blake knows his role and fills it well. While the offense may not run through Blake, his ability to hit the 3-pointer (0.426 3FG%) helps spread the defense and create openings for his teammates. Conley is a worse creator than Roy and a far, far worse shooter than Blake. His 0.167 3FGA% isn't going to spread the floor. In fact, the opposite is true. With him in the game, opposing defenses can play a tight zone, clog the lane and dare him to shoot from the outside. Blake makes team's pay for doubling Roy, Conley wouldn't. He's a worse creator than Roy and a worse shooter than Blake. Exactly how would he improve this team? I don't totally dislike Conley as a player, but I just don't see how he improves our team and losing Steve Blake's outside shooting would definitely hurt the team. So, your proposed trade seems like a step in the wrong direction to me. BNM
Mike Conley - 37% FG/17% 3 pt FG, 75% FT (but only 20 attempts in 14 games), 6.7 ppg, 3.9 apg, 1.4 TO/game for a 4-10 team. I'm sorry, but whoever started this thread has basically zero credibility from my perspective.
The thing I though we would miss from Jack is penetrating. Right now Roy is the only player we have that drives to the basket. I do think Bayless and maybe Rudy can penetrate but haven't because of not playing and possibly not playing Rudy correct. I'm not sure we are using Rudy to get the most out of his abilities. I do have to admit though Jack did drive me crazy sometimes with him stepping out of bounds but I didn't mind the TO's as much if he was drawing fouls. I do think Bayless will be the better player if he gets the chance. If he doesn't with us he will be a better player on another team IMO.
Yeah, when you really look at Conley, his game isn't what we need at all. That isn't taking into account that he isn't all that good of an NBA player.
There are two things we are missing from Jack - his ability to get to the rim and his perimeter defense in front of PG - he was not great - but he was at least a level above Sergio/Rudy who now get his minutes. Last year we were #14 in the league in defensive efficiency. This year we are #27. The reason is that for 28 minutes per game that we had someone trying to get in front of these point guards - we now have Swiss cheese. Jarret Jack had his issues as a player - he is no super-star - but he is much better player than he got credit on this board. Just for interest - last year, Indiana was #15 in defensive efficiency in the league. They now play JJ for 25 MPG and they are up to #6 in defensive efficiency. I miss JJ, warts and all. I just hope that we start seeing Bayless more instead of that absurd defensive PG play we now see - because this could solve a lot of these issues quickly.
Yes. But I'm not sure how much it's Blake Ball and how much it's (prepare for sacrilege) Roy Ball. Hmm. I really really wanted to love Jarrett Jack. But my love for him was inversely proportional to the amount I watched him play. Really, he was a slower, smaller Brandon Roy. We love Roy because he can bail us out, but he isn't really the most imaginative playmaker, holds on to the ball too long and looks for his own shot in a pinch. Jarrett Jack wasn't actually that good at penetrating because he was so slow. He tended to bull people over. What I do miss about Jack was his personality - he was more of a leader than practically anybody on the team. I think the simplest solution is for Blake to get a minor injury that keeps him out of about 6 games. Then we can get a better impression of Sergio's abilities and maybe Bayless will get a bit of PT. The only reason to trade for Conley would be to cheer up Greg. Because he REALLY needs cheering up.
Don't get me wrong - the big reason we are a much better offensive team this year than last year is because Rudy is a big upgrade over him on offense and we get more post play from Joel/Oden this year - but his defense was underrated. I have no problem with the Jack trade for Bayless - if only we saw Bayless and allowed him to get some burn to become the player I think he can be in real-game situations. The solution, imho - is not to limit Blake who actually bails us out with his steady shooting - it is limiting Sergio's ineffective play (yes, he is better than last year - but he is still a big defensive downgrade and we feel it and the numbers show it to be the case). It's not as if Sergio is such a huge offensive upgrade either - yes, he assists better - but his miserable shooting and scoring negates that - so we basically went back on defense and stayed about even on offense compared to Jack's minutes. It might be time to bite the bullet and free Bayless. The Sergio experience, while it is fun when we blow out the Bulls by 42 points and can ignore his 6 turn-overs - is just not worth it in close games. We can't make Roy try to bail us out from a -10 point swing when Sergio is running the show at the start of the 4th quarter every time. Compare Jacks 3rd year (last) production to Sergio's this year production (his 3rd year): We get 0.1 more assists from Sergio (he does play less minutes - so he clearly assists better than Jack) and we get 0.7 less turn overs per game (but again, in much less time - if you thought Jack's turn-overs were bad - you must HATE Sergio's - because he turns the ball at 30% more per minute than Jack). Of course, Jack gave us 9.9 points per game on .557 TS% - while we get only 3.3 points per game from Sergio on a miserable 0.466 TS% - he scores less and does it a lot less efficiently. Giving up Jack's leadship and production for Bayless - I have no problem with. Giving it for Sergio's worse defense, worse offensive production and whining to the press that he does not get minutes he deserves? Yikes.
I still like Conley, but boy is it taking a while to breakout, if indeed he is going to. He's played pretty well in the last 4 or 5 games IIRC. He's not right for this team now. I do think he'll be a good player some day.
Cool breakdown. One thing troubles me though. Why when Sergio enters the game does he have a +8 influence on the team this season? Seems that when we play, more often than not, we either gain back or extend the lead.
It might be because Sergio comes in with the 2nd unit . . . and usually the Blazers 2nd unit is better than the other team's 2nd unit.
You guys want Conley? Take him, but at least give us something we want/need, not Outlaw. Outlaw may be better, but we don't need to trade a player who still has potential for a player who will basically be backing up Gay.
It's +8 for the season - and that includes the big blow-out to the Bulls where Blake got wounded so Sergio was on it. Even with it - his net48 +/- is only half as large as Blake's - so it is clear that Blake's +/- (even if he got a short amount of time on the big blow-out) is much better than Sergio's. The Win% is the statistic you want to look at - Blake is at 58%, Sergio is at 38.5% - we are more likely to win than lose when Blake is on the court, we are more likely to lose than win, when Sergio is on the court. I hate to harp on it - but anyone that thinks we lose because Blake gets big minutes over Sergio is
Conley was drafted as a project player. It's only his second year in the league, so he can still turn out to be a good pro. He hasn't displayed it thus far, but who knows?
