I have to give Nate credit for getting Bayless in as much as he has. I thought originally that he wouldn't be getting much time, but since going to the 3-guard starting lineup he's been carving out a little (but relatively important) role for JBay.
I don't know what it's going to take, but Blake and Travis are both expiring deals and we've got more wings than we can shake a stick at and eventually Nic is going to come back and be in the rotation and then what? My hope is that the wizards continue to stink it up and decide to blow that bitch up and will be more amenable to trading away a guy like Caron Butler by the trade deadline; who admittedly has been playing very poorly to start the season, but I suspect a change of scenery might be just what the doctor ordered -- not to mention we could maybe buy low. Maybe something like Steve and Webster for Caron: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yfqo4sa They get an expiring deal (and reasonably capable backup for Arenas in the short term) and a decent defensive minded wing in Martell who probably can shoot a little for them. In return we get a veteran small forward who can handle the ball, has been a pretty good assist guy in the past and has also been a pretty good defensive player too. Beyond that it frees up more time for Rudy at shooting guard and probably gets Jerryd some more burn too, which he seems to be earning right now. But who am I kidding, KP makes mid-season trades about as often as Joel shoots baseline jumpers -- not saying it's impossible, but ...
Rudy isn't that young. And while I am not that familiar with his European basketball history, my understanding is that young players (17-18 years old) don't play very much on European teams. So hasn't Rudy already experienced this? Of all of Portland's young players, I'd expect Rudy to handle short minutes the best. Not be happy about it, but continue to perform.
You can't keep the cookies in the oven forever. Hopefully, this is the season KP realizes that. Personally, I think he does, and I believe there's a much better than average chance KP will pull the trigger on something prior to the TD. Here's hoping.
I suppose you are right, but he's new to the league, and hasn't exactly established just what kind of player he is yet. But I'm not even really saying you have to play Rudy more, he's been terribly inconsistent and makes it very hard for a coach to trust what he's going to give you. However I was also speaking in more general terms, the yo-yo-ing of minutes and the constant mixing and matching is having an impact on lots of guys (some starters included) LaMarcus is averaging a career low in minutes, Brandon who's playing with lots of different lineups seems to be in a funk, Travis seems to be struggling to find any kind of consistency and Martell is struggling too. The only players that seem to be able to give any kind of steady performance on most nights in limited minutes is Joel and Jerryd and part of that I suspect is because both of those guys have a very clearly defined role when they check in. Jerryd is supposed to hustle on D, get to the rim and attack, and Joel comes in to defend and rebound. The rest of the bench looks like a deer in the headlights half the time.
Rot on the bench? He's been rotting on the floor for the most part this year...He hasn't been playing too well, so yea he hasn't EARNED that much PT.
we really need a sf to start. i have a feeling a blake, outlaw, and change package is coming. as long as bayless keeps playing well... blake is in serious trouble as far as being traded.
Waitaminute! All this time I thought we were baking a cake and now you say we are baking cookies???? Baking a cake takes more time than cookies. If it truly is cookies we're baking we should be doing a trade ASAP! Gramps...
I'm not sure what Pritchard is baking. I do know that Whitsitt was baking pot brownies. And those got VERY baked.
Yeah Steve Blake was so stellar last night...no wonder Rduy could only get 14 minutes.... 32 minutes for Steve Blake what a F'n joke....
