Nope, we want them to win, and Blake is perhaps the biggest culprit of stopping that, thats why Blake gets critiized.
That's like blaming the gun for the death of a person instead of blaming the man who pulled the trigger. KP went out and got a better PG. Someone else is refusing to utilize that PG.
For fuck's sake, why? This isn't Nate's website. Nobody is going to change their behavior based on how much you all bitch. All this does is make the entire forum a miserable place. A more miserable place, now that we've gone from bitching about wins to bitching about losses. The season's gone to hell in a handbasket, and it wasn't going great to begin with. Now, we all of us have to eat this shit sandwich together. It doesn't make it taste better to bitch about the corn kernels.
In case you hadn't noticed, the team is losing *with* Blake. Reducing Blake's role can't make the team any worse, and just might make it better. Giving Bayless a fair chance to prove himself is about the only positive thing the Blazers have left to shoot for.
True story. Steve Blake has logged enough minutes in the past three games to cover half of all the time Jerryd has played this year.
I'm pretty sure at this point Blake's torso would get more playing time than Jerryd as long as this coaching staff is in place.
I haven't given much insight on Blake this year but what I seen (in 2009) he never penetrates like Miller/ROY/Bayless does and I am sick on what he does offensively. He is my Blazer that I want traded for a Center/PF person.
No they don't. Another thing, I don't think many people mind Blake playing 30 minutes a night if he were at least playing like he was last year. But he's not, he's playing significantly worse and we are losing because of it.
I don't know why you continue to fight the majority of the forum on this topic. It's you and Kingspeed, back to back, in the Alamo. Do you enjoy it or something?
Check out Blakes production per 36 for each year of his career, he is having his worst season as a Blazer and arguably his worst season in his career.
I don't know about PapaG's reasons, but it seems to me that the majority are most likely wrong about Blake. Not to say that Steve isn't playing anywhere near the level he was last year or that his lack of offense isn't hurting the team, but I think he's become the popular whipping boy around here when, in fact, losses are generally attributable to other issues than Steve's play. Last night's game was a perfect case in point. People were howling that Steve cost us the game, when it was pretty clear that there were far more substantial reasons the Blazers lost than Steve's shortcomings. Aldridge's inability to cover Varajao was crucial (yeah, he was playing on a sprained ankle, so I'm not really blaming him, but man was the defense ugly). Lack of rebounding at the end killed us...LMA only getting two boards was awful. Coaching decisions relating to Joel not being in the game were suspect as well. Roy's shooting was pathetic in the first half. He tends to save his gas for the 4th quarter and I don't think the Blazers can get away with that now that the roster's so short. Howard and Webster played great in the first half and then disappeared. Miller screwed up the offense at times in the 4th quarter by hogging the ball on several possessions, driving into double and triple coverage, and then kicking it to somebody not named Roy for a futile last second shot. All in all, the team played really hard, they did a lot of good things, and they came up short against a tough team on the road. There's plenty of praise and blame to pass around. Steve's playing more than Bayless because he has more experience, he runs the offense better, and he plays substantially better defense. Miller's playing more than Bayless for the same reasons (although his defense isn't a heck of a lot better). I think Miller's also being played this much because KP intends to trade him. Frankly, I hope it happens next week so that Bayless does start getting more run. Barring a trade that nets us a better PG, Bayless is the team's future at that position.
There are many of us who don't feel as though Blake necessarily loses games, but he just doesn't make enough plays to help us win. I love Steve as a back up. But as a starter he's got to go. Not that I think Miller is the savior, but the lesser of two evils. When you start 2 guys with virtually no scoring ability (Joel/Blake) and have a 3rd (Martell) who is a not factor most nights, it's tough to score enough points to even stay close in games. It took a monster game from Juwan Howard (one that we can hardly expect on a regular basis) for us to get that lead last night. Really want to see more Bayless.
You know I don't like Blake at all, but I have no problem with his play last night. It wasn't stellar. But it wasn't as bad as it had been a lot lately. (not that I was happy that he scored nothing.) I thought the whole team played pretty well. The unfortunate part was, as Jim Mora once said, "They are who we thought they were." We couldn't get the offensive effort with Martell past a quarter (when he is on, he is on, and when he is not, he is not. Wax on. Wax off.) And I think that Juan Howard just ran our of gas.
Because there are statistics that show that, for some reason, the team plays its best with Blake on the floor. The "majority" seems to just disregard these statistics, or say that they don't matter anyhow. Bashing ANY player, when there are statistics that support his impact on winning, is worth debating IMO. The tendency of many in this community to target their rage/angst at one player, when that player isn't completely at fault, and when the criticisms are based primarily on opinion, make it an interesting topic to debate.
