Keep or not to keep Rudy

That is the question. If you decide to keep Rudy, then who or what position will he stay playing mostly?

 

Keep Rudy, and lose Blake if you need to free up the minutes. Bayless and Rudy are plenty. Blake is coming to the end of his Blazer career I would guess.

 

I think Blake has 1, maybe 2 years left in Portland, IMO.

 

My opinion isn't a poll choice: Rudy is far from untouchable; if a good trade for him comes along, trade him. If not, he has plenty of value to the Blazers

 

I selected keep him. As with Minstrel, if the right trade comes along, you move him. I'd need to be blown away to accept an offer for him, personally.

 

Can Rudy play well with Roy. If no, then he needs to be traded as he's too good to sit. If yes, then get him in there instead of (I'm only under contract for another 5 months) Steve Blake.

What does Blake do - that is so valued by Nate - that the rest of us don't seem to get?? Seems like on paper - Rudy should be in there instead.

 

I think Rudy is perfect for Nate's 3 guard rotation. Good shooter, good passer, good rebounder and has pretty good handles. Even though his 3 pt shot is off so far this year, he has impressed me with the way he is handling the ball and initiating the offense. At least last night.

 

What would be a "Right Deal"? Role players, superstars, allstars, or defensive specialists?

 

But for who? what? Do we need to obviously include players, since his monetary contract is small.

 

IMO, a starting PG for now and the future would be needed for me to trade away Rudy. MAYBE a SF, but I like Batum in that role. Anything else, and I don't see a purpose for it. Everyones big complaint is he will never start for us, because of Roy, so if his value is good enough to be a starter, just not in front of Roy, I would see no purpose in trading him for a PF or C, since they likely wouldn;t start fior us over Aldridge or Oden. Obviously, not a SG. Probably not SF, so realistically, it'd be PG or bust for me, and even then, I question who that would really be.
I really like Rudy, and really like him as our 3rd guard in a primarily 3 guard rotation. I think a rotation of him, Roy and Bayless would work well for us. I can't see where you wouldmove him that would make more sense for us now and for the future.

 

For Rudy it's probably in his best interest to be traded. On a team where he's the starting SG, a defined role, more touches, 30+ min. a night, he'll blow up. We have assets we could package with Rudy that would land us a real nice player.

Eric Gordon would be on top of my list.

 

The only trades I would be interested in are consolidation trades where we get back an All-Star PG or SF for several of our players and one of those could be Rudy. a Mix of Rudy, Blake, Bayless, Outlaw, Webster, perhaps Joel, along with picks and cash. But I don';t really know if that All-Star is out there for the taking. Any likely trade of Rudy straight across would not net us someone good enough to make the trade worth it.

 

Well no, but I didn't want to make another thread just for what we could get for him.

 

There's no one right deal...depending on what else was in the deal, it could be anything from role-player to star. Rudy himself won't fetch a star, but packaged with other players, he might bring back a star or near-star from a rebuilding team.

Ideally, I'd like a young point guard who projects to be superior to Bayless (and I consider Bayless to be a very good prospect) or a veteran small forward who is currently significantly better than Batum or Webster. Those are the main two "needs" for the team. If Fernandez can be part of a package that fetches something like that, I'm all for trading him.

 

Eric Gordon!

 

I am becoming convinced that Rudy will never be the marquee player I had hoped because he appears incapable of doing anything in the paint. His only option upon initiating a drive appears to be a fade away, off-balance jumper, that usually misses badly. If he cannot figure out how to work in the paint I can't see him being much more than a taller Steve Blake. That, combined with his inability to play well next to Roy leads me to conclude that I would rather get value for him in a trade now, than wait until the whole world knows that he is a great European player, who's game just didn't translate into the NBA.

If Rudy was willing to be a role player (shooter) then fine, but he shows now signs of wanting to do that.

 

Eric Gordon is not a PG. He is less of a PG than Bayless - but will likely be a better SG than Bayless - simply because his long-ball is just so good.

 

I think he'd be a great fit next to Roy because he can defend and can shoot the ball. He's Ben Gordon with a handle. His jumper is what really separates himself from Jerryd.

He's exactly the type of guard you'd want next to Roy.