I knew you guys would like Felton. He's not an elite PG, but he's young and a lot better than the PGs you've had since the Blake days. Dre was a stopgap at best. He was awesome in his younger days, but not an ideal fit for this team.
I think this blog sums it up http://blogs.trailblazers.com/PublicProfileRoot/MyBlog/tabid/99/EntryID/3345/IamaUserID/13183/Default.aspx
You can debate all day long about who's better (Felton vs. Dre'). Fact is, Dre' never ran a team that could put up these kind of numbers. We were always at the bottom of the league in pace & points per game. When Dre' got here, we were told he was an uptempo PG who would get us fast-break points. All I know is that it never happened, and now that Felton is here we are seeing it. Does Felton do things that drive us crazy? Behind the back bounce pass T/O vs. the 76ers at the end of the game for example. Dre' would never have done something like that. But Felton is pushing the ball, and it's leading to good things. Our athletic wing players are running the floor because they know Ray is either going to get them the ball, or he has a good chance of blowing the lay-up that they can tip in. (Whatever works?!!) I hated the trade for Felton. I didn't understand what the Blazers saw in Felton. I think I see it now. We've had athletic guys who can run the floor and finish (LA, Crash, Batum, Wes), but you have to have a guard who can push the ball to take advantage of that.
Felton is definitely exceeding my expectations. It's all about pace with this team and he's a wild man out there. I haven't had this much fun watching the Blazers since the early 90's!
What are people's thoughts now? i wish we had kept Andre especially his PER. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/557/andre-miller heres Feltons. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2753/raymond-felton Against the 76er's. Min 39, 12-20 FG made, 3-4 on 3 point attempts, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals and 28 points.
What are my thoughts now? That's a good question ... I'll be honest, I don't know what to think. I still feel there's a better than 50% chance that he turns it around and gets back to his personal averages, but if it doesn't pick up soon things could really spiral out of control as his confidence probably gets worse and he starts to press more, vainly trying to get "it" back.
Well on the plus side (I'm really reaching now, I know) he's not pricing himself out of our range and there's less and less chance with each passing game we're going to overpay the guy.
I had hopes that the trade would at least improve our floor spacing even if it cost us some regular season wins. This trade looks horrible right now. Andre would've been great for a final year here. Who cares if Felton is younger if he sucks and we have to go in the market for an upgrade to an average PG in the offseason anyways. Maybe our first clue that Felton is terrible should've been that the Bobcats, Knicks, and Nuggets all were content to ditch him during a 1 year span.
