I'm counting on both Oden and Rudy improving their defense this year. That usually happens the second year in the league if they care about improving their game. Oden made way too many reaching fouls. Rudy has the quickness, he needs work on using it.
Frye didn't play in many games. He may have "averaged" 12 MPG, but he wasn't really part of the rotation.
Yeah, I thought of that after I submitted. What about my rotation I posted abvoe? Can Turk play backup PF significant minutes?
hmmmm... I went back and checked. Frye did average 9.0 mpg counting 82 games. Between Outlaw and Frye there are 36.5 mpg for 82 games. Give Hedo 30-32 and give the rest to Rudy. Works as long as Turk can play backup PF.
Frye kind of played spot minutes. I have no problem with Turkoglu getting those spot minutes as he would be way more effective.. I think you can realistically free up about 8 minutes that way.
Just like in College they play a lot of 3 guard rotations in europe. Meaning there is no SF. 3 positions? 6 guards?
Rudy needs to get his head checked if he A) thinks Hedo is a guard, and B) that somehow his touches/minutes are going to get reduced -- Outlaw is outta here before the ink dries on Turk's new contract. Secondly Hedo's a willing passer who finds players on the wing or in the post off of kick outs. If anything I see Rudy's minutes staying about the same, and Steve's declining and he should be getting more looks off of cuts than he ever got last year. Much ado about nothing IMO
Take a look at my rotation. There are 10 min where Roy is PG and Rudy would be SG. Presumably that's when we'd have problem guarding opponent PG. But it's only 10 min and we can have Batum in at SF at that time, let him guard the PG. He seems to be pretty adept at allowing the quick PG to go by and then contest/block at the rim from behind.
Most of the time "lol" means I chuckled a little inwardly as I gazed dully at the screen. In this case, however, I actually did laugh out loud. You have to go clear back to Greg Anthony to find a Blazer point guard who could keep a guy in front of him. Having Roy at the point is just continuing a long tradition.
I hear what you are saying (also know my thoughts about Blake are in the minority on this board) . . . but you left out a key part of Blake . . . he works well Roy. I think that is key, to get role players who play well with the stars.
One thing that does trouble me. Why wouldn't Rudy pick up the phone and ask Nate or Kevin what's up? Why go straight to his agent or another source? Their relationship just doesn't appear to be as solid as it should be.
It's not the end of the world if Blake starts again next year. I was just hoping for an upgrade at the position this off season.
This thread is going off topic with the Blake talk, but I must ask; if Paxson/Armstrong/Kerr were good enough for Chicago, why not Blake with Portland. I would take Blake over fisher, but Fisher just won another title. I think that Blake is the role player we need in the starting five. What Portland needs is better production from the SF, which Turk should provide, and offense from the low post that Oden hopefully provides. Get that and Blake is hardly a liability. He is a liability just as we got no offense this past season from Batum at SF and Oden/Joel at center.
The obvious answer would be that Paxson, Armstrong and Kerr played with the greatest one/two defensive combination in NBA history. Blake isn't so lucky. I love B-Roy, but he isn't even close to MJ. I like Batum but he is light years away from being Pippen. LA isn't even as good as Rodman. As for Fisher, he has hit way more big shots then Blake ever will. When he was younger he was flat out better then Blake on his best day. Also, he had the advantage of playing with Kobe and Shaq. I would argue further that in all of the above cases, the title was won in spite of those guys being on the team, not because of it. Hopefully Portland will have enough good players that they can make up for Blake in the same way.
Hey, what did you do with Martell & Outlaw? Are you just assuming they both get traded if Turk signs here?
I'm definitely assuming Outlaw will be traded. Martel is another story, but for now he's injured and it's not clear when or even if he'll be back. If we get Hedo and want to keep Rudy, Martel will have to be traded too or accept a very limited role.
That table also assumes all nine of those guys will play all 82 games (when was the last time that happened?). For every game one of these guys misses, the average MPG for someone else will go up. For every DNP-CD Bayless gets, that means more minutes for someone else, etc. BNM
All this angst about Rudy calling Turk a SG, but did he really even say it? What he apparently said was Now I don't speak Spanish, so I'll have to rely on internet traslations, which translate it as
Agreed. I speak Spanish (though not fluently), and I'd say that his comment best translates to "Turkoglu is a perimeter [player]" not "Turkoglu is a guard."
