No Doubt! Hopefully the RG crowd can give Rudy back his confidence and his game, all it takes for Rudy is one good tray IMO.
If he misses his first attempt, we'll hear an audible groan as well. The great thing about our fanbase is we all know the game so well. This is a very big game for Rudy, whether he starts or comes off of the bench.
The article is about how no one knows why Rudy is having such a terrible season and worse series. There isn't anything in the article that suggests an answer.
Get a clue. Nash is a PG, and is guarded (I use the term very loosely) by Andre Miller. Rudy guards Richardson and doubles Nash when Andre gets beat (every time down the court). It's hard to guard 1 and 1/2 players, but he's done it better than Andre has done guarding half a player. Per 48 minutes in this series, Rudy has nearly twice the assist to turnover ratio of all other team members, ties Martell for fewest pf's, leads all guards in rebounds, is 2nd in assists, has 1/4th the to's Miller has, and less than half the to's Bayless has. He is 2nd in FT% and is shooting .500 on 2pt'ers (4th best). Other than missing a bunch of desperate last-second 3's Andre stranded him with, he's clearly one of our very best and is delivering on everything Nate stresses to his players.
"LTG,TP". Kingspeed His AFG% is .494. Far, far better than Miller's .454 and Bayless's .444. For those struggling with math as it applies to the effectiveness of a player to his basketball team: AFG%: Adjusted Field Goal Percentage = [(PTS - FTM)/FGA]/2 AFG% measures shooting efficiency by taking into account the total points a player produces through his field goal attempts. The intention of this adjustment is largely to evaluate the impact of three-point shooting. For example, if Shaquille O'Neal has 3-5 FG, all two-point shots for 6 points, then his AFG% = [(6/5)]/2 = .600. Meanwhile, if Ray Allen is 2-5 FG, but his 2 FGM are both three-pointers for 6 points, then his AFG% = [(6/5)]/2 = .600
The way it looks to me, the main problem for Rudy has been that the Blazers' offense has consisted almost entirely of throwing the ball in to Aldridge and penetration drives to the hoop by Andre and Bayless. Rudy's role on this team since the day we got him has been shooting spot up 3s and catching lobs to the hoop. Just because Roy is out and Rudy gets the starting spot doesn't mean you can expect him to suddenly be able to do what Brandon does in terms of creating his own shots. In order to get Rudy contributing, the ball has to move more to create some open looks for him. I'd be willing to bet that a good portion of today's practice was aimed at addressing the ball movement issue. Hopefully, this will result in Rudy making some significant offensive contributions tomorrow night.
What is frustrating is we probably sent the wrong two guys to the Clips. We need that "depth" that everyone used to talk about.
