lol, I still think Roy is a superstar, but as I said a few days back he's not on the level of Bron,Wade, or Kobe "yet"....he can be someday, but he's still young....give him some time....
1st of all, the Gasol trade was a gift for the Lakers. That sort of stupidity doesn't happen often. You can't fault KP/Blazers for not being able to pull off a trade like that. And Ron Artest? Are you kidding me - of course he came cheap - the guy is a cancer. This organization won't take any more chances on sketchy character guys, and I agree with that. And Mike Bibby is a surprise to me - I thought he was done, or on his way down watching him play his last 1.5 seasons in Sac. He didn't look like the same player from the Kings glory days. His scoring average went from 19/20 to 13/14. His shooting % was way down, and he was comign off an injury. He looks good now, but at the time of the trade nobody thought too much about it. I hope we can land a player like that, I just don't think you can bank on sombody else making a stupid trade. It'd be nice, but I don't fault KP for not being able to get a good player w/o having to give up anything. That's hard to do, and a lot of it is determined by things beyond his control (ie, the stupidity of the other team)
so what exactly is the problem? that KP hasnt made a trade in the middle of this season yet? if/when he does, whats next on the ridiculously pointless diatribe list? outlaw "blows"? wtf
OK, so Brandon is not at Kobe or LeBron's level. BFD. That shouldn't be a news flash to any of us. So what? Brandon is a top SG, even if he's not Kobe. IMO, a large part of the problem is that Brandon has a pretty large hole in his game. He needs the ball in his hands to be effective....which is another way to say that he goes one on one at crunch time. He has won the team a number of games by doing that, but the league is getting wise to his fourth quarter routine. That may continue work against some of the teams, but soon he'll have a steady diet of double teams in the fourth quarter. Brandon needs to learn to work without the ball in his hands. If he could learn to run off of picks and screens, receive the ball and shoot, it will help his overall game immensely. It's a lot harder to double him when he's running through a series of picks than if he's standing at the top of the key, deciding how to take his guy one on one. Here's hoping that Rudy can teach him how to move without the ball. Rudy reminds me of the way that Reggie Miller used to run through picks and screens non-stop. /blasphemy
You can run off screens all you want but who handles the ball down the stretch then? Blake? Who gets Roy the ball when he's curling off screens? When you talk about guys who move w/o the ball, they need somebody to GET THEM the ball. Blake is easy to trap and gets stuck too often and Brandon has to pop out to mid court to get the ball. You can overplay Blake all night long b/c there is no fear of him blowing by you. This clogs up the passing lanes. Before we say Roy's weakness is moving w/o the ball, I'd like to see him get the chance to play with a legit PG who can get him the ball in scoring position.
In terms of dealing with double teams - I think Brandon would deal with double teams a lot more if Nate would draw up more offensive schemes to make the other team pay for doubling Brandon. There is hardly ever a cutter (and the one time we know there was supposed to be Travis decided not to cut) when Brandon is double teamed - the whole team is just standing around twiddling their thumbs.
Agreed. It's not like Nate hasn't acknowledged that teams are doubling Brandon up top when it's Roy ISO time in the fourth quarter, but yet they haven't done anything to adjust to it. It's usually pass the ball back and forth, give it back to Brandon with four seconds left on the shot clock and he hoists up a bad shot. I'm sure the coaching staff has talked about it, but nothing on the court says they've made any adjustments to it.
The problem is this, and I've said it before, every time we set a high pick-and-roll for Roy he gets doubled. It's counter-productive. McMillain is doing exactly what the other team wants him to do. He's bringing the second man to Roy. We should be spreading the floor for Roy. Teams know we like to run the high pick-and-roll and they're ready for it.
This is his third year in the league! He's on course to be an elite player. Yes his game has some holes but this is a guy who will fix them. Anyone disagree with that? This kid has a great work ethic and when Oden starts being a factor, Roy life will be a ton easier. You can't double both Roy and Oden. Have a little patience Mixum! Maybe if Roy strutted before and after his left handed dunks you'd think he was a bigger star, is that what it takes Mixum? I've seen KG struggle, Pierce and Wade! Kobe has botched a few games himself. When Brandon learns to shoot through it, he'll be fine!
I agree on the offense being a predictable mess! Nate needs to mix it up in a hurry. Our team is losing because it becomes the Roy show with 5 minutes left. This is a team sport the last time I checked ,and Nate of all people should be drawing up plays that underline that understanding.
