We have heard that Bayless and Oden are best friends. Also things like Bayless and ROy always talking about one being Lebron etc...etc... Is pretty indicative of very good friends as well. I think Bayless is very very well liked by who counts on this team. BTW the Lebron comparison is about role on the team, not individual talent.
I SERIOUSLY doubt that was his WHOLE motivation. He's a VERY motivated, driven individual. He played just as hard and with just as much determination in the New Jersey game last year and the Sacramento game on Tuesday. In fact he always plays hard. The difference is now he's also playing smart. He doesn't seem like the type to need added incentive to get the adrenaline pumping. BNM
Ya maybe...but I noticed Miller was about the first guy from the bench to congratulate Bayless after the game ended.
The whole team is tight IMO. That is not an issue, all these guys pull for each other. Fans may like to think there is a lot of friction because of playing time and such, but you have to look past that. Look at when Greg went down. All the team members told him they loved him and not to worry. To the vets on the team, the younger guys are like little brothers. When that day comes that they are better than you are, you are proud of them.
Actually, he couldn't STOP smiling. He came to Portland with a scowl on his face and a chip on his shoulder. He went a lot lower than expected in the draft, and it was obvious he wasn't just disappointed. He was flat out pissed off. I've been down on Nate about a lot of things lately (his over playing of Blake, his under utilization of Oden on offense before the injury, the three guard line-up that forced our best player to play out of position, rigid, inflexible substitution patterns, etc.), but I actually think Nate has handled Bayless well. Although Barkley didn't specifically call Nate out by name, he did make a big deal about how stupid it is that Bayless was only able to get 10 MPG on this team prior to all the injuries - that he's flat out better than the two guys playing more minutes in front of him. Sir Charles has always been great at pointing out the obvious. However, Bayless clearly wasn't ready to play, nor needed to play, big minutes last season. I think after that first summer league averaging nearly 30 PPG and being named summer league MVP, perhaps Bayless was getting little too cocky. He quickly learned, like so many other summer league standouts (Qyntel Woods, Adam Morrison, etc.) that the NBA regular season is nothing like the summer league. Moving to the next level wasn't easy and he needed to improve in several areas to make the transition from summer league phenom to regular season contributor. By keeping Bayless on a short leash last season, it gave the kid even more motivation to work on the areas of his game that needed improvement. I think if Bayless had been given big minutes immediately, he'd be a more one-dimensional player than he is today. During the second summer league his scoring was way down as he was told to concentrate on running the offense and creating for his teammates. It was painful to watch, and no doubt frustrating for Bayless, but it was a necessary part of the growth process that makes him a better player today than he was a year ago. So, now Bayless is happy, he's playing great, he's helping the team win and he's still only 21-years old. We have become so used to having really young players on this team, that I think we forget just HOW young and inexperienced some of these players are. This goes back all the way to the end of Whitsitt's reign in Portland when he drafted guys like Jermaine O'Neal and Travis Outlaw right out of high school. As we saw it took both of those players about 5 years to become solid NBA contributors. That was followed by John Nash using consecutive lottery picks on Sebastian Telfair and Martell Webster. It's clear to everyone that both those players were a reach and neither ready to enjoy immediate success at the NBA level. Even though our team is growing up, we still have a surprising number of guys 25 and younger. Roy, Aldridge and Outlaw are still just 25 in in spite of being key parts of the rotation for for over 3 years. Rudy is also 25. Martell just turned 23 two weeks ago and Batum just turned 21 earlier this week. Bayless and Oden are also both 21. In spite of the current injury situation, this is still a very young team with a very bright future. I'm pleased as punch to see another of our youngsters showing the world just how much young talent we have on this team. BNM
Well said, and just one of the many reasons I hope this team re-signs Joel. Where else are we going to find a back up center that is as productive as Joel, can easily step into the starting line-up if needed, doesn't bitch about "touches" or PT, and is a good role model for his younger teammates? I also think Joel is smarter than people give him credit for. He's been injured a lot in his career and sharing minutes with Oden for the rest of his career will probably extend his career by several seasons. In the long run, he's probably better off both physically and financially playing 16 - 24 MPG over several years than signing elsewhere and playing 36 MPG for 2 or 3 season until his body breaks down. He's actually in a very good situation right now. Other players, with bigger egos, would probably want to leave and be "the man" somewhere else, but Joel is smart enough to know he's never going to be "THE man" on any NBA team. He'll always be, at best the 4th or 5th option on offense on any team he plays on. Better to stay here, where he likes it and is well liked, split time with Oden, and have a long, successful career. BNM
LOVE Joels toughness. We can't afford to lose the only tough guy we have. We need more in the frontcourt. With Bayless, I think he could have been playing like this towards the end of last season had he not been being jerked around and riding the bench.
I saw that too. Miller was the first guy from the bench to go out on the court and congratulate Bayless. Wait a minute. Didn't you just say that?
I think Joel is 'the man' on the Blazers, as in the man leading our boys. You often see him bring the players to together on the court and bark at guys and get their heads straight or get them to focus. Joel has an important leadership role on this team it seems to me.
The next five games are going to be very telling about where Jerryd's really at as a player. We've got several very good teams that actually play defense ahead of us and if he can perform at a decent level (I'm not stupid enough to think Jerryd's going to duplicate a point a minute even 1 in 10 games) then maybe we can start to talk about longer term projections, but if he really struggles with defenses keying on him then all this talk about dumping Miller and/or Blake might be just a shade premature.
Given our decimated roster, I think dumping Miller or Blake just to get Bayless more PT is premature no matter how well Bayless plays- unless it nets us a solid, healthy 3, 4 or 5 in return. We can't afford to give away any of the few healthy, NBA-proven players we have left for something like a trade exception, draft pick, or 12th man who won't get any minutes. With all the talk about a consolidation trade before the season started, any trade we make now needs to return a healthy body that can play some minutes and actually contribute. BNM
Right. It will be hard to sustain this, once scouts tell opposing coaches to pay him some attention on defense. Bayless has a comparative vacation going on offense until then.
