Yes, he missed some big FTs tonight but we still won thanks to his defense on the final possession. Here are two games that he WON for us at the FT LINE: Travis hits two clutch FTs to take the lead at the start of OT: http://www.nba.com/games/20081106/HOUPOR/playbyplay.html Travis puts Minnesota away with two clutch FTs with 4 seconds left in the game: http://www.nba.com/games/20081108/MINPOR/playbyplay.html Go Blazers
Facts are pathetic? I'm just reminding people that he has done some great stuff for us. Stellar three point shooting, clutch FTs at the end of victories. What is your problem? What are you disagreeing with? I post facts. Find me a SINGLE game that we lost because Travis missed clutch FTs. You can't. Cuz it doesn't exist.
1st of all I'm talking more in the general sense of you starting millions of fucking threads about Outlaws play without seemingly ever acknowledging a single flaw or mistake, or making some excuse for it. His poor decision making has put this team in bad situations late in games, like the 1st home game vs the Spurs, the loss in Utah (where he did miss a key free throw with 5 mins left in the game that would have made it a 1 possession game), and tonight's horrible last possession. He's shooting 21% from the field in crunch time, including missing key shots in the games I mentioned along with going 0-4 in the final 5 minutes of regulation + OT in the win against Houston. Your constant lopsided Outlaw slurping is just annoying as fuck.
Good point. But I still want him in the game because he's unafraid at the end of games. He can hit the three. He can grab big rebounds. Play clutch defense. And he hit so many clutch shots last season.
I'm not saying he doesn't have his positives, he certainly does and I'm learning to love him when he makes the right play or makes a big end of the shot clock shot to lift the team from a slump (like the jumper in Minny he hit with a hand in his face when Roy couldn't get a clean look). But you have to take, and IMO acknowledge, the bad with the good with Outlaw. Like in today's game thread, your all over the place with "Oden Bust" "Rudy Bust" etc etc but you never once criticize a guy who goes 4-12 from the field and 2-6 from the line? Sorry for a being a dick earlier but I just had to call out what I think is a very biased opinion. He made a bad play at the end, and missed some clutch free throws, but we still won the game and I'm still in a pretty damn good mood, I just don't see the need to start a new thread defending him after the game he played tonight. It wasn't his best game, and he deserves some criticism for it, but it'll blow over.
I started this thread because on another thread, someone said that we needed a SF who could make FTs in tight games. I set out to document what I had seen earlier in the season, which was him winning games with his FT shooting. As for "Rudy bust" and "Oden bust" threads, I was joking but Outlaw DID play better and helped us win better than both of those guys tonight. Rudy has only made 2 of his last 11 three pointers and Oden was 1 of 3 from the field tonight and turned the ball over 4 times.
I am officially done with the Travis Outlaw experiment. I came around when he played out of his mind, but he is just too dumb, and too inconsistent for me to think he'll avar be anything more than a 6th or 7th guy. Batum is already better at defense and rebounding. (dear stat geeks, Batum might not grab as many rebounds, but blocks his man out and plays the rebound better than Travis)
fully agree TO = Fool's Gold, he has a few good games then its the same old shit - we need to move him, especially when Webs gets back
"Fool's Gold" shut down John Salmons on the last possession last night. Salmons even traveled, but the incompetent NBA refs didn't see fit to call it. 9-6 and some people are "over experiments", and unfortunately, that is one of the more reasoned takes in terms of the hyper-criticizers.
Giving up a point blank shot in the lane that hit the back of the rim does not equal "shutting down" Even if Salmons traveled big-time on the play and the shot attempt should never had counted. (And yes, Outlaw is fool's gold, as others are noting).
Outlaw shuts down Salmons, gets him to travel, then bothers him so he misses a short shot, and he still doesn't get credit for it.
Congrats, he defended a guy who got in the lane and missed. I was so wrong about Travis! What was I thinking! Everyone else would have just let him score for free.
I have no clue what you are thinking. Why don't you present an argument to support your obvious dislike of Travis Outlaw?
Don't assume I dislike Travis because I don't think he's as good a player as you do. I love Travis. I enjoy the good portions of his game. I love his spot-up three point shooting. I love his defense when he IS able to stay focused on the defensive end. But I despise anything he does that involves dribbling the ball. The stretches of lost focus on the defensive end. The random mistakes through the game (like fouling SAC and giving two free throws for no reason just a few possessions before the end!). He makes good plays. But he makes very bad plays too. I like Travis, but he's reached a point where his cons have overridden his pros, unless he shows signs of sudden growth... in his sixth year (!) in the league. Many people complained that everyone overreacted to Jarrett Jack last season. He was traded, and we're just fine without him. We'll be fine without Travis too. While we'll lose his random heroics, hopefully we'll get a more stable overall game from his replacement, so the heroics are less necessary. So stop banding around words like "dislike" when you really are trying to justify your own opinions by bringing anyone else down who disagrees with you as simply having an overemotional day or something.
