but I also think

a) they’re still a pretty good team
b) that’s a nice problem to have and
c) the Blazers have to let this play out for a year before making any decisions.

Part of the problem for them is that b/c they’re so young they can’t be sure of who is going to be reliable and what are those players’ ceilings. The only players who have any certainty around them are Roy and Aldridge. Oden, Outlaw, Bayless, Frye, Diogu, Webster, Batum, Rodriguez, and Fernandez are all still a little vague at this point. I do honestly believe after this year, however, we’re going to see more than one player on that list playing elsewhere (Outlaw is almost certainly gone).

Also let me add: I think this is why they’re going nuts about Batum at Blazersedge. He’s exactly the kind of guy you’re talking about i.e. one who can have a big effect on the game (especially defensively: did you see him defending Parker against the Spurs or throwing down that ridiculous block on Duncan?) without needing the ball. And he can score as well if need be. But yeah, he’s the kind of guy they need with Aldridge and Roy.

I appreciate the outsider perspective. We can get lost sometimes staring to hard at our own team. I think this year is all about finding that definition we lack. Oden, Roy and Aldridge are not going anywhere and it is clear that Rudy is going to make a spot for himself. Joel Pryzbilla is a role player we need and Batum is making a strong case that he is also.
I think what you will see with the Blazers, with the signing of Webster and Batum’s development that they will move Outlaw and some other combo of Blake, Sergio, and maybe even Bayless to try to get the PG they want to play with these guys over the next 5 years. (Bayless could be that guy but they might move him if the returning player is who they want.)

I wouldn’t concur that the Blazers already have too much talent (e.g. a James Posey or Paul Milsap would be examples of players with more talent), but the observation that this team still lacks a fixed rotation/fixed roles and features players out of position and fighting for attention seems spot on.

For starters, Joel is one of the best backup centers defensively but should not start against Shaq and Amare which he now had to do again. That already limits the offensive sets we can run, and enabled the Suns to push LaMarcus out to shoot jumpers and focus very much on Roy. So the best two players are already covered pretty well and can only take shots they shouldn’t take too often, either too far out on the perimeter or late in the shot clock and contested.

Then we are searching for the perfect small forward. Webster might be good enough since he can defend decently and hit open shots, but he is injured now. So coach first wanted to go with Batum since he already seems to be the best defender besides Roy and can contribute without taking many shots. Then he had an epiphany and made Outlaw the starter, which most people agree isn’t perfect since he doesn’t get the shots he needs/wants in the first unit and tends to become tentative next to Roy and Aldridge. And he just can’t defend on the perimeter, period. So yesterday you had a pretty odd combo out there in the first unit, which hopefully will look very differently come January.

We also don’t have a star point guard a la Steve Nash or Tony Parker to both run the show and be a major offensive threat (imagine for a second the Blazers had taken Paul or Williams in 2005 over Webster and still somehow managed to acquire at least two out of Oden, Roy, Aldridge. You can relax now, they didn’t). Even who is supposed to be the starter or game closer on that position is still up for discussion. Is it Bayless, Blake, or even Roy alongside Rudy?

The Blazers will need this year to figure it out and gain experience playing together, but then with one or two good additions they should become more and more dangerous every year similar to the Hornets or Jazz (or Phoenix for that matter).

—-

A note on Phoenix: Your starters obviously can still get it done against anyone on a good day. But the roster seems thin with just 13 players (luxury tax reasons?), and the bench got out-scored 35-14 yesterday. That’s a bit too little against more experienced teams when only Diaw contributes. Whatever happened to Barbosa? And why is Lopez not playing over guys like Amundson?

They have 3 guys who are new to the NBA (Fernandez, Batum, Bayless), a guy who’s new to Nate’s system (Diogu), and 5 guys who were out for chunks of training camp/preseason (Roy, Blake, Frye, Oden, Webster). Also, Nate held out Roy, Aldridge, and Oden for a couple of preseason games — a decision that I think he regrets.

So yeah, they’re not playing team ball yet. Roles are still being defined, and rotations will be a problem until Greg and Martell get back.

In years past Nate has talked about needing a veteran role player, but I’m not hearing it from him lately. Maybe Pritchard’s got some plans up his sleave . . .

……………………………. Not to mention they remain the second youngest team in the league (Golden State the only one younger),.

The lack of cohesion is FAR more likely to be due to a lack of actually playing together in game situations than due to self-centered stat-padding, of which there is to date no evidence.

I will also posit that the coach is partially to blame for putting up some sketchy combinations of players…

timbo
Corvallis, OR

Good game guys. The sooner they establish some confidence the better they will be down the stretch. Batum’s calm & cool attitude will not only help him, but all our rookies in the long run. Personally I think Sergio needs more minuets. He has continued to improve & he looked to be by far our best PG on the floor last night.

Should be fun to watch this team grow :)

The team we saw out there last night clearly deserved this revue but I dont think overabundance of talent is the problem. The real issue is putting who where and when. That is difficult to discern especially when two starter are out with injuries and 4 players, 3 on the bench, are rookies.

Although Nate deserves a huge amount of blame for the way things have played out these first 3 games, I think the real issue is that the players have not played enough together. Last year, it took a dramatic rough patch at the beginning of the season to start off this great chemistry that the team is now known for. With as many new players and new roles of old players that chemistry will have to be developed once again.

The offense that Nate uses is extremely simplistic. It essentially doesnt force LaMarcus to get inside the paint and use that incredible wingspan to get a couple easy buckets, rather keeps him in his confort but not always effective range around 18 feet. It also has our superstar and 3 time knee surgery recipient Brandon Roy driving into the lane and passing back out for the 3 if he cant get a shot. This is not good when Martell is out and Joel isn’t an inside force at about 4 pts per game. I have been arguing my fingers numb the havok Travis Outlaw has upon our starting unit because he refuses to move off the ball and almost every time he gets the ball he dribble twice jumps off balance with a hand in his face to the right and shoots from 15 ft. This is an extremely low % shot and he does it all the time.

Travis plays terrible defense and now that we have Rudy, I am calling for a trade something like

RLEC Travis Blake and maybe Sergio or Shavlik Randolph for a more efficient point guard which will add scoring to the starting squad and let Brandon rome w/o requiring him to run the offense as he often does.

With that being said, at least we dont have Shaq ruining our cap space and physically deteriorating before our very eyes . :)

Sophia

PS i could not post w/o a crap talk . You guys owned us, but we gonna break this lose streak to the suns soon!