Bayless, Blake, PGs in general

[Rastapopoulos]

Yep, I remember at least two times where Blake beat his man of the dribble and scored in the paint.

Ooh - two times! He's Allen Iverson!

So much for the "can't shoot off the dribble, and won't shoot when his shot is remotely contested" criticism.

You're right - that's decisively refuted! I hereby replace it with "is a lot worse at it than almost any other NBA player".

Blake is a decent-ish defender against not-too-fast PGs. He's better at that than Sergio, and may be a better team defender than Bayless. But both the Rockets' PGs are too quick for him.
The reasons why I'm okay with Blake as our starter most of the time:
1. He makes very few turnovers.
2. He hits open threes.
3. He's a solid defender against most PGs.

BUT: in this series, I am NOT okay with him playing because
The reason he gets very few turnovers is because he never tries anything. He doesn't pass ahead on the break, he gives the ball to Brandon the second they're in the opponents' half. He's not creating ANYTHING, and as a result we've had to rely on Brandon and Aldridge, and Oden never gets the ball (at least from Blake).
He's not hitting open threes because they're good at making them NOT open. He should be able to shoot over their PGs, but he's too cautious.
He's not fast enough to stop ANY of their guards.

Thus his advantages over the other players we have who could see time instead of him are negated. That doesn't mean that he sucks against EVERY team - just the Rockets.

I concur that Rudy should be the first player to get minutes over him. Apart from anything, Rudy seems to be the best by far at getting the ball to Greg where he can score. Seriously - if anyone tracked players who got assists from Oden scores, I betcha Rudy would be #1.

Rudy is a more imaginative passer and scorer than Blake, and seems to be at least as good at defending Rockets guards. And he CAN hit threes against them. The only advantage Blake has over him is Blake is a better ball handler. But he never does anything worthwhile with that, and they're not pressing, so it's pretty moot.

 

[bigbailes]

going with sergio might have been a decision for this year but you have to remember that nate is (iirc) in the last season of his contract. if i was him, i wouldn't be tossing out a rookie, to run the point, and taking my chances that he can be effective down the stretch and get into the playoffs. not only that but sergio plays better with the second unit and can actually get GO the ball in the post.

as for blake, it was painful to watch last night. the three ball off the side of the backboard, the hesitation to shoot, letting brooks drive by him and get our bigs into, even more, foul trouble. i think you still have to start him but, as i've been calling for all year, more rudy/roy in the backcourt please.

 

[STOMP]

KP didn't set out to aquire Jones - taking on his contract (and his bad wheels) was part of the price tag for Rudy.

your recollection is way off. KP was raving about what he'd bring to the club and projected him as the probable starter at SF. And the knee injury he dealt with in Portland reportedly happened after the Blazers traded for him... that he played 75 and 76 games the two seasons prior speak to him being healthy.

STOMP

 

[hasoos]

To be honest, I don't understand why the Bayless thing is even being brought up again. It is obvious that he is not going to play again this season unless there is serious foul trouble or garbage time, or if Nate is desperate for some energy on the court. The only reason that this is the situation, is over the year, Bayless showed he is only effective if he gets consistent minutes. He has problems when he only gets a few spot minutes on the court in a game, because of the speed of the game. The reason Sergio is getting the PT, is because he tends to have no letdown in his game when he gets spot minutes. You will notice, that in the last game, the backup PG got very few minutes, and Nate went with Roy and Rudy in the back court for a long time.

 

[Minstrel]

I'm one of the biggest "Bayless believers," but I'm actually fine with how McMillan has handled him. Like Jermaine O'Neal, he wasn't ready to contribute to a contending team. I think Dunleavy and McMillan did the right thing in making them learn in practice and from the bench, developing their skills the way the coaches felt was best and giving them sporadic game experience to get them some feeling of how fast the NBA game is.

The problem was that Whitsitt cashed O'Neal in for pennies on the dollar. I'd rather the Blazers had kept O'Neal and allowed him to slowly win time away from an aging Sabonis. It would have been ideal to have O'Neal ready to take over when Sabonis broke down and retired. Similarly, I'd like to see the Blazers keep Bayless and have him slowly win time away from Blake (who's not aging or near retirement, but also not nearly the player Sabonis was). Even a contending team can afford to let a young player compete and work his way into the rotation. The Lakers did it with Kobe, San Antonio did it with Parker...it can be done.

Now, if Pritchard can land a seriously good, young talent for Bayless (as Whitsitt failed to do with O'Neal), then I'm not against trading him.

 

[hasoos]

I'm one of the biggest "Bayless believers," but I'm actually fine with how McMillan has handled him. Like Jermaine O'Neal, he wasn't ready to contribute to a contending team. I think Dunleavy and McMillan did the right thing in making them learn in practice and from the bench, developing their skills the way the coaches felt was best and giving them sporadic game experience to get them some feeling of how fast the NBA game is.

The problem was that Whitsitt cashed O'Neal in for pennies on the dollar. I'd rather the Blazers had kept O'Neal and allowed him to slowly win time away from an aging Sabonis. It would have been ideal to have O'Neal ready to take over when Sabonis broke down and retired. Similarly, I'd like to see the Blazers keep Bayless and have him slowly win time away from Blake (who's not aging or near retirement, but also not nearly the player Sabonis was). Even a contending team can afford to let a young player compete and work his way into the rotation. The Lakers did it with Kobe, San Antonio did it with Parker...it can be done.

Now, if Pritchard can land a seriously good, young talent for Bayless (as Whitsitt failed to do with O'Neal), then I'm not against trading him.

Yep I am with you on that. Although Parker did start his rookie year in San Antonio, he was on a short leash. How many years did it take for that leash to come off? The facts are Bayless has physical tools that neither one of the other PG on the team will ever have. Even if Blake and Sergio took 'Roids, and hit the gymn every day until next season, they will not have the physical tools he has. We just need the mental to catch up to the physical, and everything will be fine.

 

[oldguy]

Now we need a scapegoat for WINS? Great.

Steve Blake is a big part of why the Blazers are in the playoffs. Is he a top tier PG? Probably not. But it seems like we could get behind him and cheer until the end of the playoffs, instead of (figuratively) running him out of town in the middle of the first round.

Go Blakey

Go Blazers

 

[hasoos]

Now we need a scapegoat for WINS? Great.

Steve Blake is a big part of why the Blazers are in the playoffs. Is he a top tier PG? Probably not. But it seems like we could get behind him and cheer until the end of the playoffs, instead of (figuratively) running him out of town in the middle of the first round.

Go Blakey

Go Blazers

Yea it's kind of funny how that works. To be honest, did anybody show up besides Roy and Aldridge last game? At least not offensivly. One guy is definitly not the blame. Possibly the blame is, that the Rockets have chose to defend the role players and let the stars get theirs. The two typical ways you can go are, make it hard for the stars, and let the role players get theirs, or play the stars straight up, and cover the role players. It definitly fucked up the Blazers in the first game. In the second, Roy and Aldridge did what they recognized they needed to do to get the win. Now the question becomes, will it force Houston to abandon their current approach and start leaving our role players to give them opportunities. If that happens, the game will open up for the rest. My guess is, that Houston will once again try guarding the stars straight up, but if they get hot, will adjust earlier.

 

[MARIS61]

Wow, really?

Blake was the main reason our bigs were in foul trouble last night, Brooks, Lowry and also Wafer went by him everytime down the floor. The Houston radio stations down here even said that was the game plan. Get the switch and then go by him.

Cool!

It's nice to know they followed their game plan and LOST.

I think it's a great game plan and Adelman should stick with it for the rest of the series.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Conley or Sessions, make it happen KP!

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Conley or Sessions, make it happen KP!

Conley has really stepped up his game, now I wish we could have traded Outlaw for him.

 

[MARIS61]

Conley has really stepped up his game, now I wish we could have traded Outlaw for him.

We could have traded Ruffin for him as hard as they shopped him with NO takers.

 

[B-Roy]

Blake plays shitty D

Sergio plays shittier D

Bayless will foul him.

....?

 

[oldmangrouch]

your recollection is way off. KP was raving about what he'd bring to the club and projected him as the probable starter at SF. And the knee injury he dealt with in Portland reportedly happened after the Blazers traded for him... that he played 75 and 76 games the two seasons prior speak to him being healthy.

STOMP

On the second point, I believe you are simply mistaken. IIRC, Jones had a history of injuries in college - which was why such an obvious skilled player fell deep into the 2nd round. He may have played quite a few games for the Suns - but his MPG were very limited compared to what he played in Portland.

On the other point - I guess it depends on who you believe. In the beginning, everyone said the Rudy deal was contingent on our helping the Suns dump salary. It was only *later*, when people started complaining about the need for a SF, that KP started claiming that he wanted Jones in his own right.