Blazers @ Rockets 1/29/09 GAME THREAD

[STOMP]

Is KP fully board qualified to separate Blake from Nate's hip?

I always try to give the coach the ample benefit of the doubt that they understand the situation better then me for obvious reasons, but I struggle to understand why SB gets so much run over others.

my best try... Are team captains elected (by teammates) or appointed by coaches? Regardless, Steve being a leading good soldier in Portland the last couple years and a pretty decent player earns a certain level of respect of not being relegated to the bench while in a contract year from the coach/club... I think this is commonly done. Bayless and Rudy keep a little more rubber on their tires. They're under contract with extension possibilities upcoming after next season... when they look to have larger roles. They're certainly not going to publicly bitch right now about PT. In the end everybody gets paid.

Blake's solid outside shot seems to be coming back lately... maybe his shoulder has had issues following the surgery? If dude can average lower 40 percentile on his 3s again from here on out I can endure a 20MPG salary drive

STOMP

 

[ABM]

I hope so! But this season, as I said, has a lot of interest to me. But mostly things that will help for next year.

 

[BlazerBeav]

Other than the Utah debacle, all of our recent losses were very winnable. The team was simply missing our top late-game, go-to guy. Not to mention, IMO, Brandon seems to elevate his teammate's energies and respective games.

Even against Utah, the Blazers were down 5 with 5:30 left in the game. Having Roy down the stretch would have likely prevented that 3 minute dry spell that finally killed us. Brandon Roy is certainly worth the difference in all of our losses over the past two weeks.

 

[KingSpeed]

Be a nice story if they made the playoffs but, really, a first-round playoff exit wouldn't be that exciting to me. The Blazers have made the playoffs plenty over the years (even if not a lot recently)...I want to see a real run at a championship, which isn't happening this year.

But if Bayless, Batum, Rudy and Aldridge improve, they may have such a run next year.

If we can hang on, we might have our complete team short of Joel come April. Don't give up on the championship dream yet!