Terry has been in decline for the past two seasons. He's 33 now and only slightly better (and just as streaky) as Wes on offense. But, Matthews is WAY, WAY better on defense.
Definitely, on both ends of the court. Marion's better days are long since passed. Wallace is now what Marrion was 5 years ago in his prime.
Again, you're only half right. Dirk is better on offense, but Aldridge is better on defense. And, for all the shit he takes around here, Aldridge is a better rebounder than Dirk.
I'd actually give the edge to Chandler on this one (as long as he can keep his cool and not get tossed). Chandler has improved on offense and is a better man-to-man defender. Camby is a slightly better rebounder, a MUCH better passer (Chandler is a total black hole who makes Eddy Curry look like Steve Nash when it comes to passing the ball) and better at team/help defense, but is very limited (even compared to Chandler) on offense.
roy = peja lol
mills < rbois
batum > brewer
cj < heywood
rudy = barea
Roy and Peja are both players who aren't nearly as good as the used to be due to injuries, but if I had to pick one of them to hit a big shot, or have a big game, I'd take Roy.
The bench rotations will be shortened during the playoffs. I don't expect guys like Chris Johnson and Corey Brewer to play enough to matter. DaShawn Stevenson and Brian Cardinal will both play more minutes than Corey Brewer. You should also be comparing Patty Mills to Barea (two pipsqueak, shoot first, defensive liability back-up PGs that talk with funny accents) and Rudy to Beaubois (two skinny, streaky shooting, back-up SGs, who sometimes try to play the point, shoot and miss too many 3-pointers, run around frantically with very little net positive impact, and again with the accents).
In all seriousness, I expect the Blazers to stick with an 8-man rotation for most of the play-offs. The first three off the bench will be Batum, Roy and Rudy. If you consider Terry a bench player, our top three off the bench are at least as good as their top 3. And, if Terry is coming off the bench, that means they are starting the skinny, undersized, underperforming (PER = 11.4) Beaubois at SG, which gives us another advantage in the starting line-up. Mills will also get a few spot minutes, but likely not enough to matter. Same with the Dallas deep bench guys. They will go deeper than 8 as Carlisle will need to chose whether he wants offense or defense off the bench, but big deal if their 9th, 10th and 11th men are better than ours. In the big picture those aren't the guys who will decide this series.
It should be a close series, but if you consider both offense and defense, and a short 8 to 8.5 man rotation, I give the edge to the Blazers. We are much better defensively than Dallas, and that will be the difference. This is where they miss Caron Butler, as he was really their only player other than Marion that is above average at both ends of the court (and Marion isn't nearly as good as he used to be, and is inferior at both ends to Gerald Wallace). We have Aldridge, Wallace, Matthews and Batum who are all average, or better, at both ends. Advantage us!
BNM
