I never usually start threads, but I had to.

[VanillaGorilla]

Why can Brandon Roy not get to the hoop anymore? I don't know how many times he has gotten to the hoop, but it has to be down a ton from last season. He seems incapable of getting by his man, no matter who it is. Does anyone know why this is? Brandon Roy, so far, has been almost exclusively a jump shooter.

For anyone who thins LaMarcus Aldridge is a good rebounder, I have to emphatically disagree. Yeah, lately he has been getting a good amount of boards, but if you actually watch him and him alone when there is a rebound, he almost never makes a real effort to get the ball. He is also terrible at rotating on defense.

Andre Miller has been a huge disappointment for me. I know the season is young and he could very well get better as he gets used to this team and the team gets used to him, but it hasn't happened so far. Not that Blake has been any better (he's been worse).

I don't care if Dante Cunningham is a rookie second round draft pick, there is no way he could be worse than Juwan Howard out there. Howard is terrible on defense and offense. He is so slow he can't make a difference anywhere. And he doesn't look very smart out there either..

Bayless needs more playing time. Period.

Greg is open so many times and no one even looks to pass to him. The only time he gets any looks is the rare occasions we decide to post him up, which isn't even his strong suit on offense. I've watched Andrew Bynum play many times, and while he is better on offense, it's not by much. If we gave Oden the ball as much as Bynum gets it, I believe we would see similar offensive numbers.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Haakzilla]

HgH

 

[Blazer4ever]

I thought tonight, we had a strong 1st quarter offensively and then in many occassions, tried to force what was working for us. I didn't see us "not looking for Greg", I saw us looking for Greg too much sometimes, trying to feed him no matter what and suffering costly turnovers because of that.

Our offense has suffered this year partly because of Miller. But it's not his fault. The thing is, we never had a dominant distributor last year, just 5 guys who could pass the ball, now we finally have the "pass first PG" we've been wanting for like a decade and the team suffers. We need to relax, to play smart, move the ball, set picks, move the ball, from the strong side to the weak side, mostly through the perimeter, go to the basket and look for the pass inside or out or finish.
Last year, Blake would pass to B-Roy 2 sec's into the offense, it made me and others think "well, what's he doing out there if that's his point-guarding" but it put the ball in the right player's hands right from the start, Brandon isn't a Point-Guard and can't be trusted as one, we can't play with just him and Rudy, unfortunately, because we would get burned. But Brandon is a great Point-Forward.

This is our best lineup:
Blake or Bayless, Rudy, B-Roy, LMA, Oden.
Our 4 best players are the 2006 tendem (sp?) - LA and Roy and the 2007 tendem - Oden and Rudy. Now that B-Roy proved he can play SF, I think we need to see both him and Rudy together more often. They don't have great chemistry because they never play together but they'll be able to develop that. On offense, Blake is more of a Rudy type (better passer, 3-point shooter) and Bayless is more of a Roy type (stronger, goes stronger to the basket), right now both Roy and Rudy are not doing their thing, but that's what it is. So, we could go with Blake for extra Rudyness or with Bayless for extra Royness.
Webster, for now, could backup both Roy and Rudy, play with either when the other one sits. I agree on Cunningham over Howard as the backup 4, Juwan was painful to watch against the warriors, and of-course: Joel behind Oden at Center.
What about Andre Miller, You ask? well, I think I just proved we don't really need him. Again, it's nothing personal, he's a very good distributor and he does several things well, he's just too much of an upgrade for the great offensive team we had last year. Trading him would be a big substraction but perhaps the biggest "addition" we can find.

 

[hasoos]

I thought tonight, we had a strong 1st quarter offensively and then in many occassions, tried to force what was working for us. I didn't see us "not looking for Greg", I saw us looking for Greg too much sometimes, trying to feed him no matter what and suffering costly turnovers because of that.

Our offense has suffered this year partly because of Miller. But it's not his fault. The thing is, we never had a dominant distributor last year, just 5 guys who could pass the ball, now we finally have the "pass first PG" we've been wanting for like a decade and the team suffers. We need to relax, to play smart, move the ball, set picks, move the ball, from the strong side to the weak side, mostly through the perimeter, go to the basket and look for the pass inside or out or finish.
Last year, Blake would pass to B-Roy 2 sec's into the offense, it made me and others think "well, what's he doing out there if that's his point-guarding" but it put the ball in the right player's hands right from the start, Brandon isn't a Point-Guard and can't be trusted as one, we can't play with just him and Rudy, unfortunately, because we would get burned. But Brandon is a great Point-Forward.

This is our best lineup:
Blake or Bayless, Rudy, B-Roy, LMA, Oden.
Our 4 best players are the 2006 tendem (sp?) - LA and Roy and the 2007 tendem - Oden and Rudy. Now that B-Roy proved he can play SF, I think we need to see both him and Rudy together more often. They don't have great chemistry because they never play together but they'll be able to develop that. On offense, Blake is more of a Rudy type (better passer, 3-point shooter) and Bayless is more of a Roy type (stronger, goes stronger to the basket), right now both Roy and Rudy are not doing their thing, but that's what it is. So, we could go with Blake for extra Rudyness or with Bayless for extra Royness.
Webster, for now, could backup both Roy and Rudy, play with either when the other one sits. I agree on Cunningham over Howard as the backup 4, Juwan was painful to watch against the warriors, and of-course: Joel behind Oden at Center.
What about Andre Miller, You ask? well, I think I just proved we don't really need him. Again, it's nothing personal, he's a very good distributor and he does several things well, he's just too much of an upgrade for the great offensive team we had last year. Trading him would be a big substraction but perhaps the biggest "addition" we can find.

No way, I don't agree. You can't be looking for a guy too much. What I think was more of a problem, is we have nobody that can make a post entry pass. Guys have to work for an angle, just not throw the ball across the court from the top of the key. The number of "Lazy" passes was just about effort. The passes down to Greg had no snap on them. They were easy pickings for a small and fast GS team.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Brandon chose to slim down this off season to be quicker. He also chose to work exclusively on his midrandge game. I think his thought process was to have the ability to get by people, but pull up for a mid range jumper afterwards instead of taking the punishment by going to the rim.

 

[gatorpops]

No way, I don't agree. You can't be looking for a guy too much. What I think was more of a problem, is we have nobody that can make a post entry pass. Guys have to work for an angle, just not throw the ball across the court from the top of the key. The number of "Lazy" passes was just about effort. The passes down to Greg had no snap on them. They were easy pickings for a small and fast GS team.

Nearly all the teams passes are very poor. Someone gets the ball and looks around for someone inside but usually they re being fronted so no pass there. They then they pick up their dribble and look to see if anybody is coming to the ball so they can get rid of it. They make a lazy pass to the guy coming to the ball if there is one coming and by this time the defensive guy is playing up tight on him or the double team is in place. He lets the pass go and runs off somewhere usually haphazardly.

GSW doubled the ball all night long except for the first quarter, on everybody. GSW had so much more energy even though they were. I believe, coming off a back to back? Very ugly play by our guys. Very poor coaching by Nate and his staff. Someone has said that the team seems to be tuning Nate out and they are right. I watched closely several times in timeouts to me the attitude and it seems to me to be not buying into whats being said. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Kaydow]

No way, I don't agree. You can't be looking for a guy too much. What I think was more of a problem, is we have nobody that can make a post entry pass. Guys have to work for an angle, just not throw the ball across the court from the top of the key. The number of "Lazy" passes was just about effort. The passes down to Greg had no snap on them. They were easy pickings for a small and fast GS team.

I've been saying that for a year. Blake is horrible. It's not as easy as just dumping the ball into Greg or Lamarcus. You have to get them the ball in position to score or make a scoring move. A slow bounce pass allows a help defender to come over and . . . bam, they are doubled as soon as they touch it. That's not good. Not for Greg, he's too slow to react at this point. Miller isn't bad at getting it to Greg in position - we just don't see it enough.

 

[Kaydow]

Brandon chose to slim down this off season to be quicker. He also chose to work exclusively on his midrandge game. I think his thought process was to have the ability to get by people, but pull up for a mid range jumper afterwards instead of taking the punishment by going to the rim.

Did he choose to "slim down"? The guys that cover the team said Brandon "took the summer off from basketball related activity" to let his body heal from the beating he took last season. I recognize that if they ask him to do every year what he did last year, his career will have the life shelf of an NFL running back. But his game is predicated on being able to get to the basket/FT Line. That first step he has is what allows him to pull up in rhythm and shoot a midrange jumper (with the defender on his heels)

 

[Mediocre Man]

Did he choose to "slim down"? The guys that cover the team said Brandon "took the summer off from basketball related activity" to let his body heal from the beating he took last season. I recognize that if they ask him to do every year what he did last year, his career will have the life shelf of an NFL running back. But his game is predicated on being able to get to the basket/FT Line. That first step he has is what allows him to pull up in rhythm and shoot a midrange jumper (with the defender on his heels)

I remember articles talking about Brandon wanting to play lighter.

 

[Ed O]

I've been saying that for a year. Blake is horrible. It's not as easy as just dumping the ball into Greg or Lamarcus. You have to get them the ball in position to score or make a scoring move. A slow bounce pass allows a help defender to come over and . . . bam, they are doubled as soon as they touch it. That's not good. Not for Greg, he's too slow to react at this point. Miller isn't bad at getting it to Greg in position - we just don't see it enough.

I think this is right, and I think it's pretty noticeable. Blake as a PG who doesn't drive is bad enough--at least he can (usually) drill open three pointers. But as a guy who is terrible at make an entry pass AND can't get into the key... that means that he is restricted to making passes around the perimeter, and he's not able to set up teammates for easier shots.

Ed O.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Why can't Roy get to the hoop anymore?

The weight of his wallet and the weight of his ego might be good places to start.

 

[THE HCP]

Last season- 22.6/5.1/4.7
This season- 20.1/4.9/4.8
I don't see a problem with his game. In fact he is still putting those #'s up with the addition of a more aggressive Greg and Andre Miller. He brings it every night. The one who is suffering from these aforementioned additions is LA.

 

[Minstrel]

Last season- 22.6/5.1/4.7
This season- 20.1/4.9/4.8
I don't see a problem with his game.

Mostly it is that his scoring efficiency is down. He's still scoring reasonably efficiently, but last year he was really efficient for a perimeter player.

I don't think Roy is having that bad a season. It's solidly down from last year, but it is early enough that it may just be a slump that he'll break out from.

 

[gatorpops]

Why can't Roy get to the hoop anymore?

The weight of his wallet and the weight of his ego might be good places to start.

Roy's first step is just not as quick this year. Maybe he is not as strong as he was last year????????

To complicate that, Roy and LA were the team last year. This year he is supposed to include Oden into the mix and integrate with Miller. Obviously he is not as effective as last year.

 

[BBert]

HgH

Human growth hormone?

 

[magnifier661]

Why can Brandon Roy not get to the hoop anymore? I don't know how many times he has gotten to the hoop, but it has to be down a ton from last season. He seems incapable of getting by his man, no matter who it is. Does anyone know why this is? Brandon Roy, so far, has been almost exclusively a jump shooter.

For anyone who thins LaMarcus Aldridge is a good rebounder, I have to emphatically disagree. Yeah, lately he has been getting a good amount of boards, but if you actually watch him and him alone when there is a rebound, he almost never makes a real effort to get the ball. He is also terrible at rotating on defense.

Andre Miller has been a huge disappointment for me. I know the season is young and he could very well get better as he gets used to this team and the team gets used to him, but it hasn't happened so far. Not that Blake has been any better (he's been worse).

I don't care if Dante Cunningham is a rookie second round draft pick, there is no way he could be worse than Juwan Howard out there. Howard is terrible on defense and offense. He is so slow he can't make a difference anywhere. And he doesn't look very smart out there either..

Bayless needs more playing time. Period.

Greg is open so many times and no one even looks to pass to him. The only time he gets any looks is the rare occasions we decide to post him up, which isn't even his strong suit on offense. I've watched Andrew Bynum play many times, and while he is better on offense, it's not by much. If we gave Oden the ball as much as Bynum gets it, I believe we would see similar offensive numbers.

Just my 2 cents.

Well the reports.... Didn't they say he lost some weight this off-season? Maybe he lost some of his strength. It could be that last season, he was the one that had to score in the paint and they are trying to get the bigs more involved in the paint. Regardless, we need to get into the paint more. Doesn't make sense how we can get a nice run in the 1st quarter with inside game, then we completely turn away from it until it's too late.

 

[alex42083]

Brandon chose to slim down this off season to be quicker. He also chose to work exclusively on his midrandge game. I think his thought process was to have the ability to get by people, but pull up for a mid range jumper afterwards instead of taking the punishment by going to the rim.

Yeah, Brandon said he played at about 215 last season and wanted to cut weight, and is around 205 now.

And although he's looked leaner and all, he hasn't looked right all year. And probably part of it is he's just a little too light to play the SF position that he unexpectedly had to play. He's taking a pounding on the defensive end against bigger SFs, and it could be affecting his offense.

We need Brandon to get back to SG.

 

[magnifier661]

Yeah, Brandon said he played at about 215 last season and wanted to cut weight, and is around 205 now.

And although he's looked leaner and all, he hasn't looked right all year. And probably part of it is he's just a little too light to play the SF position that he unexpectedly had to play. He's taking a pounding on the defensive end against bigger SFs, and it could be affecting his offense.

We need Brandon to get back to SG.

Probably right. If Nate won't start Miller over Blake, then just have Miller come off the bench. Have Oden come off the bench, so at least he has two players "Fernandez and Miller" feeding the Beast. As much as I think it's some bullshit, I think it's better for Oden to get more touches.