NY Times: Gerald Wallace’s Renaissance in Portland

[BlazerCaravan]

http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/gerald-wallaces-renaissance-in-portland/?src=twrhp

A nice long article on Crash.

When at his best, Wallace’s defense is its own offense. It’s not merely smothering or limiting, but a pointed assault on a given target. Wallace locked in and destroyed Sunday, even if his team was narrowly defeated.

 

[Steelblazer]

Nice article. Having the ability to psyche out the other team's best swingman will help us greatly in the playoffs, whether we play OKC (durant), Dallas (dirk), or SA (ginobili). Playing the Lakers sucks in and of itself.

 

[RoyToy]

Miller
Matthews
Wallace
Aldridge
Camby

 

[BlazerCaravan]

There are a lot of advanced stats that agree with your lineup, but nearly as many that agree with the current lineup that includes Batum; my favorite is Win Shares per 48 minutes, which ranks our players thusly:

Aldridge (0.167)
Wallace (0.157)
Batum (0.128)
Miller (0.125)
Matthews (0.121)

Camby (0.114)
Fernandez (0.107)
Johnson (Chris) (0.093)
Roy (0.088)

In fact, I'd make that my rotation from here on out; Chris could spend a few minutes on the floor without killing us, imho.

 

[Draco]

Great artilce. Wish Cantzano spend some time following the actual game and writing pieces like this instead of his repetiitive negative crap.

 

[Draco]

Miller
Matthews
Wallace
Aldridge
Camby

This would probably be my ideal lineup, the only problem is there is no backup PF/C. So then we have to play Chris Johnson minutes at the expense of Batum/Roy/Rudy. It would be a much bigger lineup.

Another concern is Camby, I'm not sure he is healthy or effective enough to play consistent starter minutes. It might be better to have Batum in his place.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Another concern is Camby, I'm not sure he is healthy or effective enough to play consistent starter minutes. It might be better to have Batum in his place.

Maybe if we sub out Batum first (provided he isn't blowing it up out there in a good way), then we can run that big lineup for a good 6-8 minutes in each of the first and third, and maybe the last 8 minutes of the 4th if it's getting the job done.

 

[RoyToy]

There are a lot of advanced stats that agree with your lineup, but nearly as many that agree with the current lineup that includes Batum; my favorite is Win Shares per 48 minutes, which ranks our players thusly:

Aldridge (0.167)
Wallace (0.157)
Batum (0.128)
Miller (0.125)
Matthews (0.121)

Camby (0.114)
Fernandez (0.107)
Johnson (Chris) (0.093)
Roy (0.088)

In fact, I'd make that my rotation from here on out; Chris could spend a few minutes on the floor without killing us, imho.

I don't think something like WS should be the be-all, end-all when considering something like this. You can rack up great stats against the Cleveland's and Washington's of the NBA when both aren't even close to playoff teams, which leads me to my next point.....

It takes size to win in the playoffs and a frontcourt of Wallace/Aldridge is undersized. Both guys are playing out of position and Aldridge isn't a good enough rebounder to make it work. Moving them back to their natural positions makes it more comfortable for them while adding one of the better rebounders in the league. It's a pretty simple move, imo.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Definitely; I don't want to make the impression that I'm wed to WS/48. But it does help sift the wheat from the chaff. Batum is very useful for us, and I can see why McMillan is reticent to remove him from the lineup, especially given Camby's rickety legs. But, the bigger lineup is powerful... I can see his dilemma.

 

[HailBlazers]

Nice article. Having the ability to psyche out the other team's best swingman will help us greatly in the playoffs, whether we play OKC (durant), Dallas (dirk), or SA (ginobili). Playing the Lakers sucks in and of itself.

Having someone to stand up to Artest is crucial as well, with Crash on our team the Fakers better fear us.

 

[mook]

Man I hope Oden can play a full season next year. And that there is a full season next year and not a lockout.

Miller/Matthews/Wallace/Aldridge/Oden, with Roy, Fernandez, Batum and Camby off the bench. That sounds like a fucking fantastic team.

Really, though, our off season mission should be to try to parlay Rudy and spare parts (and maybe Batum) into major upgrades at PG and a backup big man.

If Utah goes into full blowup mode, I wonder if Millsap could be had.

 

[HailBlazers]

Indeed. The only place were really thin right now is our front line.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Miller
Matthews
Wallace
Aldridge
Camby

That line up is OK for a short duration. But give a team a week to prepare for it and it could be ugly on offense. Not sure how they could possibly handle the Dallas zone.

 

[HailBlazers]

Every one of our line up's has shown the ability to be ugly on offense. IMO as long as LMA is in there we have instant offense and a way to break down the defense. If even m,m,w aren't shooting a high 3pt% they have the ability to slash once the defense has been broken down. I'm all for that line-up.

 

[Minstrel]

I noticed that the author of that great article recently wrote another good one about the Blazers and Wallace:

It’s now clear that Gerald Wallace was only the most basic of the Portland Trailblazers’ trade deadline acquisitions. Simply, Portland added a former All-Star who plays tenacious defense, a valuable player on a decent contract who could obviously elevate the level of play from his spot in the rotation. However, dig deeper and what the Blazers netted was a ridiculous level of lineup versatility. With so many capable players able to swing between positions, Nate McMillan now has a canvas to handle all the free-form painting he can muster. McMillan has never been considered part of basketball’s avant garde, but he’s not afraid of going small, going big, or going with whatever works, and that makes him a worthy coach to handle such a strange roster.

http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/the-newest-element-in-mcmillans-laboratory/

 

[mook]

I noticed that the author of that great article recently wrote another good one about the Blazers and Wallace:

http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/the-newest-element-in-mcmillans-laboratory/

Thanks for posting that! It really is a versatile lineup. At the end of every game, you know Aldridge and Wallace will be in there, but the other three closers seem to change on almost a nightly basis. When you have a lot of versatile guys with similar talent levels, there are just so many possibilities.