Game Thread Sorry... My first negative thread!!!

[Boise Blazer]

That's just the thing, one side of you wants to say, ok, you suck now, let's bench you for awhile and if rest is what you need, hopefully you'll come back to form. But why should a guy take a break while he's getting paid millions when he's supposed to rest during the offseason.

I get what you are saying but my thought is we have to do what is best for the team even if it means a player is getting paid to rest when he should be playing. Lose the battle to win the war

 

[BBert]

I think the excuse that he's been playing for the French National team has affected his play is not valid. Both Gasols have been playing for the Spanish National team haven't missed a beat. Marc is having a MVP caliber season and Pau is having a renaissance year.

Good for them. What someone else does has no bearing on how Batum's lack of time off over the years may be affecting his effectiveness. Individual results may vary.

And don't forget Batum's wrist injury and that he got Ariza'd pretty good a couple weeks ago. Even Wes is struggling now that he's banged up.

 

[BBert]

And btw I've been complaining that Batum needs to put the Blazers first and the French team third for years. I don't want any Blazers playing international ball.

 

[blue9]

Batum isn't the scapegoat for me he just isn't performing. I love the guy and would love to see his game come back. I don't want to trade him but I wouldn't mind him resting. And more importantly we can't afford to sit back and wait for his game to come back. It totally fucks our offense when he isn't a threat. We need someone we can plug in when he isn't getting it done and we need more from our bench anyway so it's a group thing for me anyway not just Batum.

This is pretty much my opinion, except I disagree with the bolded part. His offense has been off all season long, yet we've won most of our games. If his bad shooting is the reason we've lost a few lately, then we should have been losing more games on a consistent basis throughout the course of the season.

For the past month or so I've thought it would be beneficial to rest Nic for a stretch of several weeks. He's still a damn good player, and he'll be invaluable in the Playoffs when we need someone to guard multiple positions. Trading him for someone who might score better would be a big mistake - we don't need more scoring in our starting unit, we need someone with the diverse set of skills that Nic has. But we need to make sure Nic is fully functioning about 2 weeks before the POs start, and I think resting him now is our best bet.

And as a bonus, resting Nic would also increase the likelihood that Crabbe will be better prepared for the POs. Win/win.

 

[Boise Blazer]

This is pretty much my opinion, except I disagree with the bolded part.

True, perhaps I should reword it and say that it makes our offense harder then it should be to run when he is really bad (especially in combination with Wes' bad nights) and think how much better it would be if he was at the least shooting the 3 like he has in the past.

 

[blue9]

True, perhaps I should reword it and say that it makes our offense harder then it should be to run when he is really bad (especially in combination with Wes' bad nights) and think how much better it would be if he was at the least shooting the 3 like he has in the past.

I can agree with that. And I still fully expect his shooting to come around by the time the Playoffs start - but I'd feel a lot better about it if we rested him for a few weeks.
I also think it's the coach's job to change the offense when it's not working as well as it should. And since Terry is suppose to be an offensive genius you'd think it'd be easy for him to come up with new ways to score. I don't understand why people are blaming Nic rather than Terry. Nic's handful of missed shots each game isn't the reason for our losses.

 

[BlazerBeav]

I don't doubt he'll get it together, but it sure would be nice if he does so starting tonight. The fact is that most nights we should have the best small forward on the floor, and too often this year that hasn't been the case. Once it is, we're unstoppable.

 

[OneLifeToLive]

That's just the thing, one side of you wants to say, ok, you suck now, let's bench you for awhile and if rest is what you need, hopefully you'll come back to form. But why should a guy take a break while he's getting paid millions when he's supposed to rest during the offseason.

Bam-o.

Yes, the team that is paying him the big bucks needs and needs him now. As a matter of fact they could have two less losses had he had proper rest and took care of himself in the offseason. Who knows, had he had proper rest in the offseason. We might have been able afford to rest Wes now.

Now look at what we are working with.

 

[riverman]

I think we'll see more Crabbe and CJ leading up to the allstar break. Both Nic and Wes need rest. After the break we should have Rolo and Freeland back and they really help the chemistry of the starting unit.