The depth the blazers once had is gone and canzano agrees

[MIXUM]

Let me start by saying im not a huge bayless fan as you all know but he was still our best backup PG. But my bigger concern is roy. If roy goes down and all likelihood is he will miss at least 15 games, who will back him up? Matthews cannot score like bayless can. We will need that offense at times during the season. Thats not the point of this thread. I just feel the Blazers depth is gone. We have no backup PG, no backup PF and FUCKING OBERTO as backup center for god knows how long. As much as webster and bayless were limited, they are very solid backups for a team wanting to make the 2nd round. Now it feels like everything is on a guy with a bad achillies and someone who doesnt want to be here. Throw in a declining center and rookie PG.... and we have some major issues if a starter goes down. Hell i think it safe to say we are 1 bad injury away from lotto. Maybe we can use it cause the talent well (bench) has run real dry. This team also seems like it has taken a step back from expectations like 2nd round. I dont even hear playoff talk anymore from blazers officials no less players. What the fuck is going on there? This season feels very ominous. This trade is a trade that bad teams who don't expect playoffs make.

Mr Bald Face Truth agrees BTW....



Again, I do believe in Cho. I think he has a plan. I also think he’s Paul Allen’s correction from a period of franchise history that felt gutsy and ambitious but also too prone to stabbing at air for the billionaire’s taste. So I'm going to give him a shot. I'm just not going to count on him to entertain me with his skills. You shouldn't either.

Under Cho’s guidance, fans will be asked to be happy with a draft pick, and understand that the long haul is what’s really at stake. And while that makes total sense --- drat. Because the summer started with Blazers fans wishing and dreaming about trading for New Orleans' star point guard, and here we are.

I’m a little worried about the Blazers this season. They feel paper thin, and insanely reliant upon Roy. Coach Nate McMillan feels like a guy who needs a fast start to gain the confidence of his owner, so I’m looking at the roster and wondering what happens to McMillan should the Blazers sputter out of the gates.

Even if the Blazers play well, are they really a team capable of winning a playoff series unless they do something radical?

I keep waiting for Portland to do what they’ve always done, attempt a roster-shifting trade. A real season-shifter. You know, shoot for the moon even if it means hitting a lamppost.

Then, they go and trade Bayless for a future draft pick.

The new Blazers era is here. Make sure you get it right. It’s spelled: Cho-time.

 

[MIXUM]

its like who would you rather have????

bayless, webster OR mathews, johnson, babbit, williams

bayless and wesbster and its not close

 

[Wheels]

before today it was Bayless, Matthews, Johnson, Babbit, Williams, Rudy.

Which I would take over Bayless, Webster and Rudy.

But I can see concern with our 2 Spot if Roy goes down yes.

 

[Natebishop3]

I'm guessing you didn't follow Matthews during the preseason. I would recommend a trip to Blazers.com so you can review the games that Matthews got significant playing time in. You might be pleasantly surprised...

 

[MIXUM]

sorry but ur missing my point.

miller is an older pg.

roy has bad knees

batum has shoulder/neck concerns

oden, pryz and camby are the most fragile centers in the nba

miller has a rookie backup

roy has a guy who hates it here backing him up and was awful as a starter

batum has matthews (sore achillies)

la has a undersized sf backing him up

centers are gimps

 

[VanillaGorilla]

sorry but ur missing my point.

miller is an older pg.

roy has bad knees

batum has shoulder/neck concerns

oden, pryz and camby are the most fragile centers in the nba

miller has a rookie backup

roy has a guy who hates it here backing him up and was awful as a starter

batum has matthews (sore achillies)

la has a undersized sf backing him up

centers are gimps

I love your positive spin on things.

 

[Natebishop3]

sorry but ur missing my point.

Fisher is an older pg.

Kobe has bad knees.

Steve Blake has shoulder/neck concerns

Bynum, Ratliff and Gasol are the most fragile centers in the nba

....

 

[MickZagger]

Matthews is more talented offensively than Bayless.

 

[barfo]

Who cares what Canzano agrees with?

barfo

 

[VanillaGorilla]

Matthews is more talented offensively than Bayless.

Agreed.

 

[Jayps15]

Last year we rolled out starting lineups the likes of Miller/Bayless/Webster/Aldridge/Howard, Miller/Roy/Webster/Pendergraph/Howard and Miller/Blake/Webster/Pendergraph/Aldridge and still easily made the playoffs in the end in a tough western conference. We're more than 1 injury away from lineups that bad this year so your original premise is, of course, an over exaggeration of what's actually happening.

 

[KingSpeed]

I disagree Mixum. This is the deepest team the Blazers have had in the Brandon Roy Era.

Matthews was the starting 2 guard on a team that went to the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference last season. Now, he's coming off our bench. Oberto started at center on a championship team 3 years ago. In a month, as players get healthy, we will have the deepest, toughest, strongest, most talented and versatile frontline in the league in Oberto, Camby, Oden, Pryzbilla, Aldridge, Batum, Cunningham, and young Babbitt (who shot 50/40/90 in college last season!). Roy and Matthews join an improved Rudy, a tested and reliable Andre Miller, two incredible athletically gifted rookie guards in Johnson and Williams (that guy can fly!), and quick hot shooting second year guard Patty Mills to round out the bunch.

 

[ABM]

I disagree Mixum. This is the deepest team the Blazers have had in the Brandon Roy Era.

Matthews was the starting 2 guard on a team that went to the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference last season. Now, he's coming off our bench. Oberto started at center on a championship team 3 years ago. In a month, as players get healthy, we will have the deepest, toughest, strongest, most talented and versatile frontline in the league in Oberto, Camby, Oden, Pryzbilla, Aldridge, Batum, Cunningham, and young Babbitt (who shot 50/40/90 in college last season!). Roy and Matthews join an improved Rudy, a tested and reliable Andre Miller, two incredible athletically gifted rookie guards in Johnson and Williams (that guy can fly!), and quick hot shooting second year guard Patty Mills to round out the bunch.

Nice to see you in here, man. My world got rocked a little bit yesterday from a post by The Sebastian Express. Caused me to recollect you and I getting together in Atlanta. That was good times. Anyway, if you're interested in what the heck I'm talking about, PM me.

 

[julius]

Who cares what Canzano agrees with?

barfo

Not Canzano himself. That way he can write a 100% contradiction and deny that he ever agreed with what he wrote.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

We all want depth. We love potential and the ability to access whatever raw talent we may possess. But in the end, no one wants to be one of a thousand choices. With too much talent, we become burdened. Instead of reliability and consistency, we're left focusing on accessibility and inefficiency.

The problem with most young teams is that there's too much talent. With an abundant amount of talent, the individual player has to worry about warming up/shooting cold, FG%, distribution of shots, etc. They're NOT focused on putting the basketball into the hoop. They're focused on scoring the basketball into the hoop so that they may get more playing time.

Basketball is a game of love. The basketball is a possession. She's the beauty. Like John Nash (the mathematician, not the GM lol) says, if everyone goes for the blonde, it'll cause much more distress because only one person will get to take her home. Therefore, it'd make sense if everyone aimed for the more common brunette as it would satisfy the overall group. Likewise, we have too many bachelor's and not enough people willing to settle down and be content over what they have. We need more veterans and people who bring intangibles rather than statistics.

 

[MIXUM]

this could be a rough rough season starting in about 2 days.....

bad feeling

 

[Sug]

Matthews cannot score like bayless can.

Wow, just wow. Matthews is equal to about 4.5 X J-Bay. You are such a soccer mom.

 

[hasoos]

Well I guess that all depends on how you look at it. Maybe one day our front line depth will show back up. Mathews is better than Webster and Outlaw both were. Is it better to have 2 shitty players or one good one? Over the last few years a lot of folks have said the Blazers have depth. They were saying this because the difference between the front line talent at many positions wasn't much different between a starter and a #12 guy on the bench. The problem was, the guy who was starting or getting minutes, really wasn't that good. The only guys who were good, were Brandon, Aldridge, and a couple of centers.

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

this could be a rough rough season starting in about 2 days.....

bad feeling

You mean they are not just going to hand us the trophy on opening night? Fire somebody! (and then complain about it).

 

[andalusian]

sorry but ur missing my point.

sorry but ur missing your point.

webster has a bad back

bayless has short hands and a well known "expert" on this very site said he is useless (i believe it was u).

 

[Ed O]

You mean they are not just going to hand us the trophy on opening night? Fire somebody! (and then complain about it).

I was expecting two tophies opening night. I was thinking 2010-11 and 2011-12, but I'd settle for 2010-11 and 2012-13.

Rabble rabble!

Ed O.

 

[Masbee]

While I am pretty disappointed that the Blazers have repeatedly whiffed on a major consolidation trade over the last couple of years, I think if you look at the overall roster turnover from the 54 win team 2 seasons ago, it doesn't look bad at all: For reference I put the Win Shares for each player for that 54 win season to show their contribution to that sucessful year:

OUT:
Jerryd Bayless (0.3)
Steve Blake (5.8)
Travis Outlaw (5.3)
Channing Frye (0.8)
Martell Webster (out for season)
Sergio Rodriguez (1.7)
Ike Diogu (0.1)
Michael Ruffin (0.1)
Shavlik Randolph (0.0)

Only two guys made an impact - Blake and Outlaw. They were traded for Camby in a deal that the vast majority of Blazers fans considered a good deal and a smart move. The next season Outlaw was hurt, and Blake was well off his play from his previous career year.

IN:
Marcus Camby
Andre Miller
Wesley Matthews
Dante Cunningham
Elliot Williams
Armon Johnson
Luke Babbitt
Patty Mills
Pendergraph (cut due to injury)

The team has improved the PG and Center postions, brought in steady vets, while at the same time staying young, at the cost of a bit of depth. Overall, ok. I certainly don't think the roster is worse overall. I was just hoping for more.

 

[superfly4201]

its like who would you rather have????

bayless, webster OR mathews, johnson, babbit, williams

bayless and wesbster and its not close

Lost me here:
Mathews >>> Webster
Babbit, Johnson, Williams, NO pick, more PT for Rudy>>>>>>>>Bayless

 

[THE HCP]

For me it's a depth thing. I'm a little worried about losing a player that could help us right now for a future pick.

 

[Pinwheel1]

John Hollinger thinks we still have a lot of options:

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/20627/blazers-add-another-asset-to-trade-chest

"Keep an eye on that asset. Portland, a team that’s widely considered “one player away,” now has another alluring piece to package in a trade should Mr. Right become available. The Blazers have two rookie first-rounders who will hardly play this year, New Orleans' first-rounder, their own, the expiring contracts of Joel Przybilla and Andre Miller and talented young players like Fernandez and Nic Batum. Few teams are better positioned to pounce."

 

[Nikolokolus]

this could be a rough rough season starting in about 2 days.....

bad feeling

It's probably just gas.

 

[Nikolokolus]

We all want depth. We love potential and the ability to access whatever raw talent we may possess. But in the end, no one wants to be one of a thousand choices. With too much talent, we become burdened. Instead of reliability and consistency, we're left focusing on accessibility and inefficiency.

The problem with most young teams is that there's too much talent. With an abundant amount of talent, the individual player has to worry about warming up/shooting cold, FG%, distribution of shots, etc. They're NOT focused on putting the basketball into the hoop. They're focused on scoring the basketball into the hoop so that they may get more playing time.

Basketball is a game of love. The basketball is a possession. She's the beauty. Like John Nash (the mathematician, not the GM lol) says, if everyone goes for the blonde, it'll cause much more distress because only one person will get to take her home. Therefore, it'd make sense if everyone aimed for the more common brunette as it would satisfy the overall group. Likewise, we have too many bachelor's and not enough people willing to settle down and be content over what they have. We need more veterans and people who bring intangibles rather than statistics.

Frankly I don't think there's such a thing as "too much talent", but there definitely can be such a thing as too much "potential" and by that I mean players who might have tremendous upside, but who tend to have a lot of variance in their production; one night they are on fire dropping 25 points and hitting everything in sight, the next they are bricking 1 for 10 and can't figure out what the hell they are doing out there. You can't have a roster full of guys that you can't depend on because it makes it impossible to formulate a steady rotation or to firmly establish roles which any team hoping to make a deep playoff push needs. With the departures of Webster, Bayless, Travis et al. and the inclusion of guys like Miller, Camby, and Matthews it appears that they've finally started to shed some potential, in favor of reliable (if unspectacular) production out of their non-stars.

The real concern I have is that this team might still not have enough big guns at the very top of their roster to push themselves all the way to the top of the mountain, whether because of injury concerns (Roy and Oden) or because of lack of development (Aldridge mostly).

 

[Blazinaway]

Let me start by saying im not a huge bayless fan as you all know but he was still our best backup PG. But my bigger concern is roy. If roy goes down and all likelihood is he will miss at least 15 games, who will back him up? Matthews cannot score like bayless can. We will need that offense at times during the season. Thats not the point of this thread. I just feel the Blazers depth is gone. We have no backup PG, no backup PF and FUCKING OBERTO as backup center for god knows how long. As much as webster and bayless were limited, they are very solid backups for a team wanting to make the 2nd round. Now it feels like everything is on a guy with a bad achillies and someone who doesnt want to be here. Throw in a declining center and rookie PG.... and we have some major issues if a starter goes down. Hell i think it safe to say we are 1 bad injury away from lotto. Maybe we can use it cause the talent well (bench) has run real dry. This team also seems like it has taken a step back from expectations like 2nd round. I dont even hear playoff talk anymore from blazers officials no less players. What the fuck is going on there? This season feels very ominous. This trade is a trade that bad teams who don't expect playoffs make.

Mr Bald Face Truth agrees BTW....



Again, I do believe in Cho. I think he has a plan. I also think he’s Paul Allen’s correction from a period of franchise history that felt gutsy and ambitious but also too prone to stabbing at air for the billionaire’s taste. So I'm going to give him a shot. I'm just not going to count on him to entertain me with his skills. You shouldn't either.

Under Cho’s guidance, fans will be asked to be happy with a draft pick, and understand that the long haul is what’s really at stake. And while that makes total sense --- drat. Because the summer started with Blazers fans wishing and dreaming about trading for New Orleans' star point guard, and here we are.

I’m a little worried about the Blazers this season. They feel paper thin, and insanely reliant upon Roy. Coach Nate McMillan feels like a guy who needs a fast start to gain the confidence of his owner, so I’m looking at the roster and wondering what happens to McMillan should the Blazers sputter out of the gates.

Even if the Blazers play well, are they really a team capable of winning a playoff series unless they do something radical?

I keep waiting for Portland to do what they’ve always done, attempt a roster-shifting trade. A real season-shifter. You know, shoot for the moon even if it means hitting a lamppost.

Then, they go and trade Bayless for a future draft pick.

The new Blazers era is here. Make sure you get it right. It’s spelled: Cho-time.

your premise that Wes cannot score like Bayless is completely wrong, he can score as well or better and do it in much more of a team fashion

 

[OddEnormous]

expiring contracts

Here we go again

 

[BBert]

Canzano agrees? Canzano? John Canzano? The same Canzano who was adament we'd be crazy not to take Pooh Jeeter, Sean May, and "The Stache?" Are we talking about basketball? Who gives a fuck what Canzano thinks about basketball?