Subscribe Feed (RSS)Today we read that the Trail Blazers are working on more innovative ways to get Roy the ball for isolations, so he can go one-on-one:
“Basically, we are saying we are open to the idea of letting me go one-on-one more,” Roy said. “And hopefully this helps the team out, especially with Greg or LaMarcus cutting. It can get us easier baskets.”
Well, I would say this: if you really want more of Roy going one-on-one it’s a step in the right direction to find new ways to do it. It at least makes it a little tougher for the defense to lock in on him. He never used the pick-and-roll very well, anyway, because he normally ignored the guy who set the pick.
But seriously, do you think what this team needs is MORE of Roy going one-on-one? Hasn’t that already been done to death? Yes, teams took the ball out of his hands by doubling — but that’s going to happen against good teams no matter how you try to isolate him. You think Houston or Dallas or Los Angeles, in a play0ff series, is NOT going to double him, no matter what you do?
It comes off to me as an attempt to appease him. To get the ball back into his hands where his comfort zone is. How do you read it?
I read it as time not spent on learning team-defense. I’m no coach or strategist, but I also read it as: “Great. Lets let Brandon have more opportunities to stop the flow and get all iverson out there.”
I can’t remember the last time I saw him actually pass out of anything near the the hoop to anyone. Doesn’t he just try to score no matter what?
He leads the team in assists. How do you do that without passing?
Does anyone really think Brandon going one-on-one is helping the team? And its not like other teams will allow him one-on-one. They will always double him because he is showing that he doesn’t like to pass. I’m starting to feel like Roy is all about himself and could give a rats ass about taking the Blazers to the championship level.
I have higher expectations for the guy that finally stood up to Z-Bo and his selfish antics.
The more offensive schemes McMillan can bring into the playoffs the better I would think. Best to get them all ironed out early(now) than wait until April to try new things.
I would like to see Roy work harder to come and get the ball. I’d also like to see him move more without the ball.
I really don’t think it should be seen in a negative light. It sounds to me that instead of “more” one-on-one it’s going to be “better” one-on-one opportunities. Opportunities that will hopefully open up a bunch of possibilities to score. The pick and roll pass can be difficult, but the drive and kick-out pass is a lot easier I think.
And as much as one-on-one play is not that much fun to watch, in moments, it can be an immensely effective option. Roy can break down anyone most times, it’s when the double team comes that he gets in trouble. If he has clearer passing options at that point, or if the double team can’t come because they have to stay with their man who may be cutting, it affords the team a potent scoring set.
Anyone saying Brandon is selfish and never passes might actually want to look at the stats.
Assists per game: 5.1
That’s higher than Blake (3.4) and barely off the leader, Miller, (5.4). It reads like the team is looking for other ways to run iso plays. Which is good because we need different plays than what we’ve had. Is it the best basketball? No. Is it what they should do every time down the court? No. Is it something that’s probably good to have in the back pocket? Yes.
I can’t believe I read any comments about Roy being “all about himself” — clearly some of you don’t watch games. You can’t just ignore reality.
I don’t have a problem with it, namely because the league has set the rules up to favor one on one players over the years. Kobe does it all the time because it’s effective. You can’t touch the ball handler anymore, so it’s an easy way to draw fouls. Years ago I would have agreed with you, but team ball isn’t what the league promotes, superstars is, hence why they’ve designed the game around them and you see so much one on one now.
It’s time to part ways with Brandon Roy. The man is too selfish and hasn’t adapted to increasing talent on the team.
He’s not the first NBA player who believes he’s being slighted when asked to pass the ball to other talented players.
Trade him while his value is high and before he becomes a cancer on the team. Trade him now!
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion
So hope do you explain this:
“But the biggest thing out of all of this is I don’t want anybody to feel pressure to get me shots. I say keep playing the way we have been playing: Be efficient and just win. I want everyone to stay with sharing the ball and passing it. That makes us more dangerous.”
My friends. Brandon Roy is 25 years old. I spend way too much time thinking about the Blazers. I recently sat courtside at a Suns game. God…NBA athletes are overpaid. It’s not that impressive. I would like to tunnel about 90% of all their salaries into healthcare and the United States economy. Agents have screwed the whole sports world up….these kids from meager backgrounds would play for 50k a year. And be happy
Really……
WTF?
In the last three games, Roy has could the ball off curls and hit jumpers. When I read the headline for this article, I was hoping that we were going to read more about plays like that instead of isos.
Also, regardless of whether you think Roy should get the ball in isolation more, I can’t believe the 180 fans are taking on Roy. The team won with the way they played last year. They weren’t winning earlier this year. Has he expressed frustration at times to the media? Yes. Has this ever turned into him not doing exactly what was asked of him on the court? No.
He is growing into the role. It’s easy for him to say he’s going to do it. It is more difficult to actually do it. He has expressed frustration because it’s really hard to let go of the ball-dominance he was used to. He is just being honest with the media, something he has always done and something I hope he will continue to do. But this has not translated into anything negative on the court. He doesn’t undermine McMillan’s or Andre Miller’s called sets. He plays within them and adds to them with rebounds and assists.
He’s .3 from being the leader in assists on the team. Are you people serious?
I totally agree it is an appeasement move and I maintain that Roy has yet to learn that often less is more. Our team is blessed with a wealth of offensive threats, and the more we can make each and every one of those players dangerous – the more difficult we are to defend. Rudy, specifically, needs to see the ball more – but the list hardly stops there. I was very put off by Roy’s whining that he is not seeing the ball enough, as one poster opined, I had come to expect more from him.
Thus far he has largely shown maturity beyond his years and I continue to hope that with time he’ll realize the more offensive options and firepower we have, the more dangerous we are. He needs – and all of the players need – to move without the ball more….pass out of double coverage more, especially when holding on to it will only draw a foul but passing it will get you an easy basket.
In some ways, though, the organization has only itself to blame – they have made him THE guy just a bit too much. He IS the guy, and clearly in a class by himself, but all the greats eventually have learned you don’t win games by yourself – it takes a TEAM to win a championship.
I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not the opposing defenses really guard Oden and Miller out near the 3-point line. Give me a break, Nate.
If you want to do this, you can’t have Andre on the floor, and you’ll have to keep Greg pretty close to the hoop down by the baseline- probably negating the effect of having his defender “clear out” to give B Roy room.
I love the idea of having these other guys cutting and diving to the hoop, and I really hope it works, but something tells me that Roy will miss these opportunities a lot more than he finds them. At least at the beginning.
Let’s remember what we heard earlier this week: in this midst of a 3-game winning streak, while the team was looking pretty good, Quick reported that Roy is as unhappy as he’s ever been in Portland. We all know this was because he wasn’t being set up to score enough. What a selfish ass.
Does a max player like Roy really need a whole set of isolation schemes to contribute out there? He can’t put up a reasonable line of 20/6/6 without having the whole team to defer to him several times a game?
Why don’t you try a backdoor cut every once in a while, Brandon. Or, better yet, become an active participant in the new fastbreak agenda that’s working well. Get out and run the lanes a little, like you were willing to do over-and-over for Chris Paul in your 1st all-star game, but aren’t willing to do for your actual teammates.
Watch closely in tonight’s game: if Roy isn’t the one with the ball- or making a cut up toward the top with his hands out to receive the ball from someone else- he just stands on the perimeter and does nothing.
Nate would never lower Roy to the point of having him set a screen for another player (God forbid!). If Roy would keep his movement going and make the backdoor cut more, he’d have 3 dunks a night on lobs.
But he only exerts himself in 2 situations: with the ball in his hands, or in an effort to get the ball in his hands 20+ feet from the basket.
Wow, this is so ridiculously untrue it hurts.
If the Blazers want to concoct some schemes where Roy gets the ball and goes one-on-one in SELECTED situations that’s fine. The problem is that too often, it becomes McMillan’s crutch — just give the ball the Brandon and see if he can score.
It’s worked well enough in the past when the Blazers were just up-and-comers that teams didn’t really spend a lot of time worrying what to do about them. Now that they are supposedly contenders, they get more attention and more focus from opponents as far as figuring out way to stop them. As we have seen last spring and so far this season, if the Blazers go to the “Brandon Roy Offense”, it’s going to be stopped. And the other four Blazers on the court are going to stand around and watch.
They need a wide variety of ways to attack opponents. If the “Roy Option” is one of many, that’s fine, as long as they use it sparingly and don’t become predictable.
It’s a troll-fest !!! i.e. “Doctor” & “MarcS” – trade Roy? – what blather.
I actually laughed a little when I read the article last night on O-live. They’re talking about giving more iso plays to Roy? Really? Isn’t that what got us in trouble in the playoffs? I’m not baggin’ on Roy at all, I just thought it was kind of funny. Maybe the reason for that is because I didn’t view the “pick and rolls” that Roy ran last year as pick and rolls. I thought they were just trying to draw people away from Roy. The truth is, he’s still young and learning. The dynamic on this team is different than it was last year. That’s a good thing, but it just means he’s going to have to focus on a different facet of his game. I’d like to see him do like Jordan the anti-christ did when he played. Spend the first 2 1/2 or 3 quarters getting the other guys involved and rolling and then completely take over the 4th.
And BTW…People are wanting to trade Roy? It’s amazing how fast the sheeple turn on somebody when the media changes their tone a little. Last year Roy was the Savior…now..he’s an overpaid crybaby ballhog? Grow up sheeple.
What if we could have Chris Paul for Roy, Outlaw & Miller?
I’d take that in a second. Having Rudy waiting in the wings, I’m not that scared to trade Roy for a truly superstar PG. I think a great PG who knows how to set guys up would have a field day with Oden & our high-flying speedsters like Rudy & Batum.
Am I starting a campaign to trade Roy? Of course not. Do I think there are a small handful of superstars out there who are better suited to lead us to championships? Yes. Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade (given his health in ok)… maybe a couple others.
It’s worth talking about- probably in another post or some trade-happy forum out there- but I think Paul could be had, and we have the overstock of talent that would allow us to overpay for him. I could care less if we had to trade both Roy, one of our 2 PGs, plus another one of our pieces like Webster, Bayless, or Outlaw.
we just signed Roy for 80 million…so to package him in a 3-for-1 trade is essentially not worth talking about at all.
Trading Roy is not worth talking about period. The guy is one of the biggest reasons we aren’t referred to as the JailBlazers anymore. He’s a 2 time allstar, 2nd team all nba, rookie of the year…going into his fourth year! Why the hell would you want to trade him? You think that just because he’s been used to playing a certain way for the last couple seasons he can’t change the way he plays? That’s lame! He’s got to learn just like everybody else. This is a different team than what we had last year. Give it until Christmas and then make your proposals, but for right now stop with the trade Roy crap. Even for CP3. Chris Paul and Rudy is not a championship back court, as fun as they would be to watch, I just don’t see it. I don’t know why you even think Chris Paul could be had right now anyway. Because they fired their coach? Riiiight….If they traded Paul, there would be riots on the streets of New Orleans. He IS their franchise.
I wish they would leave Roy in New Orleans and take CP3 with them to the next stop!
Guess you haven’t paid any attention to what actual “whining” sounds like then … cause CP3 would make your head spin.
After reading these comments, I hereby retire from dwightjaynes.com. Take care everybody.
Because you certainly can’t read a blog without reading the comments!!! And besides, it’s good to read only people you agree with.
No it’s not that we don’t like reading differing opinions. I for one hate the mob mentality. It’s like you’re able to suggest one thing and all of the sudden, people are jumping off your cliff like lemmings. They can’t think for themselves so they’re constantly playing the one-upsmanship game trying to get other lemmings’ approval on the little seed that was implanted into their brain. It’s gotten really bad in here Dwight. There is no room anymore for intelligent conversation. I love your work, I respect your opinion most days, but the sheeple are getting old, and that’s not necessarily your fault…Unless you’re trying to slow peoples’ wits enough to take over the world…lol
Well, since you’re so smart and can easily recognize the motivation behind what people write, It shouldn’t bother you.
I would think that you’d be amused by observing how all of our inferior minds work.
Oh, thank you so much for the compliment Barry. That means a lot, really.
Seriously though, I’m not trying to come off as trying to sound smarter than anybody, but the truth is too many people go off all half-cocked without reading the rest of the pertinent information from this particular article, making judgements based on conjecture, and ultimately trying to get their point across simply by trying to speak louder than anybody else. For the most part I stay out of it and observe, quietly. Today, however I just have gotten to that point of “enough is enough” in some regards. It’s not amusing when people don’t want to use their brains, or refuse to think with an open mind, or have patience enough to wait for the team to come together. It’s not Dwight’s fault for being a strong voice to the masses, it’s the sheeples’ fault for being a mindless pack animal.
I’m ok with coming up with some different Roy isolation sets. The danger of course is in over-relying on them. But saving them for late in games or must-score situation is fine.
What I’d like to see more of is Roy curling up from the baseline the elbow on downscreens from one of the big guys. We’ve run that play successfully about once per game since Miller entered the starting lineup. Roy catches the ball at the elbow and usually has a wide open 16 footer. Money. Or, he could catch and then immediately look to drive from there. Either way, him starting his offense from 16 feet out with the other defenders in the midst of following their guys around is MUCH better than him starting the offense from 30 feet away with the other 4 guys standing on the baseline.
well said Doug
Backlash at an all-star once he gets his max contract. Pretty sure Kobe got the same response. And MJ, Garnett even Barkley. I’d keep Roy given that group.
And no, Roy is not Zach.
Look, Roy is starting to sound and look a lot like Stephon Marbury. Why is he so unhappy> He just got a big new contract. He is on a good team in a nice city. Is life really that bad?
Are the Blazers a championship contender? Only if Kobe Bryant has season-ending knee surgery.
Oden needs to assert himself as the alpha dog.
Moron. Flat out moron.
The guy is .3 off leading the team in assists.
People clearly are not watching the games.
Form the same G!@D!#% article – BRoy:
“But the biggest thing out of all of this is I don’t want anybody to feel pressure to get me shots. I say keep playing the way we have been playing: Be efficient and just win. I want everyone to stay with sharing the ball and passing it. That makes us more dangerous.”
hell ya buddy
Roy is the best player on the team so the Blazers should be looking for ways to get him the ball. I don’t like the complete reliance on the iso play though and think that was thoroughly exposed by the Rockets in the playoffs last year. I would like to see Roy more involved in off the ball movement and getting him the ball coming off of screens, that play has been successful the few times the Blazers have run it. Also I am not so sure that the Blazers biggest concern is getting Roy the ball right now. I think it should be a slow transition to getting Roy more shots as the season wears on. There is no point in slowing down the development of other players so that Roy with his long injury sheet can take a greater pounding.
Is the goal At the end of the game to have more points than the other team or for Roy to make sure he gets his touches? This is all starting to seem a little childish on Roys part to me. I’ve watched him pout his way through games At the Rose Garden. Does he really think that if he works hard comes off screens etc he’s not going to be in the mix offensively? He will always be the first option. I really haven’t been impressed by his words and actions lately. If he doesn’t realize that a player like Miller can really help him not hinder him he’s missing the boat. Oden becoming an inside threat helps him too. Quit the anxiousness Brandon and be a leader who cares only about wins and losses not how many touches you get!
“But the biggest thing out of all of this is I don’t want anybody to feel pressure to get me shots. I say keep playing the way we have been playing: Be efficient and just win. I want everyone to stay with sharing the ball and passing it. That makes us more dangerous.” – Brandon Roy.
Learn to read.
When crunch time comes and the team needs to score, they _will_ be going to Roy. That’s when they need multiple sets from which Roy can create.
I think these plays are aimed for the playoffs more than the regular season … if you’re going to use them in the playoffs, then you’d better get the kinks worked out during the regular season.
Last year Brandon killed from the pick-and-roll and was shut down in the playoffs, so other ways (including running the pick-and-roll better:) need to be found for the playoffs this year.
If you’re offended by the comments, don’t read the comments, folks!
Offended? – naw just giving them the Jim Pasero treatment I’ve seen on Talkin’ Ball….:)
Where are people getting this idea that Roy is unhappy? Has he said as much? Or are they looking at his “body language” or going by what Quicksand says? I don’t get it.
Why draft Greg Oden if you’re not going to run the offense through him?
Oden needs to see the ball more, not less. The more Oden draws double and triple teams, the more it will open the offense for Roy and others.
LeBron James would kill for a player like Greg Oden.
I think you’re going to see that happening more often in the near future. These guys have to learn to play together. It’s not intantanious; that’s why the “trade Roy” sentiment is so assinine. Look at the last game. Everybody was feeding the ball to Oden, including Roy. I just don’t see it as being a huge ordeal the way some other people do.
Now I like this idea! Can you imagine what it would be like to have 4-6 guys in double figures every night? Talk about sharing the ball and making it tough for other teams. Who will they guard?
Hmmm…let’s see Roy, Aldridge, Outlaw and Oden are averaging double figures, while Miller is at 9.8, Webster 9 and Blake adn Rudy 8….I’d say we are already there
I don’t think this issue is going to go away anytime soon. On the one hand, Brandon is the man. He brought us back to being where we are. On the other hand, it seems like everyone else but him realizes that to get better as a team, they need to play as a team, and I don’t think Brandon necessarily gets that.
He preaches about wanting to win a championship, but does he really think he can win it by himself? He got his max contract, and to me, that justifies Portlands commitment to him, so he should likewise commit himself to the team.
what signs are there that he hasn’t committed himself to the team?
I still think the porous defense is more of a problem than the offense, and is the reason they probably won’t go far in the playoffs. If Roy continues his ball hogging primadonna ways I hope they don’t make the playoffs. If Nate can’t confront him and get him to reel in his ego then we need a new coach (which many think we do anyway).
BR is good, he is going to be here a while, and too many members of the local media fawn over him instead of holding his feet to the fire. Now is the time before his attitude really takes a turn for the worse, which would make the team disintigrate.
The question for Roy is whether he can subvert his own ego in order to win a championship. If we believe the Oregonian’s reporting that he is unhappy and as a result the team is trying to appease him with more plays for just him, it’s not good.
All athletes have egos. Some bigger than others. Roy could very easily tear this team apart because he wants to be “the man.”
It may seem premature to say, “trade him,” but really it’s not. The Blazers have a lot of talent, but do you think the other top players are going to like watching Brandon Roy have isolations run for him and only him? Hardly.
Blazers coaches and management need to have a come to Jesus talk with Roy. He either gets on board, quits the whining or prepares to play someplace else.
So people clearly didn’t read the article and continue to talk about Roy’s ego. Keep ignoring facts. Idiots.
seriously man. there’s just no getting through to these sheeple
I actually did read the article. Twice. I realize the story wasn’t specifically about Roy’s ego, but when there is one story about how unhappy he is and another about the coach trying to get him the ball more it is easy to do the math. Also, one could see the move to keep Blake in the starting lineup as a way to appease Roy. Roy might be more of an individual threat with Blake in the game, but is this what’s best for the team? And no, I don’t think he should be traded.
Roy is a great talent. He is the man on the team, there is no denying that. One day he might even be able to carry a team the way Kobe or Lebron can. I just think that as long as he keeps trying to prove this last point the rest of the talent on the team will be underutilized. Also, Dwight is correct in saying that opponents will be able to shut him down in the playoffs at times, so why not get used to having other players be the focus at times?
1. Less time for blake
2. More time for rudy 26-32 minutes
3. Start miler and roy…..bring in rudy as your only other guard unless circumstances call for blake or bayless…most nights i would play one of them 5 minutes or less
4. Rudy has so much potential
5. I like the miller and rudy lineup alot.
6. i like roy and rudy alot
7. If we are going with three guards let rudy be the other guard.
8. Rudy can be a game changer
9. Blake is just……not who i want to see on the court even if he is hitting his 3’s
10. Blake is like a crutch….steady and can hit a three but not taking you anywhere….let go of the crutch and live and die with rudy.
11. Blake takes away minutes from almost everyone on the team
12. i wouldn’t pay admission to watch steve blake play
13. Just like i wouldn’t pay admission to watch OSU basketball
14. Have you ever looked at Nate’s career season by season stats……less than impressive…but better than blake
besides the rudy man-crush and the anti-blakeisms, I think you’re right on one thing. If we’re going to run a 3 guard lineup, it should be Rudy instead of Blake. Personally I’d like to see Blake replaced with Webster and then have Rudy be the first off the bench. Webster can really establish himself as a strong perimeter defender if he’s given the minutes, but Rudy isn’t bad on that end either. I would think that tonight against the Hornets we’d need to go with Rudy, but I’m not the coach. Atlanta’s game for sure we need to go with a bigger lineup.
agree….i want rudy as only guard off the bench.
martell your starter at 3
Nate must really not trust rudy….
And martell is a good player who fits well with the starters…he’s only 22!!!!!
Now, don’t misunderstand. You can’t look at the last 4 games and say that Nate doesn’t trust Martell or Rudy. They will get their time. This 2 PG lineup is a transitionary thing to get Roy, Aldridge, and Oden used to playing with Miller and having Miller calling plays. Don’t jump to conclusions just yet.
And one more thing, there’s no way Rudy can be the ONLY guard off the bench. At some point Miller and Roy both need breaks. Blake is safe, Bayless has been playing pretty decently with Rudy in the second unit. I’d hate to see Bayless lose his rotation time now. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem.
You certainly do know how to get people riled up Dwight.
A couple of points:
See if you can name all the stars in the NBA who don’t have an ego. MJ? Ego. Kobe? Ego. Shaq? Ego. CP3? Ego. Wade? Ego. LeBron? Ego. Obama? Ego.
Ok…so Obama’s not in the NBA, but here’s the point – people who are at or near the top of their respective professions have a huge ego. You have to, in order to believe you can do the things that are asked of you.
Second. What exactly has Roy said, that would lead some of you to believe that Roy cares more about his stats than winning?
Maybe it was this quote from the story?
“But the biggest thing out of all of this is I don’t want anybody to feel pressure to get me shots. I say keep playing the way we have been playing: Be efficient AND JUST WIN. I want everyone to stay with sharing the ball and passing it. That makes us more dangerous.”
Or maybe it could’ve been when he said he cared more about getting touches than wins? Oh, what’s that? He never said those words? Sorry.
Maybe it’s when he was quoted about saying he was unhappy about his touches after the Blazers won a game? Oh right…he was never quoted saying that either.
I don’t think you’ll find a quote from Roy where he says he cares more about his stats than winning. It’s funny how a lot of people are acting like he actually said those words. Talk about putting words in someone’s mouth.
So, to recap:
1. People at or near the top of their professions have egos. Roy included.
2. Roy has never been quoted saying anything near he cares more about getting stats than wins.
So, why all the sudden projection of negativity towards Roy, based on very little/circumspect evidence and a mountain of evidence to the contrary? Geez, the last time we had someone the caliber of Roy was Clyde Drexler. It took us 15 years to get another superstar and now people are clamoring to get rid of him. Wow. Just wow.
Some people can’t get out of their own way from screwing up a good thing.
amen brotha. Well said
While we are on the course of calling out people for saying people saying others said something they never said. Where exactly in Dwight’s post did he mention anything about Roy’s ego? Where in Dwight’s post did he say Roy cares more about his stats than wins? I think what was said was that if the team wants Roy to go more one on one that is not a recipe to win come post season. I agree with that. I think Lebron made the best case that could be made about one on one ISO play not winning in post season last year. Roy proved it as well to Blazer fans. No matter how dominating you may be in ISO play.
Maybe he was talking more to the commentors than Dwight about the ego thing…I do that sometimes when I’ve got a lot I want to get out there. I forget to specify who I’m talking to.
Yea I suppose you are right. Got another win tonight. All be it an ugly one. Now gotta root for Lakers to beat Nuggets. Can’t really root for Lakers. But we can root against Nuggets, right?
Yes…thank-you. I was directing my remarks toward some of the commenters on this site.
It’s all good man. Too bad the Thuggets won tonight, but I never cry when the Lakers spanked…catch 22.
oooops..Meant to say “get” spanked..I think I would cry if I saw the lakers spank anything…eeewwww…
I think allowing Roy to go into isolation is a bad move. I remember way too many games last season where many of the blazers gave up and let Roy try to win the game by himself. It was bad basketball and not too fun to watch. Many games were lost because of this tactic and it has failed many times. If you recall, Roy isolated against Houston too much in the playoffs and it costed us the series. This is a bad idea because it doesnt have good results.