I totally disagree that “we have so much versatile talent”

One of the problem in our roster is that, outside Roy, we have too many one-dimensional (or at least not all-around enough) offensive players. Let’s take a look:

Blake: outside shooter with ZERO penetrating skills.

Outlaw: no penetrating & low-post skills. only effective weapon is outside shooting.

Rudy: good shooting. can drive a little better than Blake does but lack the strength to do any real damage.

Sergio: only good at passing, ZERO shooting and penetrating.

Batum: has potential for being versatile, but too raw to make an impact offensively now.

Przybilla: never an offensive talent and shouldn’t even be in this discussion.

Oden: has potential to provide inside scoring and improve the verstaility in our offense but was impossible to happen so quickly in his first season given all the circumstances – being a rookie, foul trouble, injury, and being out-of-shape.

Frye: need I say more?

Aldridge: should be the 2nd versatile guy in our team. but as can be seen from the Houston series – as long as you can push him out of his comfort zone in low post, he will be reduced to strict mid-range shooter.

I definitely think our system has some area that needs to be improved, but sometimes it’s limited by the personnel.

Yes Adelman is a good coach. However, as we’ve seen many times this series, a lot of times even he has trouble having Brooks and Artest under control.

By the way, it’s not that hard to make Battier an effective weapon. He’s an extremely one-dimensional offensive player (68% of his shot is 3pt) Adelman is not using him in a smarter way than McMillan would have been.

I’d never really seen him in that light. If he were a Point Guard with the same traits, I think I probably wouldn’t be much a fan of his at all (Iverson? uck.) But as a shooting guard, I think you’re right that a lot of the downsides to his game have been overlooked.

You’re probably right about most all of what you wrote in this particular post (but let’s remember not ALWAYS right…specifically recently thinking of the Kent sitch, as well as, erm,…the result of this series…) There probably all those and other issues that the blazers need to address. They probably will get addressed, and the blazers probably will address many of them in one way or another. We should all be able to safely step back from the ledge a bit.

When TNT or ESPN show run their “wired” segments, I noticed a few times that Nate is practically begging them to get the ball inside first and then work outside. I think their style has more to do with types of players rather than the coach.

That being said, their system practically demands that Roy have the ball in his hands the whole game because of Blake’s inability to create off the dribble. They need a guy there who will either a.) push the ball on the break or b.)create something easy off the dribble for either himself or his teammates. Either way, Portland needs to figure out a way to get some easy baskets. Blake is nice, just not as a starter.

These Blazers overacheived and were in over their collective heads. It showed. Only BRoy and LMA were ready for this level of competition. Everyone else was a no-show.

Roy will eventually trust others more… but not until one of them steps up and deserves it.

Before I take heat for saying he may be expendable, yes he’s turned into a very serviceable player and excellent three point shooter.

But next year, assuming Martell comes back healthy, your adding between 120-140 made three point shots into the mix. This offsets one of Blake’s main assets. Nobody can argue he’s a great guy and leader off the court, but on the court? Kyle Lowry, a guy I had never really heard of, just manhandled Blake. Remember the spacing with James Jones and Martell?

That’s the biggest issue facing the Blazers. Pritchard and Nate have to decide if they want to play more uptempo or post-upmore, and be less Roy-centric (1-on-5). The uptempo duo of Bayless and Sergio (20 and 22 years old) would be a good combo you could live with, assuming Martell is healed and ready to be an assassin with his 3’s.

Last, Nate has lots of flaws but one strength nobody has mentioned is that even if Nate has player who are very upset at him or his style, well they DO NOT DARE cross Nate, at least not in public. At some level, not all coaches have that level of respect of NBA players. They may love Nate, they may hate Nate, they may fear Nate but the players and fans respect him. Nobody, not even fans dares to heckle him to his face or behind his bench, his looks can kill, his size doesn’t hurt either, he commands respect.

Dunleavy was brilliant but the players lost his respect for whatever reason. That’s why when Sheed threw a towel at Sabonis in the middle of a timeout during a rivalry game, Dunleavy had no clue how to fix that, the locker was shot. Cheeks was a joke. Everybody stepped all over him.

People should be careful what they wish for when say, replace Nate, we could become Clipps, Warriors, Kings-north, tons of young talent and a revolving door, chaotic locker.

Starting/playing Rudy 41 minutes doesn’t help if one doesn’t take advantage of what he brings to the game, i.e., MOVEMENT.

The only way Nate will change his approach is if the players he relies on aren’t here. Last year it was Jarrett Jack; the year before Z-Bo. The future of the Blazers is Brandon Roy and that future is a plodding, iso-dominated offense.

Granted, Roy is one of the premier players in the league, but he/we could be so much better if there was more movement without the ball.

Anyone else remember the plays where Rudy fed Brandon for monster dunks? In particular, there was an out-of-bounds play under the basket and another where Brandon broke to the rim from the foul line where Rudy simply nodded; Roy took off and dunked off the Rudy pass.

Rudy plays a lot better when Sergio is in the game because Sergio is always looking to pass and rewards the player who moves. Likewise, Rudy has had some great passes to LaMarcus and Oden (and will pass to Pryzbilla), but if Roy has the ball it is rare that motion is rewarded (although both Blake and Outlaw are rewarded for sticking to a spot).

Since Roy, Aldridge, and Oden are our “untouchables,” I’m not sure we’re going to see any different style in the near future. Good news for those who like slow, relatively mistake free games; bad new for those of us who like movement offenses.

I think we have the horses to run, but I don’t see it happening.