Who's the Odd Man Out ?

by Philski on Oct 12, 2008 10:50 PM PDT

If Nicolas Batum continues to play as well as he has, he will earn minutes. If he continues to not just play well, but actually improve almost every time he steps onto the court, he's going to be a rotation player. Nate's comment after the game was that if Nicolas can consistently hit his shot (like he did today, but that's still a bif IF), then he's ready to be a Starter in this league " ... right now ... "

The obvious question is who's going to lose minutes to Nicolas ?

I think it comes down to four scenarios:

1) Nicolas joins the White Unit and Travis Starts. Rudy joins Sergio in the backcourt, along with Channing and Joel up front.

2) Nicolas actually joins Brandon, LaMarcus, Greg and Steve as one of the Starters (the odds on that happening after Summer League had to be microscopic) and is the Blazers lock-down defender for the next decade. Rudy moves to the White Unit along with Sergio, Travis, Channing and Joel. Jerryd sees only spot minutes.

3a) Nicolas joins the White Unit, and Rudy Starts. In an effort to have a little more speed and athleticism, but sacrificing some rebounding, Travis moves over to the "4" and Channing heads to the bench. Nate knows that he can count on Channing to be ready in case of an injury. The interesting thing is that Channing would almost certainly start for LaMarcus if Lamarcus couldn't play a particular game.

3b) Nicolas joins the White Unit, and Rudy Starts. Travis goes all the way from competing with Martell for the Starting "3" to seeing Martell go down to injury (very speedy recovery, Martell !) to getting only spot minutes off the bench. That's quite a fall from last year for "Mr. 4th Quarter"

I've listed these in order of the likelihood that I think they'll happen, not necessarily what I think would be best.

What would you prefer ?

Poll

Who's the Odd Man Out if Nicolas Batum becomes a rotation player for the Blazers this year ?

Jerryd Bayless (Nicolas Starts, and Travis tries to get his 15 shots a game with the White Unit)

9 votes

Jerryd Bayless (Nicolas is part of the White Unit with Rudy and Sergio. The three of them cause the Youtube servers to crash with all of the Alley Oop highlights)

26 votes

Channing Frye (Nicolas and Sergio develop great on-court chemistry, since they realize if they pass the ball to each other, it might actually get passed back ...)

6 votes

Travis Outlaw (A rude awakening for "Mr 4th Quarter", but it inspires him to work on his defense, passing and rebounding, instead being defined as a basket ball player by having a "wet" jumper)

17 votes

58 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

You missed some senarios

If Batum really is the “real deal” and he can hitting his shots and improving, I think one of the most interesting options would be a starting lineup of Rudy/Roy/Batum/LMA/Oden. That would probably result in either Sergio or Bayless being the odd man out, though if both of them do really well Blake could end up falling out of the rotation instead. Actually, when Webster gets back we are going to have 2 odd men out. It looks like Nate is going to have some hard choices ahead of him.

by trk on Oct 13, 2008 12:12 AM PDT reply actions

Why does anyone have to be 'out'?

I know Nate likes his tight rotations, but it seems to me that the Blazers played their best preseason game when Nate went ‘free-form jazz’ and riffed substitution-wise against Sacramento. Every time Sacramento (granted, not one of the elite Western Conference teams) started to adjust, Nate would mix it up again.

I could see Nate sticking to a 12-man rotation and using Batum sparingly until he gets his NBA legs.

by DonkeyShins on Oct 13, 2008 9:28 AM PDT reply actions

It's only Minutes

Logic says that since Webster, Batum and Outlaw are SF’s, then one will move to the third team. The guard situation will still be sorted as the guards need to be sorted. I can see no advantage in benching Frye vs. Outlaw – given that Frye is a clone of Aldridge, and seems the best fit at the #2 PF spot. And if, after 40 games or so, one forward and one guard that could get more minutes elsewhere are gathering dust on the pines, you trade them both in the spring.

The real issue will be what the devil would you trade for? We had a lot of debate about the SF spot if Webster/Outlaw didn’t step up – but absolutely none about what would happen in Batum showed the skills necessary to be the kind of player you want at SF. If that’s the case, then you’re not going to need another SF – at least not one you’d trade for. The third team would be little more than a vet with a few years left that can provide injury protection. And then, there were the never ending debates about guard. But I don’t think anything is settled there right now. Nor do I think the Bayless/Sergio debate will be settled for quite awhile. It all comes down to who advance the furtherest the fastest, and who has the best upside.

by Eben Calder on Oct 13, 2008 1:07 PM PDT reply actions

Another possibility

Is to play Frye at the 3 against teams with longer SFs (Odom, etc) Frye has slimmed down and could guard “larger” small forwards (and if the other team puts in a quicker SF, Nate could counter with Rudy at the 2 and Roy at the 3) and Channing is the best spot-up shooting forward on the team (besides Webster)

by two4larue on Oct 14, 2008 10:26 AM PDT up reply actions