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Thoughts from Monday's Practice

Fun practice today.  We got to see the Blazers work through some things on both offense and defense -- from a team standpoint. Because it's a hot topic, I thought I'd start with the units that we were seeing working together...

  • Black Team ("first team"): Sergio, Brandon, Martell, Aldridge, Oden
  • White Team ("second team"): Bayless, Rudy, Troutlaw, Ike, Przybilla
  • Red Team ("third team"): Tatum, Jackson, Batum, Randolph, Hill
  • Blake and Channing were out injured.

Obligatory note: Nate said at the end of last week not to read too much into that.  So, alright.  But I thought you'd like to know that's where they were at again today.

We were allowed to watch more than usual today, which was a nice treat.  When we entered, the guys were going through 4 on 4.  Essentially, the point guard would check it up at the top of the key, two post men would set screens and a wing would run off the screens looking to get the ball and either shoot or attack the basket.  The teams would go for about 6 or 7 reps and then rotate offense/defense.

The points of emphasis on defense were not surprising: pressure the ball, help if someone gets caught on a screen, do not foul a jumpshooter (Nate got into Batum a bit for this), and step out to bump dribblers that are trying to curl off of picks. 

Ike was having a bit of trouble with that last one.  Last Thursday, KP noted that he has spoken with Ike about the importance of team defense.  Indeed.

Most of the coaching aimed to emphasize the basics of team defense:

-- Nate told Greg to increase his volume when calling out picks: "I heard you... but still.. be LOUDER."

-- Switch on screens more frequently when the shot clock is running down, so as to not let a shooter get a clean look after playing solid team defense for an entire possession. 

-- Especially when the first team was playing defense, there was a concerted effort to trap the ball in the corners and force a long diagonal pass across court.  They were going after Bayless pretty good in this type of situation.  The weakside defender was instructed to be on his toes for that pass, presumably to intercept it and take it to the house.  Slip and slide.

-- Avoid leaving a shooter wide open in the corner while taking a swat at a player who is penetrating into the key.  Nate said something to the effect of, "We'd rather have a contested 2 than an easy 3."  This was said while Greg was playing defense in the middle, and for a lot of wing defenders not collapsing might be a little bit counterintuitive.  It's hard to let someone run unscathed towards the rim.  But with Greg in there, doing so would be counterproductive.  The implication was that all 2's going to the hoop when Greg is in the game will end up being contested.  So, wings, just let the big fella handle it and stick with your man.

On the offensive side of things, the main point of emphasis seemed to be on the wings working to get open by using off-ball screens effectively.  Nate got on Martell a little bit for not using the picks rigorously enough, but Batum was guarding him and Martell didn't exactly need a pick to get any shot he wanted. 

Some other random observations:

At one point, Nate had Rudy and Bayless switch spots on defense, so Rudy could get some reps guarding the point and Bayless could run the gauntlet of screens guarding the wing.  This only happened for a few reps, the rest of the time they were in their usual spots.

When the first team was on defense, the second team really struggled to score. Even with both Bayless and Travis (or Rudy) on the court, the 2nd team often found itself unable to get a shot up in 24 seconds or simply taking contested shots that weren't falling. 

Greg looked quick today on both sides of the ball.  At one point, playing offense, he was coming clear out to the 3 point line to set screens.  It wasn't the lumbering move to set a pick that we're used to from most centers in the league.  It was quick out to the 3 point line, set his feet, then quick back to the basket. 

My favorite sequence of the day occurred when Batum was guarding Brandon with the ball near the 3 point line, and Greg came through to set a pick.  Well before Greg even got there, Batum was looking over both of his shoulders, trying to sense where the pick was coming from.  Nate blew the play dead and told Nic that his job was to concentrate on the dribbler and control the ball, and not worry about getting hit.  Nic nodded in agreement but it was a funny moment.  "Easy for you to say coach, you don't have Big Greg rolling up on your blind side about to lay the wood to you."  That scene underscored how good Brandon is with the ball too, because he wasn't tipping off the direction of the screen with his eyes or his body.  So, imagine you are Nic: you've got a brick wall showing up to your left or right side, and you know it's coming, but you don't know when it's coming and you have no idea from which direction it's coming, but when it comes, your man is pretty much guaranteed to fly by you instantly.  Well, jeez, coach, of course there's a temptation to check the rearview mirror.  Nic will not be the only person in that position this year.

Speaking of Brandon, he again looked smooth with the ball, and he and LaMarcus are looking very, very fluid together.  They are doing the small things, like ball handoffs, essentially without eye contact, just based on a familiarity with each other.  It's a beautiful thing to watch.

Last but not least: the Sergiomaniacs can rejoice.  Sergio took Tatum to the rack from the left elbow, drawing all sorts of defensive attention, and then flipped the ball behind his right ear to Greg who was standing wide open and ready for the pass on the left baseline.  Greg caught the quick pass and threw down a big slam. 

It was the play of the day.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS... if you've read this far you deserve a treat.  KP just wrote back about our Thanks KP post to say, "I read it the other day and I am very appreciative of all the comments. When I looked it was at over 180 comments." 

Really, really good stuff Bedgers!  If you left a message, your voice was heard.  How many teams' fanbases can say that?

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Thanks, Ben!

.. for very enjoyable reading. You’re great at painting personalities along with you your description of events.

by jayfisher on Oct 6, 2008 6:03 PM PDT reply actions  

How many teams fansites get this level of reporting on practice?

Really good coverage Ben. I love the team’s emphasis on D.

by JMoon on Oct 6, 2008 6:06 PM PDT reply actions  

Sooo....

…Oden looked more spritely today?

Defense, defense, defense! It might seem like it’s boring, but good defense keys the fastbreak and gets us exciting dunks and blowouts. We got the pieces and intelligent dudes to be a good defensive team, but I’ll still give it some time to gel.

I think we’ll be even better than we were last year, and more willing to gamble, but the lockdown team I envision in the near future will take some time… especially with 3 big rotation players having a steep learning curve to overcome.

Thanks for the report Ben, it really is awesome the team allows this access. BUT COULD WE HAVE EVER DOUBTED THE GREATNESS OF THE BLAZERS?!

I wonder what KP would think of leaking that “can’t guard a table” line… nah, he probably doesn’t mind, he wouldn’t have told a group of fans that if he didn’t mind it being said. Plus, it’s not like Ike had a good rep for defending anyways. His offensive potential is what people always liked.

Thanks again, Ben, and thank you Blazers for making our dreams come true!

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Oct 6, 2008 6:16 PM PDT reply actions  

i forgot to mention the followup to that table joke was

“and i’ve told ike that many times.”

BRANDON ROY GET WELL SOON

by Ben Golliver on Oct 6, 2008 6:17 PM PDT up reply actions  

'if you've read this far'

c’mon, we’re hanging on every word. I bought pre-season tickets close to two weeks ago probably, and that game is tomorrow. I know it’s only pre-season, but still OH MAN THEY’RE GOING TO PLAY A GAME TOMORROW WITH ALL THE OFFICIAL RULES AND IT"LL BE AGAINST ANOTHER TEAM!!!!!!!! YESSSS

by 50backflips on Oct 6, 2008 6:29 PM PDT reply actions  

hear hear

i am so pumped too, it’s ridiculous. you might get 10,000 words out of me tomorrow night.

BRANDON ROY GET WELL SOON

by Ben Golliver on Oct 6, 2008 6:44 PM PDT up reply actions  

I can't wait either.

It almost seems like a dream that I get to see my Blazers in action tomorrow. It’s so close, these last 24 hours are going to eat away at me.

by Bskey on Oct 6, 2008 6:50 PM PDT up reply actions  

Greg Oden is playin ball

I luvs it.

See’n him on the court. FIRST PRESEASON GAME

BOOYAY!

"You're really making me feel good about myself, little man," says Oden as he starts dancing after scoring a goal. "You better come harder than that."

by BlueBooYay on Oct 6, 2008 9:14 PM PDT up reply actions  

Great report Ben,

Its good to hear coach is still coach and won’t let the team slack on the details, and poor batum, You’d think Nate would want him to avoid the screen. WHAM!

"the Knicks are an ongoing experiment in sporting altruism, with the motto "We suck, so you don't have to." This is the designing principle. Stop overcomplicating things."
-jawaan oldham

by faith on Oct 6, 2008 6:51 PM PDT reply actions  

isn't it Batum's teammates responsibility

to warn him on which side the screen is coming from. It sounds like those third teamers are hanging poor Batum out to dry on defense.

This team looks to be shaping up to the Mid-90’s Sonics when Nate played behind Payton with Kemp and Detlev Schrempf. They caused all sorts of havoc on the wings with traps that led to stolen passes for easy buckets in transition. Last year we were barely starting to trap at the end of the season. It sounds like we’ve picked up where we left off in last season. Nate is going to make this an all-team defensive squad.

A couple of questions for Ben: how easy was it for the Black unit to score on the White unit? Is the white unit making them take tough shots or is the black(starting) unit having thier way on both ends of the court?

by NWfan on Oct 7, 2008 10:07 AM PDT up reply actions  

ideally both brandon and greg are disguising which way the pick comes, up until the very last minute. the help defender can only do so much but with a single sideways dribble brandon can place greg to his left or to his right. so you would hear something like this from the help defender

“uhhh…. left…. no right…… no left…… oh crap it was right right right right…..”

as to your question, brandon and lamarcus are pouring in buckets on everyone. we need channing back, no one can stay with lamarcus’s length.

honor terry porter

by Ben Golliver on Oct 7, 2008 10:16 AM PDT up reply actions  

Thanks

that is very good news, yet bad. TI is good that our starting unit ie going to be very imposing. However, it is bad because it shows that our second unit is clearly a step down from the starters. OZf course, it’s a lot to expect anyone to shut down Roy and Lma offensively.

by NWfan on Oct 7, 2008 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions  

Nice to have confirmation that KP and I are on exactly the same page
Last Thursday, KP made the comment that “Ike couldn’t guard a table.” Indeed.

I thought this blurb was interesting:

At one point, Nate had Rudy and Bayless switch spots on defense, so Rudy could get some reps guarding the point and Bayless could run the gauntlet of screens guarding the wing. This only happened for a few reps, the rest of the time they were in their usual spots.

Yep (meaning I agree with what Nate is doing here).

Nate got on Martell a little bit for not using the picks rigorously enough, but Batum was guarding him and Martell didn’t exactly need a pick to get any shot he wanted.

Are you saying that Martell has Nic’s number? That Nic sucks on defense in general? If you want can you please clarify this?

Good write up Ben! Must have been cool to get some more minutes of observation. Thank you for your good work!

the Spanish contributors on this board are hellah cool

by G_dubs on Oct 6, 2008 6:55 PM PDT reply actions  

batum is just young and developing and not able to physically compete with martell yet. martell bodied him a bit, had better elevation when shooting, has better body control to create space, just what you would expect from someone with martell’s experience compared to batum’s.

batum appears very coachable, although when i travel to foreign countries i tend to nod and agree with everything that everyone tells me. but he defintely gets a fair bit of personal coaching from both nate and monty and he is working really hard.

overall he is still tentative and timid, but that is no surprise.

martell was going pretty hard too.

BRANDON ROY GET WELL SOON

by Ben Golliver on Oct 6, 2008 7:03 PM PDT up reply actions  

Thank you for expanding your thoughts

Great report!

the Spanish contributors on this board are hellah cool

by G_dubs on Oct 6, 2008 7:57 PM PDT up reply actions  

Unfortunately, tentative and timid was part of his game in France too

To the point that scouts wondered if he avoids contact too much. He needs to work on this.

Odenied: If you're given lemmings—make lemming-ade (Bow4Meow)

by Norsktroll on Oct 7, 2008 1:29 AM PDT up reply actions  

The coaches

Need to hypnotize Batum into believing the other team stole his yummy flaky croissant!

Or that the enemy team wants to make him endure a 40 hour work-week!!

Or ban him from watching Jerry Lewis or Steven Seagal movies!!

Or that the other team will make him cover up his nipples at the beach!

Any of those will steam Batum’s snails but good! He’ll be a French Bayless in no time if we succeed…
On this, all depends.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Oct 7, 2008 1:40 AM PDT up reply actions  

Does that mean

His arms shrink?

"Why would we lie to ourselves dude?"
"Be excellent to each other."
"All we are is dust in the wind, dude."
"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

The Wisdom of Bill S Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan

by GreatOden'sRaven on Oct 7, 2008 12:16 PM PDT up reply actions  

Ben

What is the smart money bet on Steve and Channing back in action?

by southern oregon on Oct 7, 2008 12:15 PM PDT up reply actions  

no idea, wish i knew…

quick will break that news when it’s ready to be broken.

honor terry porter

by Ben Golliver on Oct 7, 2008 12:19 PM PDT up reply actions  

when i travel to foreign countries i tend to nod and agree with everything that everyone tells me.

Reminds me of Bill Murray back in the SNL “Cafe Olympia” skit where they only sold cheeseburgers, chips and Pepsi

by two4larue on Oct 7, 2008 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions  

Ben, Thanks for the great coverage...

… and for the signature!

"Easy for you to say coach, you don't have Big Greg rolling up on your blind side about to lay the wood to you." - Batum

by No you di'nt on Oct 6, 2008 7:30 PM PDT reply actions  

Made my day Ben

My eldest is named Ben,ask Sergio or Rudy how to say it en espanol when you get a chanch and it comes like ben haw mean.

by southern oregon on Oct 6, 2008 8:16 PM PDT reply actions  

Niiice...

"You're really making me feel good about myself, little man," says Oden as he starts dancing after scoring a goal. "You better come harder than that."

by BlueBooYay on Oct 6, 2008 9:11 PM PDT reply actions  

I'm glad they let you into practice. I'm pretty disappointed they don't let us see all the pre season games.

One is better than none, but I know tickets to it will be too expensive. Last year this guy tried to charge me like 60 dollars to the Sonics vs Blazers preseason game. After I told him Durant and Oden weren’t playing I got 2 for 20 but I know it will be 10 times worse. The prices are going to be jacked up since we got Bayless, Rudy, and Oden playing. Along with a much better Aldridge, Outlaw, Roy, and Webster.

I hope every game sells out this year but I know the only way I’ll get good seats is from a few people in the Blazers office that sometimes give my uncle free tickets when they can’t make that game.

by BRoyInThe4th on Oct 6, 2008 9:51 PM PDT reply actions  

Thanks Ben

Your keen eye for observation may be why only a few practices are open to you guys. Most papers can’t print the details but here we devour it like a single potato chip and clamor for more! Other teams don’t need to scout the Blazers this year – they can get all they need at Blazers Edge from Ben!

More! More! More!

when you’ve been in a dry land even a little dew looks inviting —Dave

by lee3022 on Oct 6, 2008 10:36 PM PDT reply actions  

Thanks Ben

Tell KP my wife’s feet still stink.

Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision

by tominhawaii on Oct 7, 2008 8:10 AM PDT reply actions  

Awesome.

"They are all human. There's nobody I'm really scared of, or worried about playing against." -- Bayless

http://www.myspace.com/y5k

by Y5k on Oct 7, 2008 9:03 AM PDT reply actions  

Thanks...

It’s the little stories like the one about Batum and looking over his shoulder that make your writing about practice just so……excellent! Thanks Ben.

by antediluvian on Oct 7, 2008 9:12 AM PDT reply actions  

Batum

So, imagine you are Nic: you’ve got a brick wall showing up to your left or right side, and you know it’s coming, but you don’t know when it’s coming and you have no idea from which direction it’s coming, but when it comes, your man is pretty much guaranteed to fly by you instantly. Well, jeez, coach, of course there’s a temptation to check the rearview mirror. Nic will not be the only person in that position this year.

This made me laugh a lot, thinking about some of the opposing teams guards laying flat on the ground after running straight into our brick wall Greg Oden.

G.O. Blazers

by Hookah_John on Oct 7, 2008 9:21 AM PDT reply actions  

Ben,

What were your impressions of Brandon vs Rudy? Did they guard each other much, how was Rudy as a facilitator/scorer?

College Football Doghouse warden: Why are you here?

Me: I got kicked in the nuts by a 5-7 beaver.

by premthegrem on Oct 7, 2008 10:15 AM PDT reply actions  

rudy’s fan fest performance was by far the standout look i’ve seen from him so far. so if you’ve seen that, you’ve seen him at his most spectacular.

not sure if i’ve seen anything from rudy yet to write meaningfully about him. other than: he works dang hard and he moves his feet very well. we’ll know a lot more tonight. he should see a lot of court time.

honor terry porter

by Ben Golliver on Oct 7, 2008 12:22 PM PDT up reply actions  

Great.

I am gleefully awaiting tonights game. I feel like Rudy has the best chance of our newcomers to become an explosive player (not surprising considering his strengths), and thus I am most excited about watching him play. My prediction for this season is Aldridge is our leading scorer at 25 ppg. If Oden is rock solid, Brandon will prolly dip to about 15-16 ppg with the assorted Kidd-like assists/rebounds/etc. If Oden is a (god forbid) dud, I think Brandon will be right there with Aldridge at around 22-25 ppg.

College Football Doghouse warden: Why are you here?

Me: I got kicked in the nuts by a 5-7 beaver.

by premthegrem on Oct 7, 2008 5:06 PM PDT up reply actions  

Thank Ben,

I was wondering how Oden looked on offense.. are we talking Dalembert bad or only D Howard bad? Someday I hope for Olajuwon bad.

"Why would we lie to ourselves dude?"
"Be excellent to each other."
"All we are is dust in the wind, dude."
"Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

The Wisdom of Bill S Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan

by GreatOden'sRaven on Oct 7, 2008 12:19 PM PDT reply actions  

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