It seems like Sergio and Roy can play decently together when Sergio is at the point. When Roy shifted to the point, the offense wasn’t as fluid because Sergio isn’t a big enough threat to keep the defense honest when he doesn’t have the ball. Which was why Blake was brought in at the end.

In Phoenix for a while, when Nash sat down, they had Barbosa at the point with Diaw in at PF. Barbosa would run the break and Diaw would orchestrate when the half-court offense became necessary… each filling in for part of Nash with their own skill-set.

Given Sergio isn’t an amazing catch-and-shoot player, but he could improve (further), and if he and Roy play together more they could potentially make it work. Sergio runs the break and brings it up court, and hands it to Roy to initiate half-court sets if the defense is set. Are Manu and TP a bad paring in San Antonio because they can both create off the dribble? TP’s outside shot used to be pretty friggin bad.

Really… what kind of PG do you want? One who can’t create off the dribble and find open shooters, because that’s Roy’s job? Of course you want a shooter… but it seems like our team has more than enough jump shooters to spread the floor even if our PG isn’t great at it. Saying that Sergio’s assets make him incompatible with Brandon just seems silly.

Frankly, the verdicts on player’s futures around here are tremendously premature. Can everyone settle down a little bit? We’re 8 games into the season.

Although I think that our pace of play will eventually pick up over the next few years, it will never fully suit Sergio’s style. Additionally, Sergio’s defensive abilities don’t suit the Blazers. I think Sergio needs to go to a second tier team that likes to get out in the open floor for a few years so that he can figure out what his capabilities really are.

Our biggest need is for a defensive pg which Sergio isn’t. The Blazers are one of the worst defensive teams in the league and will need to improve substantially in this respect to have the success we all want them to have. Picture our squad with a pg like Rondo or even Ricky Rubio harassing opposing pg’s into forced entry passes to the wings which would be stolen by Batum and Rudy. This alone would get us out in transition more.

The one thing that I think will work in Sergio’s favor, is what I perceive to be a gradual league wide shift to more helping man to man defenses (think boston) and aggressive trapping zone defenses like LA sprung on the Blazers in the first game. These types of defenses don’t invalidate good individual defenders, but do elevate the value of good team defenders (like Rudy for instance). More importantly for Sergio, this shift to trapping, helping defenses is designed to take away iso’s and 2-man games and force more motion in offenses. IMO anyway.

Look at the Spurs. Tony Parker is primarily a fast break player and an awful shooter. Duncan is basically a half court player, and they have a similar ball handling do-everything off guard in Manu Ginobili, who might as well be a starter. I know Tony Parker is one of the best finishers in the game, but if anyone on the spurs bothered to run with him, I imagine he’d get them the ball.

Now, Sergio will almost certainly never get the chance to have the full keys to the offense here for entire games at a time, which could mean he’d never have a role like Steve Nash does, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t eventually start or play big minutes here. He’d have to improve him shooting a little, but anything mid-30’s or higher would be acceptable, which I think is within reason.

As far as defensive PGs go, I’m not worried there. The past few years the way the best teams have slowed down top PGs is by putting a longer wing on them and laying off and challenging the jump shot. San Antonio does this with Bowen, the Suns used to do it with Marion and even had Diaw guarding Parker in the playoffs last year. In the long run, I see us putting Batum or Webster on the opposing point guard and tell them to keep them out of the paint and get up as best they can to shoot contested 18-20 footers.

I mean, despite the scoreline, I thought Batum did a pretty decent job on Wade last night, and if you can keep up with Wade at all, you can keep up with anyone in the league.