Play Bayless or Die

we are in “make the playoffs” mode. I have full confidence that Nate will play Bayless if and when he beats someone out for their rotation spot. Until then, I have no problem with him riding pine.

lol

It’s only a matter of time.

I wrote this song to turn you on…

Okay…fine. I get it. HOWEVER, I just hope Bayless is happy and comfortable and waiting without thoughts of leaving. We WILL, eventually NEED HIM…

I think Bayless is going to be dominate on the defensive end once he gets a feel for what he can and can’t get away with as far as contact.

He’s fearless and his ability to get into the lane with ease will be a great asset.

We have the shooters and the big men to take advantage of that…….can you imagine and end of game line up with Bayless, Roy, Rudy, Aldridge and Oden?

    On a deeeeeeep, talented youg team. Injuries
and poor play sometimes change things and
BRex will be ready with his game face working.
Never fear !

sort of like the Vote or Die campaign that Puffy and Snoop Dogg ran.

but jermaine played behind all star…bayless is playing behind 2 guys who don’t really have the confidence of the entire fanbase as longterm solutions at the position.

The Rasta, the Sheed and the Bonis…hmm maybe I shouldn’t have written Bonis, any ways that was a completely different team, coach, and management. and if it takes 3 years for J-Bay like it did for O’Neal and if we start hearing things like Bayless beating up on our other guards like we heard from Sheed and other people who would watch practice about O’Neal, then I think we start to complain…just not now in middle of a 4 game win streak.

if Bayless can step in and do as good a job.

I think he will actually be a great player. A Monta Ellis who can defend.

On most teams his non-PGness would be a minus, but on a team with Roy and Rudy it’s actually a plus— a guy who can shoot and penetrate when we need him to and play off of the ball, but also defend the opposing PG so our real playmakers in Roy and Rudy are free to not have to.

I don’t worry about Bayless at all. In fact, the only thing I worry about is that he will become too good to be a 5th option on a winning Blazers team. After we’ve won for a while, he’s proved he is a real talent but not more important to the team than Oden/LMA/Roy/Rudy, I could see him wanting to be a star on his own team.

Time will tell though, and it’s a good ‘problem’ to have. Maybe he becomes so good we CAN’T lose him, but I predict it’ll be that grey area where he is undoubtedly talented, but undoubtedly not so much better as to give him a bigger role at the expense of Roy/Rudy/LMA/Oden.

Even though I think he’ll be really good, as long as Sergio is giving us more of what we need in the 2nd unit, I am totally for Sergio to play ahead of Bayless. He’s earned it. Now, I still think he is way mad overrated by certain segments of the Blazers Edge populace and that he has such massive holes in his game that I worry they’ll ever be closed even a smidgeon, but what he does (pass) he does extremely well.

I’d feel better about Sergio if the assists led to layups and dunks like Nash does, and not a series of mid-range jumpers and three’s, but that’s largely because his defender doesn’t have to defend him to score and only has to defend him to pass. Nash can score as well as anyone if they play him to pass, so you’re damned if ya do damned if ya don’t. I know shooting is one of the most basic skills anyone can improve on with enough work (and I mean nearly ANYONE can), but Sergio is sooooooo bad at shooting that you wish he could be half as good as Jason Kidd out there.

And unlike Kidd in his prime, Sergio will never be great defensively. Once Oden is in shape, I hope Sergio is let loose to just ballhawk and take risks in the passing lanes to get some defensive juice out of him. I bet he could do that.

Bayless is the rookie, 20 years old, on a talented team. If he is good, he’ll get his shot and make the best of it. Our team is winning, doing well, and developing Bayless in actual games isn’t necessary right now. Sergio has been a game changer and attacked the enemy 2nd units really well, so I see no reason to change it up now.

I think sitting will only help Bayless… keep him hungry and working on the other parts of his game.

Mortimer

But he might (might) in the second game against Minnesota, or against Sacramento (2 games) or Chicago. Rose and Gordon torch bad guard defenses right now, I watched the Dallas game today. At least I hope to see him a bit this month

…………………………. That’s a potentially winnable road back-to-back (a rarity!) but I know Nate and he’ll go down with the ship and his 10 man rotation in the 4th Quarter — the legs will go and the Blazers will lose it.

What he NEEDS to do is run Rex EARLY and for TONS OF MINUTES and save Brandon for the second half. Then he’ll have gas in the tank to finish it.

Road back-to-backs are enormously predictable games though. I don’t think there’s a single coach in the league that understands how to use the complete roster for max effect in those — and the road team ALWAYS fades in the 4th Q.

He reminds me of a much better version of Jarrett Jack. I am sure he will get playing time, but he needs to learn the system and learn how to pass. Sure he can play scrappy, score and defend (at least in Summer league), but can he get the team involved?