Outlaw is Rejected

They are frustrating because they have always seemed to be one step forward and one step back. Hopefully Travis will continue to improve.

At his best, Travis Outlaw could join some garbage squad — such as the Memphis Grizzlies — and possibly mirror Al Harrington’s numbers when he was with the Atlanta Hawks for two seasons. Beyond that potential, though, Outlaw is nothing more than a mediocre, albeit easily replaceable role player on a playoff contender.

but he is really going to have to turn it on for me. Once gain in this game tonight, the jazz defense totally changed once he got the ball in his hands. All the defenders immediately started looking for the off-balance contested jumper they knew was sure to come. He is becoming a black hole on offense, and a defensive liability. I hope he proves me wrong as I agree with some of your points, but we have been waiting for this guy for a while now.

and could easily support a trade involving him…

… but even I don’t understand the protests over his playing time in last night’s game. Does anyone remember how good he was in the 4th quarter last season?

It took Travis about a month to get going last year, perhaps it will again.

In the meantime, I can’t fault Nate for trusting a 6th year pro more than a 19 year old rookie, no matter how promising that rookie may be.

The main problems for the Blazers right now are Roy’s tentative play and the woeful rebounding from the 4 position… Travis is down the list significantly.

He missed a wide open three near the end that would have tied the game.

Travis doesn’t know where he belongs…he even ran over our point guard (blake) somewhere in the 4th quarter causing a turnover

I don’t care what he did out there last year..he doesn’t mesh with the offense at all, his D is marginal, his rebounding isn’t like Nic’s…the idea that he MIGHT be a better isolation player in the last seconds does not make up for the liability he is all the rest of the time.

Handing him the ball and hoping he might create something beause it’s the 4th quarter is a rediculous offensive plan..bringing him in in certain set plays in pressure situations might be worthwhile if you are gonna bnk on his past performance as a solid predictor of he present, but having him out there the whole fourt quarter cost more than one or two shots could make up for.

Batum adds intangibles that make everyone else around him look better — TO does the opposite and it shows..am i supposed to believe that that was the "clutch" team out there? by what measure? And why predict that Batum can only produce in the first half? do they rearrange the basket for the 4th quarter? heavier ball or something?

Nic was the thing that made it all work — Off rbds, tipped balls, defensive stops, blocked shots, proper floor spacing — b a s k e t b a l l — not continuing to use him in that game was a poor coaching decision ESPECIALLY after the team demonstrated 0 cohesiveness and flow… it was made by thinking rather than by observation

that is thinking that a 19 yo “rookie” shouldn’t be depended on, might make mistakes, might could should — whatever — the observations were that Nic was contributing in ways no one else was and that his spark mighta helped win the game. how will we ever know if he is a pressure player if we won’t put him in pressure situations?

but he’s playing better than last year and he’s not the main reason we’re losing.
I’d rather think about what’s wrong with the team than propose trading Outlaw.
We should be discussing what’s wrong with LMA, how should we use Rudy, etc.

In the course of this ongoing discourse between sophia and Outlaw is rejector that photo was a emotional punch in the gut. Nice!

is we’re losing on the road against elite teams. We’ll probably lose tonight. Not the end of the season yet. I’m riding this one out.
As for Outlaw, and I’ve said this before, it doesn’t matter if we trade him or not. Trade him for what? You can’t really get more than his value. You can trade him for a defensive 3 but don’t we have that in Batum? Trade for a PG but you’re aren’t going to get a PG better than we have. Even if you throw in Blake or Sergio, I don’t see a lot of teams in dire need of getting rid of a good PG for a couple of second string players. It does seem like once he touches the ball it’s two dribbles and a pull up jumper. I saw some pretty bad shooting decisions last night.
Psst…I’m the second best looking Bedger

“One thing people continually neglect to focus on, is the fact that Outlaw is one of the more important team players on this roster”

Just no.

People are being finicky right now, and Outlaw is getting more blame than he deserves.

Travis has shown that he’s not a starting 3. What he can do is play against second stringers profitably, although he’s a gunner and probably not much longer for this team in even that role. But NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN UNTIL MARTY IS FULLY HEALED UP AND BACK,so it’s kind of goofy getting too stressed out about the need to trade him fast… It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen this year, but it’s not going to happen in November or probably even in December… (Shaddap already!)

The pack-hate of Travis is a little bizarre and more than a little disgusting. It reminds me of the two-faced venom dumped on the head of any number of departed Blazers — beloved heroes to hated villains in the blink of an eye. Travis is what he is as a player, which is what he was all along… He does some things really well (he can elevate and get an open look against anyone), some things pretty well (blocks shots), and some things not well at all (overall defense, passing).

I will point out that Travis is good for double figures on any given night. Which is saying something in the NBA. Darius Miles without the bling…

The thing about him is: his role as 6th man has been supplanted to some extent by Rudy. As a “7th Man,” he starts looking like a greedy freestyler instead of the “scoring spark off the bench” he was seen as… Same player, different perceptions… I also think his cause was deeply hurt by the Oregonian feature story on him, in which he was revealed as Stat-bo II — a self-interested player with a desire to start and to rack up more shots and more points in the coming year. It made his lack of good shot selection glaringly clear THIS season, whereas he was no doubt jacking the ball up just as much last year, uncommented upon.

Again, Annie’s beloved #25 will be out of here, sooner rather than later, but until he truly is “superfluous” — which means AFTER MARTY IS BACK.

And one more thing: his being gone isn’t gonna solve the REAL ONGOING #1 PROBLEM WITH THIS TEAM — the lack of a tough 4 that can play in the paint. That was the #1 deficiency last year and it remains. But that’s a topic for another thread…

1. The emergence of Batum as a bonafide NBA player;
2. Batum and Webster’s skill sets mesh better with the rest of the group on the floor on both offense and defense;
3. Our time is not now, it’s in the future, so we have time to allow young Nic and Martell to mature and blend in;
4. He’s the only expendable and highly-skilled player on the team with a high trade value;
5. When he backs up the four he makes us even wimpier;
6. The fact that they re-signed Martell even though he hasn’t proven anything on the floor yet this year, plus the fact that Batum is already getting megaprops from coaches and teammates, are clear indicators of which direction the team is going in the future.

I love Trout. The team loves Trout. Trout is NOT the reason for the slow start. Trout IS a huge reason why we rose up to .500 last year. I just don’t see him fitting in with the team long term, that’s all.

My analogy (a bad one) would be Petrie. He was outstanding, and a great guy, but it was good that we got rid of him before the championship year. The offense and defense would have suffered with him in Ramsay’s system.

Rebecca (I believe) asked LMA about how he felt on the Batum start. He said (paraphrase):

“Nicholas is younger, more active, has more energy. Travis is a veteran but when Nicholas is on the floor he brings a little more of the defense that we need.”

Did you hear that? This young, 24yr old guy, the guy we’re waiting on for potential, the guy we would expect to bring energy and youth and enthusiasm, is being passed up by Batum for exactly those things.

I was stunned when I heard that. It cemented my opinion on what the future holds for Outlaw on this team.

There is no reason to call for Travis’ head. He still has a place on this team and all this criticism could be directed toawrd any of our players.

Lets face it, we are not a good defensive team. Lets blame all our players for that, not just Travis

Trout in the lineup with Sophia…everyone looks good next to her. (drum sounds) duh dum pshhhtt

Outlaw: “Dang a hot blazer fan who wants to be photographed with me!?!?”

Sophia: “I will kill you.”

“Travis is great! Let’s never ever get rid of him! Not even straight up for Gerald Wallace!” :-)

OK, all kidding aside, last night’s game gave me two reasons why we should not let him go:

1. Maybe he DOES have a future with significant minutes at the backup 4.

2. In the TNT postgame show Barkley mentioned that the Blazers really don’t have a true go to guy in the clutch. Now maybe he fell asleep after watching the final play in regulation, but that made me think of Outlaw.

For all of Trout’s flaws, you know that he can create a decent shot for himself at anytime, against anyone in the NBA. I’d say he ranks even above Roy in that regard. And that is a valuable skill to have when the offense bogs down, or in a grind it out playoff war scenario. Even on that final play, it was the THREAT of Outlaw that messed up Houston’s D and created the opening for Brandon.

I still think Trout is expendable and could be dealt (IF it allows us to upgrade at the 1 or the 4), but if he show that he can be a force at the 4 on both ends of the floor, then there is absolutely no reason to let him go.

but only because he is a great bargaining chip we have (cheap contract, expendable position/contributions per league value). He hasn’t been playing particularly badly though. If you want something to blame our losses on, look elsewhere.

For example, LMA NEEDS TO PUT HIS BACK TO THE BASKET. He needs to post people up like Sheed, not face people up like a softee. And for the love, GRAB REBOUNDS AND DUNK HARD—NO MORE SOFT LAYUPS!!

Or better (and probably more accurately yet), look to our tough schedule and the fact that we’re out 2/5 starters that we heavily planned our offense around.

I agree ;)