Player-by-Player: Travis Outlaw

I love Travis, he is a Blazer, and he is amazingly gifted physically (if ya know what I mean wink wink). He can definitely score, so he’ll always be good as a 6th man, but I have zero idea how his career will go otherwise. We can all HOPE he’ll improve and HOPE he’ll have another jump like he did this past season, but who can tell with him? Most guys don’t take 5 years to become a rotation player, even out of high school. Travis’ path has been different than most, and there isn’t exactly a lot of precedent to get a good idea of what he’ll become.

With Martell, you got better scoring/shooting numbers and improvement in all areas of the game. You can expect more of the same as experience and confidence rises. With Roy/LMA/Oden, you expect all aspects of their game to improve. Can we assume the same for Travis?

And this isn’t necessarily a knock on Travis, as I really really like him the person and him the player. He could become an allstar-level talent, or he could always remain a scoring curiosity who occassionally goes off. There is even less certainty than normal with the kid, and it makes it a doubly edged quandary when you think about trying to get a better PG, and that Outlaw is possibly our most valuable semi-available asset… but is there more to Travis we haven’t seen that makes him worth keeping at all costs? I sure as hell HOPE so, but I am the least certain about what he’ll eventually become over any other Blazer.

In general, I am for keeping a promising young player until you know what you got. Even after 5 seasons, we don’t know what we got in Travis Tiberius Outlaw the IV, esq., and as we move further towards the turning point in our team where we transition from decent to good, his mystery becomes frustrating and intriguing. Do we make him the center of a trade where we get a guy we KNOW is good and WILL help us win? Do we hope Travis fulfills his immense potential? What IS his ceiling?

I got no clue with this kid. I think it would hurt to see him in a different uniform.

One of my favorite things about Travis is that he seems like a guy who will ALWAYS be happy to come off the bench. That is pretty valuable for team harmony, and gives us greater depth and consistent scoring. Humble, talented dudes aren’t exactly a dime a dozen…

Mortimer

pizzes me off. He may learn differently than others but that doesn’t make him stupid, slow or any other of the perjoratives some want to label him with. If one takes the time to notice, he has improved his game tremendously in just the last year alone. In the first 2 or 3 years of his tenure as a Blazer the atmosphere was not exactly conducive to learning to be a part of a team or knowing where to fit. In fact, he’s the longest tenured Blazer and he’s only 23. I’m not even sure those early years should be counted when discussing his growth. He was a kid from a very sheltered childhood who happened to be tall and very athletic and suddenly found himself in the NBA on a very dysfunctional team. As I said, he may learn differently, but that’s okay. So did Einstein. I think Travis is one of those people who learns in a very linear way. If you’ve noticed, he seems to take one thing at a time and learns it very well. I may be a little sensitive here because I have a child who was labeled learning disabled in the first grade. As it turned out she has an IQ that’s off the charts. She just learns differently.

All the delta’s are showing up as black, which supposedly means that all of Travis’ changes from last season are insignificant.

That doesn’t look right.

I knew he hit some big ones a few times, but nearly 40% is pretty good. Percentagewise, that’s better than Webster. Of course, Martell has a bigger body of work to judge from. Still, if Outlaw becomes recognized as a legitimate 3pt threat to spread the floor, becomes more consistent, and improves his defense, I think we have the starting SF of our dreams not named LeBron.

All the trade rumors concerning Outlaw will be squelched when we win the number one pick in the 2008 NBA Draft and take Derrick Rose for our Future PG. Until then, though, Travis is going to be the most valuable piece we have who isn’t one of the big three. As long as the dreams of Calderon and Harris still dance in people’s heads, Travis is the only piece we have with which those trading partners will be enticed.

I can’t imagine Outlaw being our backup PF again next year. This year, due to our attrition at the bigs, his production increased because he was able to take advantage of matchups at the PF position. Unfortunately, we gave up tons of second chance opportunities and didn’t rebound the ball well.

With Oden back, we don’t need to play Outlaw at PF. The question is then, can he continue the same type of production at SF?

The other problem for Outlaw is his ability to play in a team offense. He’s most effective in iso situations, most of the time, settling for contested fade away jump shots. If he’s off, then he’s not going to be very effective.

Hopefully next year, Outlaw continues to grow and mature as a player. I would like to see him be more effective in transition and off the ball.

I don’t know much about babies, but that baby looks like he’s concentrating on one of the 4 things babies do. The others being sleep, cry, and eat. It’s a cute Dr. Evil like photo, but I know what that child is doing.

I sure hope Travis is here next year. I don’t know who will replace his production off the bench. Maybe Frye if he gets to play power forward with Joel at center.