I saw that article as well, however I am entirely not sure why I still bother reading hoopsworld, as they tend to just float ideas without much thought. It is really the US Weekly of basketball. If you want to know what celebrity forgot to wear underwear, or what rumor has been floated by some biased local beat reporter these are golden resources. If this is going to cause much grief to those who are sure that Bayless is going to be the ROY, I present my substantive comeback: Hoopsworld just got done trashing Oden a couple of weeks ago [turn on bad guy music]. I don’t really think that Bayless is going to do much more than help in replacing Jack for the time being, I think he will prove to be undervalued in this draft by his 2nd or 3rd year.

But, I think it’s more of a sign to the popularity of saying how great the Blazer roster is, and the prowess of KP. For the national media it is becoming a fad to heap praise on the Blazers, and even if it’s off base, I’ll take it. Considering we’ve been the punching bag of the league for quite a few years.

We have yet to see Bayless pass like a pg. To his credit he hasn’t had a ton of true pg minutes yet, and even when he does who’s he going to pass to. The more troubling statistic is the turn overs; which are very JJack esque. I’ld like to see those reduced more than anything. I expect to see JLess get decent minutes during the season, but not with 5 minutes left to go in the 4th. He’ll fill the role of sparking the offense on back to backs and when our offense is sluggish in general. I think he could be a solid role player to fill up the score board when we’re dragging, even as a rookie.

He will probably end up only being the 3rd best rookie on our team. I think Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Beasley, Love, and Marc Gasol have the best chances of winning the ROY.

Like one of you said, it’s nice to get some attention. As far as Bayless, I listen more to KP and the coaches than the beat writers. After all, they have just a little more experience and a much better track record when it comes to evaluating talent and picking players to fill needs. My view on Bayless is KP’s view. He’ll improve, but I think KP will turn out to be dead right, which is that as this draft is evaluated in a year or two, Bayless will in fact turn out to have been the 4th best player in the draft . In fact, he was almost even with Mayo on their charts. All we’re seeing is the fact that KP and his scouts and coaches were right. KP has been saying all along that they had a very comprehensive book on Bayless. In turn, they picked him not only because he was the 4th best player in the draft, but because he had the skills to complement Roy. Not take over, mind you, but complement. He’ll never be a pure PG in the mold of a Rose. Rather, he’ll share that with Roy. Different concept. They wanted someone who could guard the opposing PG’s, for example, and other than Westbrook, he was the top rated guard for that duty. They wanted an attacker, and he’s demonstrated that he’s as good as any guard we could’ve gotten in that role. And, they want someone with the brains and skills to share the PG duties with Roy. We know the kid is bright and has the skills, but we also know that those skills will need to improve. But, as Mac knows, you can teach those skills – since he himself made that transition after turning pro.

Will he be ROY? I have no idea. In fact, I suspect that Beasley or Oden will be the more likely ones. But like KP said, give him 40 games and he’ll have it pretty much figured out. I still think that the Blazers believe that they have the three guards for the three guard rotation Mac likes now on the team. Fernandez is the third. Fernandez fits nicely as well. After all, he brings an outside game to the table that’s likely better than Bayless or Roy.