That´s fair and enough.

We’ve got a bunch of youngsters playing against players they grew up watching. I can get why they’d be a little introverted at first.

This, too, shall pass.

i like your tough attitude. This post is raw dood. I like when posters go Hard on radio personalities that have no sense.

...and I was thinking that Dave should set up an arrangement where The Game uses BE fanposts as material for on-air discussions.

If anything was soft about that topic, it was the topic itself.

Seriously, I love that there is still all sorts of Blazers discussion on sports radio deep into the summer, but the quality of the discussions I’ve tuned into has been pretty lackluster. Maybe they worry if they discuss more nuanced topics in more depth (the kind which often appear on this site) it would preclude too many fans from participating, or maybe it’s too hard to come up with logical, coherent responses on the spot on air. I know a lot of the better responses on this site must have taken a while to present.

Oh well, at least I can still crank on the radio and hear Blazer talk. Maybe I shouldn’t be too greedy.

A true daily double.

I agree with you that Chad’s take seemed off-the-cuff. Checkered pasts don’t equal toughness. Plus those kind of players usually end up hurting more than helping no matter what their talents. This begs the question, though…what is toughness and in what ways might the Blazers need some?

One basic element of toughness is being physically imposing. For the last couple of years the Blazers have been young, which means they’ve also been at a physical disadvantage compared to most teams. Yes they’re skilled, athletic, and quick, but Nate himself said that watching this team has been like watching boys play against men. The NBA game is ultra-physical. Weight, strength, and leverage play a big part. This is what all of those weight room sessions and off-season workouts are for. Some of it will also develop naturally as guys move from 19-ish or 22-ish to 26-ish. To tell you the truth, Greg Oden ain’t gonna hurt either. In this sense of the word you probably wouldn’t be looking to add a player to provide toughness. Just wait. It’ll come.

There’s also a mental/emotional/experience/attitude component to toughness though. Distilling it down it basically equates to: Are you willing to do whatever is necessary to win? This league is neither clean nor polite. When the games get intense enough, especially in a playoff atmosphere, your opponents will use any available means to put you off of your game. A lot of those means are physical. I 100,000% guarantee you that scouting reports are sprinkled with phrases like “doesn’t like contact” or “avoids physical play”. Those notes are repeated verbally in practices and shoot-arounds. If your opponent discovers a way to bother your game that you won’t respond to they will exploit it all night long. This is where the toughness comes in. You have to stop them. You have to make it more costly for them to bother you than the advantage they gain by doing so. You have to make life harder for them than they’re making it on you. For a team that wants to get really physical with you that usually means you have to respond in kind. That doesn’t mean a jerk attitude. That doesn’t mean looking for trouble. But if their center is laying elbows into your point guard on picks somebody better teach him a lesson or your guy is going to get hammered into oblivion. Are you willing to do what it takes to win that battle within a battle? That’s the measure of toughness.

There are other situations too. Are you willing to drive the lane knowing you are going to get hammered? Are you willing to put up that jumper cleanly with focus and form knowing that the defender is going to stick his foot under you again? Are you willing to run through that double-screen after your man knowing that Mr. Pork Chop is just salivating for you to do so? When you’re tested you have to respond. That’s toughness.

You look at a player like Travis Outlaw. He’s tall. He’s fairly well built. He’s very athletic. He can score one-on-one on anybody. He would not be the kind of player you’d depend on to be tough, however. He likes to leap, lean, and fade on his jumpers instead of driving through guys and taking it to the hole. Contact, or even the threat thereof, usually disrupts his offensive game. He seldom gets angry or intense out there…a disease of which the coaches are frantically trying to cure him. He has the physical tools, but not that mental/emotional makeup. Contrast that with Jerryd Bayless who, at least in summer league, was nothing BUT intense, took contact left and right, and refused to let anyone or anything get in between him and his goal. That guy is tough.

And yes, even though people seem to squirm when I say it, being tough also means being able to throw down if necessary. There’s ample precedent in Blazer history. In fact we’ve never had a great team that didn’t show this ability. Maurice Lucas was one mean hombre if you crossed him. Recall the famous story of him nearly throttling the scab referee with his own whistle in the Chicago series back in ‘77. Jerome Kersey’s one punch knockdown of Kenny Norman is legendary, as were his on-again, off-again battles with Xavier McDaniel. I believe Quick shared a story a couple years ago about how Terry Porter, upon getting knocked around really good by Karl Malone in the playoffs, gave him a friendly little love tap in the groin as he passed on a screen, thereby ending the abuse. Brian Grant sparked with Malone a few years later. It’s not so much that you have to go looking for a fight, but opponents have to know that you’re able and willing should the eventuality arise, otherwise they’re always going to feel like they have the trump card to make you shy away. All of these cases were isolated, but you didn’t need more than that. Once it was demonstrated nobody messed with you that much anymore and you got back to playing basketball. Nobody in their right mind messed with the early 90’s Blazers. They KNEW they were going to get killed by those forwards and maybe the guards too. The current Blazers have yet to inspire fear in anybody. Even in the modern, Stern-rules, no-contact wonderland of a league we have, this is still a necessary component of toughness.

In any case, a player of questionable background demonstrates none of these things, and as such would be ineffective. It’s far more of a stereotypical assertion than a factual one. However the general sentiment may be correct in that this team will have to step forward and prove they can handle themselves. Heretofore they have not really had the opportunity. It will be interesting to see whether they step up.

—Dave

I did write this …....”However, I wouldn’t mind The Thrilla to take out the next guy that comes at Roy though. Suspension? Screw it!.”

Elegant huh?

I really do think they have a good start. LMA going after Odem was what I liked seeing. If he does it again though,(third times a charm?) LMA needs to cold cock him.

Than to see a guy stand up for his teammate. Such has been the case for Roy and LMA on several occasions, as well as Pryzzy and the dear and departed Jack. LMA has oft been considered “soft”, but to me has shown flashes of brilliance in the post as well as flashes that he’ll throw down if need be.

I have a theory, and I don’t know if this has widely been talked about or not, or if I’m beating a dead horse, or if people think I’m way off base, but I’ll go with it. LMA wasn’t able to demonstrate he can be a dominant PF, mostly because this past year the C for the team was Pryzzy. Now, nothing against Joel, but he’s never been offensive minded. Never will be. Given that, when LMA gets the ball in the post, do you think the opposition is going to focus a lot of energy on making sure Joel doesn’t get the ball? Probably not. Their main goal would be to stop LMA from getting to the hole and require him to take a 8-15 footer (which LMA has shown he can do ad naseum).

So yeah. Using last year as a guage for the team, or individual players toughness is a recipe for foot-in-mouth syndrome later down the road.

Best fanpost I’ve seen in a few weeks. I agree nearly 100%...solid observations throughout the post.

Smooth has been lifting to add strength. He’s also been
working on his ball handling. Most important, GO will
help him with some toughness, by allowing him to get
off the ball blocks and intimidation. GO will be a lynchpin
for our toughness & defense !

COINCAST SUCKS ! BRING BACK OUR BLAZERS !!!

I don’t know who thinks we’re soft.

Obviously tough
Brandon Roy - always takes it to the rack-right in your eye
Bayless - Same
Steve Blake - the dude is tough. He’s a second round white guy and he competes at an extremely high level.
Pryzbizzle - I didn’t know Minnesota was a manufacturer of solid steel until I saw Pryz.
Oden - Call him soft and I’ll call you blind and refer you to the U.S. Library of Medicine’s page on vision impairment

Maybe soft
Jones-always injured, doesn’t like a lot of contact….but don’t know if he’s soft
Channing Frye-is he soft or is he Rasheed Wallace without the mouth?
LMA - If you watched the games against the Spurs this year or the Jazz, you know he’s not soft. He was right in Duncan’s grill, and in Boozer’s grill. I don’t know who the heck labeled him soft.
Webster - For being as big as he is, he ought to take it to the hole more. With that said, I’d say he’s more of a less-focused player than others. He just tends to float on the court. You might be able to call him soft.
Outlaw - Excuse me, but soft-spoken doesn’t = soft. He does need to bulk up a bit so he can bang with PFs, as he often guards them. However, if he bulked up tooo much, he would lose his advantage he has over most PFs-speed and agility. I’d say he’s conditioned for a specific purpose and advantage, not soft.
Sergio and Rudy—Yeah, soft. But what Euro isn’t? Rudy isn’t too soft…he looks like a warrior in Europe, but sure…maybe over here he’ll be “soft” while adjusting. I don’t buy him being soft, but I’ll give you Sergio.

In essence, none of our key players are soft. Every team is going to have some bench players who are soft. But none of our key guys would I label “soft.” End of story.

1.) This team wants to WIN.

You can look at players staying late, putting in the extra work, Aldridge shooting for HOURS after the game and press has left and we’re being kicked out by security…

Desire to win is everything. People who crave it, who hunger for it… they are in NO way soft. You can believe they’re as soft as you want (DUNCAN) while they’re walking up the aisle to receive their many trophies.

2.) Did you hear the tone of voice that Greg used when asked about how he’d feel having his shot blocked?

You could TELL his teeth were just NASHING at the thought and he went on to say that he’d JAM that basketball over the other person and slap that ball right back in their face the next time they attempted to score. In other words… it would be personal.

3.) there have been reports that Aldridge is NOT coming out as a nice guy next year.

I believe it was Casey who mentioned this a little in interviews, but last year may have been the last year we think of aldridge as soft. He has developed his build and strength and will be able to support a stronger attitude now.

4.) Bayless

Even if you thought the rest of the blazers were soft, bayless isn’t and he’s our future starting PG.

I’ve pretty much been ignoring the debate/conversation because people will think what they think. I figured the blazers would just show everyone this upcoming year.

................................. defending your own low post and not being afraid to take it to the opposition’s low post.

Brandon and Pryz are both tough NBA players… LMA and Martell and #25 and Frye are not.

Next year there will be a tough player, Oden, and a tough player, Rex, added to the mix. I don’t think that 4 tough guys on the team with allow the “soft” comments to gain much traction. I’d like to see LMA start to play “harder”—but you can’t make a monster truck out of a Camry…........ Not that there’s anything wrong with a Camry. Still a LITTLE more cajones would be nice…

t