Bayless receives the Jarrett Jack treatment from Blazer fans about a week or so before th All-Star break.

Book it.

Is that people usually overhype rookies to an endless degree then become so worried that they are overhyping him that they underhype him and basically make it like he can’t play at all.

I think Bayless will be a solid player for us. I expect somewhere around 15-20 mins a game, maybe 8 pgg and 4 apg with a PER somewhere around 12. Not great, but not worthless.

I remember an NBA scout once said that Martell was the worst player taken in his draft and would be out of the league in a couple years (read it on TrueHoop IIRC). You just gotta take all this with a grain of salt.

Don’t you just love “rumors”. Bayless didn’t even show up until Tuesday, and he arrived in a suit with his parents. So when did he practice? And who made the comment? The “word is”doesn’t say much about who gave “the word”. Anytime someone makes vague references, it often turns out to have been just that, a vague reference.

(Read the below and then ask yourself if KP would be so assertive and direct – given these words will come back to haunt him in a hurry, if he were “disappointed” in Bayless’s skill level. 40 games isn’t much. And to those who don’t think Bayless can play point – he played it for most of the last 5 years. So, we’ll see.

Kevin Pritchard, the general manager who has a spotless record of identifying young talent, is the one insisting Bayless enters his professional career with training wheels, placing the University of Arizona product somewhere between a project and a rotation player.

“And maybe that is me just being a little over-cautious,” Pritchard said. “The biggest thing with him is we are going to have to show patience; we are going to have to live with some of his mistakes. But this kid is going to figure it out - it may take him 40 games - but he is going to figure it out.”

Bayless was insistent he won’t need training wheels as he enters his professional career. He said the questions regarding his ability to play point guard are off base. He said he has played point guard all his life until last season, when, beset by injuries, Arizona shuffled its lineup, moving Nic Wise to point guard and Bayless to shooting guard.

“For the sake of the team, I moved over to (shooting guard),” Bayless said. “But I know I’m a point guard and I know I feel most comfortable at that position.”

Pritchard said Blazers fans will soon discover that Bayless has an unusual quality: fire. It was a trait often lacking last season on a Blazers team that is slowly developing a stereotype as being too nice. With Bayless, Pritchard says that will change.

“That fire, you will see it, it will come out,” Pritchard said. “Sometimes you will say, ‘Whoa, that’s too much.’ Other times you will go, ‘That’s exactly what we need.’ It’s an internal drive that he has that is amazing. And I don’t think he really cares if he is going to make people upset. I think he wants to win. And sometimes he is going to do whatever it takes to win, and if people are going to get upset, then people are going to get upset.”

My take as well. He showed up Tuesday with his parents and couldn’t be announced to the world that he was a Blazer until yesteray late. Then he signed. Now, he’s a Blazer – and now, he can start playing. Until then, he didn’t belong to us – and we couldn’t touch him until he did.

Ropp is trying to stir the pot to create controversy and increase his ratings. Bayless has exactly the skills the Blazers need at the point: shooting, slashing and quickness the will be key to the 2nd unit.

Here’s the deal: if Jerryd has half a head, then he’ll see where Jarret went wrong, and that’s in defense. How many times have we heard Coach say, ”... if you want to play for me, then you have to play defense…?” I can remember accounts of Jarret’s apparent increase in “lateral movement” from years before, and still the opposition was blowing by him.

If there was anything I was looking for from videos or descriptions from him game it was how quick he was. However, quickness doesn’t imediately translate into defense, it is a serious building block for it. They both seem to have the abillity to drive and finish well, where Jerryd needs to better Jarret is in kicking it out if in trouble, where Jarret wouldn’t.

Bayless must learn from his predecessors (namely Jarret for the similarities of their game) least he stumble into their pitfalls and go the way of a journeyman. Yes Jerryd can shoot better and is quicker, but where a PG really makes a difference is in his decision making. If he doesn’t try to do it all himself and think he’s so much better than who he’s playing instead of deferring to a more open teammate, then he’ll be “the fit” and do just fine; prove himself in his head and heart first then in body.