I honestly didn’t see this coming. I thought with Rudy and all it would be buddy-buddy time.

If Sergio can net us a future 1st ala Telfair, I’ll be ecstatic. Frankly if Sergio was cut from the team, I wouldn’t care. He’s a backup PG on a middle of a road team.

no way does he stay unless Blake or Bayless gets hurt.

   Sergio knows the situation here is tough for him. That’s reality. But the wheel is still in spin, so to speak. He’s a long shot to carve out a longterm role on this team. But I’ve followed basketball for a long time and sometimes, often actually, the unexpected can happen. If we keep Sergio this season I’m almost 100% sure that at some point he will be given a chance, through injury to others or random circumstance. At that point to use another cliche, it would be up to Sergio to seize the day. If he is unable, or unwilling then indeed it will be Adios Sergio, BUT I don’t think he’d be on the roster right now if The Blazers had already given up on him. In 1 year the speculation of now will be all past tense, and we will simply know….but I have enough respect for the flashes of talent that Sergio did demonstrate to not necessarily count him out yet.

Didn’t get this impression there.

In 2 years he’ll be easily better than Blake. We’ll find out this year if Nate and KP are capable of foresight at the PG position.

like this makes sense for both teams.

FROM GOLDEN STATE
PG C.J. Watson
2010 Second-Round Draft Pick

FROM PORTLAND & TO GOLDEN STATE
PG Sergio Rodriguez

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=32773025&teams=229&te=&cash=

Watson, who’s contract is only partially guaranteed for $100,000 this season, would be waived after the deal.

Anyhow, Rodriguez will most likely return to Europe after this season. I can’t blame him, either, for that’d be the most practical career move for him.

but when Outlaw says he wants more than twenty shots a game and to be a starter that just shows his drive to be better. hmmm….

I voted for the Serg to go back to Europe as that’s a place for a sweet-passing, poor-shooting, no-defense-playing guard to make a good living.
However, I voted based on last year’s performance. If Serg’s shot is better and he improves his defense and waits for screens to be set on the offensive end, I would vote to keep him.
There ya’ go. I didn’t mean to hate on Serg with my vote. I’d be stoked if he turned it around this year.

I am not sure he cracks the rotation, but if he shows a decent amount of improvement to the coaches during practices and workouts, I think it would be smart to see him play out his rookie contract and then see where he is at as a player. He is still very young and has a lot of potential. I see no reason to trade him for a 2nd round pick that likely wouldn’t ever see the floor, let alone have a chance to make an impact like Sergio could he improves some of his weakness’s…

Q: “How is Jarryd Bayless?”

Sergio: “…Brandon Roy, but with less talent.”

———————————Say what?!

HOWEVER, I really do think he could be a good NBA point guard— as long as he really, truly, motivatedly works on the parts of his game he is downright AWFUL at.

Being an amazing passer and playmaker is awesome, but not if you can’t shoot or play defense to save your life. Jason Kidd can’t shoot, but he is/was an amazing playmaker who played All-NBA defense. Steve Nash can’t play defense, but he’s a terrific shooter to go along with top o’ the NBA playmaking ability. Sergio just has the playmaking portion down.

Also, aside from the pick n’ roll we cram down people’s throats (and for good reason: it always works), Sergio hasn’t seemed capable of running a real offense. He creates and gets a lotta assists, but it’s always feast or famine with him. He needs to know how to find that happy medium and not rely on only being successful when running.

He IS very young though, and he still has a lot of potential. I see a real true NBA PG there, but if he still isn’t at least mediocre at shooting and defense, he’s just a bench player.

Sergio is in a tough situation, but a trade could liven his life up. He will have to improve exponentially to be at Rudy and Bayless’ level, what with the roles they’re gonna play and the talent level we know they got. Sergio COULD improve by leaps and bounds and still not be good enough for THIS team— but it’d be good enough for a team like Minny, Miami, Golden State, take your pick.

I talk a lot of [stuff] about ol’ Sergio, and that is more out of compensating for the blind love he would receive while not really being all that good. I was on the Jack side of that duel, that’s for sure. I imagine I will want as many minutes as possible to go to Bayless and Rudy, and not any “wasted” on guys I can’t imagine us keeping for much longer.

We don’t need anyone to sop up minutes when we have such a scarcity of them around.

Of course, we don’t want to give him away. Sergio still has good value. I’d hate to do a minor salary dump of his marginal salary and only get a 2nd round pick outta him— he isn’t worth much to us but for another team he could capture the fanbases’ imagination like he did for us. Help be their rebound relationship as they rebuild from a crappy team to mediocre. Teach them to love again, like he did for us.

Sergio will always get more attention than he deserves for his flashy play and exoticness, so I wouldn’t mind less focus on the kid. We got more important matters at hand than wondering why a (at BEST right now) 3rd string PG isn’t getting more than 8 minutes a game.

I don’t blame him for wanting to be elsewhere if he doesn’t play. This IS his career, and as long as he isn’t thinking he deserves the minutes when he clearly doesn’t, I can’t be mad at him for this quote. Why should we? Any one of us would think and feel and say the same thing, if we were an early 20’s young raw PG who could use some minutes.

If Sergio still has a disconnect from the real reasons he ain’t playing and what he needs to improve on, he’ll never become good enough for anyone and would go back to Mexico. I doubt he’s that dumb though, and if he really wants to be in the NBA he’ll work to improve.

If he wants to be a big fish in a small pond and doesn’t want the challenge of being in the NBA, he can coast a bit and just head back to Eurolandia and be mediocre forever and just have fun.

Mortimer

A lot has been said that Sergio will ease Rudy’s transistion (which it will), but I think it will bring an additional comfort level to Sergio. I’d see the second unit as Sergio (PG), Jerryd (SG), Rudy (SF), Outlaw (PF), and Joel (Center). He could have a lot of fun distributing to that crew.

doesn’t go backrupt before next summer. Sergio could be lookin’ for a lift.

I don’t know if I am one of them.

He’s not going to get minutes and Portland, and unless someone wants to take a flyer on him — Washington, maybe? — he’s going to get more money and more burn in Europe.

I gotta say Ben, my heart sank when I first read that thinking that Sergio was already traded. I don’t even think it was that bad of an interview after the translation, and nothing to point to the fact that he’s leaving. In fact, even before this it was painfully obvious that this is a sink or swim year for him. But the title coming from our Blazers insider was misleading to say the least and the quote that was the main body of the lead in to the thread was taken out of context of the rest of the article. I realize it must be tough when the article is in Spanish, but at least wait until a player is gone before you report in a title that we are saying goodbye. Seriously, he room spun when I read that.

My two cents on the article itself, I can understand him. He might not be a good fit here in the long run. I would want a shot somewhere where my skill set is more valued and I would get more time to develop as well. But make no mistake about it, he has A SEASON to prove he still deserves a shot. Every year in sports people believe that the past provides a predictable line to what will happen in the future. It never happens exactly like planned. Underdogs rise, powers fall, and it happens in unpredictable ways. The third year guy who comes from nowhere, the former star who just can’t deliver after signing that big contract, ect. SERGIO IS NOT GONE YET, and this premature speculation is just that. 40 games from now there will be a lot more valid comments about him than there could ever be now.

Sound like this guy has some crazy hops!

but, is it just me or would you rather have heard about an impressive alleyoop by greg oden, tossed up by j-bay?

I’m excited about what I’ve been hearing about Bayless during the 5-on-5 runs. I think he might even earn minutes with Roy in the 4th. But Bayless didn’t play point at Arizona. He looked bad when he tried it in summer league. Bayless,Travis, Channing, Pryzbilla—sounds great but I can’t imagine a lot of crisp passing going on. Perhaps Rudy can be the facilitator from the 2, but otherwise we need a distributor like Sergio or a healthy Livingston. Sergio is the only blazer on either unit who has successfully involved Pryzbilla in the offense.

This isb’t like Sergio to just knock his team-mates but if he has done it once he is likely to do it again like Ron Artest, I’m not saying Rodriguez is like Artest but it’s not what the Blazers need I think that the Blazers should put him on the block and see what they can get for him because he will go back to Spain soon anyway and if he is unhappy he is wasting a roster spot.

El Blog del Pistolero (The Gunman´s Blog) mentions the interview by Jugones with Ben, “one of the editors of the interesting Blazers Edge”. El Pistolero mentions the Sergio´s interview for Marca with the title “Sergio watch the glass half empty, half full”, saying that Blazers Edge has an alarmist vision.

Of course Sergio will want to leave if he’s not playing. He’s a young player with good potential who wants a chance to show the world how good a player he is. A player of his youth and abilities should never settle on being a third string point guard.

He’s been patient, for two years going on three years now, he’s given the club all the time they need to find out whether or not he has a future here. He’s been loyal. If it doesn’t work out from here he has to leave for the good of his career.

He listed a few points of similarity between things Sergio said and things other NBA players have said when they are on the path out of town:

“sergio is doing the things that a disgruntled player that wants a change of scenery does: pay lip service to his current franchise/town, engage in long discussions over playing time with his coach, complain to a sympathetic media (spain) for more minutes, hint at negative feelings he has over whether the team respects him and his abilities, and make statements that could be perceived as slights toward his teammates.”

I would have preferred that Ben put the aforementioned question mark in the title too, simply because when I read it I though Sergio had already been traded. Ben, please don’t mislead me like that again! But I don’t have a problem with the way Ben expressed his opinion about Sergio’s comments and what he thinks they mean.

A larger point is that this team has moved on from its rebuilding days. We have a lot of serious, talented players and high expectations now. Nate and his staff are moving away from developing players and moving toward playoff basketball. The team doesn’t need Sergio as much as they’d like to see him succeed. We’re going forward with or without him, and given the talent, basketball smarts, and effort of all our other guards, I think it unlikely that Sergio can rise in the depth chart. I hate to say it, but the team has left him behind, and the only realistic course of action for him now is to find a rebuilding team that can play him a lot of minutes and be patient while he learns how to play NBA ball.

Remember “Rebecca Haarlow likes to party,” a story that was really about Erin Andrews?

What hap’n to her, anyway?

Link

UltimateNBA: How have you spent a long summer for you, without competition, after so many years coming to the call of the Spanish national team in different categories? Overloaded batteries?
Sergio Rodríguez: It has been a little bit strange summer for me, after the whole life in the national teams, but I have made use of it to improve my physicist and technical aspects of my shot.
U: What flavor has had for you the silver medal in the Olympics?
SR.: I am very satisfied for my partners and for the Federation. It is deserved, and very much, although it is clear that I had liked to be part of it and having been in my first Olympic Games.
U: What targets do you mark to yourself facing the period that in only one month begins?
SR.: My personal target is to play more minutes, to have more continuity and to be more important for the team. Only that, although for me it is already great.
U: And what target must the team have? Is the presence inexcusable in next Play Offs?
SR.: It is true that this year the team should play Play Offs, and in them, be once competitive, try to give some fight and why not, to win some round.
U: Do you have the impression of which the transfer of Jarrett Jack in exchange for a player like Jerryd Bayless has been the first sign of confidence of the Blazers towards you in 3 years?: or do you see Bayless as a direct competition in the position of PG despite he´s not a pure PG, I mean distributor?
SR.: Man, it is not possible to know that until the games do not start and the coach is testing the players and decides whom he is going to give more playing time. Clear that both Bayless and Brandon Roy can play PG despite not being the ideal position of both, but at first sight Jack’s transfer is not a bad sign for me.
U: The arrival of Rudy Fernández what does it suppose for you? From Spain there has always given me the impression that you were slightly helpless by the media compared with the rest of Spanish in the league.
SR.: It is good news to have Rudy as teammate, who in addition to being a compatriot is my friend. And with regard to what you comment of being alone, I have never felt this way, since I have adapted myself very well to the city, to the American life and take very well with the group. I hope I´ll help to Rudy so he adapts as rapidly as possible too.
U: Do you see Rudy with real options to enter the rotation, you that you meet perfectly McMillan?
SR.: Rudy is a first level player and I am sure that he will be in the rotation, although what it is necessary to bear in mind is that the season is long and very tough, and especially for an European rookie there can be logical ups and downs.
U: How much do you believe in McMillan´s words praising Rudy to the skies and giving him chance of playing minutes every night?
SR.: At first it is necessary to believe them. Certainly with the Olympic Games that there did Rudy, all the Blazer people are very expectant.
U: How is Greg Oden? Do you see him like a center that can make the difference in the next years?
SR.: Greg Oden is going to be a dominant center, especially defensively, in rebound and intimidation. I do not believe that he is going to be much of a scorer, at least at first, but he has everything to be able to dominate. Between LaMarcus Aldridge and Oden we have a very great inside game for the next years.
U: During this summer it seemed that your name has not appeared in transfer rumors. How do you value it?
SR.: Very well, perhaps there have been conversations and they didn´t go out to the public light, although we players can do little.
U: Had you preferred a change or you don´t think about it?
SR.: I always have wanted to triumph in Portland, though if it cannot be and to play habitually I have to change team, since what needs. Any thing to triumph in the league.
U: Is there any team in which you would like playing in a future?
SR.: I hope in the Blazers, and if not, the place does not matter to me. With 14 years I went away to Bilbao, with 17 to Madrid and with 19 to Portland.
U: Talking about Ricky Rubio coming to the NBA in a next future, you like a player who went young to the NBA, would you advise him anything? Perhaps to finish his development in FIBA or trying it as soon as possible?
SR.: Each one has to choose what he thinks is better for him and I am not anybody to give advices. Also there is no exact science. My dream was to come soon and to play many years here, and I am doing.
U: To end. Will we see you with the Spanish Jersey in the next European?
SR.: Certainly I will work for it.
U: Thank you very much Sergio for devoting ourselves part of your time and a lot of luck in this period. We will follow you very closely.
SR.: Thank you very much to you, I hope that you could speak very much and well of me.