Outlaw's injury a chance to learn

no injury could have prevented the inevitable “who cares about Outlaw the person?” reaction. I doubt anyone is going to argue other guys are going to get their opp to fill in the void left by Travis’ injury. Whoever that may be- best of luck. What I think (and hope) is going to happen is maybe a few dissenting eyes will be opened when the team is looking for that scoring option off the 2nd unit that isn’t there and the “I wish we had Travis in there” sentiment begins to surface.
Because his game is less multidimensional then others, it’s always going to cause the fault finders and finger pointers to look away from his strengths and point out his weaknesses. I remain convinced Travis provides a valuable piece to the PTB puzzle and regret it may take a prolonged absence from injury to really understand why Nate has faith in Travis and puts him out on the floor, often late in games.

One other thing I feel compelled to bring up yet again, is the discounting of chemistry as an element of success. How can anyone who followed the team thru the disastrous chemistry experiments of the past not understand the importance of assembling a team that believes in each other, gets along together and has strong characters? Maybe Travis and Brandon being good friends isn’t the biggest deal on the planet,but they are both outstanding character athletes, and that is vitally important to not only the teams success, but has been vital in re-invigorating the once disenfranchised fanbase. I love this team. I believe in them. So much that winning at all costs isn’t as important as having total respect for them, which I do.

I can’t go as far as to say I’m looking forward to life without Outlaw, or seeing what life without Outlaw is going to be like, in competition I think you want every available asset you can have, and like him, or dislike him, Outlaw has shown that he can contribute significantly on any given night, in any given game. Up to this point I thought Outlaw was having his best season.

Now that being said, you do make some good points. All summer long, into this season the talk has been about how ridiculously deep this team was, how we could never keep everyone happy. Well you certainly can look at this as opportunity, it is opportunity to see who can and will step up to fill the void.

We just lost a lot potential bench scoring. That means everyone is going to need to step up from Rudy to Bayless and Howard. I am curious to see how this team reacts. This should mean increased opportunity across the board.

Even though the other day I posted (Pre-Travis Injury) about the idea of The Blazers making a consolidating trade in the future, once again this season has unfolded in a totally unpredictable manner. Coming into this season it would of been unrealistic to believe we would progress through the entire season without injuries but just a few months ago would you of believed we would be less than 15 games into the season and already not have Outlaw or Batum?

It’s the old cliche, adversity or opportunity or both.

There have already been nights when nothing seemed to be working for The Blazers and Outlaw came in and became our offense. I’m sure we are going to have stretches where that happens again, and now it will be up to Rudy, Howard, and others to all step up,

No, I guess I’m indifferent about Outlaw, which might be rare in The Blazer world of fandom. I like having bench players that have the skills and talent to change a game and make a difference, and I would define Outlaw in that manner. So I see Outlaw as being an important if not “vital” part of this team. I also know the knocks against Outlaw, his defensive weaknesses and his ON or OFF offensive game, but on this team as deep as it was, I thought this was something The Blazers could deal with. The other odd thing I was sensing from Outlaw this season was IMO almost a newfound level of maturity. When we were losing, Outlaw was the player that seemed the most level headed, he did not panic. He’s a young guy, but he’s been playing in the N.B.A. a long time now, and I thought it was begining to show, in a good way.

So Yes, I agree his injury leads to exploring new looks and line-ups. I agree it’s increased opportunity for our deep….but getting more and more shallow, bench. It is a chance to learn but at least on some nights, I’m afraid what we might learn is that losing Outlaw and Batum hurts.

but Outlaw is really, really good. If he had spent ages 18-20 being The Man at Ole Miss or something, he’d be an all-star in the NBA now. Instead, he learned how to be a role-player. Imagine if Brandon Roy had stayed in the Draft in 2002? He probably wouldn’t be half of what Outlaw is.