Here's a few things I noticed about Troutlaw's game against Atlanta:

The Problem

Shot clock has between 8-10 seconds left...

Blake, Roy, or Rudy penetrate and get stopped in the paint.

They kick the ball out, and guess who catches it? Travis Outlaw.

Outlaw, after he catches the ball, either:

1) Makes an ineffectual fake, to try too fool nobody in particular, then drives to the hole, and then kicks out the ball with 3 or 4 seconds left on the clock. They then are forced to shoot the ball regardless of whether or not they are open.

2) Fakes, and then drives to the hole and pulls up with a jumper in the paint.

3) Makes an extra pass to a wide open teammate without making the ineffectual fake (they have 6-8 seconds left to try for a basket or pass to a more open teammate).

4) Realizes he's been left wide open and pulls up for the shot.

The first option is obviously a horrible choice to make; with only a few seconds left on the shot clock, a lot of times you just get a highly contested three pointer, often leading to a miss.

The second option doesn't really work for Travis. Travis is a pretty athletic guy, and is gifted with great quickness and a pretty good vertical. If he finishes at the basket, he not only has a higher chance of making the field goal, but will also get fouled. (Travis shot 7 of 15, 1 miss came from an open three pointer, the other 7 came from contested jumpers). Dangit, Travis, if you already work hard to beat your first defender to get inside or near the paint in the first place, why not work a little and finish at the basket, get a higher percentage shot, and maybe shoot from the charity stripe?

(Obviously, options three and four are good outcomes for the Blazers)

The Solution

First and foremost, the Blazers need to keep Greg Oden out of foul trouble and feed him the ball in the paint. If Greg powers his way to the hoop, he gets a high percentage shot and often an "And 1".

The second thing the Blazers need to do is to space the floor. They've been doing OK so far at this, but there's room to improve. Spacing the floor allows you to make passes to wide open teammates. If your opponents double up on Brandon when he's driving to the floor, then someone has to be left open. It's simple math. But if two people are clumped together, then your offensive options are somewhat limited because your opponents can guard two shooters with one defender. But with good spacing, the person who's left open can get the ball quickly enough to comfortably take an open shot.

Thirdly, the Blazers just need to be more aggressive. If they get in the hole, finish to the basket instead of pulling up or passing it out. Or maybe even dump the ball to an often wide open Center instead of kicking it out to the wing. Greg and Joel were left open A LOT after Blake or Brandon drove to the basket; I was disappointed that Blake only found Joel once for an alley-oop; he could have got a lot of easy points.

Give me your feedback. Agree/Disagree? As always, comments are appreciated.