I could not agree more. Roy has all the tools to be a great scoring weapon without having to have the ball in his hands at all times. I’m waiting to see it happen.

if the Blazers are going to take the next step as a team. Blake is better for Brandon, as he spaces the floor so Brandon can go one on one, but Blake’s deficiencies in being unable to lead a break, feed the post and being unable to finish in the lane turn the Blazers into a jump shooting team that depends too much on Brandon to take over.

Miller gets the team easier baskets and gets everyone involved. His lack of lateral speed does cause problems on defense, which may be painfully evident tonight.

B Roy needs to learn to move without the ball and take advantage of Miller’s passing skills. He should be able to post up smaller guards and cut back door for lay ups, eschewing the pounding of one on one play for some easy transition baskets.

I’ve been saying for two years that Roy is a natural team player. That his first option is always to pass, get his boys into the game. That he only scores like he does because (a) he can and (b) he has no other options for winning the game.

Now he’s got options. I see it in him just waiting to come out. I think he’s still a young man and this year will be a terrific year of growth. I’m putting my championship aspirations to the side and just looking forward to seeing Roy, Nate and their boys discover how much power they have and how to make the best of it.

I don’t know how you quantify what makes a “team concept” player versus a player who tries to win all by himself…maybe assists? Even with that said, there are certain times when your best player has to take over…even Kobe still does this.

I cannot quantify this, but based on my observations, Roy still spends a lot of time drawing the defense to him off the dribble and passing to open teammates. Roy still is the best perimeter playmaker we have…and is at his best when he is driving to the basket. However, Roy does not seem as comfortable or effective playing off the ball. Roy is going to have get better at playing off the ball in order to utilize Miller’s strength, which is playing with the ball in his hands.

Whether Roy becomes as good off the ball as Kobe or not, the big difference that turned the Lakers around, were getting a low post scoring threat in Gasol and Kobe deciding he was going to be an elite defender. As much as I like LaMarcus and Oden, they do not possess the low post game of Gasol…maybe one day, but they’re not showing it yet. If we get a consistent low post scoring threat and Roy commits himself to being an elite defender, then we will see the transformation of this team into a true contender.

and dont generally feel his causes problems on this team, I have news for everyone.

To win a championship you need to do MANY MANY things well. So many fascets of the game to master. The more your team has as a whole, the higher chance you have of winning.

The championship is a game of, “I am going to take this away from you, can you do anything else.” The team that has more fascets of the game they can still work with will win. All of these guys needs to master a number of things. Passing, defense in all of it’s flavors, screens, FT’s. Playing with the ball. Playing without the ball. This list goes on and on.

If B Roy cannot learn to play without the ball, growth has now been retarded. That will not win a championship. I agree he is SUPERB with the ball, but he needs to be able to di it all when called upon.

His job is to play. If he thinks he’s better off playing with Blake and the coaches think otherwise THE COACHES need to make the change. Do you really think Roy is the type will cry and bitch about that stuff?

left those Laker teams sucked so bad Kobe wanted out. The only reason they were able to compete was because of Kobe lighting it up each game. The Lakers didnt win a championship in 09 and get to the finals in 08 because Kobe all of a sudden became a team player. It was because they got better players around him. He still takes an insane amount of shots.

The new Kobe plays defense too. I hope Roy will figure out a basic fundamental: that if your offense is sputtering, at least solid defense can be a constant. Plus, I would love for him as a leader, to lead by example and put more effort in this category.

Been saying this for quite a while now. What’s harder to read is whether this has to happen organically, or whether it is a tactical choice. That’s on Nate to read and respond to.

There is something about the way Brandon extinguishes any momentum or attack when he receives the ball that does not maximize our offense. I don’t think it is willful on his part. It’s just that it’s time for him to adapt, and that is challenging.

In effect, Brandon is trying to play the PG and the SG at the same time, and it is too much. He must choose a role in the context of a multi-weaponed offense and support his teammates in carrying more of the responsibility. One step back, two forward kind of thing.

I felt like the town outcast a couple of months ago, with the heretic opinion that BRoy needed to change… Like to see the progress fans, BRoy, and Nate are making… Our real team will start as soon as Dre gets the keys…

Kobe won with limited point guards in a triangle offense, a scheme that largely replaces a point guard (by allowing players to get space without one). Good that there is a thread going on that subject right now. My offense fundamentalism in a nutshell: All offense boils down to options and execution. Our options have gone up considerably with dre, but that requires a lot of practice to have a comparable level of execution to our numbingly simply approach last year. So what I’m saying is: we’ll be fine. Just may be a bumpy ride for a while.

a few players that know how to move the ball in Odom, Gasol, and Walton, in addition to Fisher. Despite being old and slow, Fisher smart and quickly decisive and unafraid to do whatever it takes on a given possession. They also went and traded for Shannon Brown to give them the athleticism and D that Fisher can’t. I assume Farmar will eventually give them the best of all worlds, but his light bulb hasn’t turned on yet (I hope it never does).

We need as many smart passers as possible on the floor that are individually a threat to the defense as well. Blake (I used to be a bigger fan of his) proved during the playoffs that he knew he wasn’t the answer. He was extremely tentative and often drove and dribbled to no good result. He deferred to other players with lesser shooting abilities even when open. He showed even he didn’t believe he was more than an accessory, so I don’t believe he is, either. Blake’s best possible contribution these days is to shoot the three and shoot it quickly (unless he gets better getting the ball in the post, I saw signs of this last game). If he hesitates or defers, I don’t want him on the floor. Once Nate, Blake and BRoy realizes Blake is a not-quite-as-smart-or-accurate Steve Kerr, we’ll be better off.

BTW, it was the same with MJ. He had Pippen doing the same things Odom does (only better). The PG (Paxson, Hodges) hit jumpers and little else. I suppose BJ Armstrong could penetrate a bit.

 Because our SFs (Webster, Outlaw, Batum) are not really capable of this sort of facilitation of the offense, we need that to come from other places, like the PG. Starting Roy as a SF while retaining Blake is a bit of a band-aid. Rudy instead of Blake would possibly offer the best ball movement, but the 2nd unit would struggle to score. Playing Bayless more with the 2nd unit would probably help that, at least he would be aggressive.

This myth is busted.