A simple how-to guide on patching up a bruised roster.

The Blazers didn’t have quite enough depths for the 4 and especially 5 spots, but that’s overkill. I like just picking up some DL guy like Jones (Blazers can petition for an emergency replacement for 2 weeks at a time with more than 4 guys out for more than 2 weeks into the future), and then hoping Pendergraph has a good rookie season after he returns around New Years to have a rotation of Joel (starting), LMA (starting, first C backup), Pendy (second C backup), Dante (second PF backup), Howard (third PF/C backup). Then we can still see what develops until the deadline.

This season is a bit of a waste, I would be more concerned about building and developing a roster for next year. Winning is still important, but I wouldn’t be dealing guys for a shot term fix.

and wait for Pendergraph to get healthy to see what he can do. We need to wait till Outlaw gets healthy too before we can trade him so KP needs to take the time to figure out what to do and not just make changes for he sake of it. Also I would never trade Bayless for a big, we need to get back a good young PG then I’d think about it.

I do think Bayless is a 2, perhaps a combo guard at best. However, he does have one NBA skill that I value quite a bit, which is the ability to blow by his guy and either score or draw fouls on a big.

While I like Collison quite a bit, Bayless has a high ceiling as compared to a good backup like Collison. I’d rather send away Blake and see what Bayless-Rudy backcourt can do as subs before making any rash trades. It’s not like Bayless had much of a run with us so far. At least give him a chance to see if he’s worth further investment in time and coaching.

Victor Claver is another story entirely.

Just based on basic value you can’t trade Bayless and Outlaw for Collison. He’s just not worth that much. Long term guys like Bayless merit more than a 2 year band-aid (Collison), even if you don’t like Bayless’ game.

Sounds odd, and yeah as stated above I would be in favor of bringing in another emergency big men like Jones too.
But since no other center like Greg is even remotely available anywhere, he would help with the three or four things that as Dave has pointed out in his recap are likely gone now with Greg:

• Improved offensive rebounding
• Improved defensive rebounding. While not a big man, he rebounds like one. At times leading the league.
• Improved perimeter defense to take pressure off the players in the paint. Maybe his most underrated skill.
• Improved scoring as a 2nd or 3rd option. Now that Greg is gone, it doesn’t matter as much that he can’t space the floor (not a huge proponent of that strategy anyway), and can bring a lot more easy points inside also from free throws and the mentioned offensive rebounding.

Lastly, there is some irony that he is running the floor hard while still crashing to the floor every now and then, but unlike a number of other wings including our own he doesn’t stay down long. Health is impossible to predict. I would have sworn on Tayshaun Prince at the start of this season, and now he had a herniated disk and who knows in what condition he returns. Same with Travis who was super healthy so far.

It’s probably a pipe dream, but he would help a lot with about everything Greg’s absence has created. Problem is that with so many guys injured, pulling off such a deal now seems very hard to achieve even though Larry Brown seems to have turned on pretty much every player he found on his rosters when he took over. Also incl. D.J. Augustin, but there is debate over how much of an upgrade for the future he could become. At the last deadline it would have been possible for RLEC and one of the young players, now probably not.

Speaking of perimeter defense and rebounding: Free Bayless as a backup or low-minutes starter a la Nic last year. If we likely don’t make much noise in the playoffs this year anyway, we can just as well find out what he can do for the team. Last night he already rebounded and drove inside better than Blake ever will, and he and Miller also led the comeback emotionally alongside Roy. If he doesn’t have the distribution and shooting skills required to play alongside Roy/Rudy in the future fine, but at least try to find that out NOW! Along the same lines, Martell, Rudy, Dante, Pendergraph upon his return need to get all the playing time the coaches can free up. It makes little sense now to have Brandon as the player with the most minutes in the NBA running around further endangering even his tank going on empty, and playing other old players ahead of those.

so you should know that you love claver unconditionally

REC doesn’t quite capture my sentiments.

COMEDY GOLD.

Keep up the good work!

:)

But getting a guy like Collison is the right idea. I think KP pretty much has to work atrade that sends either Blake or Miller away for a 4/5 to help out down low. Joel and LMA as our only legit bigs is not going to cut it…