Time to give SOME credit to Outlaw

Exceptional even. For which I’m grateful. His buckets have been critically important in a number of games. His weaknesses don’t cancel that out for me, though they are significant.

Had he not so often allowed an uncontested shot immediately before his own wonderful basket, I’d love him even more. His game does continue to evolve, and I have high hopes that as his teammates become more flow oriented on offense, and Nate finally gets his defensively oriented culture in place, Travis’ll be right there with the rest of them.

Trout seems so well liked and team oriented that I look forward to watching him round out his game as we become more cohesive on both ends of the court. His incendiary scoring ability will then become even more fun to watch.

I feel like his game has been progressing a ton this year, I think he will continue to get better at dfense and defensive rebounding. Remember that quasi dunk he had over KG after he burned PaulP late in the 4th quarter of our celtics game. He seems to be trying to take it to the rack a lot more this year

Put me firmly in the Dave camp that states: the thing we hate about Travis is exactly the thing that allows him to win games for us.

For example, remember Travis dribbling up court with 7 seconds to go in the NY game? Boy was that painful to watch. I mean, it looked like he was trying to figure out trigonometry he looked so uncomfortable with the ball. But then again, he made that heart-attack jumper off the in-bounds play only minutes before. As Dave notes, that breaks the will of the other team.

My opinion: Outlaw will never be a main guy. When he grows up, I think he’s going to be Xavier McDaniels Part 2. At best. My middle-aged heart just can’t take that kind of night-in and night-out abuse. For me, give me something like Udoka-steadiness.

Mark me down as one of the people who’s pleased that Outlaw is good enough to get some nice trade value and I’ll be happy to cheer for him somewhere else. And I have every expectation he’ll light up Portland for 55pts or something when he rolls into town with the Raptors or whomever.

Travis has been doing absolutely great these past few games. He got over 20pts once again and when things arent going well I feel it’s time that Outlaw should come in. He takes some bad shots but he also is incredibly clutch when we need him to be.

His 3 point threat is also super important. We have 3 consistent 3 threats, Blake, Rudy and Outlaw.

Blake is out right now so all we have is Rudy and Outlaw.

The one thing that has been killing me about Travis as of late though, is his poor free throw shooting. I don’t know what happened with his free throws but it’s absolutely horrible lately.

Don’t trade him, we need his talent.

Travis is a good scorer. Not good at anything else. Poor passer, poor rebounder, poor ball handler, poor decision-maker.

Depends on how bad we need a good scorer who doesn’t do anything else.

He’s softspoken, courteous, and gets along with his teammates well. How many game changers off the bench have such an awesome attitude? I totally agree with everyone who says he can’t be a starter until his defense improves, but off the bench scorers usually don’t come with the best defensive skills or they would be starters.

Personally I see Bayless, LMA, and Outlaw as the only players on the Blazers who actually step up their game in chippy playoff style ball.

I have been, and will always be an Outlaw fan and wouldn’t want to see him traded unless he wants a chance to go to a basement team and be a starter.

Thanks for this post and sign me up for the Travis fan club.

SUPER TROUT!!!!

A more ready,willing and able passer when he’s on the floor with Rudy,his defensive shortcomings are from slow reactions and a slow first step not lack of effort but I dont think you can fix that any more than you can teach Blake to jump like Travis

#25

Players like Roy, Rudy, Aldridge and Bayless don’t get called out for their defensive lapses (and yes, they happen). All of Travis’ mistakes get pointed out. There’s no doubt that he makes some terrible defensive plays (leaving a 3 pt shooter wide open for example) and he misses a lot of box-outs also, but he’s also been a terrific scorer for this team.

I actually think his shot selection has been ok lately. The fadeaway jumper isn’t a bad shot for him. The only time I get upset about his shots are when he shoots with a toe on the 3 pt line, which has happened less frequently of late.

For years I’ve watched him do nothing but shoot jump shots or take that jab step, off-balance shot. However this year he’s taking the ball to the rim with a lot more regularity and it has, I believe, paid off for him.

He’s a great off-the-bench scorer. But I don’t think he’ll ever be more than that. His best position seems to be PF, and he seems to get outrebounded at that position. He’ll make one good or even great defensive play and then play lax defense on the next four possessions. I see hustle and effort on the offensive end that I just don’t see when he’s playing defense. Yes, everyone makes defensive mistakes. I just see more of them from TO.

In my heart, I’d love to see TO as a Blazer forever. He’s a great young man who has certainly helped the team win a number of games. But in my head, I’ve become resigned to the theory that TO as trade bait might help the Blazers find a player with a little more consistency.

It’s that

I made this comment last week in another thread, but thought it would be a good post here. i’ve been pretty critical of trout over the years, but i’ve been in the camp that doesn’t want to trade anyone, so trout was never really on my chopping block.

“i dunno…to me travis has been giving us a lot less to complain about these days. he is doing a much better job about playing within the flow of the offense unless it is called upon for him to do his thing in the 4th quarter. he no longer is the black hole he was last year. he hasn’t really made that many blunders in the game that scream low bbiq anymore either. not only that he is penetrating and looking to score in the paint rather than take fadeaway jumpers. he may not be playing stellar defense but i like that he is making the effort to rebound every night now. if he keeps it up i’d be comfortable with him starting sometime down the road.”

how much credit should he get for that?

They always make me laugh.

And what everyone knows is that a team where about half the players can play Small Forward, what that team REALLY needs, is another small forward.

So trade b-roy, oden, LMA, rudy and przy for KD right now. Cause he’s the next Lebron James. Even though he can’t pass and he’s built like Tayshuan Prince…

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=290212009

3-14? Ouch