Today's Poll - Free Bayless?

I think our congestion on the roster will be minimised,,,,,

With the return of Steve Blake, our team has the unique ability to throw 3 different point guards into the game. While none are the best at their craft, they each have abilities that can cause our opponents to have to change the way they play us. This is a bad thing?

Portland has to make a move. Sergio is not going to be happy about sharing the back up minutes with Bayless, look at the stink he made earlier in the season. Portland does not need a distraction going into the stretch run. Its not does Portland makes the playoffs anymore but now its do we have home court in the 1st rnd?

The whole thing with trades is dont trade just to trade but use the assets we have and aquire a superstar(grumblings out of Toronto anyone)

I think that Bayless is showing extraordinary stuff, but this isn’t the time. He is definitely ready for more second unit minutes, but I think he’s still nailing down his style. Let him work on his golf-swing for a while longer. He has the skills to become an okay distributor and a better defender. He can learn both of those things from the bench.

Steve has great trade value as a low paid reliable vet with a short salary that expires summer 2010.

I feel pretty good turning the team over to the combo of Sergio and JBay — they’re not great but I think the dropoff from Blake/Sergio to Sergio/JBay is minimal and debatable, and we get the benefit of giving development time to both of our young guys.

He’s a nice player, and is doing very well for a rookie, and may end up being a great player, but he’s far from ready. The biggest issue is that he just doesn’t see the floor very well, especially when he’s driving.

For example, do you remember that “alley-oop pass” he allegedly through to Oden a couple games ago? I bet you 3:1 that he was trying to shoot it, but just missed badly. You could see it in his face. The scorer initially didn’t give him the assist, but I guess relented later. I wouldn’t.

This is beyond just not being ready for PG duties. Compare him to Brandon on his first year, who was also driving hard to the basket, but always knew where his teammates were. Jerryd needs to get a much better feel for the game before he can play big “non-situational” minutes.

Blake sets a nice tone on this team, if Sergio goes mad and starts throwing ill advised pass you calm the team down with Blake, if Bayless gets into foul trouble you put Blake back in.

and why not try to start him on the road trip? What do we have to lose, if he is having a bad game just bring in Sergio or play Roy at the point for 5 minutes as Nate has been doing. The important thing is to see what he can bring so that Nate knows how best to use him when Blake gets back… my guess is that he will just confirm what we have seen of late, that he is a change of pace guy, a guy who can attack the basket and pumped the team up against the right opponent and in the right situation. But a few starts before Blake gets back might just show something else. I think Sergio has already shown what he can do and he brings his own skill set but B-Rex might be able to unveil more.

Unless there is a PG trade, which I doubt, then I think Blake has the upper hand to start and gives the team a relatively effective, steady, veteran presence.

Sergio and B-Rex give the variety and should be used according to the situation!

…. I mean he played the whole 4th Q last night. Sergio is not the ideal starter either at this point in time. Fact is Blake will be the starter when he returns but in the meantime Serg, B-Rex and Roy still see time at the Point… without Blake its the right time to let them develop so that we are as versatile as possible instead of being like NO and falling apart when the starter gets injured.

When Rex and Roy are on the floor at the same time they share point guard duties anyhow so why not start him? I don’t think it makes much difference. Actually I think that if we continue as we have the last few game that that is ok too.

Bottom line is I think that there has been a silver lining to the various injuries that have happened to the team otherwise I doubt that all four rookies would have had a chance to show what they could do (not to mention Sergio getting some extra burn and a few starts). So I think B-Rex has been as good as the other rooks and giving him the chance to show what he can do will only benefit the team… I don’t see him as a starter but starting a few games before Blake gets back can’t hurt.

Is the PG of the future. Give him reps.

where they are describing the future of Rome as basically Chained up Fury……..That is bayless.

It seems to me that one comparison is missing from the running debate, though I admit to not reading all the posts. That comparison would be to add the Blake/Bayless combo in as well. Perhaps that would be the most lethal combo, but since that info is basically not available, I’m at a loss to come to any conclusions based on the stats given. The second piece of info missing is the defensive side. If the opposing teams are scoring/assisting more against one of the combo’s then that must be taken into consideration.

Blake’s the starter – because he’s the vet and he’s the saviest PG we have right now. Sergio was promoted to the 2nd team when we traded Jack for Bayless/#13-Rush. Bayless – with only 1 year of college ball, moved into Sergio’s spot. We needed the vet on the first team because we were starting two rookies in Batum and Oden, and two third year players in Aldridge and Roy. Sergio, another 3rd year player, was a better fit for the 2nd team which included one rookie – Fernandez (who he’d already played with), and Pryz and Outlaw – both more experienced vets. Bayless was and is raw – but athletic and skilled. Mac’s approach has worked, as Sergio developed his confidence and improved his game on the 2nd team over the first 1/2 of the season, just as Bayless’s strong dedication to practice gave him more of the skills and confidence needed to perform when needed. When Blake went down, Sergio and Bayless were both better prepared to take his place without any great drop off in production.

This is called coaching, and what we’re seeing now is a result of that coaching. We can see the future at times with Sergio and Bayless. But we know intuitively that Blake will always be a solid and steady player that we’d love to have on this team to play behind one of those two in the future. After all, he’d be paired with Fernandez, Outlaw, and Pryz, and that’s one very strong bench – and our bench is already one of the better one’s in the league and has won us a number of games this year.

I’ll let Mac do the heavy lifting here, as he’s done an admirable job of blending the 4 rookies with Roy, Aldridge, and Sergio – our 3rd year players, and with our “vets” – Pryz, Outlaw and Blake.

This is our 10 man core which, when Webster comes back, will become 11. The most remarkable thing about this team is not just that it has 4 rookies – but that they all have demonstrated they can be productive players in the NBA.

Batum and Bayless and yes Oden and Fernandez – all need a couple of years to come into their own in this league. We tend to forget just how young they are – because we are tantalized by the skills they already show us.

And we have that couple of years simply because we can still manage our payroll with this 11 man core due to the fact that they are so young. In another year or two, however, we’ll have to consoidate down to a 9 man core backed by some minimum cost injury insurance on the bench.

Like KP, I like watching this cake bake. As far as Bayless/Sergio/Blake, I don’t see any reason to make any great changes right now. Granted, I’d like to see more of Bayless, but I also want to win. Mac’s done a good job to date – so, I’ll let him keep doing his job.

Blake is the steady vet and his outside shot has been critical to the teams success. However, Blake is at best a mediocre defender, and he is lousy off the dribble. His strengths outweigh his limitations for the time being, but he is not the long range answer if you want this team to get better defensively. Once Martell returns and provides some of the outside shooting presence that has been missing. Blake’s importance will decline.

Bayless is the most physically gifted of the three. He is already the best defender, and he will only get better. He makes mistakes, but that only reinforces the fact that he needs time on the court to gain experience.

Many argue that Bayless can’t distribute. I think that is a faulty conclusion based on his early play. Bayless is improving rapidly as a distributor. He has 18 assists in the last four games. 4.5/game on 24 minutes of PT is pretty respectable. He isn’t ready to start, but he is perfect for providing energy and spark off the bench. Once he calms down enough to start hitting his shots like he does in practice he is going to be extremely difficult to defend.

Sergio is simply the odd man out. He has a good game and he may ultimately be better than Blake. If he is willing to sit until Bayless takes over from Blake then I am all for keeping him and making him the long term back-up. If he is not willing or able to be that patient, then I think he should be traded.

I think a reasonable argument can be made that Sergio is as good, or even slightly better, in the short run, but I think the offensive drop-off is sight and counter-balanced by Bayless’ ability to apply on-ball pressure.

In the long run, Bayless is going to be a very special player. If he is the PG of the future, it only makes sense to continue his development.

He’s already answering the question. Not a hint of dissatisfaction has come out of the Blazers re: Bayless. Roy commented after his 23 point game that Bayless was always the first on the floor to practice, and the last out the door. And that he’d been routinely telling Bayless to keep it up, as his time would come. And so, when it did come, he started to show some of the things we thought we saw, but weren’t entirely certain about. And, this “buying into Mac’s system” has been a topic with the other Blazers as well. Rebounding, points in the paint, and turnovers are all areas of improvement, and Roy and Aldridge both have mentioned how Mac kept hammering them over and over – and now they’re beginning to get the fact that this stuff wins games.

And one of the most relevant points about players buying into a coaches philosophy – is that winning reinforces it. And as they win, they become believers. If the Blazers were 23 and 24, not 30 and 17, it might be a little different. But they’re winning more than they – or we – thought they would.