Outlaw Blowin' Up

That’s how many sentences into this Travis post before BBIQ was mentioned.

But I tend to agree with you. I’m also a Travis doubter and this recent stretch of play has been awesome. Once again, KP makes the right move (or non-move in this case) at the Trade Deadline.

His effort on defense and elsewhere seems to be at an all time high. That doesn’t mean he’s a good defender by any means, but he’s trying harder and that’s making a difference.

Here’s hoping he won’t get lazy over the summer and will come into training camp ready to continue this play next season.

When everyone is ice cold, say the start of the 2nd it seems that travis is always the one who is unphased by the ttone of the game. He lessons the blow of our cold stretches and creates a segue into our next hot streak.

but you make some great arguments for why it may be his best stuff yet… yet. He loves the big stage, I can only imagine what he’s going to do with the one at the playoffs

and still has a lot of room to grow IMO.

But he can (and probably should) still play better, especially if we want to go anywhere in the playoffs.

It’s been nice to see Dr. Outlaw in the game more often than Mr. Trav.

trout is for the hawks ;)

That would really put him on the next level. And we all know the holes in his game. But at the moment, in terms of percentages and (offensive) efficiency he is playing a very similar season to e.g. Luol Deng (with much more threes and late-game scoring) or Richard Jefferson. At a fraction of the cost. One of the top sixth men/x-factors right now who a lot of teams would like to have.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=agCq8

Probably Outlaw is in better physical and psychological condition now than anybody in the Blazers roster.
I think Brandon also keeps himself in good condition because of his slowed pace, although he worked hard in the summer.

Not being a believer in such a notion, I’d suggest a reason for Travis recent up-play.

A few months back, the talk around here especially centered on Travis and his BBIQ, and there was aplenty of it. Then Casey Holdahl wrote a piece about how Travis’ cousin said Blazer fans “hated” him. His commitment to defense, its applications, and his energy were all lacking any laudability (minus ATF, OiR, and myself, namely, of course.)

So, as a response Travis has really stepped up his game. My guess is Travis heard the complaints and has made a concerted effort to work on the deficient areas of his game, specifically his defensive assignments, focus, and in turn his offense has been as sharp as ever. To note, in listening to the l*kers pregame interview with Coach, he was asked how they planned to handle kobe, and Nate said Travis would get significant time on him. What does this say? I hear it to mean Nate has trust in Travis’ ability, more-so then the typically frustrated nay-sayer around here. That being said, he looked extremely inefficient guarding Dirk, but really who doesn’t around the league? He gets a pass on that one.

I hope Travis continues to elevate his game, not just during the season, but during the summer. He needs to come into next season prepared and having worked on and hopefully out, the kinks in his game that drive trade suggestions to an unbearable level.

I pray the BBIQ issue will die… sheesh Tom just asked…. its a misleading and improper tag, and I know thats not common sentiment.

1. Red & Black 4 Life!

I must have made someone mad. :)

I am an Outlaw supporter but I have to say he needs to do this the rest of the year to save his spot in Portland and Even that might not be enough.

One thing is that during this stretch we haven’t seen his best talent, the game winner. Thankfully we have Roy so Outlaw has deffered. If Outlaw stays he really could fill the Robert Horry roll for us as he gets older, he just needs to be more consistent before the final minute. As hawkblogger said, I hope he keeps this up.

Part of his value is the fact that he can shoot any time, in any situation with no conscience whatsoever. Maybe it’s low BBIQ, but it translates into him taking shots that no one else has the gonads to take when the Blazers desperately need a basket. And it doesn’t phase him. Maybe he’s not smart enough to be fazed. It doesn’t matter. It’s a priceless quality in clutch time.

You want to know what is f-ed, and I totally mean f-ed about posts like this, the “feeling sorry for Blake,” and any “Oden vs. Durant” is that it turns into fans either calling themselves or others “Supporters?” As in “the Oden supporters” or “I’m a Blake supporter.” That sucks big time.

I AM A PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS SUPPORTER. That is why I joined this site. I am a fan of the team. It comes down to supporting my favorite team, which coincidentally has all my favorite players on it.

My favorite team with all of my favorite players on it are in a playoff race. I am done reading posts where someone says a player from another team would be better, skips to the offseason, or simply bashes a Blazer’s player after a loss. I am boycotting every FanPost, FanShot and MainPage post that has even a hint of the comments turning into Blazers fans having to call themselves or someone else a “Supporter.” (Not counting SergioFTW)

but Travis has been a slow learner. Remember how much trouble he had learning the plays when he was a rookie? He had to stay after school with the assistant coaches. He does learn however through repetition. Same with his defense and other aspects of his game..

This is the reason why we should banish the thought of trading Travis. He may have been in the NBA for 6 years but he is still learning and is continuing to get better almost every month. He’s nowhere near his ceiling.

I too like the his fearlessness mentioned above. I also think Travis is the Trail Blazer’s best shooter …. bar none.

#25!
 

The image of Travis’ 300 pound dad John Outlaw came to mind. Travis bulks up and takes enforcer lessons from Joel.

I can’t be the only one that saw him flash to the hoop the other night and think, “Why doesn’t he do that all the time?”

The guy can flat out FLY when he wants to. He needs to be more proactive in putting the ball on the floor. Period.

Spot up 3’s are nice, but when you’ve got the speed and athleticism he has, taking jumpers is wasting your biggest advantage.

We could live with his occasional defensive lapses if the guy would take full advantage of his offensive skillset.

Seems to me that Travis’ BBIQ gets better as the year go on. Then the process repeats itself every year. Rinse and repeat. I think he’s a keeper though. Come playoff time he’ll be a basketball genius.

Not because of similarity of playing styles, but because they are both lesser players who were filling a very important role for our team. With Jack, we desperately needed someone who could get to the line, run the offense and hit some shots so we put up with his ridiculous turnovers and complete inability to run the fast break.
With Outlaw, we need someone who can create his own shot and score in bunches to compliment Roy, and Outlaw does that. We put up with his boneheaded defensive lapses and other glaring deficiencies because he is the best we have at filling the role of secondary volume scorer.
In other words, we all pretty much know what we get with Travis. There is probably an upgrade available out there, but in the meantime he is going to play a very important role for us for the rest of this season and into the playoffs (knock on wood). I’m glad to see him stepping up to the occasion with his improvement in the rebounding department. I’m confident that he’ll bring his A game for the rest of the season, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be sad to see him go this summer.

taking all of those shots mid shot clock? If Brandon Roy took a jumper with 14 on the clock, I bet people wouldn’t go crazy. Travis’ shot just looks less natural but it still goes in. That’s all that matters. I used to not like his jumper, but it sure grew on me. I’d rather have him take it than (almost) anyone else right now.

I hope the Blazers decide to keep him. We don’t always need instant gratification. Why trade for a guy that’s a little better now instead of wait and keep Travis and let him keep getting better and better?

he is awesome and a great fit for us. he provides scoring in a variety of ways and shown improvement in many of the areas that he has struggled with in the past. as long as we keep in mind that travis is a backup, i see no reason not to keep him. if we are searching for a starting sf however…travis is not the answer right now. the question should be if travis is comfortable in his 6th man role when he stated he had all star aspirations last year. kp has said before that it is a lot harder to find players who will accept lesser roles than players who want to be the centerpiece. so if thats the case why get rid of travis or anyone else on our team?