Super Trout: Man or Myth?
by Zaig on Apr 6, 2009 10:22 AM PDT
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PrintDisclaimer: This is focusing almost purely on the offensive side of the game. His defensive has improved from "Kevin Durant" level to "Usually lost" level during the course of this year. Now, onto the offense.
Outlaw came straight out of HS, and as such, made improvements every year like he was supposed to. This year, he has been downright amazing with his clutch shooting and 4th quarter domination. Or has he?
| 07-08 | POR | 82 | 6 | 26.7 | 0.433 | 0.396 | 0.741 | 1.2 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.30 | 2.10 | 13.3 |
| 08-09 | POR | 75 | 5 | 27.9 | 0.450 | 0.383 | 0.737 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.13 | 2.10 | 12.7 |
Let's review.
His minutes have gone up ever so slightly. Not enough to make a real impact, but enough that his numbers shouldn't be dropping. Meanwhile his Scoring is down, his rebounds are down, his assists are down, his blocks are down, and his steals are down. His FT% is down, but not enough to matter. Finally, his 3pt% is actually down, despite the rave reviews he is getting. Sure he is shooting more of them this year, but the offense allows it.
Basically, Outlaw is protecting the ball a bit better and shooting better. When you figure how many more 3s he is taking, the jump in TS% is actually pretty nice.
Pace could be a factor in this, but it's not like we were a running team last year. The added offense that Rudy brings might also be a factor, but with that being said. Has SuperTrout peaked? Sure, we see 20 points games, but even during those he hurts on defense. Does anyone have any doubt that Webster can average 13pgg with better defense in a year or two?
Basically, all I read is that Trout is improving so much and having a great year, but is he? The guy needs to be an offensive beast to make up for his defense, and these numbers don't show signs of that. Outside of being able to swing PF, something that I can't see MW or NB doing, Outlaw really doesn't seem to have many upsides.
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Ya, stat's are cool and all.
But just watching the games you can see that Outlaw has gotten much better.
he's definately
a myth,it bothers him deep inside batum is starting and he’s not.but for the good of the team,he sucks it up and does his job.give him credit for that.another blazer you guys overrate.
Outlaw peaked a few years ago
I love the guy. He can be a beast. He can jump over anyone he wants to. And get around any one he wants to in a flash. He could be one of the best rebounders on the team. BUT WHY HASN’T HE???? I mean he turns into a black hole like Z-bo was. You pass it to him on the side and he takes a three with some one in his FIZACE, with someone like Blake wide open. Or he could take a few dribbles and then dunk over everyone. He has fallen in love with his outside shot. And I don’t think he knows how to pass for the life of him. Again I love the guy I loved his style when he and Ruban Patterson came in and played. He helps this team. But I would much rather See Webster and Batum then outlaw. He can’t guard anyone and is too small to paly the bigger pfs and not tall enough for the others. I think its time in the off season to see what is on the table for him. Unless he learns quickly how to play in a team offense and not his take a dribble and fade away crap.
My wife hates that I watch basketball but loves to watch with me when Joel is on high def
by in~ur~fizace on Apr 6, 2009 10:55 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Maybe we're not watching the same games.
Travis plays within the offense, True that sometimes he takes ill advised shots but I’ve seen everyone on this team do that from time to time. To say he’s turning into Z-bo is far from the truth. Travis does what is asked of him. If he was on a team that needed him to score a lot of points, he would take more shots. But that’s not what the Blazers need. Instead he does what is asked of him every night. I understand that Travis is not the best defender but to say that he doesn’t try would be a lie. Travis fits as the sixth man for this team.
Outlaw is an integral part of this team
Basketball wise, I think Outlaw is done growing for the most part. He’ll add some veteran tricks as he goes down the road, but don’t expect his defense to suddenly be lockdown (despite what some nba.com writers say).
Travis is nonetheless a big part of this team and I honestly don’t see us dealing him. I said that two years ago, I said it a year ago, I’ll say it again: he’s more valuable to us than any other team in the league, by FAR. He’s a great guy, fits the culture, can play multiple positions, is coachable, all that.
Summer times are what kill this guy. He seems to go back to Missississippi and just want to be one of the boyz again…while other players are working on their game.
For this reason, I think the Travis you see now will be the same Travis you’ll see for the next 5, 6, 7 years or so. He’ll start slowing down age 30, 31 ish and probably see a decline in his role at that point. Bear in mind, however, that a lot of his game is jump shooting, so he still will be able to shoot in his old age—it’ll be his defense that’ll go from a 5/10 to a 1/10.
Until then though, this is the Travis we have—and I like it.
LMA: 35 points, 18 rebounds against "OKC." Beaste!
I agree with a lot of what you are saying
but he still has a lot of room to improve and even shows glimpses of it sometimes, like when he makes a bad pass all I can think of is “wow Travis tried to pass the ball. Good for him.” Or if he ball fakes I think “That is an actual basketball move. Good for you Travis.” If he can put some more of that in his game he will open up his offense even more. These things are not terribly hard to incorporate so it gives me a little hope, but I wouldnt be surprised if the Travis we see now is the same Travis we see for the rest of his career. I am going to go out on a limb and say that some of this may have to due to the fact that he does not play high level pick up in the summers like Roy or Martell do in the summer. I think he would really benefit from playing some low pressure yet highly competitive basketball where he could try out some new things without having a coaching staff around.
I think BE should start some sort of campaign to have him spend a month in Seattle with Brandon and Martell hooping it up in those Seattle pro games we all hear about.
Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.
He's not paid to do that in the off season
He’s a bench guy not an all star. If he’s cool with staying that way, then he should go home and relax.
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what
I dont get it. It is not all NBA all stars at these things. I think the core is Nate Rob, J Crawford, and Roy. It gets filled in with UW players current and past.
I dont think he needs to do this every season or even for a whole summer, but I think it would help. Especially if BRoy was there to help him.
Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.
I ain't playin'
Travis is only paid to learn one new trick an off season. He’d like to be an all start but if it costs him his summers with this family, then I bet it’s not worth it to him. If Outlaw had Kobe’s or Roy’s desire, then he’d be an all star. Instead he’s happy go lucky doing what he is doing. I don’t see anything wrong with that. If the Blazers were paying him what they paid Miles, then I’d probably hate him. Instead he’s cheap, and does some cool things, and I love him.
This signature intentionally left blank.
My grandmother was a shop-a-holic
and literally had a backup refidgerator to use just in case her original backup refridgerator went bad. She hoarded EVERYTHING.
Unfortunately we can’t do that as a team: keep all the players with some talent and store them in garage with a car cover on them. Trout is a great guy, he’s way athletic and he can hit some big shots. He has his pro’s and his con’s but overall you gotta weigh the opportunity costs… Are we going to use what he does efficiently enough to pay him his salary and keep other players on the bench? Or is there someone else that fits what we need a little more?
I guess that it’s not really a matter of: “Is he good or is he bad?” We know he’s good. He was drafted out of highschool. It’s more a question of: Do we bank on him or another option?
I think he is fine
and he is not really an extra, but a major role player on the team. He makes less than the MLE so he is pretty cheap considering his production. I would say anything less than 7mil a year is pretty on par with the role other top 6th men around the league get.
Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.
He's not sixth man of the year
but he’s better this year than he was last year. I think he will continue to improve. I hope he stays with the Blazers but I can see how that might not happen.
I love to see Blazers fans continue to pick nits. It’s just so refreshing to read. Keep microanalyzing Outlaw and his game, it never gets old. – Elgin
Blazers win BDL 2 on 2 tournament!
Skeets: i’ll close it down now … congrats. you bastards
I'd like to see more production and intesity from Trout
But he is better than a lot of people think, and definitely gets singled out a lot by the fans. Trout has been mentioned in the 6th man competition and I could see him winning that award in the future. Here is a comparison that I kind of like
I love Trout as our back up PF, I would like to see him get a bit stronger this offseason so he can be more physical defending the post.
by trailblazersfan on Apr 6, 2009 11:23 AM PDT reply actions
Stop Drinking the Hatorade
Man some of you just seem ungrateful for everything that Travis has done for this team. During the Jailblazers era, when guys like Qyntel Woods and Z-BO were getting in trouble with law, Travis kept his act clean. How many times have the Blazers been down in the fourth quarter and Travis has brought the team back to life with a series off balance hesitation jump shots? On top of that you haven’t heard one word out of Travis complaining about his role on the bench. I wouldn’t go as far as proclaiming him as the 6th man of the year but folks be real he is a crucial part of this team and their Playoff aspirations. He is also one of the veteran leaders on this team. I understand that the Blazers will have to make some personnel cuts this upcoming off-season but Travis should not be one of them. His versatility and 4th quarter shooting alone make him one of the Blazers most valuable assets. Those of you that think he isn’t part of the future need to stop being hypocritical. You praise Outlaw when he comes up big in the clutch and then you throw him under the bus and devalue his contributions the next day. Folks Travis isn’t James Jones or Von Wafer. He is the F#@$ing Super-Trout!
Blaze14ROY
by homeallon20 on Apr 6, 2009 12:27 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
He's a wonderful nice guy
But we gotta get rid of him the minute he stops being that way. Dude’s should be third in line for the SF spot next year. If he whines about it, he should be gone. This team will never make it to the WCF or the Finals if Travis Outlaw is playing heavy minutes.
by robrun2 on Apr 6, 2009 1:05 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Why his scoring is down
FG attempts last year – 11.8
FG attempts this year – 10.5
Clearly, the addition of Rudy and the development of the rest of the team took away his shot attempts. He’s only playing more minutes because Martell is down for the whole year and Batum does not play much. Same goes with rebounding. With Greg and Joel sucking up all the boards, Travis has less opportunities to grab rebounds.
Bottom line, he’s doing better this year.
I covered the improved FG%
But outside of that and turnovers, he is worse in every other category. Basically his numbers haven’t improved, despite the insane amount of hype his 3 point shot is getting.
His only below average defense these days makes him one of the better players off the bench in the nba, but if he’s peeked, he’s not going to keep up with the production of Batum/Webster/Rudy.
I am glad you mentioned this
as he has a better 2nd unit supporting cast this year.
I took the liberty of checking his +/- this year and it is 22, last year 109. I think that looking at his raw numbers only give a brief glimpse at the whole picture and +/ over the course of the year is much more telling to how he is contributing to the team.
Life is exhausting when you are this stupid.
Travis can be Super Trout...
but he is inconsistent.
When he is focused and dialed in during the late third quarter and throughout the fourth quarter, he makes the Blazers really tough to defend and takes a lot of pressure off of Roy. Until another Blazer or two step up into that role, he will be tough to replace. On the other hand, maybe that won’t happen until he moves on.
PTB Liberation Day - 2/10/04
Travis has made some significant improvements this year
His scoring is down from last year, but that is because his role has changed. Last year Outlaw was mainly useful for his ability to create his own shot, and he got a lot of opportunities to do that last year. This year Roy and Aldridge have improved to the point where they can create their own shots significantly more efficiently that Outlaw, which means Outlaw is shooting less and scoring less than a year ago.
The reduction of Outlaw’s offensive role this year was not really unexpected, and over the summer I (and probably a lot of other people as well) thought Outlaw’s usefulness would decrease with his declining role. Last year’s Outlaw just wasn’t very good at playing off other his teammates and taking advantage of the opportunities they created for him. He seemed out of sync with the rest of the offense, and even if someone passed to him when he was open he would often hold the ball and dribble to a more difficult shot instead of taking the open shot. If last year’s Outlaw was given a smaller role in the offense, it would just mean he was less productive without having any increase in his efficiency.
Outlaw has adapted to his new role more successfully that I thought he would. His scoring efficiency has gone up and he just seems to be doing a better job of operating within the flow of the offense. Now when his teammates create an open shot for him he generally takes it instead of trying to create a more difficult shot on his own. His 3-point shooting has also improved a lot. His 3pt% may not have gone up, but he is taking a lot more shots and doing it from all around the arc instead of just from the corners (where he took almost all his 3-point shots last year). The player who last year looked like he could only be effective as a high-volume but low-efficiency scorer has transformed into a player who can also do a decent job as a semi-efficient 3rd option. That is significant because as a talented team that will soon be contending for a championship, the Blazers have no need for an inefficient volume scorer. They might, however, have some use for Super Trout.
by trk on Apr 6, 2009 8:11 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
i believe nba players start to peak at age 26
and trout is under contract until then, so lets just see what happens til then :)
So it's Super Trout the man right
Classic Travis Outlaw tonight. He just gets it done when the team needs it most. Along with Brandon he is Mr. 4th quarter.
Blaze14ROY
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