Bayless Truth

Sometimes the truth can scald. But your post feels a little pessimistic, but i also get the sense this argument was created to counter balance the overwhelming reverence some have for Jerryd.

is to keep the sidebar from filling up with dozens of individual reviews.

I don’t think that wingspan is that big of a deal.
Here are just a few PGs who have the same or smaller wingspan:

Iverson
DJ. Augustin
Farmar
Ridnour
Monta Ellis
Jameer Nelson
Ty Lawson
Nate Robinson
T.J Ford

Here are a few that are only one half an inch longer, that’s 1/4th an inch to each arm:

Chris Paul
Raymond Felton
Aaron Brooks

Jerryd’s wingspan is just fine. Brandon Roy isn’t a pterodactyl either ya know.

has nothing to do with your affinity for Sergio

He can’t run an offense worth …, He apparently can shoot in practice but is unable to actually prove he can in games which means he’s in the segio camp of shooting. The biggest thing that I don’t understand are how the Bayless homer can explain the fact that he was unable to even take Sergio’s spot as the back-up point guard. If he had shown himself to be better than Segio Nate would’ve played; Nate didn’t play therefore we can only assume that he’s worse than Segio. The only thing that Bayless is good for at this point is trading him on his potential for a point guard that actually fits the blazers style.

passing lanes or effectively close out his man due to his laughably tiny wingspan, and an epic failure when it comes to fighting through screens. All things considered, Bayless is a horrible defender — no matter his so-called intensity — thus, you hit the nail on the head with this post.

Yeah I know that don’t worry. Me and my friend cringe when he comes in and pray he just drives to the rim.

Bayless can become one too.
1. Jameer was a terrible PG before this year, I laughed at the Magic for signing him his contract and he proved me wrong ( I hardly saw any magic game, but as he is an all star he probably improved a lot)
2. Hard work goes a long way in the development of a player and we know Bayless works hard.

As for your critique: Bayless has excellent ball handling with either hand according to all scout and coaching reports, that shouldn’t hinder his further development. His court vision is more disturbed by taking his head too low, but that can be learned. His wingspan is short (hence the B-Rex moniker), but on par with players like Farmar, Nelson, Felton (good ball hawk), House, etc. as has been stated above.

Talent-wise I still believe he is on a level with Westbrook apart from rebounding, and even in his bad rookie season their per minute stats are comparable. If you would switch them between OKC and Portland, Bayless could have almost matched Westbrook and got the same press coverage. It’s a huge difference if your coach can get you minutes on a team winning in the 20s and not really caring for one more loss because you want to win the lottery anyway or on a team winning in the 50s and wanting to make the playoffs.

Bayless needs to work his tail of this summer to regain his shot, and get as many minutes playing point guard and setting up his teammates in summer league as possible. Then he can be ready for next season. Not to start, but to get regular minutes as the backup.

Copied from another fanpost:

Do you not remember Sebastian Telfair? He was very highly touted out of HS. All my friends who are Blazers fans were saying "oh just you wait, this guy has major potential. He has the court vision & shooting to be a great PG. He just needs to get a little bigger, play better defense & learn how to drive".

 Its much the same thing I am hearing from Bayless supporters. Except now its "Oh just you wait, this guy has major potential. He is very strong & drives very well. He just needs to learn court vision & shoot the 3pt shot at the NBA level". Court vision is very instinctual & often times players who don’t have it, never will. Things don’t bode well in that department for Jerryd because… Bayless is a very dominant ball handler.

You mention Chris Paul scoring… Yes, but before that he always had great court vision & incredibly fast hands. He developed his scoring as he went along, always aided by the natural tools god blessed him with. Not always can you rely on a player developing skills they don’t possess, especially something that comes natural to those who have it(Court Vision).

What I would like to do, is compare Bayless to another Combo guard who only had one year of college experience. Baron Davis. Baron only averaged 6mpg more then Jerryd(18MPG) in his rookie year. Both shot a poor 3Pt . Bayless shoots a much better FT. Baron averaged 2 rebounds, to Jerryd’s 1(Not hard to do with 6 more minutes on the floor each game). Davis averaged 3.8 assists, to Jerryd’s 1.5, however Davis only averaged .6 turnovers less in the 6 more minutes. Giving Baron the advantage in A/T Ratio by almost an entire point(Baron: 2.21, Bayless: 1.36). That can be chalked up to rookie issues. I am very curious about the steals numbers not only in his first year with the Blazers, but his lone season at Arizona as well. 1.2 steals from Baron in his rookie year, yet only 0.3 from Bayless? At Arizona, he only averaged 1.0 steal, for the 35.7 minutes per game he played that is very low.

A lot of people are saying that for Bayless, his 3pt shot going in or not will allow him to drive easier & pass better as well. But Baron Davis had a worse 3pt shot his rookie year, yet averaged more then double the assists per game & shot a very respectable 48.8% from the field, while Bayless only went for 38.3%. Over 10% difference.

A few quotes:

    After an outstanding week of practices, Bayless came out a bit flat in the McDonald’s game. He was forced to play off of the ball for the majority of the game, giving him little opportunity to show his point guard skills. The Arizona recruit was able to show off his beautiful jumper on two successful three point attempts, which has better lift then any player the class of 2007 has to offer. Aside from that pair of trifectas, he never really seemed to get in the flow of the game and looked to shoot each and every time he got his hands on the ball, not exactly what you’d like to see out of a 6’3 guard.

    It wasn’t a good practice for Jerryd Bayless. The Arizona-bound combo guard wasn’t hitting from the outside, and doesn’t have the physical strength to really force the issue against other elite members of this class(Rose). He was playing mostly off the ball in this one, but didn’t show the ability to contribute in other ways when his offense isn’t clicking.(Passing Skills?)

    Bayless was one of the more impressive players here at the first day of practice, showing off an impressive array of scoring ability while not really forcing the issue. The biggest thing to notice about Bayless is his body control, which he exhibits on both his long and mid-range game. He hit a large assortment of shots from 15-18 feet in his team’s scrimmage, coming off curls, pulling up off-the-dribble, shooting with a hand in his face, or fading away from his defender. He has excellent elevation and a high release point on his shot, keeping his upper body square the whole time to ensure a consistent shooting motion. Bayless also got into the lane well here, though he didn’t finish at the rim many times, rather settling for floaters, which he hit with both his left and right hand, which is very impressive for a high school senior. Bayless also showed off his athleticism on one play, getting high above the rim for an alley-oop jam in transition. (All talking about his ability to score)

    This was a disappointing game for Jerryd Bayless, showing us how streaky his scoring can be, especially following his impressive performance in yesterday’s practice(Can’t transfer good practice to good on court performance?). Bayless did manage to have a few nice contributions for his team in the game, hitting a spot-up three-pointer, making two transition jams in which he showed off his explosive leaping ability and showing off good body control on twoup-and-under lay-ups in which he elevated high on and drew contract for the and-1 opportunities. He also hit a spot-up three-pointer and made a nice assist in transition for a spot-up outside shot.(All talking about his scoring)

    For the most part, though, Bayless was taking ill-advised shots and dribbling into ill-advised areas, missing shots and turning the ball over. He caught the ball at the top of the key on many opportunities, and tried to get to fancy with the ball, using crossovers and spin moves that weren’t very tight, rather than trying simpler approaches such as adjusting his speed and changing directions to get his man off balance, which would have given him the first step to get into the lane where he can put up a floater with either hand, something he never tried to do in this scrimmage. Bayless missed on some pull-up jumpers in the game as well, including a spinning 15-footer that was blocked and a pull-up shot from behind the three-point line. Bayless is going to need to become more efficient with his shot selection and dribble-drive selection, though that’s something that Lute Olson should help him with next year at Arizona, having molded plenty of combo guards during his tenure there.(Nothing positive about passing)

    Defensively, the freshman has lockdown potential for an NBA point guard. In a match-up against Virginia, he forced Sean Singletary into a number of ill-advised shots while cutting off his penetration into the paint. This type of defense is coveted by NBA teams, and the fact that it came from a college freshman in his second game is particularly impressive.(Now look what Singletary is doing in the NBA…)

    Standing somewhere around 6-3, NBA scouts will want to see some point guard skills out of Bayless, and indeed he sees a good amount of time at this position for Arizona. Bayless is not a selfish player, he can certainly find the open man and is pretty gifted passing while on the move, but it’s pretty clear at this point that he’s much more comfortable as a scorer than he is as a playmaker. He has a tendency to pound the ball in the half-court, over-dribbling excessively and making poor decisions when forced to play at a slower tempo(We are the owners of the slowest offensive tempo in the NBA). Arizona’s offense seems to lack some fluidity at times when he’s running the show, as Bayless has a tendency to create shots first and foremost for himself and then only look to create for others(Basketball IQ, as to when to score & when to pass???).

    Bayless is in a bit of a tough situation: when he’s extremely aggressive looking for his own shot, people say he’s selfish, but when he lets things come to him, he’s criticized for being too passive. He definitely leaned more towards the latter in this particular contest, doing some nice playmaking setting up teammates, but never showing that extra gear we’ve seen numerous times during the course of the season where he just takes over a game and refuses to let his team lose. Part of that has to do with the fact that Arizona’s starters played a combined 190 out of a possible 200 minutes (with Bayless going the distance), a lot of that had to do with the fantastic team defense West Virginia played. But part of that was on Bayless too—who had favorable matchups he could have exploited at times thanks to his far superior physical tools, but for some reason showed little urgency trying to do so. He in fact only got to the free throw line twice in this game, which is tied for the second lowest total of the season for him. He was fantastic finding spots to operate in the mid-range, where he pulled up off the dribble beautifully in trademark fashion. The problem was he seemed to settle for these long-range jumpers too often, not taking the ball particularly strong to the basket, and not finishing very well or drawing contact when he did, showing a certain lack of toughness in the process—something that’s somewhat of a concern with him.

    Bayless did not make up for his lack of aggression offensively with his play on the other end of the floor unfortunately. He struggled to fight through screens on numerous occasions, giving his matchup plenty of time to set his feet and get a clean shot off. When he was defending players head on, his lack of length, height and energy was clearly a poor mix in terms of contesting shots. It’s pretty obvious that Bayless is going to have problems defending the 2-guard position(Not a knock, he should not be asked to guard shooting guards)—unless he improves dramatically here, that is probably something his next coach will have to live with. We’re still talking about a supreme talent obviously, a virtual lock to be drafted in the top 10, but it’s pretty clear that Bayless peaked midway through the season and not at the very end. We must keep in mind that he’s only a freshman, though.

    Bayless started his NBA career by showing off his amazing first step off the dribble, and was rewarded with 23 free throw attempts. He showed very impressive leaping ability and body control inside, and was able to convert a number of lay-ups while taking the contact. Though he shot a good number of outside jumpers during his career at Arizona, Bayless didn’t attempt a single three pointer on the day, though you can hardly blame him considering the success he had attacking the paint. The rookie spent the majority of his day playing off the ball, and didn’t pick up a single assist. His role in Portland will start with scoring, and he certainly had this ability on full display throughout the day. Defensively, Bayless played very well at times(against summer league), but was forced to be less aggressive in this area by the refs who were calling things very closely.

    Bayless followed up his debut with a performance very similar to that first outing. He did knock down a three pointer today in addition to going to the line, which was nice to say since he failed to connect on one in his first contest. Bayless doesn’t seem keen on taking a lot of jumpers, and takes the ball to the rim on almost every possession. Unlike last game, Bayless didn’t do a good job distributing the ball, and gave up the ball on a number of occasions. Fortunately, he won’t have to do a ton of ball handling in Portland with Brandon Roy able to effectively handle pressure and Steve Blake as a pure assist man. Bayless showed some poor body language late in the game, but that’s because he is a very serious competitor who hates to lose. This level of performance seems like the norm for Bayless, as both of the games he’s played have been eerily similar.