Isn't three quality big men enough??? w/ poll

While reading through the fanposts it seems that nearly every other comment is questioning why we are not adding a backup power forward.  The Houston series has apparently traumatised the fanbase to the point of doubting that  our big guys (Joel, LMA, Oden) are capable of shouldering the load.  I keep reading about how Scola did this and Landry did that.  My take is that other matchup problems hurt the Blazers and forced our front court players  to either help on defense or pick up cheap fouls.  Clearly, the coaches decided that Scola was going to be the guy that beat us.  Whether it was to help on a penetrating guard (Brooks or Lowry) or to double team Yao the game plan seemed to be that we were content to let Scola, Landry, and Hayes beat us.  This led to many open fifteen footers for the power forwards.  Also, Yao is (was) a freak.  He is going to get any teams centers into foul trouble.  Oden and Joel did not play there regular regiment of minutes because the refs blew the whistle every time Yao was touched.

In the playoffs LaMarcus did as he was coached.  He can guard any of the Rockets pf's straight up.  He also averaged 37.1 minutes last year.  Where is this mythical backup "banger" going to play?  KP believes in Greg.  He believes that he has the talent to improve defensively and not pickup fouls at such an alarming rate.  Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but it seems clear that the organization believes in Greg.  With that pair as your starting front court Joel is the perfect big man off the bench.  He can guard fours or fives (He guarded the hell out of David West last year).  The fact is Joel is the backup banger.  Joel is the interchangeable big off the bench.

Additionally Nate seems committed to at times going small and playing either Travis or potentially Hedo at the four for prolonged stretches.  This creates match up problems for other teams.  It worked really well at times last year and it will probably be employed next year and in the future.

Where are David Lee, Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox or any other decent backup pf going to play?  There simply are no minutes to go around that would make spending our cap space on a power forward worth while.  We drafted two power forwards to fill that minor role.  The organization clearly does not see it as a priority and neither do I.  Before the playoffs I do not recall spending a ton of time thinking about the backup four.

Look at the Lakers.  They just won 60 plus games and a championship with 3 legitimate bigs.  Bynam (if you can call him legitimate), Gasol, and Odom.  Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga hardly played in the playoffs because their main three bigs took all the minutes come playoff time.  Clearly we are following the same model.

Next season I think that both Greg and LaMarcus will improve.  Joel will continue to play at an incredibly high level.  Why do we need a big time addition in the front court?