a leaner meaner blazer anti-veterans team

by chimpy_x on Jul 12, 2009 3:21 AM PDT

I have sat by and watch for months what you all are writing. And after watching and cheering for every game last season, the two guys I cringed everytime they took the floor was Channing Frye and Sergio Rodriguez. Channing for extreme lack of defense and long brick bombs. And Sergio for all the years of same performances showing his obvious jitters on the floor that made for turnovers, missed oppurtunities and lack of leadership a point guard needs. If you watched last few seasons you know what I am saying and I am glad the team seen that too no matter how nice they are.

Face it Portland, We Have A Great Roster Period! When you have two guys at the end of the bench that if they had the chance to play starting SG. They might have been Rookie of the Year. You have a great team.

All our rookies were phenominal for the spots they were put into last year. All four did what they where asked to do and more. (If you could just let Bayless show his dominance sometimes is all I ask for) AKA Nets game last year.

Steve Blake and Joel Pryzbilla were the backbone of the team. No one here gives them enough respect. Steve made sure the offense was effective while Joel locked down the defense. They both fit perfect.

What I wanna see is this young team learn each other so good that even though other teams know them, they can't stop them. This team is stacked with talent when Portland considers big shot Trout a bad player. Whether you have Milsap or pendergraph. We have a two starting lineup depth now. I would like to see our bench crushing the other bench so so bad the other teams have to wear out the starters.

So goodbye C.Frye, S.Rodriguez,M.Ruffin,S.Randolph, and yes R. Lafrentz

And Say hello to my new Leaner and Meaner Blazer lineup.

You want veterans to teach them, M. lucas, N. McMillan, B. Grant, J.Kersey Nuff Said.

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Depth is overrated.

The Lakers just won it all with basically a 6 man rotation. The Celtics were also incredibly shallow. In fact I can’t remember the last championship team that played a super deep rotation. There isn’t a spot on this team besides Roy, Aldridige, and Oden that couldn’t have been reasonably filled by using the midlevel exception.

The truth of the matter is that Blake is completely mediocre as a starting PG. Joel is better, but he’s still just a 7-1 post player who doesn’t actually have any post skills. I’m all for having rugged, blue-collared roll players in the starting unit, I would just prefer that they were actually good. (championship good)

We probably don’t have enough talent on this roster as is to win a championship and we certainly don’t have a “great” roster. We have a good roster that just got knocked out of the first round. The Blazers ultimate success as a team, like it or not, is probably going to depend on KP turning some of our “depth” and “potential” into players with “consistency” and “production”.

I admire your optimism, but I’ve seen this story before.

by Nick Van Excellent on Jul 12, 2009 4:57 AM PDT reply actions

No, it's the "talent to win a championship" that is overrated.

After the Lakers won this year, Bedge has been full of palaver that, in passing, refers to the Lakers as a “great team.” Last year, who won the season series between the Lakers — that “great team” — and the Blazers?

If both the 2008-09 Lakers roster and the 2008-09 Lakers roster stayed intact this season — it did not happen, of course — and those two rosters from last season were matched up again in the coming season, with the players of both rosters’ games maturing, which way would the balance of power have swung in one year? Keep those two rosters intact for a hypothetical third year, and would the 2010-11 Lakers win a single game against the 2010-11 Blazers? Probably not.

Of course, every team’s roster changes from year-to-year, there are injuries, legs lose spring with age, yada yada yada. Those do not detract from the point of the previous paragraph.

Fact is, the 2008-09 Blazers were this|close to the team that won the NBA championship. Part of it was favorable match-ups: the Blazers match up better against some teams than others, and — even before we knew the seeding in the 2009 Western Conference playoffs — we knew that Houston (which quite handily had won the season series from Portland) was a terrible match-up for the Blazers. The Lakers, on the other hand, which had a far better W-L record than the Rockets, were given fits by the Blazer match-ups, as Kobe mentioned as the playoffs approached with the possibility that the Lakers might have to face Portland in the first round. You don’t get to choose your match-ups in the play-offs, and if you know that certain kinds of line-ups can be your Kryptonite, then you fine-tune your roster in the off-season so that next year you will not be killed by the functional equivalent of Yao-Artest-Brooks. That is what the Blazers are trying to do this off-season.

But as for the “We probably don’t have enough talent on this roster as is to win a championship” groaning and moaning, it is just plain wrong. The current roster, without Millsap, but with some plug-in generic piece who can play a few minutes at back-up point guard on nights when Blake or Bayless cannot suit up at all, has enough talent to win an NBA championship, barring major injuries. Does that mean that the Blazers should have stood pat with the cards in their hand? No (see preceding paragraph). But its is a matter of plugging match-up holes, not a matter of sufficient talent overall.

by monkeysuncle on Jul 12, 2009 6:10 AM PDT up reply actions

I respectfully disagree

with your assessment of the talent of the roster. For being as young as they were and to have won 54 games bodes well, I think, for future progress. Next year, in my opinion, is all about the sophomores..

by LewisClark on Jul 12, 2009 1:41 PM PDT up reply actions

Depth gets ya through the season in good shape, the core wins championships.

"A bizarre and extremely rare hybrid Blazer/Laker fan, Timbo has always struggled to contain the Beast Within, like Dr. Jekyll, Bruce Banner, or Ted Kennedy." — Miled Animal

by timbo on Jul 12, 2009 5:05 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

I agree, our depth and youth hurt us in a lot of ways, especially in the playoffs.

Typically, teams in the playoffs will really hone down their rotation to a max of 7 guys usually, with spot minutes if someon is in foul trouble or gets hurt.

I hope after we get ManSap we can do a lopsided trade and clear off some roster space freeing up minutes for Batum, Rudy and Millsap.

B.S. Liberal Studies OSU '06
Trade for Gerald Wallace!!

by TyboOSU on Jul 12, 2009 5:37 AM PDT reply actions

Perfectly stated!!!!!

You had my rec with this line…

And after watching and cheering for every game last season, the two guys I cringed everytime they took the floor was Channing Frye and Sergio Rodriguez.

"A bizarre and extremely rare hybrid Blazer/Laker fan, Timbo has always struggled to contain the Beast Within, like Dr. Jekyll, Bruce Banner, or Ted Kennedy." — Miled Animal

by timbo on Jul 12, 2009 10:09 AM PDT reply actions

Blake and Joel are better then you know.

Blake gets my vote for great timing, assist to turnover, clutch shooting, great passing and being perfect example for Bayless.

And Joel was a nightmare for other teams last year, hustle plays, blocks, rebounds, putbacks, lack of letting other players take advantage of him or others. Another example but for Oden.

Let this team grow together and you’ll see what depth really means.

by chimpy_x on Jul 12, 2009 11:53 AM PDT reply actions

Depth is a blessing

The only team I was afraid of meeting was the Rockets I was really hoping they would of been in the other bracket. Oh by the way we would of won also if Yao would of broke his foot in the 3rd game of the playoffs to and LA, Denver or Orlando would not of beat us.

by prof.mike on Jul 12, 2009 1:15 PM PDT reply actions

If all your opponents fans hate one of your players

Then he is pretty good, in a lot of unconventional ways.

Houston fans were HATING Przybilla. That seems almost reason enough to keep him around.

Everybody was a baby once, Arthur. Oh, sure, maybe not today, or even yesterday. But once. Babies, chum: tiny, dimpled, fleshy mirrors of our us-ness, that we parents hurl into the future, like leathery footballs of hope. And you've got to get a good spiral on that baby, or evil will make an interception.

by shenanigans on Jul 12, 2009 6:55 PM PDT reply actions