Technically he said scoring guard not combo guard… but same difference.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I don’t put much stock in exhibition games, whether it be football, basketball or baseball. Summer League counts even less. There is only one guy playing who is currently on our roster. If more than two others get signed to contracts, I’d be very surprised.

I will grant that Summer League is an opportunity to take a look at some players and perhaps uncover a gem or at least a nice bench player. In that respect I would agree that it doesn’t look like Portland has a very good job. The only guy that might qualify is Bobby Jones.

no they don’t.

In another interview a few weeks back, he was asked about whether shoot first combo-guards could become true point guards and he said “no”, then went on to talk about using Bayless properly.

He has to look around the league and see some people making it work, so I doubt he is completely against the idea of Bayless at the 1. However, it isn’t his natural inclination, which means Blake’s position is very secure (pending trades).

but when the dust clears, it’s Nate’s team and he’ll use the talent.

One thing that irked me about the blazers in the past is that talent was incorrectly used. Rasheed being forced to be a leader and a push to be a scorer. That wasn’t the guy. The blazers needed to acquire that guy and instead set Rasheed up to go against his grain.

Damon was forced to be a passing point guard. That WASNT his game! he was a scorer. He stagnated in Portland after thriving in Toronto. I won’t disagree that other factors came into play as well, but he was definitely misused.

I don’t have that sense with Nate. There are those that disagree, but I believe the argument of “yeah, you could play player X for Y amount of time, but then you’ll see all his flaws” is extremely valid. nate plays players in times and ways that makes them look very good. Look at the PER. You think all players are naturally that perfect? I’d argue strongly that it has to do with excellent coaching and excellent use of abilities.

For those who hate nate, yes… he does have issues making quick adjustments. I don’t disagree with that. The use of his talent and preplanning for games is phenomenal though.

Is that is, as Nate asserts, he can’t play PG he essentially can’t play in the NBA. He’s just too short to play the 2 effectively. So yeah he’s driven to prove he can play point. It’s his only chance. I find it interesting that they are encouraging he and Oden to speak to one another because they’re both in the same boat. the almost a bust boat.

for this alone: "If we can’t tolerate the mistakes, then we are almost certainly not going to enjoy the benefits of the “blue sky” potential that may lie at the other end of this process."

True of the Bayless process. True of life in general.

I still hold out hope for Bayless, but last night’s performance shook my confidence in him a bit.

(Could have sworn I hit “reply” – hence, the double post – sorry).

I had high hopes for seeing him improve this SL, and I am not going to write him off yet. However, I’m really concerned right now.

Later in the game, he defaulted to Jeter, who is also a shoot-first 1. I have two problems with that. First, Bayless didn’t seem to want to continue the effort. He faded away completely. The second problem was that Jeter looked like a much better PG. He didn’t just dump the ball off to a scorer, but instead set Cunningham up so that he received the ball in a good scoring position.

As far as Bayless “fading away”, I don’t think he is a quitter. I just think that trying to be something he is not is wearing on him. It is like an introvert being worn down by being “social” at a party, while an extrovert is energized by it.

I think Nate may have it more right than KP – they should turn him loose as a scorer. I think the passing will get a little better over time, but it will never be his first option. Nate doesn’t like the pick-and-roll anyway, so it isn’t like we need Steve Nash or Jason Kidd.

However, for that to work, he does need to improve his defense.

…srs overreactions imo

I have been saying the same thing all along. Patience is a virtue and I think some of the fans on BE need to have a little virtue in this matter. Give the boy time. He ain’t even old enough to enjoy the Cheetah Club yet

This is so tiring. When Bayless has a good year, get hurts, and then gets tossed around the NBA before finding his niche, we can compare him to Billups.

Billups SHOWED potential on the court from the get go. Yes, with a much worse team than Bayless is on, but you’d be crazy if you think Sergio would have played ahead of rookie Billups.

I would be terrified if anybody judged my potential at age 20. Not to say that I was a horrible human being, but I was certainly self-centered and thought myself to be neigh-indestructible. Perhaps that is Bayless’ problem: he’s 20.

Now, I have been a “Bayless homer” since day one, but that’s not to say that I’m blind. Unfortunately, the only decent meter we have to gauge his development is the Summer League, and using what we saw last year, and what we have been seeing this year, he isn’t looking very pointy. Maybe it is, as some say, a matter of supporting players, and were Oden and BRoy on the floor, we would have had a different game. Personally, I’m starting to see that his potential is maximized when he looks to score. However, instead of screaming “bust!”, I’m finding myself very excited with the new possibilities our lineup is looking at.

An option that has been bounced around a few comment threads is the idea of Rudy as our starting PG. This opens up the backup SG position where Bayless may find a more comfortable home. A setup like this could also maximize Blake’s potential. In my opinion, old Blakey still has some surprises up his sleeve and if we have a way to keep him around, we should. I think a second unit back court of Bayless and Blake would get the job done. Pepper in some Mills and we may have something special. Before I get carried away though, it’s important to know whether Rudy even wants the starting 1 detail. The best scenario here might be to have Roy and Rudy switching on PG duties, taking turns working with, and off, the ball. Same situation with Blake and Bayless. Who knows, it could be pretty effective.

An option that I don’t think we have is to give up on our project before the true potential has been realized. Who cares if Bayless can’t play point? I’m not saying that’s definitely the case, but so what if it is? He doesn’t suddenly become an awful, unusable burden. It’s like Coach has been saying, we just need to find the best way to play him. That’s the coach’s challenge, to make the pieces into a puzzle, not the other way around; that’s the GM’s challenge. Pritchard has provided a slew of excellent pieces, now Nate gets to prove his quality by turning them into Big Ben. Some may think we still need a corner piece, others think Bayless will grow into it, still others think we have everything we need already and just need to sit back and let the souffle rise. Who’s right? Beats me.

Go Blazers.

a) It was a fair trade, with the Blazers banking on it being good for Indiana in the short term and good for the Blazers in the long term. We already lost Diogu (Ruffin was renounced, trade exception maybe too), now when they lose Jack only McBob (will be re-signed according to his agent) and Rush will remain. That makes the trade already look better towards the Blazers.
b) Like Indiana, the Blazers would not have offered Jack $20 million. So they could have lost him for nothing.

we gave up 2 players for Bayless, Jack and Rush

I wonder what is going through his head besides “Gee whiz I sure likes me some bass fishin’”

I don’t remember that……oh, was it when he still had a team in Seattle?

I quit reading his posts 6 months ago, and I like him more and more the less I pay any attention to him.
I do miss fatty though. Have I accidentally ignored him, or is he really gone until the regular season?

You and AK are fairly interchangable to me :-)

Is there an issue? is there damage? Are red flags going up? are there grumblings?

That title does seem to imply that there are issues, not that this is just summer league.

with all 4 points. And I don’t care if Bayless makes tons of mistakes at SL. He can’t learn to be a PG if he doesn’t try to break some of his natural shoot-first tendencies, and that will lead to mistakes in the beginning. Maybe he won’t pan out at a PG but if we wan’t to give him that chance, we have to live with the learning curve.

if Steve goes down for any extended period of time, would anyone be comfortable with Jerryd being the starter? O_o