Summer League Game 4 Recap: Blazers 91 Spurs 74

by Ben Golliver on Jul 19, 2009 3:08 PM PDT in News

Last night's commanding, double-digit victory over the San Antonio Spurs put smiles on the faces of Blazers players, coaches and management alike, something we haven't seen here all week. After the game, Kevin Pritchard milled around doling out back-slaps, Assistant Coach Monty Williams joked that the pressure was finally off his colleague Joe Prunty, and Blazers Broadcaster Mike Barrett gushed about Jeff Pendergraph's physical play against DeJuan Blair, the player many Blazers fans felt the team should have drafted instead of The Graph. The team's first win in four tries in Vegas was a good news oasis for a management team that spent much of its week in the desert holed up in a distant corner of Cox Pavilion, keeping to themselves.

After having its collective heart questioned by Coach Prunty a day earlier, the entirety of the Blazers Summer League team rose to the challenge straight out of the gate on Saturday night, exceeding San Antonio's energy in the game's early minutes and outscoring the Spurs in each of the game's four quarters. The Blazers went ultra-small with Pooh Jeter at the 2 and the Spurs simply couldn't keep up.

Aside from the Pendergraph/Blair tilt (which was fought to a draw.. JP had 14 and 10, Blair had 16 and 11), the matchup to watch was at the point guard position once again. Jerryd Bayless took on George Hill, a promising guard who earned rotation minutes last year. Bayless rose to the challenge and had his best defensive performance of the week, helping hold Hill to just 6 points and 3 assists. Bayless called his defensive effort "a confidence booster," and said, "I know I'm capable of [locking down] other point guards. I think I proved it last night [against Ty Lawson] too."

Bayless also succeeded in turning his early defensive success into the kind of offensive explosiveness we remember seeing in the 2008 Summer League. He repeatedly drove through the Spurs team defense and reached the foul line 10 times, finishing with 19 points. But Bayless did a nice job of staying mostly within the framework of the offense and involving his teammates, as three other Blazers finished in double digits. His final line showed 5 assists.

The bad -- if not ugly -- news, once again: 7 turnovers in 27 minutes.

Asked for his thoughts on his continued trouble protecting the basketball, Bayless stated, "The turnovers are coming from me trying to get other people involved... people are dropping the ball. During the regular season that doesn't happen... I had a couple of carries but a lot of them -- not saying nothing negative -- but a couple of guys dropped some passes. When it's Brandon, Travis, Rudy, Nic out on the wings, they're not dropping it."

Asked by Joe Freeman of The Oregonian about the multiple times he was whistled for carrying the ball, he replied "A couple of the carries, I don't know if they were carries or not. I talked to [Assistant Coach] Caleb [Canales] and he said he didn't think it was. They said it was a point of emphasis for the refs in training."

Just one more Summer League game and next week's Team USA minicamp stands between Bayless and the next meaningful basketball he will play: training camp. Asked for his early thoughts on earning time at the point guard spot during camp this year, Bayless made eye contact and stated very clearly, "It's a battle." Asked if he would be content with settling into a backup role, he said, "Obviously, Steve [Blake] is the starting point guard but I don't think Steve would want it any other way [than a battle]. I don't think he just wants me to come in and just mess around. I'm going to come out there and battle him. You never know what could happen." Bayless also admitted that his approach to camp would be different than last year, "I'm in a different place... Last year I kind of knew I was bound to be a backup. This year, Coach is giving me an opportunity and it's up to me."

Bayless doesn't lack confidence and on Saturday night neither his game nor his postgame session lacked fireworks.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS Dante Cunningham rebounded nicely from a left groin injury that sidelined him on Friday night. He finished with 14 points and 2 rebounds on 7 of 12 shooting. To read my thoughts on Cunningham's Summer League, check out this post on True Hoop.

PPS Bayless had the quip of the night when he called Pooh Jeter the Blazers' version of JJ Barea.

PPPS I am leaving Las Vegas tonight and the team's final Summer League game will not be televised by Comcast Sports Net so there will not be a Game 5 recap. Apologies.

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Comments

I'd like to see Bayless take some more responsibility for the TOs

by jksnake99 on Jul 19, 2009 3:11 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

I totally agree

even something like: the first carry surprised me, because that wouldn’t normally be called in-season, but the second one is on me. I should have adjusted to the way they were calling it.

or… I think a few of them were good passes that just were not caught. Bottom line is that my role as the PG is to know who I’m passing to and it’s not like I am not out there passing to Brandon, Lamarcus and Greg.

by MadN on Jul 19, 2009 3:27 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't even like that second one

About the most excuse-making I’d find reasonable is pointing out that it’s tough to get on the same page with the short amount of practice/games for summer league.

Thing is, it doesn’t matter how much of the truth what he says is – everyone knows he’s playing with a lower quality of teammates at summer league than in regular season. That’s at least the second or third time he’s brought it up. Everyone who matters knows whether the TOs are a bad pass or a dropped pass, so it’s not like the Blazers org is going to watch the game, think other guys are dropping the ball, then change their minds and suddenly think it’s his just because he steps up and takes responsibility in a press conference.

Meanwhile, he sounds like a jerk. But he’s young, so hopefully someone works with him on that.

In honor of the dearly departed, I declare July PB&J month - everyone raise a sandwich to the memory of Ben!

by wjb1492 on Jul 19, 2009 4:10 PM PDT up reply actions

yes totally...

and what I mean by “know who your passing to” has nothing to do with talent level, what I meant is this: Every basketball coach in the world will tell you to pass to an individual player, not to a man on the court, meaning that not everybody’s hands and hand-eye are created equal. If you are passing to a center, for instance, you don’t give him a bounce pass at the knees. If you are kicking it to a shooter in the corner, you make sure that you hit him in the hands in rythem. Many of the passing-turnovers I have seen from Bayless this summer were of this variety… not exactly bad passes, but not smart in that he gives the “wrong” type of pass at times.

by MadN on Jul 19, 2009 8:08 PM PDT up reply actions

Yes, that makes sense

And I agree – sorry, I got fixated on the last part about not passing to Brandon et al. I’m just into the good teammate thing, so especially where he’s the most talented guy out there I think it sucks to throw teammates under the bus – and especially when I’m sure those guys are hoping to make a good showing so they can make some money this year.

In honor of the dearly departed, I declare July PB&J month - everyone raise a sandwich to the memory of Ben!

by wjb1492 on Jul 19, 2009 9:10 PM PDT up reply actions

Si you all would be happier if he had a more carefully rehearsed line f crap for your consumption? Is that it?

by raoulduke on Jul 19, 2009 10:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Yep

When it comes to what you someone says about their teammates in a post-game interview, I’ll take the politically correct answer every time. Announcers should call it like it is – coaches can tell it like it is, within reason – but as far as I’m concerned a fellow teammate should focus on himself first and the team as a whole second when discussing poor play in a public setting. It doesn’t matter who the player in question is – how great they are generally, or how great they played in a specific game – I don’t care for anyone publicly casting blame on teammates while trying to deflect it from themselves.

In honor of the dearly departed, I declare July PB&J month - everyone raise a sandwich to the memory of Ben!

by wjb1492 on Jul 20, 2009 10:45 AM PDT up reply actions

I agree

throwing teammates under the bus is lame. Its not like these guys have never caught a ball before, if they are “dropping” it, it probably wasn’t a good pass for one reason or another. Very discouraging attitude in my opinion…

The Bedger formally known as ????????

by Rudiculous on Jul 19, 2009 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions

The only thing ridiculous is everybody getting bent out of shape about JB

The negativity here gets old. Getting so critical about summer league is lame.

Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game

by iDea on Jul 20, 2009 10:38 AM PDT up reply actions

Moreover ther are a lot of guys in summer league playing with less talent

I don’t know the stats off hand but my guess is there is no one else averaging 5 TOs and blaming anyone else. As a PG you have to be a leader and you don’t put blame on your teammates. I think we should trade him while his value is high. there are other teams that know they have time to build and can develop him better than we can as we’re a 54 win team and don’t really have a place for a guy who does not space well or take care of the ball. Also a lot of people have made the mistake of thinking that Rex is a good defender because he is an aggressive defender. If this was a 42 win team I would take him over Jeter but as it is now we would fare better with Pooh as our backup PG

by eclecticspider on Jul 20, 2009 12:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Sorry Jerryd...

Blake won’t have to ‘battle’ for a damned thing in this year’s training camp. :)
BTW, stop picking up your dribble near center court on the sideline all of the time.

Coach Prunty: Grats for getting off of the schnide. :D

Ben: Thanks again for the great read. Stay cool in the pool!

Portland's PG of the Future - Meet John Wall
Treat people well because Karma can hit you at any second.

by Net Ranger on Jul 19, 2009 3:27 PM PDT reply actions

Its too soon for Bayless

Im a hugh Bayless fan and i do think he is our point guard of the future but now is not the time.I do think he should get the back up minutes but he is not ready to lead this team.So now what I like Blake but he just servicable at the position and would be a back up on 90% of the teams in the league.So i would be disappointed if we entered the season with these two as our PG’s.I understand why KP wants a 3 but why is he not trying to upgrade the PG spot I like what we have at 3 even with out Outlaw who I love but isnt right for this team with Batum, Webster, and Cunningham I like that rotation at that position. So im not saying lets blow all of our cap space on an aging PG im just saying lets sign and trade for Nate Robinson who would be a great threat to have next to BRoy plus with giving up Blake and Outlaw we would use very little cap space and we could still make a move at the deadline. So lets speak up Portland this guy would make us very dangerous lets make it known we want him.

by BlazinJR on Jul 19, 2009 3:38 PM PDT reply actions

no, not li'l Nate

I agreed with your line of thinking up until you mentioned Robinson, KryptoNate is not the right fit, at all

If KP can’t get HInrich or Harris to upgrade the starting PG position, then he’ll just have to “punt” and sign a veteran emergency backup like Tyronn Lue and hope that between Rudy and Bayless they’ll have “enough” guard play to get the team by until the starting backcourt returns to the floor

It’s certainly not what I was hoping for, coming out of the Houston series, but for now “it is what it is”

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Jul 19, 2009 6:33 PM PDT up reply actions

Just a thought

But to echo everyone’s sentiments, leaders tend to take responsibilities from others, not pass the buck when things go awry. Good leaders do anyway.

OLP is the best thing Canada has given the world outside of maple syrup

by SuperDave on Jul 19, 2009 3:47 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

PG leadership

“The turnovers are coming from me trying to get other people involved… people are dropping the ball. During the regular season that doesn’t happen… I had a couple of carries but a lot of them — not saying nothing negative — but a couple of guys dropped some passes. When it’s Brandon, Travis, Rudy, Nic out on the wings, they’re not dropping it.”

Stay classy, Bayless

by kneejerkNBA on Jul 19, 2009 3:50 PM PDT reply actions

Rex's battle is going to be over backup minutes with the veteran point guard the Blazers will add before training camp.

There is simply no possible way that they will put all of their eggs in Rex’s basket as the backup PG. The Blazers will add another point guard. It may be a starter or it may be a backup. I suspect they have had a deal already worked out to trade Outlaw for a PG (maybe just a backup PG), but that may be on hold now pending another move because the Turk and Millsap deals fell through. Had either of those deals happened there would be ZERO minutes for Outlaw at PF, and he is worse at SF where we already have several alternatives needing more minutes. I’ve listened to Nate and KP talk several times about how the Blazers returning players would be better next year and neither one has ever mentioned Outlaw in those statements.

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Jul 19, 2009 4:00 PM PDT reply actions

damage control

The Blazers won their first summer league game. Thats great. Barrett (and blazersedge) reported that the Blazers started Jeter at sg. We are not stupid. Jeter had 4 assists to Bayless’ 5. The proper headline should be “Blazers win first summer league game after naming jeter starting pg”.

I am a Barrett Blog regular and I’m about fed up. The reality of the situation is that KP screwed up. He should have made a trade, with Raefs contract, at the deadline last season and he was too conservative. Not only would Portland have moved past the first round with a small forward like Jefferson or Turkolu and Kirk Heinrick as our pg but they also wouldn’t be sitting here in the middle of summer with $7.7 million and an undesirable city for free agents. At this point KP and the rest of the Blazers organization should just come out and say, “we screwed up and now we will do our best to fix it”. But instead KP is pretending like this was his master plan all along and the rest of the organization is doing a better job of covering his ass than the media has done in spinning Biden’s “humurous gaffs”. Really?…really? the plan was to pass up on great upgrades at the trade deadline, get shot down by our top two free agent choices, and then miss out on Heinrick to keep Bayless and watch him prove he can’t play pg at summer league? Great plan KP, just great.

Here are the facts as I see them.

1. Blake should be the reserve point guard and KP should get a more athletic pg with equal 3 pt. shooting skills to start.

2. Batum is our future starting small forward. We need a 2-3 yr. starter with good ball handling, defense, and a decent shot.

3. Cunningham and Pendergraph should offer the energy/aggressive play that we need at PF

4. Hedo would have been a great aquisition at the trade deadline but after his finals performance he was far overpriced. KP was stupid to pursue him in the first place.

5. Bayless should have been traded before summer league. From that point on his stock will continue to drop.

6. I like Martell but everyone needs to stop refering to him as a contributor next year until he actually proves he will ever play again.

7. People keep saying,“why change anything, we’re a 54 win team”. We won some miracle games last year. If things had been just slightly different we might have only had
48. If we don’t upgrade along with all of the other elite teams we will only win around 45 next year.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a Blazer fan and always will be but being a fan sometimes means calling the team out. They’ve messed up in the last few months and they need to own it and then make it better.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 4:55 PM PDT reply actions

7. People keep saying,"why change anything, we’re a 54 win team". We won some miracle games last year. If things had been just slightly different we might have only had
48. If we don’t upgrade along with all of the other elite teams we will only win around 45 next year.

By point differential, Portland was actually unlucky in winning 54 games. They had the PD of a 56 win team… so I’m not sure that the “miracle games” line holds water. Also, with a team as young as the Blazers are, there will not be a nine game drop-off from last year.

Does it suck that we haven’t made a move? Sure. Is the sky falling? No.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:02 PM PDT up reply actions

correct

The Blazers had some miracle wins to be sure, but also had some tough losses— Hedo’s banked 3, Blake’s FT game vs. LAC, OT in Charlotte and OT in Cleveland come to mind. There was no smoke and mirrors about the Blazers season last year.

I could imagine the Blazers win total dropping if they don’t make a move— teams around them have gotten better, but a 45 win season would only happen as a result of some pretty extensive injury problems.

However, I’m right with Irwin Fletcher about the propagandic (is that a word?) nature of Barrett’s blog as well as the Blazers need for a PG, the desireablility of a starting 3 for the next couple years, the foolishness of pursuing Hedo and the uncertainty about Martell.

by jksnake99 on Jul 19, 2009 5:20 PM PDT up reply actions

thanks jksnake99

I needed someone to tell me I’m not just crazy.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:25 PM PDT up reply actions

hey, I’d love to see an upgraded roster. It just seems folly to me to act like we will seriously regress next year.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:33 PM PDT up reply actions

I don’t think we will regress, we’ll be the same team with a worse record. I don’t think record is best way to judge a teams ability, but record is very important if you want to make the playoffs. I think the teams around us are improving themselves and we need to as well.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:40 PM PDT up reply actions

The 09/10 Blazers will be judged by how far they advance in the playoffs

I’ve made most of the same observations that you’ve made, just not all in one place and with the “rant pedal” stuck on full throttle ;^)

The 54 wins were great, and the Blazers got “stuck” with their worst possible matchup in round 1. But that’s OK (by me) because the Rocket’s series exposed some weaknesses that I was “complaining” about back at the trading deadline: namely the starting PG position and the Charmin-soft back-ups at PF. I’m still waiting for solutions to these areas, despite the drafting of Pend/Dante.

I too feel that KP “missed the boat” in February (it’s not hindsight, I said so at the time) and because of his hesitation the Blazers would now have to “overpay” to get Hinrich where the deal would’ve been relatively simple back in Feb (with RLEC) and before Kirk played so well against the Celtics and Gordon left Chicago.

But I’m not under any illusions, I know that Barrett and Wheeler will “circle the wagons” and present the upoming season in the best possible light, whatever may come. Their job is to polish the brand, and they do it very well

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Jul 19, 2009 7:06 PM PDT up reply actions

well said

Pend/Dante don’t necessarily represent the “Malik Rose” type player we need. Hopefully one of them does develop into that player but in the mean time we need another option. I liked Roy’s suggestion of Turiaf but I’m not sure if he’s still an option. I like Millsap but it seemed like a lot to pay for a reserve player. I don’t really think the Blazers intended to actually sign him anyway. The only player I personally think is a perfect fit for the Blazers in Heinrick and that option may be gone now. Other opportunities will come along and I just hope they are taken next time.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 11:37 PM PDT up reply actions

you probably missed my "4 big man rotation" idea

and everybody else is probably sick of reading it

But I thought there was a way to get 25-30 minutes per game for Millsap by playing him alongside LMA (and a center) for 6 minutes per half as a “big” lineup. This would not be the starting lineup, but I could see Nate bringing MIllsap in “early” to replace Batum then bringing Nic back in to sub out LMA in the 2nd quarter. This way, most of Millsap’s minutes at the “3” would be against the opposing team’s backup SF, which I think could’ve worked in the Blazer’s favor (massive rebounding advantage, etc)

I’d have a tougher time proporting this “rotation” with David Lee, but I think Lamar Odom could also still pull it off, if he was willing to come to Portland and accept a “6th man” role

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Jul 20, 2009 8:57 PM PDT up reply actions

really?...really?

As an example I would say Roy’s “Miracle” shot in the first Houston game was a miracle. Also…

The Trail Blazers won a league best 18 games when trailing by double figures, the most by any team since 2002-03 (18, Phoenix) … Portland won 11 games, including seven road contests, when trailing at the start of the final period (11-23) … Portland’s 13 wins (13-25) when behind or
tied after three quarters tied for the league’s best mark … Portland notched its second and third-largest comeback wins of the season in back-to-backs games, 19 points at San Antonio on Apr. 8 and 18 points at Memphis on Apr. 7 … The last team to come from at least 18 behind to win in back to-back games was the Dallas Mavericks, Feb. 23-25, 2006 … Portland erased a 16-point deficit
or larger to win four times this season, all on the road. Just a couple of these things would have to go differently to drop to 48 wins. Add ALL OF THAT to the fact that the Lakers and Spurs have upgraded and I think what I said is entirely possible.

If you need an example, how about the Bulls. 49-33 in ‘06-’07, 33-49 in ‘07-’08. They were a young talented team too.

Why is it that saying KP messed up is the same as saying the sky is falling? The Blazers are still a good team, KP just needs admit the problem and work to fix it.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Point differential is the best predictor of success. I stand by my point that we were not lucky last season.

The Bulls? Locker room discord, players worried about who would get the extensions (big issue with limited Chicago spending), and no go-to superstar.

That team is a whole lot different than this Blazer team. They basically quit on the season and revolted against the coach.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions

ok

Do you have proof to back up “Point differential is the best predictor of success.” Would love to see it. I don’t think you can just ignore all of the info I posted. The Blazers had a miracle year last year that no one expected and I enjoyed every minute of it. Now it’s time to take the next step.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:37 PM PDT up reply actions

cablinasian is right

Point differential is a better predictor of future success than W/L record. Serious analysts like anyone in the TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown ignore W/L record and go mainly on point differential.

Incidentally, the ‘06-’07 Bulls had the point differential of a 55 win team, so they were unlucky to win just 49 games. Could what happened to them happen to the Blazers? Sure, its possible, but those Bulls had some injuries, made some bad moves (Ben Wallace in particular) and had some of their players regress. I see what happened to them as the exception rather than the rule.

However, if the Blazers want to be champions any time soon, they are still several shrewd moves away from getting there… unless Oden flat out blows up into a monster, in which case I could see them winning one in a year or two.

by jksnake99 on Jul 19, 2009 5:46 PM PDT up reply actions

glad you came over from Barrett’s blog, there’s good conversation here.

IW/L is binary, so a team can be unlucky or lucky over the course of 82 games pretty easily. Neil Paine of BBR, Hollinger of ESPN, Pelton of BP, etc. all use point differential extensively in their work. Like jksnake said, the Truehoop predictions are based on PD.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:51 PM PDT up reply actions

Cool thanks

I agree that w/l doesn’t represent a team properly. I actually said that in a conversation farther up. I think that is why they could win less games next year and still be a good or even slightly better team. I just personally wish they would have made a move at the deadline. They would have gotten a lot more for their money, and I think they would have moved on past the Rockets.

I just started looking at this site a couple weeks ago. It is a far better source of info than the other options.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:58 PM PDT up reply actions

In the end, it’s all on Greg Oden. If he’s really good, then we will improve. If he struggles, then we’ll be around the same as last year, in my opinion.

Seeing as Travis + cap space is basically RLEC 2010, I think that we’ll have as good of an opportunity at the deadline as we did in February 2009.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 6:00 PM PDT up reply actions

go GO. He’s already a game changer when he stays out of foul trouble. If it comes down to the deadline I hope we are able to find a good move and that kp makes it this time.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 6:42 PM PDT up reply actions

I bet Hollinger will write an article some time this offseason where he will detail that Joel, Blake and maybe others played better than they should last season

by Norsktroll on Jul 20, 2009 8:32 AM PDT up reply actions

Umm

How is coming from behind lucky? Doesn’t that just mean that we played bad 1 half and good the other half?

Yeah, we won a lot of close games, but we also won a ton of easy games too.

The Princess of Blazersedge

by Zaig on Jul 19, 2009 9:29 PM PDT up reply actions

I am amazed how many people have trouble with the relavtivly simple concept

That is in the teams best interest to see how Martell’s foot has healed before making a move with the increasingly rare cap space.

by southern oregon on Jul 19, 2009 5:24 PM PDT up reply actions

Yes, but...

We can’t count on him being a contributor. We have to be prepared for the possibility that he won’t come back yet and when he does he might not be ready to contribute.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:31 PM PDT up reply actions

My point is

That if Martell is playing well in 2 months it makes Travis more expendable,if not Travis is less expendable and the cap space is not "wasted’ till Feb when it may well be more valuable than now. So why the panic mode that we havent made a move?

by southern oregon on Jul 19, 2009 5:44 PM PDT up reply actions

True

I agree with you somewhat. I think we wasted our good opportunities in February and now we have to wait for the right thing to come along and not rush. I just personally worry that Martell might have the sort of injury that will plague him forever, like Bill Walton. If the right thing came along tomorow though, I don’t think we should pass it up to wait for Martell.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:51 PM PDT up reply actions

I think that SO’s point is solid. If we wait to make a move until the later part of the year, we will know whether or not Martell is an asset.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:53 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't think you know for a fact what opportunites were there, let alone that any were wasted.

Just because a blogger or columnist desperately searching for eyeballs writes something doesn’t make it so.

I don’t think Blazer’s management is perfect, but there not stupid fer crying out loud. They didn’t mss something that 2000 blog posters could see with their eyes shut.

by raoulduke on Jul 19, 2009 10:16 PM PDT up reply actions

Umm Outlaw and Webster could BOTH leave and we'd be fine

Rudy can easily play 30mpg at SG
Roy can play the other 18, giving him 18-20mpg at SF
Batum can easily play 24mpg at SF

This just leaves half a dozen minutes open at SF to fill. Not a tough task.

Now, if the PG thing becomes an issue and the coach decides to try Rudy there, we could be in a little bit of trouble, but that seems doubtful.

The Princess of Blazersedge

by Zaig on Jul 19, 2009 9:32 PM PDT up reply actions

As long as there's a SF coming back in the deal, you're right

If you add Travis and Martell to the cap-space KP could have up to 15.6mil$ to spend at the trading deadline. You could get 90% of the players in the NBA with that amount

This assumes Webster recovers and plays well for the first 2+ months of the season, of course…

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Jul 20, 2009 9:02 PM PDT up reply actions

bayless had the ball in his hands and ran the offense. he was playing the one while in the game. if he had moved off ball i would have written he was playing the 2, simple as that.

Blazers Edge.com

by Ben Golliver on Jul 19, 2009 5:53 PM PDT up reply actions

you need to change your signature to reflect the site’s name change.

Great coverage in Vegas. Really enjoyed the stuff with Buchanan.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:54 PM PDT up reply actions

Jeter was on the court to bring point guard stability (in my opinion truk). Sorry though, I shouldn’t have been so accusatory. I was blowing off some steam after reading another frustrating post on Blazers.com

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 6:05 PM PDT up reply actions

you say: "Here are the facts as I see them..."

then go on to list a bunch of opinions.

by truk on Jul 19, 2009 5:57 PM PDT up reply actions

“as I see them.”

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 6:01 PM PDT up reply actions

hehe

I think it’s your opinion that they are opinions. They are the facts AS I SEE THEM.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 6:01 PM PDT up reply actions

Say what now?

If something is “AS YOU SEE IT” then is it by definition an opinion.

Saying someone “should” do something is an opinion, always.
Saying a team is better/worse than their record is an opinion, always.
Saying a player is good/bad is an opinion, always.

Sure, you can back all of these opinions up with various statistics, but it is all still opinion.

The Princess of Blazersedge

by Zaig on Jul 19, 2009 9:34 PM PDT up reply actions

please don't make me post a definition

I’m anal but I don’t want to go there.

by truk on Jul 19, 2009 9:50 PM PDT up reply actions

what...?

is this conversation about anyway?

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions

Pendergraph or Cunningham

Who’ll get the minutes next year?

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 5:43 PM PDT reply actions

I prefer Cunningham’s game, but I don’t think either of them will end up gettin’ minutes… Travis will probably play a lot of backup 4.

life is better as an optimist

by Cablinasian on Jul 19, 2009 5:48 PM PDT up reply actions

assuming he is still there you are probably right. I wonder, if they trade Outlaw will they get a pf to replace him are trust the new guys? Cunningham has suprised me. I expected Pendergraph to be the standout guy at summer league. Although he has done just fine.

Life's short, Stunt it!!

by Irwin Fletcher on Jul 19, 2009 6:08 PM PDT up reply actions