Why Hedo?

by 7677maniac on Jul 5, 2009 5:33 PM PDT Comment 12 comments

Greg Oden's main offensive move is being a receiver in the pick and roll. On occasion though he does get deep in the paint and Portland has had difficulty getting Oden the ball in a timely fashion. Hedo enhances Oden's offense. Why? Because Hedo is a good midrange shooter it pressures defenses when he handles the ball and this makes it easier for Hedo to loft a pass to Oden; second, Hedo's height allows him to see over most small forwards increasing the chances that Oden can get the ball when he needs it: when Oden is right under the basket.

In addition, Hedo's ability to execute the pick and roll would have created better matchups for Roy (no small forward guarding him).

Hedo's decline of the Blazer's bid for his talents highlights what the Blazer coaches and management see as a weakness in the Blazer's skill set: the ability to operate the pick and roll. Roy is fine but teams will (did) use taller small forwards to defend the pick and roll making it difficult to execute the play successfully, and increasing the wear and tear on Roy by having to do all of the playmaking.

So it seems the Blazer's management doesn't think that Outlaw or Batum can effectively run the pick and roll. Why else acquire Hedo?

Win now? This is not a realistic goal. Remember, while the 76-77 blazers were the youngest team ever to win the championship, that team had experience from top to bottom from good to great collegiate programs. The Blazers have guys who are still years away from having that kind of experience (basketball and otherwise). So acquiring Hedo to win now was not the goal of the trailbalzers.

Did Portland want to see if salary could overcome geography? I think they got their answer: not in Hedo's case. Will Oden, Aldridge eventually bolt to other locations when their contracts are up? In spite of monetary rewards for staying in Portland.

Will McMillan stay if Portland has difficulty in getting veteran talent? McMillan was apparently sold on Hedo's abilities (perhaps that's why Portland management sent him to talk to Hedo in Orlando) and McMillan has complained of a lack of veterans on the Blazer's.

I think Blazer management just got some valuable experience in regards to building a playoff, and championship, team, a team that makes it out of the first round on a regular basis. Clearly rebuilding has been a success for Blazer management, now they have to learn how to manage a successful, winning, team. That appears to be tougher to learn than rebuilding a playoff qualifying team.

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Hedo: Never Made Sense

but the Blazers can win next year. They never needed him, he was just a want.

"Yeah, I want to be a Blazer"--Hedo Turkoglu

by Swamigp on Jul 5, 2009 5:42 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Why is everyone looking for improvements on offense?

We were the second most efficient offensive team in the NBA last season. We don’t need offensive improvement. We need defense. Defense will win us a championship.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.—Dune

by Muad'Dib on Jul 5, 2009 5:55 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Balance

That’s why we need a big pg or good defensive sf. But offense wins games, defenses allow good offenses to prevail. Defense can’t score.

by 7677maniac on Jul 5, 2009 6:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Actually, you need both to win.

And since the Blazers are arguably the most efficient offensive team in the league, it makes more sense to concentrate on defense. It’s true, we do need “balance,” but that has to come from balancing our great offense with a spectacular defense. If you look here, you will see that basketballreference puts the Blazers at first in the league in offense but only 13th in defense. It’s obvious what needs to be improved.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.—Dune

by Muad'Dib on Jul 5, 2009 6:19 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Our offense was terrible in the playoffs.

When a superior defensive team (Houston) played us they forced the ball out of Brandon’s hands and everything broke down. The other permineter players are shooters. Rudy and Travis can occasionally drive the ball but their efforts were erratic at best. We need another player to initiate offense. That should probably be the point guard, but it needs to come from somewhere.

by blazer23-83 on Jul 5, 2009 6:53 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

While I do not (never did) think Hedo was a good fit

I understand his value to this team. Hedo offered another offensive play maker (pick and roll or otherwise)

Outlaw has shown when given the ball he would rather put up a contested shot than distribute the ball.

Batum’s offensive game is no where near ready to have hime “take over” a game or even part of one.

Rudy could have that playmaker ability but I think that Nate needs to let Rudy run wild.

Webs is a big ? until recently Webs was strickly a jump shooter. If he is healthy I think he could be a Hedo-like player on offensive though he is far more athletic and better defensively.

Blake cant do much more on offense than hit open jumpers. Though he does have the ability to be a great ditributor. (anyone remember the record he set for most assits in a half last year??)

Bayless like Webs is a ? Obvioulsly KP likes his game and has faith he could be at least an answer for some of this teams problems, if not the answer both offensively and defensively at PG.

Basically no one on the team (aside from BRoy) has proven they can “take over” a game on a consitent basis. I think KP, Nate, BRoy? felt this team needed another playmaker/scorer. I am glad the Hedo deal fell through because I have faith that a better option will come along, hopefully in the form of a PG that can play D and distribute (whether that is Bayless or some other PG) But if KP and team feel this team as it is now cannot take the next step without some changes I am 100% sure that they will find a player that can help facilitate that next step. (but remember this is a young team and could surprise us again next year)

Just because this move with Hedo did not workout I dont think you can say that this management team doesnt know what it is doing in creating and keeping together a championship contender. KP has said his plan is a 10 year plan. It is us here at BE and Blazers fans everywhere that are impatient. If like you are like me this impatience is a result of having to defend your blazer fandom during the Jailblazer era and ever since. Now we have a team that is exciting and is competing and we want to say “see this is MY team. I have been with them since ? and they made it worth it.” We want them to win now. This is just not totally realistic. This is a young team trying to learn on the fly. Last year then national media didnt even give the blazers a chance at anything more than the 8th spot if that. We proved them wrong and we can again. This core team will make the waith well worth it, but we as fans need to be patient and allow them to make it worth it. If after every season that we did not win a championship we are clamoring for the heads of everyone from KP to the dancing lady we will never have a team we are proud of let alone a team that can compete and win it all. Look at the Spurs during their four championships they had let downs in between, but they didnt blow up a team that won 50 something games every year because they didnt win a championship the year before.

Just be patient everyone. We will have our time and if we are lucky most of the Blazers we have grown to know and love will be there too. With any luck we wont have to watch Andre Miller, David Lee and Hedo Turkoglu celebrate a championship in Red and Black but we will get to watch Steve Blake, Lamarcus Aldridge, and Martell Webster standing next to BRoy and then we Blazer fans can tell the whole world I told you so.

by TheSportsPsychologist on Jul 5, 2009 6:38 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree

I think the blazer’s need to develop some of the talent by playing them. You can’t trade for other players if you don’t have something of value to use in the trade. Sitting guys on the pine will you “make up a rotation”, which is what Nate prefers, I think, does not make these very valuable to other teams. A couple of years ago, I wasn’t sure Nate was a guy to rebuild a team, he prefers veterans to rookies, experience and ability over just ability. During the 07-08 season I changed my mind when he decided to, essentially, let the guys play and learn. But late in last season and during the playoffs I think the old Nate returned and the young Blazer’s are still not ready for that old Nate. They have much to learn Obe wan.

That’s why, and I’ve said this in other posts, we as Blazer fans should not expect them to do as well as last year, they might, but extending your self to do new things sometimes leads to mistakes and this may mean a few more losses than last year. But this might be good in the long run, because the Blazers do need to learn to do a few more things. This knowledge just doesn’t happen, you have earn it and that means you might have to take a step back to take two steps forward.

That’s why I don’t think it’s necessary to go out and get a “piece” as if we (blazer’s and the fans) think we’re a championship team. Maybe if we had made it to the conference finals or the finals themselves but not after the early exit.

The blazer’s should take their time, add talent when the opportunity arises and keep on developing the talent already available.

by 7677maniac on Jul 5, 2009 6:57 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was just watching

condensed rerun games of the finals on NBAtv, and while Hedo is a good player, he’s not 53m/5y good. I saw make some brilliant inside passes, but I saw him take some terrible shots too. And he’s not very fast for SF either.

Good player. Not worth the $$$.

An Oregonian in Texas.

by NoiseMekanik on Jul 5, 2009 7:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Not for Hedo

Yes, I agree. I don’t think for the money he was our guy (I don’t think for a minute the Blazer’s thought they would get him, they just bid up his price and his trade value for next year had they, by some stroke of luck, landed him).

However, I was, however poorly, pointing out that Blazer management had made an assessment of the team and were acting to shore up a weakness.

Whether or not it was Hedo that provided that shoring up doesn’t matter with respect to the weakness.

by 7677maniac on Jul 5, 2009 7:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yep do not forget the Blazers won 54 games last year

Without making ANY moves they have some major upgrades coming into the 2009-10 season. #1 After a rather disapointing first year Oden shoud put up the numbers and provide much better D in his second season, the change could be huge.#2 Hopefully we have Webster coming back and he was looking like he was about to hit his stride as an NBA player in the 2007-8 season. He could well be the blazers best 3pt shooter and seemed to be improving his game in everyway, can not wait to see what he does this season.#3 What I hope will be massive improvement in the game of Bayless. It was a little hard to gage him last year due to the lack of any consistent minutes, but he did show he can drive and get to the foul line and play some pretty good D. He seems to be a hard worker and I would like to see him get 20 minutes a night and see what he can do. On top of that we still have the cap space but lets dont go out and spend it on anyone who will not fit in with the the great group of players we have now. Lets dont trade off our young talant before we even give them a chance, can not wait to see what these guys will do.

by Planet29 on Jul 5, 2009 8:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

We can't afford to pay them after their rookie contracts.

Oden, Aldridge, and Roy get all that money. So why not trade a few of them and get something valuable in return before we have to let them walk in free ageny?

An Oregonian in Texas.

by NoiseMekanik on Jul 5, 2009 8:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oden

Paradoxically the worst thing that happened to Oden was the teams success. Look at Orlando’s D. Howard. Six years in the league and all he has besides dunking from under the basket, and dunking out of the pick and roll, is a line drive hook as he moves laterally across the key. Can’t face up and shoot from 8 to 12 feet like Duncan or many other big men, doesn’t have a jump hook, and because he can’t shoot a short jump shot he can’t do a reverse pivot move. What might Orlando have if they’d take the time in the first couple of years and had him develop some of that offensive game? Yes they’d have lost a lot of games but I think that they would have had a more versatile big man that might have made it possible to beat the Lakers. With Howard limited offensive game the magic have trouble exposing opposing defenses.

Now Portland in the midst of success is trying to win every thing without attempting to give Oden the time to develop his game, a game. As long as Portland keeps winning, I fear his game will never be given the chance to develop.

by 7677maniac on Jul 5, 2009 10:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs