Brandon at Point

Can you say Roy/Matthews pick and roll? Roy is good at setting the offense and when he is at the number 2 he can work on moving without the ball being a cutter for the sweet pass from Matthews. Ooh yeah!

But not as our main lineup. And especially not as a 4th quarter lineup, when defensive pressure on the ball handler rises. Roy is good at it, but not like a regular PG like Miller, or even, to a lesser extent, Bayless. We’d be pretty good on defense, as long as we can keep opposing PG’s under control. And despite the use of Batum on them in the past, that really shouldn’t be our best option. Miller’s a smart defender and does a good job out there. Of course, it always could be better, but I think this lineup, long term makes it a little worse.

Plus, you can’t move Andre to the bench. He’ll poison the team; bank on it.
Andre’s the starting PG.

I don’t like it at all. Roy struggles with his dribble against pressure and I see no reason to try to find ways to get Matthews into the lineup over a superior player in Miller.

but if BRoy is guarding the opposing 2, he’s in for a LOT of long nights on D—many teams’ top scorers are at the 2, after all.

I doubt it’s a good team game plan to have Roy on the superstar 2s of the league AND being the sole ball-handler on offense. And I like Mathews, but he doesn’t have anywhere NEAR the handle to run the point, even in a pinch.

This plan will wear Brandon out before game 30.

which can be found here:
http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/7/19/1577533/assume-brandon-roy-is-the-pgotf

The conclusion I came to is that there are a lot of reasons to like this lineup, and I think we will definitely see it during the season, but that it is unnecessary for it to be the starting 5.

For one I think the rotations for a full 48 minute game work much better if Bayless can come off the bench for Miller/Roy and Matthews for Roy/Batum. This way you don’t have Bayless and Miller on the bench together, which would create a guard-heavy second unit and a wing-heavy starting 5. I think this is the main reason you would never see this lineup from the get go.

Second I think that asking Brandon to have PG duties some of the time that he’s on the court (parts of the 4th quarter for example) is a lot different than all or most of the time, which would be the case if he started as PG.

Defensively I think it makes a ton of sense because Batum can guard many PGs, even some of the elites (and as you pointed out Matthews can usually guard two or three positions depending on the personnel out there as well). This versatility would allow BRoy to guard literally whoever would allow him to conserve the most energy for the offensive end, where Nic and Wes could flank him on the perimeter and knock down kickouts created by his penetration.

It’s a long, skilled, defensively intimidating lineup with range and a playmaker on the offensive end that could be paired with a number of our frontcourt combinations. I love that we have it up our sleeve to use situationally, but for now I think that RAMBO is the clear starting lineup to go with. It provides balance to the rotations, and while they may not be the best fit synergistically (yet), I think Miller’s ability to make good things happen of his own accord means Roy gets to save some juice for the stretch run when the other team is on full alert and we really need him to do his thing.

The Blazers are best when teams can’t zero in on one or two guys and completely neutralize them with a defensive gameplan (e.g. Andre and LMA in PHX series after game 1). This is when we’re hitting teams from all angles (disclaimer: generally requires some assemblance of health). One concern I have is that pairing Roy with Matthews and Nic for long periods of time, particularly early in ballgames, could lead to stagnation and a reliance on Brandon to make something happen every possession, which we see enough of as it is.

I am excited to see this lineup in action though, and I do think it will do a lot of good things for us (like keep the other team from scoring). I am very interested to see Wes play with the rest of our guys. He seems fairly adept at going strong to the hoop, and if he can be assertive with the dribble drive every once in awhile (and still knock down that 3 ball) he should be an excellent fit offensively next to Brandon, Nic, Andre, AND Jerryd (in other words we may have overpaid, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great pickup).

His and Nic’s ability to create for themselves every so often to keep the defense honest, as well as their ability to help alleviate defensive pressure on Brandon as the primary ballhandler, would in large part determine in my mind how much you could use that lineup. Although, having a guy like LMA or GO out there who could score in the post as well as pass out to shooters would definitely help lubricate things.

Take it, Celtics.