Ok, I realize we are all pretty tired of BRoy stories, but bear with me here. My take is that feelings toward BRoy really hinge on whether he turns out to be last year's shell of himself BRoy, or he lights it up like old. If it's the former, I'll be hey, good on him giving it one more try just to be sure he didn't leave anything on the table. If it's the latter, then I will be severely annoyed that he couldn't have done that for us. I mean, seriously, we could have sent the dude to Germany on Paul Allen's yacht to get that magic treatment. He could have even taken a ride on the cool mini-sub.

But as I was checking out highlights last night, I saw this clip from the 'Wolves/Pacers game, and it gave me the sense that Minny is going to be dealing with last year's model Brand Roy, even though the box score showed a respectable 13 points on 5-9 shooting:

http://www.nba.com/video/games/timberwolves/2012/10/10/0011200020-ind-min-play1.nba

At the very beginning of the clip, BRoy drives baseline, throws up a week flip and gets blocked at the rim. That should look familiar to anybody who watched him last year. He has the burst to get by his man, but his lift at the rim doesn't appear to be there. But hey, no big deal, it happens, right. Then I looked at the box score - 2 blocked attempts. (Actually, last night I swear it read 3 blocked attempts, but today it says 2). Most on either team. Maybe I'm making too much of it, preseason game and all, but the clip and the box score seem like an ominous sign to me.

One of the things that made Brandon Roy an all world was that the dude had a crazy ability to float in the air and finish at the rim (paired of course with a killer mid range game, and being totally clutch). I'm sure everyone remembers that mid air switch of hands against Toronto a few years back. There was also a game against Denver, during the Bayless years when the Nugget's Chris Andersen was laughing, just waiting for Bayless to do one of his straight on, heads down drives to rim, which the Birdman would just casually swat away. Then BRoy drives, Andersen goes for the block and BRoy just adjusts in mid-air, total body control, and makes the Birdman, one of the better shot blockers in the NBA, look stupid. (OK, stupider than usual). It used to be a done deal when BRoy took it the rim.

For all he's said about feeling healthy and good, if that clip and box score is a sign of things to come, we aren't going to be that sad about BRoy playing in MInny this year.