The Season in Review: Brandon Roy

It's fitting that we end the player rundowns with the Great One, the massively multi-talented prodigy, Mr. Blazer...Brandon Roy.  Alphabetically he's the last major player on our roster.  In most every other category it's the other way around.  Check out his season below.

You probably don't even need the conversation rules for this thread.  Come on.  It's Brandon Roy.

Brandon Roy's 2008-09 stats:

The stats show that Brandon took a more direct hand in the offense this year than last.  The way his hands work, however, that's a very good thing.  If you want to pick on him his assists and assist-to-turnover ratio were down.  (That a/to is still better than some point guards though...)  But before you do, show me the guy you want him passing to, which would also be the guy who's better at putting the ball in the basket than he is, which would be also be a guy who doesn't exist at this point.

Just look at some of those positive offensive numbers.  +3.5 points per game in half a minute less playing time.  48% field goal percentage from a volume-scoring guard.  Three-point percentage up close to 4%.  More free throws drawn and free throw percentage up 7%.  Effective field goal and True field goal percentages up.  PER through the roof.  What's not to like?  This guy should be picking up this team and carrying it on his back offensively.

66% of Brandon's shots are jumpers, which sounds a little heavy until you consider that many of our guards are in the 80's.  Taking it to the hoop and drawing fouls has become a big part of Brandon's game.

Roy's on-court/off-court metrics are lopsided enough to make Survivor's J.T. jealous.  The team is up 9.3 points per 100 possessions when Brandon is on the court.   Effective field goal percentage is 3.4% higher.  Defensive rebounding is up by the same margin.  Turnovers, turnovers caused, free throws made and attempted, and free throws allowed all slant to Portland's favor when Brandon plays versus when he sits.  Even points allowed runs in his favor, though by a much smaller margin.  Long story short, Portland was +505 points on the season when Brandon played, -67 when he didn't for a margin of +572 points on the year.  That's over 7 points per game.  Wow.

If you don't want to get that complicated, just look at his plus-minus.  Last year it was anemic.  This year it's spectacular.  Total gain:  over 6 points per game.  By comparison, our point differential average was 5.3.   Again, wow.

In case you missed it in the "On Criticism" thread a couple days ago, we did talk about Brandon's defense some.  Clearly it's not as strong as his offense.  But you have to remember his role on the team and the energy he expends fulfilling that role.  When you need a layup, and and-one, a tough and contested jumper, somebody to bring the ball down the court and become an instant threat, you call on Brandon.  In a perfect world he'd be able to do the same defensively.  But given the choice between him taking a stab at a mediocre defensive play and him captaining the critical offensive possessions, I'll take the offense every time.  If he occasionally fails to sell-out completely in a last-ditch attempt to block a layup the way a Przybilla and Batum do, I understand that.  I expect his teammates, who rely on him so much on the offensive end, to go the extra mile to pick up whatever slack he leaves on the defensive end.  And no, I don't say the same thing about Sergio Rodriguez or Jerryd Bayless or Travis or Martell.  Their roles are different.  Their contributions are different.  As I said in the other thread, I'm fairly confident that there's far more talk about surrounding Brandon with better defenders than there is about making Brandon himself a better defender.

Put together the whole package--the 22-5-5 average, the leadership, the huge winning percentage, the continuing improvement, the ball-handling ability, the clutch shooting, the occasional dinosaur roar--and you'll find Brandon is about as complete and amazing of a player as you could dream about for this team.  To retain my credibility with non-Blazer folks I will admit that I do not place him with Kobe and LeBron at this point.  But shave those guys off and you'd be hard-pressed to find a player who's clearly better all-around.  You're down to just a few fellow guards who are in the same ballpark.  You'll find none of them better suited for this team and this community.

I do not know what more you can say about this guy and the season he's had.  You have to go back to Drexler to find his like.  And this after his third year in the league.

I assume the comments will consist mostly of awe and praise but that kind of talk is valuable sometimes.  Often we forget things that are right beneath our gaze in our hurry to correct other matters more on the fringes.  I'm fairly certain the coaching staff thanks their lucky stars for Brandon every game.  Us doing so as well isn't going to hurt anything.  You may certainly share whatever criticisms you have as well.  Also of interest:  What, if anything, do you think could hold Brandon back from being an all-world player?  Do you see room for more (realistic) improvement in his game and if so, where?  Do you consider his presence alone enough to guarantee Portland at least a shot at a title somewhere along the line?  If not, what else do the Blazers need beside him in order to contend?

See more stats at 82Games.com and Basketball-Reference.com.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)