Blazers in review part 2

Travis Outlaw
By far the most polarizing player on the blazers roster. Most people either love him on this team or hate him. I fall somewhere in the middle, occasionally thinking to myself this guy has to be on our team he has won some many games for us, and then quickly changing my mind and thinking this guy jacks up too many bad shots.

Whatever you think of him you have to say he has progressed every year. That is except for this year. His number remained about the same as last year. Which leads me to the conclusion that this might be it for Travis. The Blazers brass and fans alike have said year after year that this next season will be the year we get to see what Travis can do, but once a six year veteran has similar years are you not at that point? I now firmly believe that Outlaw will always be best suited as a 6th man, who scores roughly 13 pints a game, gets a few boards and hardly passes the ball, a great scorer off the bench but not a third option on a championship team.

Joel Przybilla
First off I want everybody to know I spelled his last name correct first try. Joel from all accounts had a great year, not only did he play in all 82 games for the first time in his career, but he played every game as if he was the starter. Coming into the year he was primed to be the best back up center in the game. But the true professional that he is prepared himself to be a factor anytime he was on the court. He had increases in almost every category you could as for but the most telling in this case was his plus-minus, which went up 4.92. Not only that he became the Blazers back up leader, and was the only full time hard nosed defender on the team.

Steve Blake
Blake must have been listening to everyone this past summer. We said we needed a PG who could hit the open three, Blake increased 3-point % this year by 2.1% coming in at 42.7% which ranked 13th in the league and attempting one more three per game this year. We said we needed a PG who could score bit more to take the pressure off of Roy, Blake increased his scoring by 2.5 points per game for a total of 11ppg. We said we needed a PG who could defend, well ok he's not perfect.

Blake improved greatly from last year to this year. Really solidifying himself as the Blazers #3 leader, behind Roy and Przybilla. That being said is he the PG who will lead us to a championship? I'm not sure many people say you have to have a great PG to win, I'm not sure about that either, who was the last great PG to win a championship? Look at the last 5.

2008 Rajon Rondo
2007 Tony Parker
2006 Jason Williams
2005 Tony Parker
2004 Chauncey Billups

Obviously Rondo is not there yet as a great PG, he may be one day but it's too early to tell now. Parker is borderline great, Jason Williams we can just throw off this list, and Billups has proved he belongs. So what can we take away from this? Do you need a top tier PG? Not necessarily, but having a great PG does not guarantee a trophy.