Blazer update #3

Rudy Fernandez
I’ll make this short. Rudy surpasses all my expectations this year. I thought that he would be a solid #2 off the bench, able to make a fantastic play here and there and heck even win a game by himself. What I did not expect was the rate of three pointers he would make. Setting an NBA Rookie record for made threes, purely great, especially for a player who is not a smooth shooter like Ray Allen.

Nicolas Batum
Obviously the biggest surprise of the year, did anyone see him in the summer league? If you didn’t let’s just say his shot would always end up with the sound of “clank.” He looked dreadful, but there he was a few games into the season as a starter? Why? Sure the injury to Webster but he also complimented the other starters too well, not to play him, and for an 19 year old rookie for overseas he played beyond his years. And don’t forget the dunks on Pau.

Jerryd Bayless
Talk about a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, and I mean that in a good way. This is one of the few players in the league that can explode to and even through the hoop. He busted onto the scene in during the summer league and left all of Portland drooling. But the summer league competition is a far cry from the NBA and Bayless never seemed to find consistency or playing time.

Nate McMillan
How do we judge a coach? Overall I’d say buy wins. During his tenure he has gone from, 32 wins, 41 wins, to 54 wins. Looking at those numbers you’d have to say he has done a terrific job. Of course some of that has to do with the new players that have been brought in and the growth of those players. Then again is it not’s the coach’s job to develop those players? Lets say he has one big player to develop and this team will be competing for championships.

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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.

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Blazers in review part 1

Now that the season has been over for a couple weeks (drag) I’ll start putting up some player reviews. Not everyone mind you but those players who had an impact on the team for the good and the bad, first up the big three.

Brandon Roy

What’s to say really? After all this man did for the team last year could we say that he was still the most improved player on the team? For the most part he stayed healthy missing only four games this year, some of which were due to a death in the family, his scoring went up 3.5 points per game, FG% was up 2.6%, and still carried 5 boards and 5 assists, all while playing half a min less per game (thank you Rudy).

Brandon Roy went from fringe All Star player this year to the 7^th best player in the NBA. The man is a leader of one of the most promising teams in the league. Stay in school kids.

LaMarcus Aldridge

The Blazers second gun, I won’t even call him Robin to Roy’s Batman, how about a young Batman to Roy’s Prime Batman? Aldridge just needs to learn a few things. Before the season, the knock on LA (besides his nickname) was that he was too soft and didn’t take the ball inside. This year he came out and proved that he could play anywhere from the rim to 18 feet. He went inside, he went outside, he popped of the pick and roll, and for a softy he got 7.5 rebounds a game, not bad for a guy who competed with Joel and GO for boards. Do people realize he averaged just 1 point less this year than Brandon did last year? One year younger too. Hmm me thinks he is going to be on a nice incline next year.

Greg Oden

Disappointment was the word that fallowed Oden around this year. I’m not sure if I’d got that far. Looking at his base stats you see 8 points and 7 boards in 21 mins of play. Now some people are looking at that and saying, hey if you give him 36 mins he averages 14 and 12. While that sounds nice, it’s not like the coaching staff was holding him back, they can’t play a player who is in constant foul trouble. The biggest thing Greg can do this off season is work on keeping his hands up and moving his feet. I am going to throw some stats around just to show you how he can play. Let’s look at January, he was back from the ankle injury and played some of his best ball, these are the kind or numbers I expect from him next year.

Games 10

Mins 33.1

Points 14.4

Rebounds 9.5

Double Doubles 4

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