the portland trailblazers
- Thread starter phil
- Start date
Blake, Rudy, and Frye all back today in practice. love it, especially to see frye out there, he is 3 weeks ahead of schedule from his ankle surgery, and from the video i saw on oregonlive, he sounds like he is feelin alright and hopes to see action on monday against the kings. Blake sounds like he is in good spirits and feels good, didnt see much about rudy, but im assuming its because his injury wasnt shit in the first place. Batum played with the starting squad during practice today which is sweet. i know its only preseason, but man the kid looks solid, might be time to ship outlaw off. i was all for holding on to him after last year but i think he feels threatened by all the new additions to this blazer team, and its affecting his play. the dude never passes, and that was cool last year when he was basically the only option on the second unit, but now that we got rudy, bayless, batum....i mean does travis really fit in anymore, this kinda goes back to the thread about durant, who has kinda the same style of play as outlaw, except of course durant is better, but still the lanky, offensive minded player... i dont know, just throwing some thoughts around, gonna be interesting to see if batum actually makes this squad, and if not, who does...
I can't say if it will be Travis or not. He will need to develop into a more team oriented player than he was last year with Rudy and Bayless on board as scoring threats in the second unit, thats guaranteed. Right now I think he is just going through an adjustment to his new role. Last year he was a black hole because honestly he kind of had to be (that's why Nate gave him that role). There were not really any other legitimate scoring threats in the 2nd unit other than Frye, who functioned more as a mid range jump shooter than anything, not a threat to drive OR take the jumper or hit the clutch shot like Travis. Travis is also well liked by the team and is Roy's best friend on the team. That doesn't mean they will keep him around for that reason, but it can't hurt his chances. He has shown a willingness to be coached and as long as he does what the coaching staff asks him to do and can deal with inconsistent minutes from time to time, he'll probably stay.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2008/10/1016_quick_chat_batum_entering.html
Quick chat...sounds like Batum is gonna be the starter until Martel comes back. Makes me wonder how good he actually is. When we got him it sounded like he was gonna be a couple years away.
Quick chat...sounds like Batum is gonna be the starter until Martel comes back. Makes me wonder how good he actually is. When we got him it sounded like he was gonna be a couple years away.
i read an article about some fool named nicolas batum, didn't hear much about him until now but he might be in the starting 5. i also read that oden has been "underwhelming" so far in the exhibition season. shit is still early to say though, i just question whether he'll be limpin around like sam bowie... regardless, portland will be an interesting team to watch this year. i think they may be givin my lakers a run for their money in the next few years.
^^^^ we will be giving ya'll a beatdown opening night... and batum will probably start so nate doesnt have to shake up that explosive second unit. Oden is going to be fine, the only reason anyone is saying that he is "underwhelming" is because of all the fucking hype the media has thrown to this kid. hes been outta action for over a year and is learning the nba game, after he dominates bynum opening night, it'll probably take about a month or two to really get familiar with how this league is, but hes gonna be just fine, bout mid december hes gonna be that dominate force the media is looking for...im fine with his play so far, its just preseason, we will see whats what come the 28th
yeah i agree with you that oden has a lot to carry on his shoulders.. i hope for his sake that he can handle all that and doesn't let it get to his head.. that's a lot to handle for a 20 year old comin off microfracture surgery and to carry the hopes of an entire city on his shoulders.
i don't see portland being too competitive on opening night, especially in la. not like bynum will be 100% (or oden), but it won't be even close. portland is still 2-3 years away from competing with the heavy hitters.
i don't see portland being too competitive on opening night, especially in la. not like bynum will be 100% (or oden), but it won't be even close. portland is still 2-3 years away from competing with the heavy hitters.