Tossing Andre Miller under the bus....

So is Nate changing the line-up because Miller's ankles need a little heal time? Or because Roy requested this?

Good question. Neither Nate nor Miller will ever tell us though.

Hermistonmellons and HoopsFan....

The way you guys exchanged ideas in this thread without making the other guy wrong was great. It should be required reading for anyone who posts on an internet message board. :)

If I had Prince and you wanted him...It would cost something along the lines of Fernandez, Miller and Webster. Prince is every bit as Marquee as Roy. I need two scorers and a Playmaker. Not a two Scorers and a shooter, LOl....

Thanks for taking the comments as simple disagreement. It is why I like this place

I am sorry, but if for Prince you wanted Fernandez AND Webster AND Miller--you would keep Prince. Tayshaun has been a stud, but he has not been, nor never will be, a superstar, and 3 solid players, two of them young with unreached ceilings, is a high price.

Here was my thought on the Roy playing with Miller thing. Roy has functioned like our point guard for a while. We bring in another point guard, a "true" point guard if you will, and Roy has trouble adjusting. Is this necessarily a bad thing? If you put Chris Paul and Deron Williams on the same team, and one or both of them suddenly wasn't doing so well without the ball, would we regard them as selfish for wanting to go back to their original role?

We don't know what is going on behind the scenes--could be anything from Roy worried about his touches and his stats and his all-star selection (worst case scenario, highly unlikely) to a matter of proper fit and needing the punch off the bench (best case scenario).

Personally I am going to sit back and relax on this one, and not let it worry me too hard.

Interestingly this whole thing makes me think Jarryd Bayless.....If Steve Blake is the proper fit for Roy, then perhaps Bayless, once he gets an outside shot to fall better (didn't he in college) will be a much better fit. So too would be Rudy, and the reason why some of us are not quieter about this isn't because we can't figure out Miller not starting, but because we can't figure out Blake getting the nod over others. Pictures of Nate....

LOL, notice in my offer you still had Outlaw and Blake, LOL

A lot of stuff could be going on. Many jump to assumptions about Personality clashes. Personally, I see grumpy guys during losses and happier guys who aren't quite satisfied during wins. I kinda like that.

My speculation on Miller and Fernandez are Ankles and Back Spasms at this point. Early on I had a picture of Nate as Unmovable. His Three Guard and now this current lineup shows me he is willing to change things up.

I personally think Blake would Flourish with reduced minutes. He has one of the sweetest shooting strokes I have ever seen. I remember when I first thought that. It was a late game miss last year when i first started following these guys again. It was the most beautiful missed shot I think I had ever seen. At that moment I thought, "Wow, this guy would be killer with fresh legs under him".

Here is one more angle to think about.

I hear Nate and Roy talking about TWO Blazer teams. But really, how many teams do the Blazer's now have??? Who can play with who??

Roy and Blake are team #1.
Miller, LA, and Oden are a good team
Rudy, Przb, Miller, team three from the bench
Outlaw plays with himself
Batuum plays with everyone
Bayless and Cunningham just want a chance to play
Howard does his job well no matter who he plays with
How does Martell fit in?? on which team???

Until there is ONE BLAZER TEAM, and everyone knows their role on that ONE team and is whiling to play with all of the other players (do you hear this Roy??), this team is a mess and going no where in the playoffs...

It's totally understandable that Andre wants to start. Coming in off the bench is a joke on a lotta teams. But with the Trailblazers it's very important. We've always been a team that's relied heavily on the bench to win games. I hope Andre understands that we don't have a bench, we have the second unit. And when the second unit is lightin' fools up, Nate will let them keep rolling.
It is too much of a defensive burden on Greg, Pryz and Lamarcus, to run with three guards all the time. It is vital that we have a small forward that can defend and rebound. When Brandon and Rudy have to play in the paint against bigger dudes, it wears them down and they have nothing left for the 4th.

Unless Greg and LaMarcus can make up for Steve's deficiencies and get him a lot of open shots, Brandon and Nate hooking their wagon to 'Blakey' will not get the Blazers where they want to go.

TBpup wrote:Unless Greg and LaMarcus can make up for Steve's deficiencies and get him a lot of open shots, Brandon and Nate hooking their wagon to 'Blakey' will not get the Blazers where they want to go.

Like with a combined 48 points and 25 rebounds?????? I'd say as teams prepare for the Blazers two inside guys, Steve's spot up abilty might just compliment that pretty well

Steve's spot up abilty might just compliment that pretty well

Or Rudy...if they ever let him play the clutch 4th quarter minutes.....like he should...

With feet that dance like a lightweight fighter, a fast trigger with the same stroke each time, tossing bullets around corners (and now into Deng's face ... ouch) ... That shot over Joakim Noah from deeeep. Steals and tips and rebounds and ... Rudy. Just too darn much fun.

I really like watching this team.


Those here who have hope and patience ... keep hope alive!

Hermistonmellons wrote:

TBpup wrote:Unless Greg and LaMarcus can make up for Steve's deficiencies and get him a lot of open shots, Brandon and Nate hooking their wagon to 'Blakey' will not get the Blazers where they want to go.

Like with a combined 48 points and 25 rebounds?????? I'd say as teams prepare for the Blazers two inside guys, Steve's spot up abilty might just compliment that pretty well

To be fair, most of Greg's production was from Miller and Rudy's passes. Even in a huge game like last night, this is what I counted in terms of where Greg's touches in scoring area came from:

Webster: 1 pass
Roy: 1 Pass
Blake: 2 passes
LA: 3 passes
Rudy: 4 passes
Miller: 7 passes

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. It's a recurring pattern for this team and I really don't have an answer for this. Likely, some of it has to do with Blake and Roy's lack of comfort in making entry passes into the low block.

Lol @ the notion that Miller is an injury case.

The man must be freaking Superman for how few games he has missed in his long long career. His ankles are elastic dude I'm sure hes gotten them bent many times.