Comments on: What can Outlaw do for us?

By: tssbro

tssbro — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:55:24 +0000

The reason he is still here is that he has the ability to do two things for Portland that no other perimeter player (save Roy) has been able to do with any consistency: create his own shot and hit big shots in crunch time. This has made him difficult to trade because you want to make certain you can replace those abilities and not just assume guys can get it done as they grow/learn the game.

Aldridge, Rudy, Webster, and Batum all have the potential to fill Outlaw’s fourth quarter role of hitting big shots. Miller has proven he can hit big shots on other teams. If he proves he can keep doing it with the Blazers and also get those other guys better shots in crunch time so they don’t have to rely on one of two guys creating their own opportunity, Outlaw becomes expendable.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:13:41 +0000

“without him last season, Portland doesn’t win 54 games. I don’t think there is a soul on this earth who would disagree with that.”

I agree. Without Travis, I say we win 55 last season.

“both Batum and Webster are quote unquote ‘better fits’ for this team”

Quote unquote is something you say when you’re not actually writing… having the quote marks physically exist makes it obsolete.

Otherwise, good thoughts.

By: C

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:42:08 +0000

Few things:

– If you’re going to use the playoffs as the example, then we learned we don’t have a single scorer other than Roy.

– Martell’s skill set is “doing more than just shooting three’s and taking what other people create for him”? I actually think that pretty much sums up what we’ve seen from Martell. The idea of what people think Martell can do is not the reality at this point.

– “He’s averaging as many 3 point attempts as free throw attempts a game.” That was true of every guard and wing on the team aside from Roy, and that includes Martell in 07-08.

– “This summer has shown that both Cunningham and Pendergraph have the potential to fill the hole at the 4 spot.” That’s specious at best. Last summer Bayless showed the potential to unseat Blake AND Sergio in the rotation.

– “…in the playoffs…what 4 man can he guard?” Maybe the opposing team’s backup 4? You could also ask what 4 man could guard him, which is why he plays so many minutes at PF.

– “It’s obvious (Martell) will be ready to play this season and that will cause quite the headache.” I hope you’re right. It was “obvious” he would be back in December last year, too.

I agree that you should be wary of players performance in a contract year. We’ve been burned before, but is anyone really worried about Travis making waves on the team if he doesn’t get PT? Have we ever seen anything from Outlaw in his years here that would point to that?

If he plays well enough to earn minutes, great! Doesn’t mean KP has to sign him. If he doesn’t, then he sits. You think Nate is scared of Travis’ wrath? Hells no!