Blazer Update 11-24-08

The Blazers are sitting at 8-6. Very nice. They are off to a much better start than most predicted, including myself. The best news… they are giving it their all and it translates: fun to watch!

A few things to note about the team so far:

Point Guard Play
Blake and Rodriguez are running the point extremely efficiently – The Blazers are one of the best teams so far in the Assist to Turnover ratio. Blake is 10th in the league for players with more than 200 minutes. Also, for players who’ve played more than 200 minutes this year, Sergio’s assist rate (per minute played) is 2nd in the league – Chris Paul is 1st. That’s pretty lofty status. I was pretty quick to dismiss Sergio when he said he wanted to be traded, but I see now that he is good for us. Steve Blake has scored more than 20 points in the last 2 games… he’s on a roll. One of the coolest pictures I’ve ever seen was in the Oregonian the other day – Steve Blake leaning over with blood literally pouring off of his scalp after a collision with a camera. It proved that he is a modern-day warrior.

3 Point Shooting
We are also off to a great start from outside. Even though we lost James Jones and Martell is hurt, we are tops in the league at shooting 3s. Here are some stats (3s per game/ percentage):

Travis Outlaw: 3 @ 51%
Rudy Fernandez: 6 @ 42%
Steve Blake: 5 @ 45%
Nicolas Batum: 2 @ 41%
Brandon Roy: 3 @ 37%
Sergio Rodriguez: 3 @35%

Anything better than 35% is = to shooting 2s at 50%. So we are doing great so far!

Center
Joel Pryzabilla and Greg Oden are tearing it up in the middle. Greg is way up there in blocks per minute… tied with Andrew Bynum and Brian Skinner for 4th in the League (only Ronny Turiaf, Dwight Howard, and Marcus Camby are better). Joel is shooting three 2-pointers per game @ 83%... the best in the league for players over 200 minutes (the next best is Nene with 65%). Seeing how we dominate the middle makes it easier to understand why we are able to be so open for 3-pointers.

Españoles Asombrosos
Otherwise known as Amazing Spaniards. Rudy is flat out fun to watch. Even if he is missing his 3s like he did Saturday against the Suns, he still is like watching a lightning bolt zip around the court. He and Sergio connect on some sweet alley-oops that make your eyes pop out. I knew they kept Sergio around to help Rudy in his transition to the NBA, and the connection they hoped for is realized. They each steal the ball very well, tying for the lead on the Blazers in Steals per minute. Rudy has a real knack for playing the game and is much better defensively than expected.

Defense
While we are doing great as far as blocking shots, rebounding, and stealing, we are letting way too many opposing players get easy baskets. Way too many lay-ins and fast-break points allowed so far. If we can shore up our transition defense and stay with our man we’d be a better defensive team. One problem with being an unselfish team like we are is that sometimes we are too eager to help out and, in doing so, leave an opponent wide open. There are certain players, like Mike Miller of the Timberwolves, who you NEVER want to leave. The minute you do you can count it as three points against you. Travis Outlaw is a bit suspect in this area, he is getting better at stealing and rebounding but still looks a half-step too slow in getting back to his man. Sergio does the same thing sometimes. He’ll go for the steal and leave his man open for the three. Granted, he gets a lot of steals that way but still… part of it is knowing who you should gamble against. NOT Steve Nash.

I have a lot more to talk about since this is the first chance I’ve had to post in a while, but I am out of time for now. Go Blazers!

PS. Get to go to 2 games this week! Tonight with Grady and Austin (vs. Kings) and Wednesday night with Brad (vs. the Heat). Should be fun!!!