This question may or may not be important to you as a Blazer fan--depending on what you believe the answer is and whether or not you believe Portland has the same kind of problem.  Lebron said he was going to take a closer look at it--Mike Brown said basically the same thing. 

The truth of the matter is, I am not sure either one of them is ready to hear the truth.  And I am not sure they are going to want to hear the truth even after more time passes.  It is hard to point the finger at a friend, someone you have grown to love, and someone who has given his all.  But sad to say, I think that is exactly what is going to happen in Cleveland.  Two men, good men, are going to point the finger at one another for losing in a manner, that to some, may seem inexplicable.

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We have seen the season play itself out from start to finish. And while solutions to our team's, "problems," have been popping up out of the earth like unwanted gopher holes in our grandfather's front yard, I would like to add a little perspective to a season that saw us take a step back rather continue the expected upward ascension.

What  reasonable conclusions have you come to? Do you think we need a new GM?  A new owner?  A new coach? Better X's and O's?  Better players?  A new training staff?  To get healthy and stay healthy? Better luck?  All of the above?  None of the above?

In this post, I don't want to talk about any of the supposed, "areas of need," that I just listed--I want to talk about something that must be present no matter what other, "quick fixes," our brain trust comes up with. I want to talk about a fact that we all may know about to a certain extent--a problem that the team cannot overcome with quick fixes (and no amount of finger pointing is going to help this one).   Somebody at the top has got to take another look at the big picture!

The concept that is crying out for more consideration is the outright necessity of toughness and intensity when it comes to winning games in the playoffs.  No matter who is coaching, playing, or healthy, and no matter what the X or the O does, come playoff time, teams have to play angry and tough,  ... as if other men are trying to steal their wives from them.

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Some passes are a test of charactor and they lead to questions like:  Does the ball handler hit the open man?  Do passes only find members of a player's own particular, "club?"  In Basketball, a game played within the realm of individual interests and extreme personalities, these types of questions are certainly not trifling.  We can all hope that our beloved Blazers are at least willing to play the right way and live up to this minimum level of efficiency.  

Friday night against Washington, I think we witnessed an example of a, "higher level of passing ability,"  from one Blazer, on one particular play.  If you were watching carefully, you saw something unusual from Nic Batum, an up and coming master of basketball calculation! 

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Thinking about it, I realized that a number of the guys who received early criticism this year are now turning out to be the teams heroes.  Who did you pick apart that you shouldn't have early on?  Now is your chance to come clean!  (Note: If you were complaining very much about the need for a backup power forward, you were indirectly getting after Juwan and our rookies.)

Also, who are you picking on now that is going to make you eat your words? 

(Go ahead and comment, no one will see ;?)

We call for trades and we seem to focus on the flaws of our, "beloved," Blazers?  I am wondering if there could be any sort of consensus that some player, coach, or training staff member might carry themselves professionally enough to be considered worthy of positive motivational statements rather than the negatively oriented manipulative comments that we are all so used to seeing.



Examples:

• LMA is soft.
• Travis is dumb.
• Rudy can't play D.
• Jerryd can't shoot.
• Miller has the worlds ugliest shot.
• Nate only loves Blake.
• Blake should be traded.
• Joel probably won't recover.
• Greg is always going to be hurt.
• The training staff must be incompetent.
• Even Crumcast sucks.

Lately I have found the negative comments about Lamarcus and Andre particularly perplexing.  These are two pretty good players.  Imperfect, yes, but still two good players who are helping us get wins.  Travis is out, Jerryd is improving, ... Fry and Sergio are gone, so what are we to do?

This is not a fire Nate or a bash Nate post.  It is an attempt to ask a simple question about Nate's damage control meter.  Does he engage in revisionist damage control? And is it appropriate for us to believe that he engages in it?

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I will use a combination of the poll results and comments from yesterday's post in an attempt to synthesize how Blazers' fans feel about the way TO is used by the coaching staff. It is my hope that we will continue to think about these things in a rational fashion without condescension or name calling. It is important for our sanity that we take a balanced approach to TO and the coaching staff rather than just criticize them or become angry with them or with each other.

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Let's forget the defensive lapses for a moment and consider the messages being sent by the use of Travis Outlaw as a fourth quarter finisher and late game play maker. It would seem appropriate to use the statistical category of assists as a focal point for this discussion due to passing's direct effect on team play and because the ball is in TO's hands so frequently coming down the stretch.   Using this statistic we have hope of gaining some insight into the future potential of his game as well as data relating to the future of our team. 

What are the odds of him blossoming into an effective all around player? And from a coaching perspective, is it a good idea to use a one dimensional player at the core of our late game runs? In short, taking into account even the best case scenario for his BBIQ, should he be groomed for the role of a late game finisher on a possible championship team?

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