Look last year the Blazers played over their heads. I did not expect them to do as well as they did. It required a huge season end push to get them there. They raised my expectations. There's no doubt the Blazers have more talent this year than last-chemistry be damned. So what gives? Why are we losing/not looking like the team we used to? *We have injuries we are underrating: Batum is H U G E. While Cunningham will (guaranteed) be light years better than Outlaw, we are sorely missing Outlaw right now. He may not look good doing it but he's one of the best recipients of a FBP and manages to create in spite of stagnant offense. Hell, he may be the only player that thrives when our offense stagnates. *We did better than expected last year, especially given our youth. *Teams are adjusting to our offensive sets. Just like players who come into the NBA with 1 solid weapon (Rudy's 3 comes to mind), we thrived until the defense adjusted to our strengths. Now its on us to take the next step and add to our repetoire. Which leads to.... *Greg Oden. Man is a monster. He is the X-Factor. But we still aren't used to playing with him. It will take time to iron out the bugs. When he comes out of the game, the offense is all of the sudden confused. Suddenly you have both Blake and Przy as offensive non-starters and teams take advantage and collapse extra on Roy. *Speaking of Roy, anyone else think that time he took away from bball this summer may have been a mistake? He looks sloppy dribbling, a step slow, and like he expected to be able to come back and just 'turn it on' like Nate said at season's start. Roy would do well to realize how much work they put in last season to get where they did. And for god's sake, 1/2 from the line is not acceptable. *But back to Nate, he needs to show flexibility and creativity. Flexibility in playing the hot hand (kudos for giving Oden 30+ this game vs Miami, even if we lost, he looked great and it was the right move) and creativity in offensive schemes. He could do the latter by trusting Andre more. *Andre has a knack for the "super assist". He needs more time and looser reigns. He is bringing Oden out of his shell and motivating him. Sure Oden was OK with not touching the ball, but do you see how his eyes light up now? I mean, come on, he says "my bad" to Roy for not aiming his block into Roy's hands. Let Andre's creativity come to the forefront and shine. There's a lot more that could be said but I have a lot of work to get back to so I'll open it up to comments. We are on a 3 game losing streak but so what. 12-8 is still above the BS line.

First I would like to say Ben-you're doing a hell of a job on the recaps. You tell it how it is. No offense to Dave but yours are little to whimsical and G-rated for my taste and get a little too caught up on metaphors, but I like you're summary of this GSW game in the latest Minny pregame-its pretty accurate. Tonight's recap from Ben was excellent and hit on some important points but could have given even more attention to a topic that needs broaching: there was no individual observation for coach. This should be there good or bad so we can better see what works and what doesn't work for this team. A pulse on how is our "strategery" is working out. I'll try to fill in the gap for this game *gets out the whiskey*.

• Oden has outgrown his leash. He is TOO DOMINANT and changes the game too much to play him <20 mins. 2 fouls is too much for the 1st q not the 2nd q. What's the point of 'protecting' him if you don't bring him back in the game later on? I have a proposal: Play Oden non-stop until he gets 2 fouls or drops dead to the floor-whichever comes first. Then--and only then--sub him out. He's barely in his 20s for gods sake.
• Needing to "earn minutes". Bayless attacks the rim and plays hard defense posession after posession. He plays as well as he can within the offense and does not gripe about ANYTHING. He has shown he can defend quicker PGs better than Steve & Dre, yet when the latter get complacent, look out of sync, don't pay attention during time outs, and all around suck especially given the matchup, you still don't play bayless? <strong>THERE IS NOTHING MORE HE CAN DO TO PROVE HE DESERVES TIME.</strong>. Yes, this also means when Brandon gripes to the refs all game you set him until he gets less heated.
  
• Juwanna man Really? Really? Speaking of needing to earn minutes-you're going to play him over Dante or anybody else who has a pulse and put on a Blazers uniform? I woulda rather taken a random fan in Blazers jersey and plugged them in at the 4. Maybe we really were talking to Oakley...to suit up at age 45. Dante should be (and have been) getting those minutes. What gives with the fear of rookies? They gotta learn some time and THERE IS NOONE ELSE TO FILL THOSE MINS. Seriously, Nelson shows more confidence in his D-League call up than you show for Bayless+Dante combined.
• Game plan- So let me get this straight. Every time Oden touches the ball in the first quarter we get 2 points, a foul, or 2 points and the foul. Heck even Aldridge looked like a dominant post presence when he caught the ball in the post. But yeah, I would stop passing to Greg too. Especially since the bench is out of bounds..see point 1.
• More game plan- You CANNOT play andre + Przy when the offense is stagnating. Dre is not exactly an exemplary defender and he's predictable on offense-he'll never shoot consistently so teams will sag off (this is where Kidd set himself apart, he developed a bit of a shot to keep teams honest). And Przy is so bad offensively that I'm happy when he can catch the ball successfully. In summary, playing 3.5 on 5 on offense sucks. Playing 3.5 on 5 offense especially sucks when there is no defensive benefit.
  
• Even more game plan - this whole Roy iso thing is getting old. Teams are figuring it out and someone did some nerve damage to Brandon's hands becaues he apparently forgot how to dribble. Why are we not playing the 1-4 P&R or inside out with Oden more again
• Substitutions - For the love of all that is holy and good in this world please loosen up the lineup and sub according to performance instead of this cookbook crap. Hell if you want to cookbook it, I'll write up you're predictable recipe and we can give Haarlow your job. Its win win, Paul Allen saves money, and Haarlow's crush on LMA might just mean we get a few different looks offensively.
• Rudy Fernandez - Kudos on getting (only) this one right. He was hot and you kept in the game. He shows flashes of brilliance, as have several of our players.  But back to strategery, we need to come up with more offense that involves less Brandon. Then when Brandon wants to take over its less predictable. I LOVED the play where Roy played decoy vs ATL and instead Rudy took the give and go inbounds and popped the unexpected 3. You figured Rudy had a shot at getting set up for the 3 but who woulda thought brandon doesn't get that inbound? We need more of that. Creativity on offense involving other players. Here, I'll start. I don't know why we don't have him in the game with Oden playing inside out. He's an excellent passer who can stretch the defense keeping them honest and giving Oden 1v1 play inside. How is this not the obvious play to run? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.
  
  There's a lot more but I'm about to pass out. Note to self: drinking games triggered by opposing PG layups or fastbreak points are a BAD idea..so what do you think was good / bad about tonights coaching.

Everyone and their mother has posted their philosophy on formulating a starting five and how substitutions work. Some think we should go KP-draft style: BPA at each position..others think we need to mix and match to maximize "chemistry"...yet others seem to think this is hockey and focus more on the 2nd unit. The starting line-up is pretty much set whether you agree with it or not: Blake, Roy, Batum, L-Train, Oden. Now I want to hear what everyone's thoughts are on what changes Nate should make to minutes and his substitution pattern from last year. I'll start:

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We all talked about this before he came over and we saw stints of this during the playoffs. Rudy has an amazing abiliity to see a play before it happened (like that nic cage movie that i'm intentionally forgetting the name of).

Remember that throw ahead to Oden before he thunderously...missed the dunk? OK lets try this again. Remember the defy the laws of physics behind the back wrap-around pass in the preseason? How about the beautiful between the defender's legs pass to LMA? Inbounds ally-oop to Roy? I could go on and on but the fact is Rudy has muchos huevos and puts the ball on the mark. Once he puts weight on he will drive a little more and he has shown on the allyoops to improvise well once under the basket. He can obviously pop the 3. I think on offense, its safe to say he can more or less do the job-especially in the playoffs.

The problem is the defense. He clearly would have trouble with smaller PGs. That could prove too much of a negative and offset his offensive contribution. Would that be too much to give up? We Batum who has proven to be a versatile defender and could play on offense, Rudy/Roy as combo guards with Batum Aldridge & Odenzilla to round it out, and Batum on the PG, Rudy on the 2 and Roy on the 3 on defense,

Worth a shot?