ProudBFan

2 of 3 (66.7%) from beyond the arc last night.

Including a nice MJ shrug imitation.

Discuss.

PBF

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Tince

Those were bad shots. The only time he should be shooting three's is if he's wide open and there is less than 3 seconds on ths shot clock.

Nate clearly doesn't like the shoot selection either because after he missed one he got yanked on the next deadball.

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crandc

If he can add it to his arsenal as a consistent weapon, fine, but IMHO it should NOT be his first. I don't want to see ZBo do what we criticized in Bonzi Wells and Sheed, become a perimeter player instead of a low post player. That is still his best game. What I would like to see is him improving his jump shot to the point where defenders can't just automatically push him away from the basket and figure they're done.

mook

I think people make too big a deal out of big men taking threes. Dirk and Sheed received a ton of criticism over it at different parts of their careers until one day people realized that, hey, they're pretty good at it. And their teams can win with them doing it, if given the right teammates and coach.

I don't know what Zach's like in practice, but if he's hitting a very, very good percentage of those shots, then he should start letting it fly in real games too. After the surgery seemed to rob him of his offensive rebounding ability, it's clear he needs to expand his offense in some other area. Shooting threes and opening up the interior for Miles to work in the post may be one way to do it.

That said, what I don't want to see is Zach become another Antoine Walker, launching threes all the time at a really crummy percentage. As Tince pointed out, that last three he took (although something of a heat check) was a Walkeresque shot to take in that situation.

sa1177

IMO his laziness has much more to do with this then his surgery.

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mook

well, that's definitely one opinion. seems funny to me, though, that a guy who was one of the hardest working men in the league suddenly becomes lazy immediately after surgery.

are all the other players who find themselves to be a shell of their former selves after microfracture surgery just lazy too? isn't it remotely possible that a Blazer is not as good as he used to be not because of some moral failing, but because he's a big guy with a bad leg and he doesn't want to re-injure it?

ebott

I'm afraid it's already happened. The down low rough and tumble Zach Randolph we all came to know and love seems to be gone. Time will only tell if we ever get him back.

Zach seems to have become a mid to long range jump shooter. If we had a center that can score he might not be a bad second fiddle to that theoretical player. But we don't so I'd like Zach to go down low. And even if we did have such a center I still wouldn't want to be paying Zach Randolph over 10 million dollars a year to sit out on the perimeter and shoot jump shots.

yakbladder

I don't know that you can necessarily pinpoint it to exactly the surgery or exactly laziness. But he does seem to be a little more jumper happy. I think he has the confidence to take the outside shot which, like crandc points out, was the exact same confidence Sheed had that caused hundreds of Portlanders to simultaneously yell "Nooooooo!" at the exact same time at their televisions. Quite a feat, actually. The difference is that I actually felt more comfortable with Sheed taking the shot than Zach.

The problem is that if Zach starts taking a majority of his shots outside then we lose an inside presence which is where the high percentage shots are supposed to be. It also places Zach out of the area for an offensive rebound - not necessarily if he's shooting because he would be less effective in getting his own rebound - but also when he moves outside to possibly take an outside shot.

Backboard Cam

I was at a lot of those games, and let me tell you- there were very few people yelling "Noooooo" when he let a three go. Lots of people yelling at him to get inside position when he didn't have the ball, but you DON'T want to be the fan yelling "Nooooo" as a Wallace 3 goes in.

And they did go in a lot.

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mook

he's definitely more of a jump shooter now. probably what's happened is that he realizes he's already undergone one microfracture surgery from playing Energy Guy, and he's only 25. if he wants to have any hope of lasting 10 more years in this league, he has to play differently. is that lazy, or is it just common sense?

as to his new style's effectiveness, it sort of depends on who we go with at SF. Miles is a pretty good slasher/post up guy. Randolph-the-jumpshooter isn't a bad fit for him. especially with brawlers like Skinner and Przybilla underneath.

however, if Webster or Outlaw (who are more spot up shooters) wind up being our featured SF, Randolph's jump shooting style isn't nearly as desired.

blue32

man, sheed can drain 3's on command now....the dude strokes it...

Dan

I'd hope he'd work on his defense before he starts shooting 3's like he's a SG.

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sa1177

If surgery is truly the reason I am surprised Zach hasn't said more about it limiting his production etc. I really can't recall hearing much about it at all.

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Zybot

I cringe anytime Z-bo puts up a 3 pointer. I secretly hope that he misses to discourage future attempts.