blzr610

With Joel's line last night of 2 rebounds, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 6 minutes, what is going on?
We can rule out the foul excuse, because he only had 1.
He's not reported to be injured before halftime, so scratch that.
Is Nate mad at him for some reason? We don't know.
Does Nate expect him to average a block per minute or something?

What is Nate thinking, letting Amare smack Outlaw around when Joel could be altering shots and putting Amare's dunks back in his face? Joel's much faster than Magloire, yet he was kept on the bench! The thing that really made me question Nate's motivation was when he put Magloire and Zach in for defensive purposes. What's going on? Has he given up on our best shotblocker?
If Aldridge was playing all the Center minutes while Joel was benched, I'd be less concerned, but Magloire?

Reep

It appears to be based on Joel's lack of scoring. Amare can roam around on defense because he doesn't have to guard Joel. This is true of a lot of teams. Accordingly, even though Joel provides good defense, he allows the other team to play off him on the other end making it harder for others to score. Replacing Joel with almost anyone else on the team opens up the floor more for Zach and Roy.

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PorterIn2004

A fine point, Reep. And, it still seems like there are times when better defense might be worth the offensive cost, and that's before we get to the options of actually using Joel more on offense. He's had a few games the last month or two when he shot something like 4 for 5, and as others have said recently he seemed to do well in past years with the pick-and-roll, which we've not seen run with him much at all this year.

As for Magloire, it's true his play has been better of late but he still manages several turnovers per game with steps or some such. At least with Joel he generally doesn't try to do much with the ball on offense other than dunk, rebound, kick it to someone else, or very occasionally take an open 10 jump shot, as any NBA player should.

barfo

If that were the whole issue, you'd think Joel would get time at the end of games when play stops so often that you can platoon offense and defense. But he doesn't get time then.

I think Nate thinks Joel sucks at everything but jumping for the opening tip. So he starts and then goes to the bench.

barfo

Boob-No-More

While Joel has a rep as a good defender and shot blocker, when he was in the game last night it was hard to tell that pregame was over and the game had actually started. Phoenix looked like they were still doing their pregame lay-up drill with Joel on the floor. Not that it was all Joel's fault. Everyone was standing around and letting Phoenix attack the basket at will. For whatever reason, Joel just doesn't seem to match up well when we play Phoenix. And while LaMarcus had a below average offesnive outing last night, at least he's enough of an offensive threat that the other team feels obligated to guard him when he's more than three feet from the basket.

BNM

P.S. The Blazers also went with a small line-up with no center for most of the second half - and that seemed to work a lot better than any big line-up they tried. The most effective line-ups last night were:

Jack, Roy, Martell, Outlaw and Zach

or

Roy, Webster, Ime, Outlaw and Zach - this was the combo that tied the game and sent it into overtime.

gatorpops

Did anyone see that exchange of extened "conversation" between Joel and Nate when he went to the bench? Nate was fairly animated or so it seemed to me, and Joel had a distressed look, maybe of anger as he took his seat. I watched it on replay several times and it did not seem amiable to me. I could be wrong because I do not read lips well. Anyone?

Did anyone notice that Martell played nearly the whole fourth quarter and the OT? He played good defense and fairly good offense last night and Nate rewarded him for it. Good to see the kids growing up!

The Blazers have played PHX about as well as anyone has only to lose both. Maybe next year!

gatorpops

__________________
"Young, old, it doesn't matter. It's all about how you play."

"LaMarcus is a poor man's nothing." (meaning he is the real thing)

"You just got a foretaste of what life is going to be like all the time in a couple of years.

"It was tough when what’s his name got hot"

...they've got to be a pain to prepare for defensively.