Balian

The management team of the Trailblazers took the extra steps and visited Rudy Fernandez in Europe, trying to convince him to play for the Trailblazers next year. Rudy announced last week he will be coming over next season. Rudy Fernandez has not sign a contract yet.

So you would think Nate would talk fondly of Rudy Fernandez. Instead his response to a Rudy question was tepid at best. I am starting to question Nate's ability to evaluate talent. After a few summer games, here was what he thought of Taurean Green:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbla...e_or_four.html


Today, he used words like rookie, wait and see, adjustments, etc in describing Rudy. He acted like a doubting Thomas. If he thought Tarean Green was the best 3pt shooter amoung our guards last year, then WTF is Rudy Fernandez? Way to welcome Rudy to Portland, Nate. You better hope Rudy don't back out.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2....html#comments

barfo

Nate was just hyping Green because he wanted to use him to steal Von Wafer from the Nuggets.

barfo

Dan

I just want to know, who stole the gold from Von Wafer's basement?

__________________
A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog vendor and says "Make me one with everything".

when will the loss of life end?

The world respects the power of our example, not an example of our power.

I'd like to say I made this, but I didn't

nikolokolus

Gee I dunno, maybe Nate rethought his comments about Green and decided he should probably be more cautious in his public statements about rookies in the future ...

sabas4mvp

Of course Nate can't say much about him because he has never coached him. See how he does in camp before he starts judging what type of a player he is.

__________________
"Brandon Roy is going to the basketball hall of fame." - Bill Walton

"Respect the legend, future hall of famer"-Bill Walton Talking About Sabonis.
http://www.geocities.com/robertk232/Sabonis.html

wizmentor

There are many reasons Nate would talk that way, the least likely of which
is that he is a bad talent evaluator.
1) He might not want to put too much pressure of Rudy, same as he did
with Brandon.

2) Nate is trying to temper expectations since most Blazer fans think
he'll be a success right away.

3) Nate is familiar with Sergio's defense.

4) Nate understands that the European game is different than the NBA,
and that there will be an adjustment.

5) Nate understands that there is a language barrier, and that there
will be an adjustment.

__________________
"Bayless is going to be that guy where, you know, Nate goes 'Oh you put in your second unit to give your starters a rest? Well, watch this.' And he's going to throw in Bayless and he's going to point to that second unit point guard and he's going to say 'Eat Him Alive', and Jarryd probably will."

---Dave Deckard of BlazersEdge

Shaq: Hey Thorpe, I'm getting sized for a thumb ring
SportsNation David Thorpe: I guess your wife is back in your life. Congrats.

yuyuza1

The dude doesn't know how to talk to the media. I just got a nasty feeling by the way he just brushed the question off, (kinda like when he said talking about Sergio was a waste of time considering El Chacho was only a third-string PG). Canzano apparently said on Sports Sunday last night that POR promised Rudy 20+ mins, and Nate might be trying to hide that fact (consider the source, however) with a grin.

__________________
Free Sergio!

yuyuza1

So what? Rudy led his league in steals.

If Nate bases any of his decisions on Rudy by the way Sergio plays, I'm gonna be irate. Both of these players on a completely different talent level, and need to be treated as different entities.

__________________
Free Sergio!

Darkwebs

I think Nate is just being realistic. Almost all rookies have adjustment periods to get acclimated to the league. He didn't say anything bad about Rudy- he just said we have to wait and see, which is the truth.

__________________
Portland Trail Blazers

Entity

I don't like turning personnel into politicians, putting every word they say under a microscope and making assumptions about what they might do based on how I feel during their speeches. I'd rather see what he actually does with Rudy and judge him on his actions, not to mention actually see what Rudy can do in the NBA.

Nate had all the power in the world to put Taurean Green in the game, and yet in all the time we had him, despite saying that he would win games for us, he never saw more than a full game's worth of minutes the entire time he was with us (44 min). Perhaps Nate got to know him better and decided that he wasn't going to put him in at critical moments after all. Hopefully he continues to display this kind of learning curve with each of his players rather than irrationally sticking to his initial impressions.

Utherhimo

Actually none of the Trail Blazers can talk about Rudy till July1st cus of the hiatus that they are on right now.

__________________
Mead for Life and Life for Mead ~ "ORAGUN", not "ORYGONE"!
WELCOME RUDY, BAYLESS and Batum to the Blazer Tribe: wear the Scarlet and Black with Pride. HAIL THE NORTH WEST! LONG LIVE OREGON!

00 this season is for YOU!!!! RIP!

Jayps15

There was nothing wrong with what Nate said in that video. He's correct that until Rudy gets here and Nate has a chance to work with him in person that he can't really say much as to what Rudy will do next year, you know despite having scouts go to games and watch game tapes the team still brings players in for individual workouts before the draft to evaluate them and this is the same situation, I've watched ~40 games of DKV and I'm still not exactly sure what to expect from Rudy in his first year.

He is a rookie, one that's coming into a completely different style of play on both sides of the ball and entirely new role going from star and 2nd place in MVP voting in his domestic league to a bench player. And he's got a long physical adjustment to the NBA as well, he'll be playing most of August at a very high level and has a hand injury right now that is probably keeping him from adding to much bulk in the weight room. He will likely be undersized most of the year and there's a history of players playing international ball in the summer wearing down, it's going to be a big adjustment.

And finally there's this thing called tampering, where if any personnel talk about players under contract with other teams the NBA can hand down pretty stiff penalties to both the person and the team...

sasaint

6) Nate is trying to pump up Green in order to both improve his confidence and push ALL of the Blazer's guards.

7) Nate actually BELIEVES what he was saying about Green. Nothing he said really reflects on Rudy, unless you draw inferences which Nate doesn't intend. Rudy would have to be hyper-sensitive to take praise of a teammate as a slight to him.

Oldmangrouch