Regrets; What's Going on Here; So Long Taurean

First off, that was my broken promise to blog last Thursday. My regrets. I thought about trying it from my smart phone, but you know, my thumbs just aren’t that fast, or smart.

These last two games against Seattle were very hard on my Blazer psyche. Like most of you, I've got the red-and-black blues bad. What is going on here?

I'll give it a shot to provide some sort of however-less-than-satisfying. answer The recent swoon is a combination of things. Tired legs, injuries of sorts, and much-improved opposition fighting for the playoffs. But most off all, it is the lack of an inside game. This team should keep its motion offense and jump-shooting ways, but the lack of any interior presence is dictating how other teams are playing us, double-teaming guards and in particular Roy. They're overplaying passing lanes and pushing us out farther and daring the Blazers to shoot open but long-range shots. Instead of all those mid-range shots we were getting earlier in the season, we're being extended too often into three pointers or contested deep shots. All of this because we don't have any threat down low that can force a double-team once in a while or force guards to sag from the outside. There's more to it than that (including cold shooting) but we need to change it up once in a while from the motion to a more traditional scheme. Sometimes it seems like this team has only one set of plays on offense.


So long to Taurean Green. This seems like a small move but one that the Blazers might regret in a few years. What bothers me is that we are trading a player with unknown potential at the pro level for a player that has demonstrated to play a fairly limited role on any team.

For the record, I haven't given up on this season This team is young and streaky. And it's that streaky part that needs to turn. I'm convinced that the mentality has to be us against the world, which begins tomorrow against the mighty Celts.

—TLW