Brandon Roy, Please Sit Down

 

I never thought I’d say something this:
I do not want to see Brandon Roy play basketball anytime soon.

You hate to wish a benching upon the very foundation of the Blazers’ franchise, but to see Roy struggle when describing his deep frustration with a hamstring injury that is not getting better, it’s clear that something needs to be done. Ironically, that something is nothing. Roy needs to get acquainted with his Xbox, PS3, of NES (with Power Glove), because the last thing this team needs is another false bill of good health that lasts less than 20 minutes of court time before forcing Roy back into the trainer’s room. 

It’s been over a month since the initial injury and despite the best treatment Paul Allen’s deep pockets can buy, plus plenty of rest, Roy’s hamstring is no better than it was mid-January. At what point should the Portland Trail Blazers asses the continual hamstring ailments of Roy as a problem that is not going away anytime soon? Will they lose more while Roy wears a suit on the bench? Absolutely. But the team’s modest playoff dreams of a seventh or eighth seed are still very possible without Roy in the starting lineup. If he gets antsy on the pine, give the man a clipboard—or a t-shirt cannon—but whatever happens, do not let Roy play basketball again until he is 100%. If that means waiting until Friday, April 16th (the probable start of the NBA playoffs), so be it.

Hanging by a (Ham)String

It should’ve been a joyous beginning to the stretch run. The Blazers just acquired a great big man for a small price. Then they throttled the Clippers, 109-87, which ended a two-game streak at the Rose Garden. They looked rested and ready.

Then Brandon Roy decided to be honest. Roy said that indeed, he is starting to wonder if this lingering hamstring injury is putting this season in “jeopardy.”

Video removed after 72 hours in accordance with NBA policy

Roy has tried rest, treatment and more rest, but none seems to be making much difference. Now he’s starting to wonder if anything can offer the fix he and the Blazers want so desperately—a solemn Roy alludes to the fact that he’s so close, yet so far. Roy’s voice felt more depressed than frustrated Tuesday—it was the kind of thing no one in or around the franchise wants to hear, and moreover, something they’d rather he not be saying publicly.

It seems the young star is nearing his breaking point. After weeks of rest—and a limited schedule since experiencing the injury in early January—Roy decided that Tuesday’s game against the Clippers would be as good as any to test it. He figured this coming Friday against the Celtics wouldn’t be any different—every day he wakes up and it feels the same. This of course begs the question why Roy would have played at all Tuesday, as he and the team already went through the rushed early return only to make things worse. The following video is talked more about the injury, and tonight’s performance in general. It was before Roy admitted how worried he really is about the dogged hamstring (that one is above):

Video removed after 72 hours in accordance with NBA policy

Coach McMillan said afterwards that he nudged Roy to play. And for 15 minutes he did. During his first stint Roy said he felt fine. But after cooling down and then coming back in, he felt the injury, and then sat out the second half.

It’s too soon to drive the Blazer playoff bus off the road just yet—it’s quite possible that Roy let his emotions get the better of him after a disappointing early comeback attempt. But then again, the way injuries have continually derailed this season, one worse than the next, is anyone the least bit surprised?

Oh yeah, that’s right—there was a game tonight. And my God, did the Blazers dismantle the Clippers. Really, over the last 24 hours, Portland has been just awful to the other team from L.A.

First a call comes in during dinner informing the Clippers their defensive leader be staying until long after the team plane leaves. Of course, they are not happy about this—but hey, they’re the Clippers, when does anything ever end well?

So after having to suffer a mess of trade rumors in the city where you’re staying, the next night the team goes out and gets manhandled. It was a brutal whipping from front to back.

The Blazers came out rested, focused, and at that point buoyed by the return of Brandon Roy. They got off to a quick 16-7 start by hitting shots and forcing Baron Davis into a number of embarrassing turnovers. Roy twice picked Davis’ pocket clean. The Clipper point guard managed four turnovers by the time the first quarter ended. Coach McMillan said afterwards that the All-Star break left his team rested and ready:

Video removed after 72 hours in accordance with NBA policy

From then on the Blazers nursed a lead that hovered around double-digits. The Clippers closed the third on a 7-2 run, and blew it to 16-3 in opening minutes of the fourth. With 8:48 to play, the Blazers were up just 79-74. They regrouped, and from that point on outscored the Clippers 30-13.

Martell Webster had a fine game, and if the severity of Roy’s confession is to be believed, he’s going to need to have a lot more of them in the days to come. Webster had a career-high tying 28 points, making a career high seven (of 11) three point attempts. (In all fairness, one came in junk time and could quite fairly be called for running up the score.)

LaMarcus Aldridge had another steady game of late, adding 22 points and nine rebounds. He said the few days off did wonders, adding that for the first time in a while he wasn’t tired in the final quarter:

Video removed after 72 hours in accordance with NBA policy

Andre Miller was also his steely self, contributing 10 points and 12 assists and outplayed the younger Eric Gordon. Rudy Fernandez, whose playing was all around atrocious entering the All-Star break, emerged from his shooting slump by hitting three of six from deep, and five of 10 overall. Dante Cunningham rounded out the Blazers in double-figures with 10.

Team-wise, the Blazers beat the Clippers in every category sans rebounding, where L.A. held a 40-33 edge and points in the paint. Portland hit a remarkable 10 of 18 three point attempts, 25 of their 32 from the line, and shot 49.3% from the field overall. The Blazers set a new season-high forcing 15 steals, and tied a season-high 21 forced turnovers. In fact, every starter—even Roy in limited minutes—had at least two steals.

Unfortunately all those sweet numbers haven’t quite washed away the fear of Roy’s post-game admission. Maybe this will help—Clippers coach Kim Hughes explained how much he missed having Marcus Camby in the lineup:

Video removed after 72 hours in accordance with NBA policy

Pick and Scroll, Camby edition.

Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.

• Henry Abbott and Kevin Arnovitz have a great back-and-forth conversation on today’s big trade.

• Kelly Dwyer calls Dunleavy a cheapskate:

And then you read that the deal went down with the Clippers in Portland, and you wonder if Dunleavy was even allowed to make long-distance calls. Those things cost money, you know. And, no, the deal isn’t official yet; but Camby’s agent had to drop the news first, before Woj and Marc broke the story, before Marcus’ text inbox started filling up, and Marcus isn’t happy. And then Spears drops the line of the year:

“He is not believed to have finished his meal.”

I’m sure Sterling was sure to pick up a doggy bag. After all, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato, and, baby, you got a stew going.

• Jason Quick of The Oregonian reports that Outlaw is “cool with it.”

• Ben Golliver from BlazersEdge has an extensive reaction roundup.

• David Locke, the Utah Jazz announcer, thinks that this trade means more Bayless, and that more Bayless is bad for Portland. Here’s hoping Bayless prints that off and sticks it to his bathroom mirror. Additionally, the trade also means more minutes for Rudy and Andre Miller, and I think that’s a good thing.

• Matt Moore of Pro Basketball Talk thinks that Al Thornton is the next Clipper to be traded.

• Check out TrueHoop Network sister site ClipperBlog for the other side’s view of the Camby trade.

• Jason Fleming of HoopsWorld examines the trade from a basketball and a financial perspective.

• Kevin Arnovitz has a great breakdown of Camby’s defense. Long story short, put LaMarcus Aldridge on perimeter oriented bigs and make sure Aldridge is the one getting isolated against point guards on a switch. Camby is good at holding down the middle and providing help defense, Camby is not so good father away from the basket.

• Kevin Pelton has some great analysis on Camby here.  And has his take on the trade here.

• Check out Camby’s stats from 82games, Basketball-Reference, and HoopData then tell us what conclusions you draw in the comments below.

• The Invisible Ninja is reporting on Camby’s synergy stats on twitter.

• Wendell Maxey eats some crow for getting this trade deadline wrong. You’ve got to respect a writer that calls ‘em like he seem ‘em and then owns up when they are wrong, and hey, two out of three ain’t bad.

• NBA Playbook breaks down the shooting form of the three point shootout contestants.

• OMG! There’s a game today!

• Here is the Gambler’s take from Bust a Bucket on tonight’s somewhat awkward matchup.

• While you’re here, why not take a look at our preview of the Blazers vs. Clippers game? Speaking for all of us here at PRS, I can assure you that we are all very glad that a pillowcase of Glocks were not involved in the trade, however, the1.5 million dollars sent to the Clippers could buy approximately 2,500 Glocks before taxes and fees. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 to 1,200 pillowcases worth of Glocks depending on how big the pillowcases are and if the Glocks are standard size or subcompact models. Now, tell me, where on the internet can you get this level of in-depth analysis?

Evaluating the Camby Trade

At the time of this writing, the trade and its specifics have not been made official, but the basics seem conrcete enough to address: the Blazers have traded Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to the Clippers for 2007 Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Camby. All three have expiring contracts, making the trade salary neutral. Presumably Kevin Pritchard hopes that shoring up the Blazers inside defensive presence will give the Blazers a firmer push into the playoffs than they would’ve from the return of Travis Outlaw’s offensive prowess and Steve Blake’s oscillating play.

Camby, 35, has always had a great defensive rating, even on teams that were not that good defensively. Offensively, Camby has maintained an above average PER throughout his 13 year career. Currently Camby has a PER of 18.5 according to Basketball-Reference. His 12.1 rebounds per game is second in the league, while averageing near two blocks, three assists and 1.4 steals.

The Blazers will almost certainly start Camby at center, he is equally able as a power forward. Camby currently makes $9 million. Were the Blazers to re-sign him next year—and Przybilla as well—they’d have quite a formidable front line. Camby is instersting as a potential backup to Oden & Przybilla not only because of their injuries, but becuase his own tribulations could provide a good model and inspiration for Oden (at one point Camby played 58 games over the span of two seasons).

Of course, Portland loses Travis Outlaw, a high flying fan favorite who can score from anywhere and Steve Blake, a steady if unspectacular point guard who always plays hard and has a great stroke from beyond the arc. It is also interesting that, as things currently stand, GM Kevin Pritchard seems to be showing such faith in Jerryd Bayless, who has been everything but consistent this season.

Both Blake and Outlaw’s contracts expire at the end of the season and Portland would likely be able to re-sign one of the two with part of the Mid-Level-Exception in July. It is unlikely that Portland could manage to re-sign both.

The loss of Steve Blake will open up more playing time Rudy Fernandez and perhaps increase Patty Mills chances of seeing the court this season and/or Peterri Koponen’s chances of being brought over from Europe.

I believe the loss of Outlaw will not be felt as deeply because the team has played so many games without him this season. As Outlaw played power forward almost exclusively last year, Juwan Howard, Dante Cunningham, and Jeff Pendergraph will all continue to back up Aldridge and Camby with Cunningham likely seeing spot minutes at the small forward position. Small forward will continue to be held down by Webster and Batum with the aforementioned spot minutes of Cunningham, along with Roy or Rudy in a three guard lineup. The loss of Outlaw’s bench scoring will hopefully be mitigated by the rise of Jerryd Bayless and a return to last season’s form by Rudy Fernandez, although both slumped their way into the All-Star break.

Steve Blake is a steady veteran who doesn’t make many mistakes and Travis Outlaw is Brandon Roy’s best friend on the team, a locker room glue guy, and one of the most interesting characters on the Blazer’s team. Both will be missed, though possibly not for long.

Hello Marcus Camby

Ric Bucher has just reported that, according to sources, the Los Angeles Clippers have traded Marcus Camby to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake. More details soon…

UPDATE:
ESPN’s Report

11:28PM
OK—So ESPN has backtracked a bit, removing the trade as finalized from their site. (It’s called fact-checking, dudes.) That said, our bet is that this thing is on, evidenced by this story by Marc J. Spears:

In town in advance of their Tuesday game against the Trail Blazers, the Clippers were having a team dinner at Portland’s Ringside steakhouse Monday night when Camby received a call on his cell phone from Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard. Pritchard informed Camby that he will likely be traded to Portland once the league finalizes the deal on Tuesday.

Assuming that call happened, it’s just a matter of minutia now.

Spears’ piece is a pretty illuminating read about Camby’s current state of mind—he’s not psyched about heading north. It seems like the veteran center was happy with the Clips (which is crazy, if you think about all the DECADES OF TUMULT):

After taking the call from Kaplan, Camby immediately walked out of the restaurant. A source close to Camby says that while he recognizes the benefits of playing for a better team, he is upset because his family is comfortably settled in Los Angeles. He had hoped to re-sign with the Clippers this summer.

“He likes the Clippers, he likes the organization, he likes L.A.,” the source said. “His wife is happy in L.A. And he’s not one for change. He’s definitely not happy about this.”

Local Word:
Jason Quick, who thought the Blazers wouldn’t make a move is now reporting this thing is a go.

The Trail Blazers will trade forward Travis Outlaw and guard Steve Blake to the Los Angeles Clippers for veteran center Marcus Camby, an agent for one of the players has confirmed to The Oregonian.

The deal is expected to be finalized on Tuesday, well before the noon Thursday trading deadline, and on the same day the Clippers are in Portland to play the Blazers on Tuesday in the Rose Garden.

Blazers vs Clippers - Preview

What’s worse: Frankie Muniz running the point? A smug Darius Miles? Or “Jeff Van Gundy Revealed” (ewwww)?

Will Brandon Roy play? Or will he not? For Portland few things matter more than their lone All-Star returning from Texas with a healthy hamstring. The earliest signs point to his return, but given the number of false alarms with this particular injury, it’s best to procedure with caution. 

As for the Los Angeles Clippers, where to start? Following the awkward situation that was head coach Mike Dunleavy quitting on general manager Mike Dunleavy, the Clip show is 0-3 under new coach/sacrificial lamb Kim Hughes, and over those three games they’ve lost by an average of 19 points. While the Hughes administration promised a more uptempo offense that would mesh better with Baron “Twitter Beard Tip” Davis, it has yet to work. In the three games without Dunleavy on the bench, Davis is averaging less than 10 points a game with a disappointing 32.2% shooting percentage. But before Portland files this one under “W,” don’t forget that Portland has dropped a pair of games in a row at home, and doesn’t want to make it three (for the first time since 2008).

This matchup is made all the more intriguing by the Blake (Steve Blake,  not Blake Griffin—stop dreaming) trade rumors that involve sending Blakey, Outlaw, and a boatload of cash to Los Angeles for Marcus Camby and hopefully not Sebastain Telfair and his pillowcase full of glocks. I’m still hesitant to believe Portland makes any move, but the Camby rumors are certainly persistent. Sadly, NBA trades take a fair of amount of time to process with the league office, otherwise I’d be praying for a mid-game (or mid-play?) switch from Camby. I know it’s not possible, but don’t take that dream away from me. It’s all I have.

For a more educated perspective that doesn’t mention the kid from Malcolm in the Middle, visit the fine folks at ClipperBlog.

Tip-off: 7pm
TV: Comcast
Las Vegas Line: TBD

Pick and Scroll, All Star Hangover Edition

Your daily (Mon-Fri) roundup of links from around the blogosphere, typically Trail Blazers related.

• As the trade deadline gets ever closer, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Blazers may be working on a three way trade to bring Tyrus Thomas to Portland, but the asking price is Sasha Vujacic  (which we can all agree, is too high). Instead, Portland is asking around to see if anybody wants “The Machine.” Since Adam Morrison would be part of this rumored deal, this historic trade would rank off the charts of John Hollinger’s little known PCR (Player Crying Rating) formula.

• Rob Mahoney over at Pro Basketball Talk takes a look at why teams want Tyrus Thomas regardless of how he fits.

• If you haven’t listened to this podcast with The Oregonian’s Jason Quick, you should. Quick talks trade deadline buzz, Nic Batum love, the Rudy situation, etc.

• Dave from BlazersEdge takes a look at the season so far and what’s up ahead for the Trail Blazers. 

• Bradford Doolittle and Kevin Pelton have a great back-and-forth conversation about the season league wide.

• I told you last time that Wendell Maxey thinks that the Blazers won’t make a move at the deadline, here is his reasoning. Maxey also reports that Roy doesn’t know when he’ll be back from his injury.

Roy doesn’t know when he’ll be back for the Blazers. And now after missing 14 of the last 15 games, the Blazers don’t even know when Roy will step on the floor again. Here’s what Portland does know - from the franchise to the die hard fans: if the Blazers are going to remain in the playoff picture in the Western Conference, Roy has to be part of that vision soon.

• Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian covers Roy’s All Star adventure. Kobe loves him some Roy.

• Coup from Rip City Project analyzes the Wizards/Mavericks trade. In my opinion, this trade gives Dallas a punchers chance to unseat Los Angeles in the Western Conference, but the Nuggets are still the team with the best shot to beat the Lakers this season.

 • Brian T. Smith of The Columbian hands out grades for the season so far. Wait, Oden fractured his patella against Miami? Eh, all teams in red uniforms look the same.

Blazer Whips: Guess Who?

I’m no car expert (I thought this sucker was a Caprice). But I do know what Blazer owns the keys to this tricked out Chevy Impala. Can you guess?

Update - Let’s try a poll!