Friday, April 17, 2009

Houston Starters Scouting Reports

The Trail Blazers have already played the Rockets three times this season, so they've got a good idea of what their first round opponents bring to the court. Given that, I asked Steve Blake, Brandon Roy, Travis Outlaw, LaMarcus Aldridge and Joel Przybilla to give the basic scouting reports on their positional counterparts.


Steve Blake on Aaron Brooks
There’s no secrets. He’s a solid, all-around point guard. He’s really quick, a good penetrator, can finish and distribute. He can shoot the three ball pretty well. Defensively he’s really active. So he’s really a good an all-around game.

"I have a lot of respect for him. He’s earned that spot. He’s a very good, talented point guard. So I’ve got to figure out ways to stay in front of him and take care of the things that I can do: run our team and play good defense."



Brandon Roy on Ron Artest
"We’ll try to keep him out of our paint. We’re going to try to guard him almost as if he’s kind of like Kobe and those guys. We’re going to try to make his looks tough because he’s their second leading scorer. We’re going to really focus on trying to wear him down. That’s kind of our thing now, body him. He’s a physical player but we don’t have many guys that are physical with him. So we’re going to try to apply those things."


Travis Outlaw on Shane Battier
"He’s a defensive-minded player. Active hands. When you’re shooting, he do a little trick with his hand to try and put it in your face to throw your shot off. Just follow through with it and everything should be all right. He’ll try to take my right hand away. So you go left. I think everybody knows me for my one dribble pull up, so I’ll add another dribble on to it, hesitation. Just everything. You got to feel the momentum of the game. That’s when you start feeling their moves.

"On offense, you just try to run him off the three-point line. I mean, if you’re going to try and limit his attempts from three, it can help a little bit."


LaMarcus Aldridge on Luis Scola
"Solid player. He can knock down the 18-footer. Pretty solid defensively. He’s just a solid player. You have to watch him.

"I always try to start out getting deep post position. My whole thing is doing it the whole game. I think as the game goes on and they send two or three guys at me, I tend to not fight as much. So I just have to keep trying to fight the whole game."


Joel Przybilla on Yao Ming
"He tries to catch the ball as low to the hoop as possible. You’ve got to limit his touches, really. He’s going to get his touches, to tell you the truth, but the thing that I try to do is push him out as far as possible. The extra foot or two may cause his percentage to drop. If he’s on the block he may be shooting 55 percent but if he’s two feet off the block he’s maybe shooting 40 percent. That 15 percent makes a big deal, especially in a playoff series.

"On defense he’s so big. With him, he’s always in the paint because he’s so big, he can always touch someone to keep from getting a defensive 3-seconds call. He’s always there. You try to take him out of the paint by doing a lot of screen and rolls, getting him moving, wear him down, things like that. Try and wear him down, run him up and down the court."

4 comments:

Isaac said...

Ok.. i feel a little better because i like what they are all saying.. everything is true and they are speaking prepared. GO BLAZERS !! You can do it !

John said...

The Blazers have been the surprise package of the season. It comes to no surprise as how they have played during the regular season. Their high octane offensive game and youth is hit with every NBA fans.

Overall the 2009 season is expected to be the most exciting ever in recent years and I can't wait for it to began. For me personally as an Albiceleste supporter, things are not looking good but we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh yes! I've also published my own version (not really mine but a friend name Dave from the NBA Round Table) and would like you to give us your view as well .

hg said...

I think Joel's scouting on Yao is great, but I think that will work on the whole team, run them up and down the floor and don't let them get set in their Defense. Play all of them as tough on D as possible and cut their percentage down.

Just keep it simple and put more points on the scoreboard then they do. LOL

hg

Isaac said...

Im going to tell you the most simple way of beating the Rockets... Drive to the hoop and get Yao in foul trouble early. THAT IS ALL... WITHOUT YAO THEY ARE JUST AVG - BELOW AVERAGE TEAM. Yao's hooks and jumpers are just undefendable... his high release makes it impossible to block... Just drive to the hoop and lets see who is the better team. GO BLAZERS !