Old Greg looked fleet-footed during the Fan Fest scrimmage
As you all saw (if you didn’t, you’re in some deep trouble, fool), my boy Stu threw up an excellent reflection on Fan Fest yesterday. As I was a day late in watching the scrimmage (note to self: write thank you letter to the inventor of the DVR), I only just now was able to string together a few additional comments to compliment Stu’s fine work. They are as follows:
- Nicolas Batum looks dangerous with the ball in his hands. I think he’s looking to go for the throat this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was averaging 12-15 by February.
- I loved seeing Coach Luke tugging at Greg’s arm on the bench and giving advice to the big fella. It was a sight for sore eyes, and I want more.
- Speaking of Greg, I have to say that I was impressed by him. Seriously, all expectations have been exceeded. Joel is one of the smartest post defenders in the league, and Greg was losing him. Of course neither guy was playing his hardest, but Pryz isn’t going to out-athlete anybody, no matter how hard he plays. So I think this scrimmage was a pretty valid temperature check on Greg’s offense. One thing we didn’t see: double teams down low. I’m sure this was by design, but I’m still curious about how Greg will will handle aggressive doubles.
- Juwan Howard has a lot of ball left in him if Nate should call. And I’m not just saying that because I wrote this hype-piece about the Big Cat.
- Shooting coach John Townsend was telling the truth: Steve Blake’s shot looks as good as it ever did, maybe even better. Didn’t his release look a little smoother? It seems like he’s always had a little Charles Barkley’s golf swing at the top of his jump (you know, if Sir Charles routinely ripped 300-yard drives off the tee), but that motion seemed to be abbreviated in the scrimmage. Am I imagining things?
- Both teams played hard. Not super hard, but there were definitely some competitive juices flowing. A great example of this: near the end of the first half, Rudy tried to take a charge against Bayless and was called for a block instead. While seated, he looked at the referee in disbelief and covered his eyes in exasperation, all while falling to his back to really put a cherry on the whole thing. You know what that means? It means he cares. And it means he’s European. But mostly, it means he cares.
- To that effect, I was surprised to see both sides taking care of the basketball. There was very little sloppy play, despite the game not meaning anything. Although, Jerryd’s half-court lob that ricocheted off the backboard at 93 mph made me chuckle, I must admit.
Okay maniacs, that’s all she wrote. Make sure to check back for lots more Blazers coverage as the preseason begins.
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