Game 1: Los Angeles (0-0) vs Portland (1-0) - 10/27 @ 7:30pm

[BoomFizzle]

Im not worried about Kaman. He was taking the correct shots, made a few nice buckets and played solid defence.

Griffin was excellent but needs to box out on defensive rebounds a bit more.

Gordon was slashing well but had a few horrible turnovers and a couple poor decisions on the break. He also didnt contribute any playmaking or rebound. Compare his rebound numbers to Roy (10-2 off my head). He played good defense though and was vital.

Gomes played reasonable defense but didn't rebound (which I thought he was good at) and couldn't hit the side of a barn.

Baron was absolutely horrible. I don't know what to make of it. He looked like he was trying harder in preseason. It wasn't even the shooting which was bugging it was his terrible body language when playing off the ball and the complete lack of breaking the defense down and kicking to open player. He really just didn't contribute anything positive.

Butler was red hot and should have been in the game longer.

DJ was excellent in his first stint off the bench, not sure why Collins got backup mins in the second half. He was solid enough as well though.

Foye hurts my head when he is out there. Just have to take the good with the bad. He makes shots but he also takes horrible shots.

Good energy from the guys but in the end they ran out of gas and VDN didn't handle the players well to cope with the zone defense.

[Det the Threat]

Kaman has had an off career, Dude is just not a player you should rely on as much as we do. He can't concentrate, he's unreliable and he is just not what we're trying to make him out to be. I'd rather have a simple 10/10 banger who plays good defense next to Griffin, but who's reliable. Meanwhile, if you watched the Cle-Bos game you'd know Sessions isn't better than Gibson. Plus dividing Kaman's Albatros in two smaller contracts would be nice.

No, he hasn't had an off career.

Of course we relied too much on him yesterday, but that's not his fault but Vinnie's crappy coaching which fed him even while we he was ice cold.
He's easily a 15 and 9 guy at the center position and you just don't give that away for packages like the ones you suggesting.

Oh, and he's under contract for a whopping 2 more seasons(contract ends 2012) which isn't close to being an albatross contract.

But hey, those side show bobs and somehow decent point guards are really hard to find and brilliant to have...

It just never stops to amaze me how much you hate on Kaman even after he just had a 18/9 season(of course not without some ups and downs and too many turnovers) and how you're always willing to give him away for almost nothing.
If we do try to change some culture at this club and try to go into another direction we should look to trade Baron and not Kaman, cause even with all his faults, Kaman's worth his contract while Baron isn't.

[playaloc916]

Once again, the fourth quarter collapse... They just relied too much on Kaman when he obviously wasn't in his groove. It seemed like play after play they went to Kaman, and he kept missing easy ones. They should've had more plays for Blake and Butler. The commentators were right, Blake stopped getting touches near the end of the game.

They just need someone to tell them that they stopped doing what was working for them, and that they need to go back to the basics, like ball movement, and getting different guys shots if they get into a slump.

[mattfish]

Kaman is a decent center. I don't mind him as our starting center, but we need to realize his limitations and stop trying to force him to become something he's not. He definitely should not be our crunch time scorer, especially with guys like Camby and Aldridge defending.

I think EJ needs to be more assertive in the crunch time, slashing to the basket and taking advantage of screens to set up for good jump shots. BD was supposed to be the guy, but I think he's lost his 'killer' mentality and settles for too many bad shots. If our outside shooting improves, things should open up for Griffin to dominate in the post during close games.

[DraftSpecialist]

Kaman is average. He is a solid defender and good rebounder. The problem is he forces things offensively. He is turnover prone and isn't an efficient scorer, especially for a center. I don't mind him as a center and I think he can be a solid starter on a championship caliber team if given the right role. I think ideally he is a 4th option. Someone who can give you 13/9 while playing solid defense. I've always thought he would've been a great fit in SA next to Duncan where a lot of the pressure was taken off of him offensively.

I think a big problem we have had is that he has been our #1 or 2 options at times which he just isn't able to handle. The key to our success will be whether or not Blake can develop into a true #1 option and getting Baron and Kaman to play within themselves offensively.

Also I am not sure what to make out of our game. On one hand Blake looked great and overall I thought we looked good. On the other hand another 4th quarter lead turned into a double digit loss. The only bench players who were on the court consistently were Butler and Foye and I am left wondering if this will be a continuation of last year.

[supfoo]

on that topic of kaman, i think he's in a situation similar to gasol was back in memphis. he's got one of the best back-to-the-basket games in the league in 1-on-1 situations but he's average at best at breaking down double-teams through passing or splitting/shooting over the defense, so as a result, the offense suffers a bit when he's being force-fed the ball. however, no one else on this team is quite ready to shoulder the offensive load as the #1 guy.

ej shows a lot of knack as a scorer but #1 options in the nba need to be able to make plays for others consistently enough so that coaches can completely trust him with the ball in his hands. at this point in his career, he's still developing in this respect. baron's shown that he's clearly not the same baron from his oakland days. blake played great this game but it's still his rookie season.

once a clear and better #1 option develops, i think kaman's game will look much more polished. right now, he's been the main man the past few seasons and it hasn't been working. last night was just an off-night for him but he's going to have these nights a bit more frequently than anyone would like until someone else steps up that can 1) score well enough to draw extra defensive coverage consistently and 2) take advantage of double teams so that teammates get additional opportunities to score.