Portland Blazers Point Guard Conundrum: Who Backs Up Blake?

Portland Trail Blazers guard Jerryd Bayless is confident he can assume the duties as the team’s point guard. He was asked before the Summer League began if he could do so, and answered, “Yeah, no question.”

The point of the Summer League is for teams to evaluate young talent and pinpoint their weaknesses and strengths. Many of the players are trying to make the roster, hoping that their performance and style is to the team’s liking.

Bayless, unlike a majority of his Summer League teammates, has experience in the NBA, albeit a tumultuous rookie season. He had something to prove, like his comrades, and needed to show Portland that he has the qualities a point guard must possess.

He was a scorer during his lone year in college, at Arizona, with a poor assist-to-turnover ratio. The assist-to-turnover ratio carried over into the NBA, but his scoring did not. When he played, he was aggressive, but also hesitant, and all too often dribbled aimlessly on the perimeter, clearly indecisive.

Though the Blazers would have loved for him to consistently produce as a pas-first point guard, as a 20-year-old in a new environment, his tentative play was expected.

Nonetheless, Blazers fans, many of whom disapproved of Steve Blake’s backup, Sergio Rodriguez, wanted to see him play, to see what he could do. He had a few bright spots, which mainly involved him scoring, predominately on dunks.

But, as his fans knew, for him to be an integral part of Portland’s future, and start for years to come for the Blazers, he had to play as a point guard should. But he didn’t know how to.

Portland, after watching him average 28 points per game in the 2008 Summer League, thought of him as the scorer he was, and took it in stride, thinking he could, down the road, develop a point guard’s unselfish mentality.

Although he possessed an explosive burst, with a incredible leaping ability at 6'3", he failed to trust a shot that made him a touted NBA prospect. Instead, he was all too predictable on offense; he had poor court-vision, and when he did pass, he rarely hit his teammate in stride.

He passed up too many perimeter shots, and when he did make an impact, it was usually because of his aggressiveness. But he was aggressive too much of the time.

Yet, it’s all part of the learning process; unless you have NBA-ready talent and a game suited for the position without much need for improvement, you have to fail in some way before you can ultimately succeed. Usually this is the case.

Very few rookies are like the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose, who lit up the opposition with his scoring and passing ability from the onset of the 2008-09 season. Bayless wasn’t like Rose, who was inserted into the starting lineup from the beginning; Bayless was a benchwarmer, and when he did play, he either tried to do too much and ended up doing too little.

But, as a cocky kid, he says he's now ready to do exactly what’s asked of him. He was a turnover machine in four Summer League games this year, but for his growth, his turnovers were a good sign. It meant he was trying to make plays for others.

There were spurts when he looked to score, but, unlike this time a year ago, he kept his head up and made an effort to make passing his first priority.

Eugene “Pooh” Jeter was a four-year star at the University of Portland and, unable to find a home in the NBA, made a name for himself with the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Developmental League.

After leaving the 14ers, Jeter played for BC Kyiv, a Ukranian team, and by averaging 14 points and seven assists per game, was named the league’s top point guard.

After a failed attempt to make the Toronto Raptors roster in 2008, he played in the ACB League, a league highly-regarded as the second best in the world, behind only the NBA.

There he played with ViveMenorca, and played against some stellar competition, including Ricky Rubio, who was drafted fifth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2009 NBA Draft, and averaged 16 points and three assists per game.

This caught the Blazers eye, and earned him an invite to their training camp with an opportunity to make his dream a reality.

Once the 25-year-old Jeter stepped on the floor, it was clear that the 5'11" guard, with much more experience than Bayless, was entirely the opposite of the rookie season version of Bayless. He was unselfish, and looked to score only when the opportunity presented itself.

With that said, he didn’t dish a single assist in his first game (the blame, like in Bayless’s case, could go on the recipients). Over the final four games, however, he showed his true colors, accumulating six, five, four, and eight assists.

With Patrick Mills, a fellow rookie point guard, hurt, and expected to miss all of the 2009-2010 season, Jeter should make the roster, and certainly deserves to.

Bayless, unphased by Jeter’s emergence, had this to say regarding his role with the Blazers:

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“Obviously, Steve [Blake] is the starting point guard but I don’t think Steve would want it any other way [than a battle]. I don’t think he just wants me to come in and just mess around. I’m going to come out there and battle him. You never know what could happen…I’m in a different place… Last year I kind of knew I was bound to be a backup. This year, Coach [Nate McMillan] is giving me an opportunity and it’s up to me.”

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I am glad Bayless feels he can give Blake a run, but, he will soon find Jeter breathing down his neck. He may think he’s fighting for first, but given the doubt surrounding him and the play of Jeter, he may be in a bigger fight for second.