This Post is about Brandon Roy

When I look around the internets, all I see is that Roy is done, how his only value to the Blazers is his spot up shooing and occasional clutch scoring. To that, I say bah:

Steve Smith wasn't here for too long, but in that short time he became my favorite blazer as a child and would go into the street to do his free throw routine. (Left hand holds the right bicep, four dribbles, wipe both brows, four more dribbles, swish) To me, Steve Smith was one of Bob Whitsitt's two great trades. The Blazers aquired him for JR Rider and Jim Jackson before the 1999-2000 season. (For the record, his other great trade was getting Pippin for peanuts, now granted, it was a lot of peanuts, but still, peanuts)

Because his short time here occured when I was very young, I don't have a clear picture of him. As we all know, players from our youth tend to become more of a myth than what was actually the case. For this reason I went back to watch the 2000 Western Conference Finals again on YouTube--well, just the games the Blazers won. I think this really shows what he did.

2000 NBA Playoffs: Blazers at Lakers, Gm 2 part 9/13 (via jdm7131)

(note: the Blazer did hold onto this one)

From what you could plainly see, Steve Smith routinly beat Kobe and whoever else they put on in the post, and was also a knock down shooter from the perimeter. In that series, Steve Smith shot 60% from down town and over 50% from downtown in the playoffs.

Statistically looking, Roy and Smith have identical career three point shooting percentages at around 35%. However, Smitty shot 39% in his first year here and shot 47(!)% a couple of years later and would have another season of over 40%. Roy has the ability to hit the three, but I think he should work on it this off season are really hone it in.

The other thing I saw Smitty do was work the post, and I have seen effectiveness from Roy there as well. Roy isn't as big as Smith was, but he still has decent size and is an extremely smart player. He is great at finishing in the paint as well as grabbing offensive rebounds at his size. I think that Roy can be a very potent weapon down there, especially if he has a smaller guy on him.

Roy has slowed and isn't a great defender, Smitty also wasn't the most athletic player or the best defender--but he was still effective. I think that if Roys works on his outside shooting game to move closer to 40% in the offseason and starts going down low in the post more often, then he will be an extremely valuable piece to this team going forward.