Feb
10
Roy & Camby Comeback Practice
By Mike Rice Posted in: amarestodamire, AndreMiller, andrewbynum, blakegriffin, BrandonRoy, granthill, GregOden, jasonkidd, LukeBabbitt, MarcusCamby, NateMcMillan, NicolasBatum, PattyMills, RudyFernandez, WesleyMatthews, zachrandolph
Wednesday's practice for the Blazers was most interesting – both Brandon Roy and Marcus Camby came back to practice. They had a 30 minute limit but did take part in all the physical full court and half court activities. In fact, Marcus Camby looked like he had not missed a minute of games or practices. He was rebounding, passing out of the high post and moving around like he did before he was injured.
Brandon Roy did not look tentative at all. In one drill where Nate was working on dribble penetration and kicking it out to open shooters, Brandon did the best job of getting around his man and finding the open shooter. He was pushing off on both legs without any discomfort at all. He was really enjoying being back and looked like he could have gone the whole practice.
After practice Roy would not put a time line on his return but you could tell he will try to talk Nate into an early return. Nate said he would evaluate the Roy and Camby after the 2nd practice, Thursday with the two players, Jay Jensen, and the doctors. After watching the practice you could tell everyone was excited to have their veterans back. You could not tell from the match ups who might lose playing time but you would have to think Rudy will be playing some back-up point guard while Brandon will be coming off the bench at the 2 and 3 and maybe some point guard work.
Until we see about three games of Roy, there is no way to measure how Nate will use his line up, Nate knows the seven man rotation he was using to beat San Antonio and the Bulls would be difficult to use over an extended period of time.
Another little side line to the practice Wednesday was the three-on-three three-point contest. The sides were Andre Miller, Luke Babbitt and Wesley Matthews against Nic Batum, Patty Mills, and Rudy Fernandez. They played 12 games and Andre Miller kept yelling out it was Team USA against the rest of the World. You might think this would be a one-sided contest but you would be wrong. Team USA with Dre yelling "USA, USA"
(you can hear it in the background of the Nate video) won 10 games. Team World with Rudy, Nic, and Patty Cakes won two. You would have thought someone stole their per diem for the next trip the way they went to the locker room.
If you wonder about Brandon Roy's comeback and Greg Oden's return, (by the way he looks great lifting weights while the team worked out).
Here are a few players that had the same operations as Brandon and Greg and I will let you see the results. Grant Hill has changed his game but still helps Phoenix win. Amare Stoudemire and Blake Griffin both had knee injuries that Oden has and they have lost nothing in their ride to be All-Stars this year. Zack Randolph was never a great athlete to begin with but the micro on his knee did nothing to stop him from 20 points and 10 rebounds the next three years. Other names – Jason Kidd, Djuan Blair, Tracy McGrady, Kenyon Martin, Andrew Bogut, Andew Bynum, Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, Steve Nash to mention a few all had the support of their fans to help make the comeback possible. I hope Blazer fans give Brandon and Greg that same support. It seems both of them have, according to some fans, planned this injury thing in some kind of master plot to sit out part of the season. But the more I think about it -- those fans are not really Blazer fans -- because they wear purple and gold to most games.