| 30 April 2010
Rudy Fernandez and the rest of the team will undergo exit interviews with the coaching staff and management Friday afternoon.
It’s par for the course after the last game of the season – or postseason in Portland’s case.
For each player, the discussion will focus more on the past and somewhat on the future. But after a season where Fernandez struggled mightily- both before and after his back surgery in early December - and was missing in action during much of the postseason, some are wondering what the future truly holds for Rudy in Portland.
It’s no secret he wants a more prominent role in the team, and the minutes to go with that role. Yet chances are he’ll find neither playing behind Brandon Roy.
With that, it’s time to talk big picture.
“We’re going to talk,” Fernandez said after Portland got knocked out of the Playoffs by Phoenix.
“We’re going to talk with Coach (Nate McMillan) and Kevin (Pritchard) and talk about the regular season and then I’ll get ready for the World.”
The “World” for Rudy, is the 2010 World Championship in Turkey which has Spain scheduled to face France on August 28. That appears to be his main concern right now – not whether he envisions coming back to Portland where both his minutes and stats dropped during his second season. By now, that sounds like old talk. Then again, it is chatter we’re bound to hear this offseason and certainly around the draft in June as Portland begins planning ahead for next year by evaluating moveable assets.
Until then, Rudy is all about the Spanish National Team.
“My plan is to head back to Spain and prepare for next year and work for the National Team,” Rudy continued, saying he’ll pick up a basketball in another week to prepare himself.
“I want to work hard this summer and take care of my body and my back. I’d like to get bigger. I’ll work a lot this summer to get better.”
Rudy said McMillan and Pritchard both addressed the team after the tough loss to the Suns – a team that simple outworked and outshot Portland throughout the series.
For all we know, Jason Richardson just hit another three pointer.
“This was a tough year for us,” Rudy said. “That’s no excuse. They beat us.”
Next to his 16 points on Thursday night in Game 6, Fernandez’s second-best game came in Game 3 when he finished with 12 points in the Portland loss. The other four games can be chalked up to a complete mystery, where in the end Rudy went 12-27 from the field, 11-23 from beyond the arc and averaged a paltry 6.8 points per game.
How fitting.
Rudy’s fate in Portland is equally as mysterious.
photo: trailblazerscourtside
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