Courtside Notes 11/25

courtesy of Discovery 69

Trail Blazers Courtside
Tuesday, 11/25/08
Hosts: Brian Wheeler, Mike Rice, Mike Barrett

Summary
- Dwight Jaynes – Nate said Oden on schedule with his defense and ahead of schedule with his offense
- Nate McMillan – LaMarcus needs to relax, stop thinking, worrying about things, just react more, let the game come to him.
- Martell Webster – He has changed, he is more about helping them win whether that is starting or coming off the bench.
- Ian Thomsen – Doesn’t think the Blazers are targeting a free agent but a star player with a contract that a team doesn’t want.
- Confucius – Western playoffs teams - LA Lakers, Houston, New Orleans, Utah, San Antonio, Denver, Portland & Dallas
- Nicolas Batum plays a lot like Bruce Bowen, but is a better shooter. Blazers very high on Batum and still looking to play him.
- Greg Oden is not having any fun because of all the pressure on him
- Too much expectations by fans, people forget last year the Blazers were 5-10 compared to 9-6 now.
- Rotation – Martell will backup Batum, Outlaw will slide over to backup PF and Frye will probably be the odd man out.
- Trade – Pritchard getting a lot of calls for Raef’s contract, but Pritchard looking to make sure that star player is a good fit.


Dwight Jaynes on 95.5FM on 11/26
- Jones soda is the new official soda for the Blazers.
Blazers team
- Exceeded expectations from everybody in the media on their win-loss record so far.
- This upcoming road trip will be brutal and if they can come out 2-3 or 3-2 the second half of the season is very favorable for the Blazers.
- He feels the Blazers will do well after the road trip and will make the playoffs.
Greg Oden
- He was surprised when talking with Nate, that Nate feels Greg is on schedule with his defense, but is ahead of schedule of getting down the offense.
- Nate said that Greg may have just as big of impact on the Blazers offense as he has on the defense this year which is ahead of schedule.
Ducks vs. Beavers/u]
- He picks the Ducks because of the extra week Ducks have to prep and injuries to OSU Quizz Rodgers.

[u]Nate McMillan – interview
- (MB) (Brandon Roy summed it up best by saying we don’t want to say we aren’t happy with the win, but we aren’t happy with how we played.) Nate says well we aren’t giving it back.
- We know we got to play better. It took us four quarters to get it done, but we got the win.
Greg Oden
- It’s still a process with Greg. This will be a process for Greg throughout the year with him. With his second time starting and it was a strange match-up for Greg against the Kings. Both Miller and Hawes are perimeter centers that can shoot from the outside. Greg is used to centers posting up and banging inside. The Kings did a good job of spreading the floor and forcing Greg to come out more than he is normally used too.
- Nate tells Greg the more time he spends out on the court the more he will get better.
- (MR)(Rice thinks the Kings was one of the worst teams for Greg as the Kings run that Princeton offense where they have the center out on the perimeter either out to the corners or at the top of high post, which made it hard for Greg to defend against Miller and Hawes. Greg will probably do better against other teams that have more conventional centers where they post-up). Nate said the Kings allow their centers to shoot the three pointers and Miller and Hawes were doing well on the outside and they gave the Blazers some trouble with the last game in Sacramento.
- Joel did a better job on the pick and roll offense and decided to go with Joel late in the 4th.
LaMarcus Aldridge
- (BW)(Brian thought the game in Sacramento in the second half where LaMarcus went 6 for 6 would be an end to LaMarcus shooting slump, but that is not the case. What do you say to LaMarcus?)
- Nate took both Greg and LaMarcus into the film room and showed what they are doing and not doing well in their shooting and handling the double teams.
- He told LaMarcus to relax, stop thinking so much, allow the game to come to him. He needs to stop thinking so much about all the different schemes that teams will be doing to him. He just needs to react.
- LaMarcus needs to calm down, take a deep breath, get into the gym, shoot and get into a rhythm. He needs to relax, get excited about playing in the game and establish a rhythm with his shooting.

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Courtside Notes from 11/25