Sergio Article

“I no like playing the bench. The bench is hard. I am wish Coach Nataniel to play me more than 4 minutes for a game.”

That’s about it …

I’ll leave the exact translation in Amlmart’s highly capable hands, but I’ll put the the gist of it here…and this interview is gonna ruffle some feathers at Blazers HQ. I think Surge is tired of being diplomatic.

So the interview starts out with the first guy asking Sergio how the year was in general, and he responds that all told it was positive. The second guy makes a joke about how Sergio is getting closer to the guaranteed pension that NBA players have after three years in the league (joking that that’s the most positive thing he could take away from this year) and then asks if Sergio is going to continue his career in Portland or not.

SR replies that the truth is, he doesn’t know—it’s been a strange, difficult year and significantly worse than his rookie year was. This wasn’t the evolution he’d hoped for at all, but the decision to stay or go isn’t in his hands.

The first guy says that this isn’t exactly an original question, but given that you know you’re only going to have exactly four minutes a game regardless of what you do, if you score fifteen points or turn the ball over seven times, have you arrived at some kind of understanding of that situation?

Sergio (my best effort to translate this literally from now on cuz this is where it starts getting juicy): well, no. It’s hard - it’s really hard - to know that you’re only going to play four minutes, and if you play super-well then you get to play in the second half, and if not then you’re going to have to wait seven games to play the same seven minutes…if that happens for ten games, fine. But for sixty, you end up saying…[trails off, need you Alfredo!] (The look of scorn on Surge’s face here at 1:26-1:30 is nice).

Second commentator: does Nate McMillan seem like a lost cause to you? A wall that you’ll crash against without any means of scaling it?

Sergio: well, after two years, and looking at the facts of two years, I don’t think that I’m the kind of player he likes or feels comfortable with. He says otherwise and the franchise says otherwise too, but the facts are the facts, and in two years I haven’t seen any kind of trust, or, or seen that I’m good for something…

The second commentator talks here for a little bit about how Sergio’s situation isn’t as dire as it seems—lots of teams would be willing to make a deal for Sergio next year, not only as a backup point guard that they’ll roll the dice on, but as an expiring contract for the next year. If it works out with that team, great, and if not, then Sergio can hit the FA market.

Sergio: No, it’s not complicated, but I don’t feel like I have any kind of power in making that decision. But we’ll wait and see how things shake out next year…

Second guy: ...but the man you have to convince is Pritchard. He’s the one who makes the decisions, or you have to convince somebody higher up, Paul Allen, McMillan?

Sergio: All of them. I think they make those decisions together. But I don’t have any control over the situation, and to just wait and see without any idea of how it could end up…it’s really difficult. It’s a very strange situation.

You make a lot of money, you get one of the best seats in the house at every game, and once in a while you get to play. Plus you’re young. I’d kill just to have THAT!

Learn how to put a little arc on your shot. I’ll wait for a confirmed translation, but my first reaction is to tell Sergio to shut his piehole and go practice. To me, Sergio is as valuable as McRoberts and nobody would let McBob bump his gums this much about minutes. Sergio it is only your fault if you cannot play defense or shoot.

The great evil McMillan …. ohhhhh give me a break.

cmon man you just dug a shallow grave…umm you earn your minutes in camp and during practice…..it must be killing him that were drooling over calderon and the fact that rudy is going to come over here and play from day one… I hope he is doing the right thing and in the gym right now..he needs to be in the states down in L.A. or N.Y. working out against real guards… not too much nba caliber talent in the canary islands i bet

It has to be frustrating when you are a free flowing, up tempo point guard like Sergio, and you are stuck on one of the slowest paced teams in the league. Now couple that with KP and company assuring him that he is their type of point guard, and the frustration builds even more. People within the organization are telling him we were going to run more this year and we want you to help us do that, and then watches Jack get the vast majority of the backup minutes while playing average at best. Sergio is hearing one thing and seeing the complete opposite, that has to be annoying.

Very little effort was made to utilize Sergio’s skills. He needs shooters on the floor(which we had plenty of), and he needs to be able to play more off his instincts than Nate’s playbook. Neither of these things happened when Sergio would finally get in the game. He always played with Jack, which is just a crappy combination in the backcourt. Jack is the exact opposite of what I would want at the sg next Sergio, yet that is what Sergio had to play with 97% of the time. It doesnt surprise me that he struggled considering some of the players that were put around him.

There is no doubt that Sergio needs to work on his defense and shooting. But KP knows those arent his strengths, yet continues to tell sergio that they like what he can bring to a game. Then Sergio shows up ready to run and Nate makes Sergio conform to him and play his style. That Seems like a recipe for disaster to me. Would anyone bring in a shooter and then tell him to play in the post?

I am starting to think Nate will never trust a point guard that plays loose like Sergio. I think we might just need to trade him and get a “Nate Mcmillian point guard” because he has not been very good at adjusting the teams playing style to fit the style of play that KP had in mind when he brought all the pieces in. Everyone said the blazers would run more this year, we didnt, and I think you can blame that on the coaching. The pieces to run were certainly there to increase the tempo. If Nate wants to be slow and boring, that fine with me, in fact I would prefer it. Thats how championships are won. I dont want this to seem like I am ripping on Nate as a coach. I just dont think he did a good job of adjusting his style to the players KP gave him. Thats ok though, 41-41 is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe KP needs to adjust and try harder to bring in guys that are perfect fits in Nate’s system. I just think its kind of crappy for Nate/KP to tell Sergio he fits in and all that jazz, and then display the polar opposite…

Why do we spend so much time and effort talking about a 3rd string point guard for a team that barely made it to %.500. Listen, Nate has doubled the Blazers win total in two years with a group of large children. I believe that is signs of a decent coach. I believe Nate wants to run…eventually and occasionally. If these guys can not play defense or a half-court offense, a ‘run a gun’ will never win a championship (see Phoenix, Denver, Golden State, etc.). “You have to learn how to walk before…, well you know (silly cliche, but it works here). That goes with Sergio too. If you can not become somewhat of a scoring threat or defend acceptably, it does not matter how many fancy passes you can make.

.............................which he is, as soon as out of control crazy dribbling clankmasters are regarded as superlative.

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He was the 27th pick in the freaking draft. He can’t shoot. He can’t play defense.

Forgive me, but I’m having trouble understanding all the hubbubb surrounding Sergio.

He also had a faux hawk. So that’s cool. Keeping Portland Weird. Then Oden had one, charles barkley mclovin is next.

Sergio has watched too many Streetball games. Someone
needs to explain the physics of ball movement, ie, the ball
moves faster via the pass than the dribble.
Principle # 2 – Defense is a skill. It comes from moving your
feet and having the right mindset. GRIND, GRIND AND GRIND !

Wonder how this fanpost survives 13 days in recommended section. GO, GO, GO….