nobody wants to re-up, surpass expectations, and then look like a jerk when they demand a new contract.

like that the Blazers are going to wreck opponents next year.

I’m with you, Ben.

Current Offer + Winning Team = Better Offer

Isn’t it really that simple? That’s the immediate interpretation I had when reading it on espn.

Why?

Like he is doing as a coach exactly what a player would do. Other than knowing how to say the right thing to get the fans on his side.. he is waiting it out for a new contract. Example: See Brand, Elton. Davis, Baron. Arenas, Gilbert.

Gilberts is most appropriate. He was going to resign, but he opted to wait for free agency rather than get an extension to make sure he got maximum dollar. Perhaps Nate was watching?

1. High risk, low reward – he is already regarded as one of the premier coaches in the NBA. That gives him leverage, and opportunities to continue coaching for a long time. If he stays and the team (loaded with all stars in their prime) flames out, who gets the blame? Nate.

2. He prefers to be the savior of bad situations rather than the cherry on top (like knickfan said above re: Parcells).

3. Coaching is a huge burnout. Nobody outside of Jerry Sloan stays in one spot forever. Plus, he’s making serious coin (hopefully he’s banked most of it), and I think his kids are almost grown up. So why not take a sabbatical year after this contract is up?

I think Nate is honestly a guy that wants prove himself by going above and beyond and that he won’t feel deserving until he brings this team back to the playoffs. Maybe he will go right after that like he did in Seattle, but maybe he is trying to set the example to his young and impressionable team who see that “The Sarge” doesn’t feel accomplished here yet, despite individual achievement. And tin response to the talk of him going soft and turning into Mo Cheeks because he turned down Bayless’ handshake in favor of a hug-No. He obviously wants to mentor Bayless and turn him into a true point. Speaking from a purely management perspective, you can’t tear someone a new one when they mess up and expect them to realize you are improving them in their own interest until you first show that person you care about them and their success. If he gets here and Nate starts off as the authority figure, he would have the same attitude Sergio does by next year.

The “best” coaches, the Larry Browns or Phil Jacksons, have $10 million bucks a year as their top salary. That’s like being a max 20+ million plus player or sumthin. Nate is already at 6 million… he doesn’t have a lot of room left to go.

I think this is a situation, like Dave says, where it’s a win-win for Nate, as long as he is confident in his ability to coach this team to a good record next season. I don’t see how he couldn’t feel that way, as he always has.

We do well, he gets more money, he stays on, everyone is happy.

I don’t want him to go, and I really like the job he has done. His extension was likely right about where he’s getting paid right now, and obviously Nate could get more from Paul Allen if we’re doing really well.

Was this that controversial though? We know KP and Friends liked Nate and the job he was doing, and an extension offer two years before you gotta do it is pretty nice. Nate also knows he’s here for something big, and on the advice of his agent or his own inclination, he knows he can get a piece of that money pie as well. Either way, even if the team stagnates somehow (and what IS stagnating, on a team with 3 rotation rookies?), he’ll at least make as much as he’s making now.

Nate got a lot of guff for whatever reason, but I have to believe most Blazer fans love him. How could they not?

Mortimer

I’m sure it wasn’t the worlds greatest offer. All Nate has done so far is to show he can develop young players. The Blazers probably didn’t make a huge offer/effort because of that.

If he continues to bring the team along and make it look like he can take them up another level (championship) in the future, I’m sure they will offer him a lot more. If not, he might get more from a team at the beginning of a rebuilding process, and we can bring in someone who has shown the ability to make a very good team into champions.

He sounds very confident, and at the same time so professional it’s almost unnerving.

I mean, really. Is there any way Nate could lose in this scenario? If they do poorly, it’s because they weren’t as good of prospects as expected, and (at worst case) Nate gets a big contract with another team. If they do well, it’s because he’s great and he deserves 10M+ per year. Not because the players were simply hungry to get better and young enough to play hard.

Not too shabby of a position for Nate to be in.

Of course, I’m the resident cynic who thinks Nate’s role has been romanticized in retrospect (a lot of people were unhappy with him during the season but now it’s a love-fest), and that he’s a good developmental coach but very questionable as a game strategy coach. KP disagrees with me, so I’ll trust his judgment, even in disagreement.

I have to start out by saying the obvious…everything I say here is speculation. Here are some observations about Nate (and the front office) that I think all of us should consider.

1. Nate has developed the reputation for doing things on his terms. Zach Randolph tried to jokingly mock him about this by calling him “Sarge”

2. Nate gets frustrated when people question his decisions. You can see it and hear it when he is asked questions about playing Joel in the 4th quarter, playing Jarrett Jack so much more than Sergio, etc. Now, most of us are the same way, but Nate has to deal with people questioning his coaching decisions on a constant basis. That has to wear on you after a while.

3. Based on what we’ve seen, Nate is more of a slow it down and call out offensive sets type of coach. There is a reason we’ve been last in the league in fast break points. The main reason is that our perimeter defense by our point guards has been atrocious, so perhaps that has to do with personnel. Anyways, there is also reason to believe that his basketball philosophy doesn’t necessarily match up with Kevin Pritchard’s. Kevin Pritchard has gone out and gotten young guys that could really thrive in more of an uptempo system. Other than the preseason, we have not seen that.

4. Nate has openly said he wants more veterans, and to this point hasn’t gotten them. I think that would be nice, but I don’t think there is anyone we can’t live without, who is worth giving up our young talent for (at this point anyway…the cake is still baking). I think Nate struggles with his patience a bit, because he is competitive and wants to win now.

I do think there is more than what meets the eye concerning this whole extension business, but I will go on record and suggest that I think Blazer fans are in a better spot because he turned down the extension.

What often seems to be lost in the conversation is this; In the same way we are going through a process of developing our players, the truth is, Nate is still developing as a coach. He hasn’t arrived yet in terms of being a can’t miss coaching prospect. He had one good year in Seattle, and he is yet to get us to the playoffs. To his credit, things are definitely going in the right direction. As much as I like Nate, there is a fair amount of stuff that I dislike about how he runs things. I’m not completely convinced yet that Nate McMillan is a flexible enough of a coach to get the most out of his players. I feel he has failed to utilize Martell Webster the proper way. I feel he was completely wrong to leave Joel Przybilla out of the forth quarters of games. I feel he was wrong to sit Blake the entire 4th quarter of games in favor of Mr. Turnover Jarrett Jack. So Nate has not arrived. He is a decent coach, who I think has been overrated from time to time.

In all fairness, a coach is limited by the players he has to work with. An example is LMA, who finally figured out he can be dangerous down low, instead of sitting on the perimeter all night. How much better could we have been in the 1st 1-2 months of the season had he asserted himself down on the post? How much better could we have been if Martell had played more intense defense earlier in the season?

I see the turning down of this extension as something that consistantly fits with Nate’s behavior. He wants to do things on his terms. If he waits a few years to get his extension, he will definitely get paid more. Salaries continue to go up as time passes by. If he feels like he has lost his passion for coaching, or lost the focus of his players, he has left himself some outs to simply walk away. Nate seems to be a spirtual man who is content with what he has. He is a multi-multi millionare who has spent 30+ years of his life in basketball. He does not strike me as being someone who likes to be handcuffed. He reminds me of what Mike Holmgren has done the past few years.

And I could be wrong. It might just be that he is leaving himself an opportunity for when the Indiana coaching job comes open. Then he would be free to pursue his mancrush, Jarrett “Hot-Buns” Jack.

Only time will tell.

seems to me Jason Quick may have brought this up out of left field, and Nate bit
it would seem now is not the time to be thinking about this, he’s thinking about getting ready
for the season, and the olympics, revenge for the “blazers drafted D.J. Augustin” pritchslap?

Coaches don’t have to worry about blowing out a knee, so they don’t have the same motivations to get an extension as the players. Granted I don’t normally pay much attention to stuff like this but it seems unusual to have a huge controversy over whether an extension should be signed for an NBA coach who has two years left on a five year deal.

but nate has made a comment before about being unsure if he’ll be coaching the blazers in the future.

Also, there has been some clashing over what KP tells sergio and what Nate tells sergio and that could be an issue if there’s two different sets of messaging going on in the organization. I know, on a personal level, that I don’t tolerate that very well and it would be a reason that I would quit a job no matter how cool it is. It’s important for management to be on the same page.

It may also be a response to “we need to move ahead and if we draft people that we need to wait on, then we’re not winning and that’s a problem.”

I do think there is an issue and I don’t think it’s all about leverage and money. After all, Nate DID leave seattle.

I think Nate should re sign. He has also been a big part of turning the Blazers around. This past season, left me with signs the Blazers are an emerging team. Seattle’s loss was Portland’s gain. I hope Portland doesn’t lose him. The Sonics last good season was his last as their coach. Sure he hasn’t led a team far into the playoffs, but I think a foundation is there for great things in Portland and I consider him part of it. I was shocked he didn’t get coach of the year after leading the Blazers to a surprise season. Again, as I said he is part of a foundation for great things in Portland and the better move I think is to re sign him.