Nate McMillan: Mediocre Coach or Evil Genius?

by ExpatDan on Nov 21, 2009 9:13 AM PST

The game against Golden State was an absolute disaster. Many would say that most, if not all of the blame, lies with the coach. Bad substitutions, bad strategy, inflexibilty. Is Nate a mediocre coach, only capable of rebuilding a young team that was at the bottom of the league into a strong, 500+ team rather than a coach that can realize our team's potential and bting them to the NBA finals? Or is he an evil genius with a plan to make things all work out by the end of the season?

I'll be the devil's advocate here (because I don't think that Nate has the talent to bring us to the NBA finals) and say that he is an evil genius. Roy made it clear that he prefered playing with Blake rather than Miller. Miller is obviously the superior player but maybe Nate was worried about messing with Roy's game/psyche. Nate looks at the schedule and realizes that he can go for the unorthodox 3 guard line up, thus allowing both Miller and Blake to start with Roy. Nate must know that Blake can not keep up with this line up so he bides his time, waiting for the right moment, all the while, molly coddling Roy by letting Blake start with him (i'd like at least one rec for using the term molly coddling). The 3 guard line up works well through the light schedule. Nate knows it will, the Blazers have so much talent. Everyone seems happy. Nate then announces to the WORLD that Oden only gets one foul per quarter and runs with that for a few games. All the while, Blake is stinking it up (most games) and Nate is still biding his time.

Now we play Golden State. Great first quarter. Nate pulls LMA after 2 fouls (precedent set with Oden a few games earlier) even though fouling out has never been a liabilty for LaMarcus. He pulls Oden after 8 minutes even though he is absolutely on fire and has zero fouls. Nate keeps Oden out long enough to pull him out of his stride, perfect for picking up a couple of cheap fouls, which happens when he goes back in after an ETERNITY. Now both Oden and LMA are out of the game, which absolutely cripples us. Blake having a poor game plays perfectly into Nates plan. He inserts Howard for extended minutes just for a bit of icing on the cake and keeps Bayless out even though some of the GS starters are in foul trouble by the second half and, as we all know, they are very short handed. Nate knows that Bayless's kamikazi style will get some GS players ejected and since Miller AND Blake are playing badly, one would assume he would have used Bayless more but that would have disrupted Nate's master plan- Nate needs a reason to shake up the starting line up before the schedule gets tough and he doesn't want Roy to pout. We lose badly to GS. Now Nate has the reason he needs to shake things up. Fernandez or Webster to start instead of Blake. Roy will finally accept it after what happened in GS.

Now we have a starting line up that can challenge for the division, conference or maybe even the NBA title. And Roy can't complain. Nate is an evil genius!

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email this to nate

i doubt he is thinking this far ahead, do you have his email? send this to him.

by shallwemaui on Nov 21, 2009 9:29 AM PST reply actions

I dunno...

the first trip to the bench for oden made sense, he was pretty winded, or he looked it when andre was barkin in his ear on the bench (I wonder what he was saying), but greg was breathing pretty hard, but by the time the comercial was over he looked dry and breathing through his nose again… so I dunno… I don’t think he needed to be sat as long as he was the first little trip, but after the fouls, I like the 1 foul 1 quarter for the first half , but come the second, I think we should play him until he fouls out.

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out, burns out farms, and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Nov 21, 2009 9:33 AM PST reply actions

Thans faith

I appreciate the feedback! As my name suggests, I live overseas although I was raided in Portland. Used to watch Sidney Wicks cruise around in his 1973 911 RS! Larry Steele draining shots from halfcourt at his BB camp. Living overseas means I usually have to follow the game by sitting at my computer at 3 or 4 am following a gamecast/play-by-play… it absolutely sucks and doesn’t score any points with the wife! So I couldn’t see Oden panting on the bench.. but I say, let him pant. It’s early in the season. Dude needs to get used to the grind!

by ExpatDan on Nov 21, 2009 9:54 AM PST up reply actions

Get International League Pass Broadband

and you can watch the games for 48 hours whenever you want.

"Woulda, Coulda, Mighta and Shoulda – the Four Horsemen of the Procrastocalypse" - Red-5

by jscot on Nov 21, 2009 12:54 PM PST up reply actions

Moving back to Seattle in 2 days!

Can’t wait to watch the games again! And I definately will be getting the League Pass… I assume I will get the games if I live in Seattle???

by ExpatDan on Nov 21, 2009 1:14 PM PST up reply actions

Careful, I think it depends on where you live

Some of the Seattle guys are getting blacked out. Find out before you pay.

"Woulda, Coulda, Mighta and Shoulda – the Four Horsemen of the Procrastocalypse" - Red-5

by jscot on Nov 21, 2009 1:17 PM PST up reply actions

Thanks for the heads-up.

After being blacked out since 97, being overseas, I sure hope I’m not blacked out in Seattle! Only place that had NBA games was Turkey which was awesome… saw about 10 Blazer games last year.

by ExpatDan on Nov 21, 2009 1:23 PM PST up reply actions

raided... and raised!

by ExpatDan on Nov 21, 2009 9:55 AM PST reply actions

That was a fun read

I do agree with the the whole, 3 guard-lineup-during-an-easy-stretch-to-ease-Blake-out, theory. I think most of us do?

Witty Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game

by iDea on Nov 21, 2009 10:37 AM PST reply actions

Naw, but I do think it's CONCEIVABLE that Nate's knee-jerk pulling of GO with 2 fouls is wise

That is, Nate might be determined enough to break GO of the quick-fouling habit that he’s willing to absorb a few ugly losses in the process.

Then again, maybe Nate is just the stubborn, inflexible guy most BE denizens view him as.

I have NO doubt that Nate’s pulling both LMA & GO with 2 fouls last night cost the Blazers that game. When your team is dominating on the road—in a building in which they’ve lost 8 straight games—you don’t disturb that momentum for ANYTHING. Because once the home team gets rolling, the fans and refs will get on board and there will be no stopping Big Mo.

Surely Nate HAS to know that, right? He’s been in the league too long not to.

"We don't back down to nobody." --Joel Przybilla

by hurryup09 on Nov 21, 2009 10:55 AM PST reply actions

let me point to exibit A (last night)

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out, burns out farms, and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Nov 21, 2009 11:09 AM PST up reply actions

I think Nate is willing to lose some games

to teach Greg not to foul.

I support that.

LMA? Makes no sense to me. We were drawing fouls inside, they were in big trouble. Mikki was hopeless, and didn’t even come back in, and LMA would have likely drawn 2-3 more fouls on their big men if we’re posting him up. Three fouls? Sure, I’d take him out then.

We had them on the run because we had an inside/outside game going, and they were fouling and giving up easy baskets. And we took out both of our interior offensive threats, and they had two much quickness on our perimeter players for us to be able to penetrate and draw fouls that way.

And since we never run any plays that generate easy opportunities to penetrate (like an actual pick and roll, for instance, where we actually hit the man rolling to the hoop), we can’t penetrate if faced with a quicker lineup.

I don’t understand not bringing LaMarcus back when Greg went out with his second. Perhaps Nate had a reason. But if it is simply a 2 foul rule, it’s time for someone to tell him to forget that rule with LaMarcus.

"Woulda, Coulda, Mighta and Shoulda – the Four Horsemen of the Procrastocalypse" - Red-5

by jscot on Nov 21, 2009 1:01 PM PST up reply actions

Mediocre Coach for sure

This game did not make me panic. It does however hilight some of the things that make me not enamored with Nate. I used to think he might be an evil genius with a plan, waiting patiently for everything to unfold, until last years playoffs.

-The Blazers had tons of success running the fast break for 25 games at the end of the season. Nate scraps it as soon as we start the playoffs. The other bad side to this is that the Blazers had the youngest team in the league, also very athletic. The guy waits 65 games to try and run with these guys.
-Everyone in the league had success fronting Yao as opposed to gaurding him straight up. Yao torched us and they won the first two games. Decided he’ll go ahead and front Yao after the series is out of hand.
-When asked if he would play Pryzbilla and Oden together to help with rebounding whoas and paint penetration, he said, that they “hadn’t got to it yet”. This was multiple multiple games into the series. Mind you, he only used this combination for under 10 minutes total in the regular season. Had no idea if it would or could work, not had the foresigh tto test it out over extended periods of time.

Nate is slow block and slow to punch. It will become more and more apparent over time.

Definitely not an evil genius.

Land Rondo.

"He needs to realize that he can't stop every shot, especially from a smaller and offensively potent player. Get your hands up, make him shoot it over you, but let him shoot every once in a while. They score a little but you stay in the game a lot. And when you stay in the game...smashy smashy!" Dave on Greg Oden

by loyal_blazer on Nov 21, 2009 11:31 AM PST reply actions

lol

Yeah, this is a little far fetched but I know it was not that serious to begin with. I laughed after reading it though so good post. That last line was especially funny. :P

by Gforcepuma on Nov 21, 2009 2:22 PM PST reply actions