but I do know that Brian T. Smith needs to cool it on the one sentence paragraphs.

Should be required reading for this entire community.

/s

wE ArE FanS!!!! what the heck!?

Meanwhile…. John Canzano eats puppies, and hates orphans. But he loves America, damnit!

Things people wanted to see, and Nate obliged:

Ditching the 3 guard lineup
Cunningham over Howard
Less Blake, more Rudy and Miller
Finding a way to get Bayless into the rotation, even in a very small role
Finding more minutes for Webster
Ditching the foul per quarter thing for Oden
Feeding the ball into Oden more

Really, the only thing that people have consistently whined about that hasn’t happened yet, is starting Andre Miller, maybe we aren’t as dumb as Mr. Smith seems to think we are…

And realizing that sometimes the hardest thing about teaching the game to young pro athletes is grasping the contradiction that lies at the heart of the job.

“It’s hard to teach guys that are already on the professional level, that are already that good,” Miller said. “And then they’re young — a lot of them deal with a lot of egos and stuff like that. He’s showed that he can teach at this level and still allow guys to play. And that’s pretty hard to do in this league.”

As I read the article, I thought of Dwight Jaynes. If BT Smith has been reading Dwight’s blog for 6+ months (or watching Talkin’ Ball) I could see where he’s come to some of these conclusions, because Jaynes will never give Nate any slack. No matter what decision McMillian makes, there will always be a better “answer” eminating from the deck of the house boat.

Now, perhaps Smith frequents Blazersedge and reads the fans “vitriol” re: Nate, especially in the game threads? Or maybe he reads the O-live chat pages? Who knows, but it really doesn’t matter, because fans have been questioning the strategies of coaches and the front office for as long as there has been organized sports— professional or amateur. The difference nowadays is that there’s internet and talk radio and it’s easier to get your “opinion out there” to thousands of readers, instead of just Joe and Sam at the water cooler. For any columnist to think he can stem the tide of “arm-chair” coaches and GMs spouting their “takes” through the mass media is comical, and certainly not informative or entertaining reading.

It’s hard to feel sorry for coaches and players who’s jobs are so scrutinized…after all, they’re living the American dream and being well-compensated for playing a kid’s game and earning indecent amounts of money. I think McMillian has it pretty easy in this town, actually, and he should be grateful that the Portland job became available at just the time when things were turning sour, up in Seattle. He could be coaching anywhere, right now—in Memphis, Minnesota or maybe even Phoenix, if he was lucky. His team’s home games could be in front of apathetic fans in half-filled arenas. So, if the only “price” he has to pay for the intense fan atmosphere at the Rose Garden is that he has to hear about a few fans or columnists second-guessing his lineups and rotations (2nd hand, since I doubt he goes looking for “our” input) then he’s a lucky man, indeed. He could be coaching in Philly, or New York, where the media is even less-pandering and the fans are less-forgiving of setbacks.

That Smith would to hold to the opinion that to believe that there should a coaching change and to express that view publically would require the anonimity of the internet.

Does Nate have a posse that goes around beating people up that I don’t know about?

what would you expect a fan to say?

“I believe the time has come to allow Nate Mcmillian the freedom to pursue new and exciting financial opportunities !” ?

Everyone wants to be a real GM , not a real President of Basketball Operations.

I thought he was the beat writer. This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this from him and I don’t like it. I wouldn’t even if I did agree with it. Ugh

I guess what he says is technically accurate, but I wonder why so much energy covering (and skewering) fans when his job is to cover the team. Plus he has a disturbing tendency to overstate and stereotype when he does these columns. Add to that…he’s being selective. What about the new-age media policy of “If it bleeds, it leads”? What about writers and people who cover the team blurring the line between reporting and celebrity, getting paid in fields where you get more famous for being more dramatic and/or controversial? Where are those columns?

—Dave