Players are in some aspects like moldable clay.
                                                                                                                                                                                                               .

There are limits to what you can do with them, but the results are highly dependent on the artist’s vision. In the case of the PTB our clay is drying out and cracking for lack of proper use.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 .

We obviously do not seem to know what to do with:
Andre Miller
Greg Oden
Brandon Roy
Travis Outlaw
Steve Blake
Rudy Fernandez

                                                                                                                                                                                                               .
To a lesser degree we seem to be confused about what to do with:
Martel Webster
Jerryd Bayless (some would include Jerryd above)
Joel Przybilla
Nic Batum
Lamarcus Aldridge

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 .
Players need to be molded with a vision, a goal, in mind. They need roles that fit them and in turn fit the team. I am not seeing the sort of near term vision that leads to quality finished pieces of artwork.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   .
And the sort of artistic vision that I am talking about should have been substantially in place from before the time our players were acquired. Are we blind now (McMillan)? Or have we been suffering from this blindness reaching back into our past (KP)? Someone is going to have to make a call on this situation here pretty soon, because it is hard to see us advancing very far in the playoffs with out advancing conceptually first.

There are very few coaches that would make this team better. That said, I wholeheartedly agree that he is doing a rotten job right now when it comes to handling rotations.

I literally had to change the channel when we had the small lineup in last night as the Hawks repeatedly got layups and rebounds. What the hell was he thinking?

And his handling of Oden has been horrible.

The only person I’m more disappointed in than Nate right now? Brandon Roy. The guy has been part of the problem so far. I don’t know if he’s just going through tough times off the court or what, but all the way back to his contract talks in the media, he’s been sullen and it’s showing on the court and in how he leads

I’ll agree that there is an issue. I saw greg set a screen and blake run right by him and not use the screen. I saw instants of blown plays like this constantly. Frankly I don’t get it. Even I (not a great basketball player by any means) know to use a screen when it presents itself instead of bypassing it and running into the guy who was supposed to be screened. My point is that players who should know better appear to NOT know better. It’s a fundamental team even if you’re all playing a pick-up game. I blame the players for that, not the coach.

Another issue is the substitution. Not playing greg? All those switches in the end game?

I know the players may not be playing the way you want, but that many changes is NOT good. The combinations seem to fail horribly. the only combo I’ve liked is the starters. I love Webster even if he is still off out there. I love Aldridge. Greg looks horrible and great at the same time, which I can definitely live with. Roy… I don’t feel him right now.

If I had the time I’d want to list out who was playing and what the unit +/- was for each line-up change for the past four games. If someone else has the time, that would be wonderful.

Defensively… It felt like Atlanta was a hot knife through our defensive butter at times. The blazers might as well just have set themselves down on the bench and offered up girl scout cookies as atlanta went in for the dunk.

There’s a need to adjust, and then there’s just plain out embarrassment. That blazer team on the floor was horrible. I was admiring the plays of Atlanta and NOT the blazers.

I had a time period last year where I walked away from the blazers for a bit because I couldn’t handle them making so many mistakes that were just bone headed. I suspect this will be happening again.

The season is young. I’ve been saying “10 games” to get these kinks out, but last night didn’t look like a kink, unless you’re into S&M. It looked like a train wreck full of tnt next to a boy scouts campfire. it felt like the blazers managed to stay close DESPITE what they were doing. Some lucky and timely threes meant that the game was a 20 point loss.

Is Nate our coach? i don’t know. I’ve defended him. I’ve stated that he needs to have the tools to do his job and not a plastic fork to dig a hole. He has some tools that he just needs to sharpen and instead of digging a hole it looks like he’s banging them against a boulder.

Here’s hoping things get better.

But this season has seemed so disorganized, even confused. Brandon said yesterday, he was looking to build on last season, but now we seem to be starting over. A lot of us were looking to build on the strong finish to last season. It is like I suddenly started questioning the effectiveness of the coaching. I have posted little about it, but i am really impressed with the considerable chorus of dissatisfaction of many knowledgeable fans on the Blazers coaching. My, and seemingly our, focus has previously been on getting the right players together for our great team. Yet, when we have arguably the best roster since Sabonis, we falter. It is like the spotlight has dramatically shifted from the players to the coach, and what is being exposed is not pretty. The highlighted deficiencies are not new, they are just more starkly exposed. Nate did well getting us to the playoffs. We had great improvements under him. And that argues for some patience with him. But I am not feeling patient. So many are making persuasive critiques of the coaching. It is like the dam burst.
At the same time, to my mind, the realization of coaching deficiency has an exciting component – this is something a lot easier to change than, say, a “franchise player”. The coach has a lot of power and effect on the teams performance. I have nothing personal against Nate, and he has some time to prove us wrong (I just hope not too much). If he goes, he will go a rich and famous coach, who will probably work elsewhere if he wants. He’ll be ok. This is not about him, it is about the team. What if the “right” coach can take the team to the next level, make the right calls. I don’t know exactly who is available that could be “the one”. It does us no good at all to make a coaching change that is not a significant improvement for the team. But I am finding is much more interesting to consider changing coaches rather than making changes to our roster.

He needs to make this year work though. Especially since a lot of these chemistry problems fall squarely on his doorstep. 45 wins and there are going to be questions.