Like I said, it’s an adjustment that I’m dealing with. And I haven’t made a big fuss about it. I’m not going to say, just because things aren’t going well I don’t want to be here. I’ve been able to adjust to a lot of things besides basketball in life. So, I’m not worried about that. Things will turn out for the best.

The Blazers are having problems but it’s nothing that this team can’t handle. Things will turn out for the best. Have some faith people, they’ll figure it out.

there’s no point in getting into a fuss or getting worked up because the coach is always right.

especially in the “because the coach is always right” part. It seemed odd Miller getting benched after such a brief run in Utah. I seriously doubt Miller has put this behind him. He feels he should start and he may be right. Portland has got to work this out, because bad chemistry seems to be arising and after the lackadaisical effort against Utah, if that keeps up things are going to get worse before they straighten course. I think the “coach is always right” comment was a jab at Nate’s inflexibility.

Miller says he’s fine but I think he just wants to keep up his iron man image.

Come April, none of us will worry bout any of this, looking back and laughing at the situation that we thought was a big deal.

“Well, a lot of the trouble, what we’ve dealt with, is just execution both ways; defense and offense. And I don’t think that’s trouble, it’s three guys and it just doesn’t happen all of a sudden. Guys who are used to going, going, going, doesn’t all of a sudden happen, where now not touching it or playing without it and I’m comfortable with that.”

Who said what about whom and what did he really mean and what did he not say and who did he sit next to and what face did he make and…

the team is allowing 106.1 pts per game when he doesnt start and 94.7 pts allowed when he does. The team is getting into big holes because Dre is starting and the offense works best with Dre and Oden and Rudy but everytime Dre goes in Oden goes out.

It’s not as simple as starting Andre and bringing Blake off the bench.

If you start Andre, there is simply no role for Blake at all. So in order to start Andre, Nate has to decide if Bayless is good enough for backup minutes. When Nate thinks he is, then Andre will start.

The coaching staff says, ‘Either play early or play late.’ So, my thing is, being a point guard and observing in this league, the teams that win are the teams that get paint points, teams that get to the free throw line, and teams that force turnovers and get fast-break points.

The teams that have won with the methodicalness are teams that have been together for maybe 5-6 years. The San Antonio, the Detroit — they played that half-court basketball and mixed it with paint points and forcing turnovers. Not that it wasn’t methodical, but they played well off that; they knew how to mix it together. I think for us, we’ve just got to mix it together a little bit, I think the team will be all right.

He is making a very strong point without calling anyone out. He does sound like the real deal, a vet who’s seen it all and doesn’t make waves.

I agree with everything he says: Let Miller start to get the entire offense in rhythm. Trust him to change the tempo until EVERYONE is comfortable. Put the win column above your touches and stat line, even if that means changing the pace a little.

Nate is the coach and Roy is the star, but they brought Andre in for a reason and it’s about time they let him do his job.

Seems like Rudy could teach Roy a thing or 2 about team defense and playing the passing lanes

“Well, a lot of the trouble, what we’ve dealt with, is just execution both ways; defense and offense.

… yea uh, Nate, there is a difference between execution and effort. I wonder if these guys believe in you anymore. Didn’t look like anybody was really trying out there against Utah. Unless of course the game plan was to rely on the law of averages and sooner or later the Jazz would miss some uncontested shots.

I feel bad for the guy.. he should be the starter and if not. At least more minutes than Blake. Blake is a role player not a starting PG for a good team. START MILLER! At least try it!

After reading the whole interview, I definitely got a sense that Miller is burnt about his role, thats kinda obvious. But he is also smart enough to know that he should bide his time, keep his mouth shut, dont make any waves and his card will get called. Give Miller credit where credit is due, he is a fairly slick talker, he says all the right things, but also throws in little pieces that allude to his inner feelings. I heard good things and bad. I feel like he thinks we have a good team, very capable of making a deep run in the playoffs. He also thinks that it takes time to gel, which is reasonable. I do get the feeling that he and coach arent lovey dovey, I feel like Nates decisions have put a little distance or a wedge between them. A small wedge, but still a wedge can become even more than that if people and egos and pride allow it to. Its Allen Iversons biggest problem! I think eventually Miller will get his chance to run this team and Blake will accept his a role with the 2nd unit. Eventually….

to get the team to this point.

The current Blazers’ coaching job needs to include:

• Superstar coaching. Getting Brandon to his next level of play that includes a more versatile game and some smothering defense.
• Defining Roles for the role players. It currently looks like all the Blazers are auditioning for the top job of their strictly defined 1-2-3-4-5 positions. It’s the great slugfest at the 1 with Dre, Blake & JBay all pitted against each other! Great situation there. Only injuries have prevented the same situation at the 3. And Nate has no idea what to do with Rudy. At center, our once formidable Przybilla has been relegated to #2 Center (at least that’s clear) and his play has fallen off. So even when the staff has tried to define roles, they’ve failed to get production out of their role players.
• Running an offense that can get some easy baskets mixed in with the grind and is somewhat less predictable. Everyone knows with the Blazers, you’re going to get iso’s on perceived mis-matches and high pick and rolls. That’s pretty much it. You can take Roy out of his flow by doubling him, which will force a pass to a far less dangerous player.
• Transitioning a winning team into a championship contending level.

So who does that fall on? The three players? You?
bq. "It doesn’t fall on anybody. It’s just where we are and the development we’ve got to go through with the three of them playing on the floor at the same time."

REALLY? Many posts hae mentioned Nate’s lack of accountability when talking to the media. I had not payed much attention, and chose to focus on other areas of his coaching. But this quote has to be pretty illuminating for those in the “Nate doesn’t hold himself accountable” camp.

Anyone here read Slashdot? There’s a bit of jargon they use over there, “TFA” which, apologies to Dave, does include a controversial word. It’s usually used in this context:

“Did you read TFA?!?!?!?!”

Normally when BE links to outside content, I read the original articles first, as the admonition suggests. Today I didn’t, and it’s given me an impression that not a whole lot of you did either before commenting. Because after all of this “I can’t understand a gosh darn thing Nate is saying” I went back and actually read the whole article from Joe, and I don’t see the problem that anyone here is having.

Yes, Nate has some go to phrases, and he takes a couple shortcuts on syntax, but it’s not like this is new for anybody. You’ve been reading that kind of dialog for years. Ben’s quote above in isolation is a little confusing, sure. But raoulduke’s analysis above isn’t a product of linguistic genius, its an obvious distillation when you read the entire Joe Freeman piece. Nate also said:

"No. This was part of the meeting that we’ve had the last two years at my house. So it’s not …"

"No. This is what those meetings were about. I thought we would get to this last year and we didn’t because Greg got injured and ended up coming off the bench. And we talked about it this year, again, that’s what those meetings were about. This is not something that’s all of a sudden happened."

That was a pretty infamous JQuick article last year, Nate having dinner with our “Big Three” and talking to them about how they in particular were going to need to learn to play well together. What went un-covered by the “O” is that he reiterated this point with them again this season.

We also know from earlier this season that it was not part of the original plan for Greg to be involved in the offense so early. He was going to take it slow, focus on the defensive end, let the defensive end come over time. That’s not just good for Greg in terms of not demanding too much of him. It’s also good for Brandon and LMA, to give them time to adjust. Only it didn’t work out that way.

If you people want to blame a coach, blame Bill Bayno. Because he worked magic with Greg over the summer, and Greg has developed so rapidly on the court, in a time period where there were hardly intervening practices, and as a result Greg got out in front of of everybody’s expectations, players and coaches alike, and now they are scrambling to catch up.

This is, as has so often been mentioned about the Blazers, “a great problem to have.” Coach Nate recognizes this. Heck, go read the whole Miller Q&A as well. He is pointing out the exact same thing but he’s using an entirely different way of saying it.

But our response is to be smug grammar-flamers and roast the Coach because of his syntax? And to treat him like he’s a bumbling fool because we can’t be bothered to read TFA?

Not. Cool.