should be on the second unit and Blake should continue to start. Miller and Roy should also play together for SOME stretches but not as starters together. It completely takes Roys impact off the game. This season is just starting out as a big mess. Should have never signed Miller in the first place.

For Oden to be effective, he needs Miller feeding him the ball. Greg is now the starting center, so Andre needed to be in the starting lineup as well

If you accept this premise, then the only question remains "who is the 5th starter alongside Miller, Roy, LMA and Oden? If you’re a conventional NBA thinker (like me) you look at those 4 players and slot a SF (like Webster) in there as the 5th starter. RAWMO is a better balanced defensive lineup, and the offense shouldn’t suffer much, either

But there are other factors that require Blake to be in the starting 5, at least temporarily. First of all, the Blazer coaching philosophy doesn’t necessarily view their wing players in traditional SG = 2, SF = 3 roles. They’re more fluid, and interchangeable. To Nate’s way of thinking, Roy can guard some threes, so a “3 guard lineup” is acceptable. Blake and Miller can guard some SGs, so they aren’t necessarily “just” PGs, and so on. This makes for a lot of head-scratching among the fanbase, but if you understand that Nate will mix and match players outside of their “traditional” positions, his lineups might start to make more sense, even if you don’t agree with them, all of the time.

A second factor that can’t be understated is Roy’s comfort level with Blake, he doesn’t have the same confidence in Rudy, or Martell. (Brandon would probably feel even more “comfortable” playing in-between Blake and Batum, but Nic is out) To take Steve away would be like releasing Brandon from his moorings, so to speak. Blake provides a “touchstone” for Roy and LMA, Steve is their “glue” guy. They know where he’ll be in the offense, and he knows their tendencies, as well. That kind of non-verbal “tribal knowledge” doesn’t come overnight, it takes dozens of games (and pressure situations faced and obstacles overcome) to develop this synergy. Miller and Roy will get there, and Nate is probably hoping that they’ll get there sooner (and smoother) if Andre is starting and Blake is also available to ease the transition.

I expect the small lineup to be temporary. NBA scouts will dissect it’s weaknesses, and head coaches will quickly exploit it. But the point isn’t how long Miller, Blake and Roy start games together, it’s how much better Andre makes Greg. Brandon has to know this is the goal, and that Oden’s consistent contribution on offense is necessary for Portland to make the next step towards winning a playoff series. It simply wasn’t going to happen if Oden was starting and Miller was coming in off the bench…there just aren’t enough minutes in an NBA game to get Greg and Andre together, otherwise—and it’s even harder to match these two players up when Oden picks up fouls and is out of the game when it’s time to “sub” Miller in

So enjoy it, as much as you can. If you think Blake should be trade bait and Rudy/Martell should be playing more, I can understand your angst. I think Outlaw should be trade bait and DeJuan Blair should’ve been drafted…but we don’t always get what we want, do we?

make greg better? gregs problems are all his own. His points have come from backing people down and then not having the ball stripped or fumbling it away like he normally did/does.

Sure, many of Greg’s problems are his own, but if he doesn’t get the ball in scoring position, he’ll never learn. I think we’ve seen improvement in his game already this season, but most blazers not named Miller don’t look to feed Greg enough, either because they don’t trust him, or they don’t like the passing lane they have. Watch Dre, particularly vs Spurs when he was calling the plays. He always sought out Greg when he was deep in the post, either by passing directly to him, or to the wing player who was on Gregs side with instructions to feed Greg. I’m pretty confident Miller will make Oden better.