A Note on Nate and The Offense

by sotis on Dec 18, 2009 2:06 PM PST

A note on Nate McMillan: up until this year, I believed the Blazer's rudimentary offense to be a necessity for a young team in need of a simple, reliable system. But this year has me rethinking that--a veteran point guard on board who knows how to push the tempo, set up post plays, and facilitate off-the-ball movement; a roster (absent Brandon Roy) fully capable, even ideal, for an uptempo game; potentially insanely good distance shooters to run off of screens (Rudy and Martell)---and yet, here we are again relying on the same two-trick dog and pony show: pick and roll (and it's derivations) and iso's for Aldridge and Roy. Young teams can handle a real offense, Nate. Every good high school team does it. Every good college team does it. Why in the world aren't the Blazers doing it? We are eeking by on sheer talent alone right now, for lack of any semblance of fluid, creative, or dynamic offense. If you heard Kenny Vance on the 5th Quarter last night, you'd know he agrees with me. He called making Miller a starter a farce and a facade, blaming it all on Nate and Roy's "love affair" with Blake. I think that's part of the problem, but Blake is just playing the game the way Nate wants it played. I was one of Nate's biggest supporters until this year, but this offense is terrible. My JR HIGH teams had better offensive sets.

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The Blazer's don't actually run a pick and roll though

They start to run one, sometimes they look like they really really want to run one, but the number of actual pick and rolls run and completed this season can be counted on one hand.

by raoulduke on Dec 18, 2009 2:12 PM PST reply actions 1 recs

lol

by upper left corner on Dec 18, 2009 2:22 PM PST up reply actions

Well.. to be fair...

there are picks… but they go unused, while our guy dribbles the OTHER way…
And there are rolls… but they just wave their hands in the air while the guy with the ball dribbles…

by Visionary2 on Dec 18, 2009 9:33 PM PST up reply actions

Ha ha ha, you beat me to it raulduke; rec.

by Wotan on Dec 19, 2009 11:29 PM PST up reply actions

When Miller ran one with LA and LA got the ball back while he was rolling to the basket for an easy score

he actually had to mention in his post game interview that he didn’t know it could work that way. That was one week ago.

by raoulduke on Dec 18, 2009 2:13 PM PST reply actions

Oh jesus! I missed that one!!

I think that Nate’s love affair with Blake and NON love affair with Miller has to do with Nate feeling threatened by a PG who actually KNOWS how to coach a team.
I cannot stand MCMillan as a coach. I can barely stand to listen to him talk anymore.
Good thing the team showed SCRAP last night….because they need it with no actual COACHING TO TEACH THEM HOW TO PLAY WITHOUT having to freaking scrap for every point they get!!!!!

by Natsthecat on Dec 18, 2009 2:23 PM PST up reply actions

from your fingers (typing) to KPs ears. God I am sooooo sick of the coaching on this team!!!

by Natsthecat on Dec 18, 2009 2:20 PM PST reply actions

The thing is, there are what, five coaches? This is not just Nate. You would think somebody would

say, “You know, non of our guards know how to use a pick. The either go wide or move before the pick is set and hang an O foul on the big, or go the other freaking way. Maybe one of us should say something?”

But, apparently, not.

by raoulduke on Dec 18, 2009 2:25 PM PST up reply actions

I think Dean is a Nate LAP DOG. He came with Nate from Seattle. Don't know about

the other coaches..maybe they all want to keep their jobs and figure NATE has the power to get rid of….should be interesting to see what happens if Nate is let go. That is my highest hope for this team.

by Natsthecat on Dec 18, 2009 5:52 PM PST up reply actions

J-Bay can use a pick...

REJOICE!

Keep the faith.

by fajunga on Dec 18, 2009 7:50 PM PST up reply actions

I keep hoping for more

But as long as Nate remains mesmerized or blackmailed or whatever by Steve Blake, I don’t think it is going to get much better. Blake repertoire is so limited, it is often painful to watch.

Maybe the light bulb went off over Roy’s head last night. He has looked sort of dazed most of the season. He wants to win, but he only knows how to win using his iso moves, his pick and pop stuff with LMA, and his dishes to an open Blake on the perimeter. Teams have figured out how to double and triple team Roy. Without Oden and without the perimeter guys to make them pay, Roy simply can’t do it all by himself.

Bayless and Roy are both multi-dimensional scorers, combined with LMA and some shooters getting hot or coming back, maybe they can add some wrinkles. The resistance to the goodness that Miller brings is deeply troubling. It almost seems like Nate has done everything in his power to make it harder for Dre.

by upper left corner on Dec 18, 2009 2:30 PM PST reply actions 2 recs

Yes it does seem as though Nate has done this. I think deep in his control freak mind, Nate KNOWS

that Andre KNOWS he is a mediocre coach. That Andre knows he can run the floor without word one from the Natemeister. Nate doesn’t like this in a person. For all we know, as Frank Brikowski pointed out one night on Talkin’ Ball…BLAKE may know how to do things he doesn’t do…because NATE DOESN’T WANT HIM TO DO THEM. Frank B. actually said Blake knows how to do things…is he ALLOWED to? And then Dwight Jaynes piped in and said “Well MILLER DOES THEM”….and hey we see what that has done for Miller. I wish they would can Nate and let Miller play his game. Get a coach who can teach offense/defense…aside from the rudimentary moves Nate has in his repertoire

by Natsthecat on Dec 18, 2009 5:59 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

I question

the wisdom of our coaching staff. It pisses me off whenever I see Steve Blake in the game. How he gets so many minutes over Bayless is a mystery to me. Barkley always calls it like he sees it. Last night after the game on TNT Barkely said that it was ridiculous that Bayless was not getting playing time and that he was better than the guys that we are currently playing. Charles is right lets hope that going forward Bayless get some burn and the opportunity to play alongside Roy like we all envisioned when he was drafted.

by UtahBlazer on Dec 18, 2009 2:58 PM PST reply actions

Nate is a bad coach for any team with a chance of being a contender.

And yes I do mean BAD. Nate does things that just go against all logic and seem to be motivated by ego, stubbornness, and a lack of knowledge on how to win. His ways can help a team that is young and has no focus become better, but once he has a team that grows past that level, he just seems to have no idea on what to do.

by Coastie07 on Dec 18, 2009 7:59 PM PST reply actions

That is an important comment that Pritchard

does not get. " His ways can help a team that is young and has no focus become better, but once he has a team that grows past that level, he just seems to have no idea on what to do."
Nate should get the credit for helping to turn this franchise around but that does not give him the license to stay the coach when he’s doing a bad job. Pritchard HAS to fire Nate before the summer begins. There isn’t much point in firing him now but as soon as the season ends so does Nate’s job as coach of our Blazers. It is clear that Nate can’t get us to that next level from being a talented, young team to a talented Playoff team.

by VinnyB on Dec 18, 2009 9:29 PM PST up reply actions

I'm onboard the Can Nate Express...

The problem is, KP is there every day, watching the team practice. When your that close, you can lost perspective…

Even if I give Nate the benefit of the doubt that he is a sound defensive coach (solely because of his work and rep with the Dream Team. But to believe this you must believe this is the most uncoachable squad in history), I still don’t want him coaching this group of players.

His offense has no movement. Well, OK, the guy we call the play for runs around a couple of picks, while the rest of the team stands still… Nate, do you think the opposing teams have figured out that the one guy moving is about to get the ball? Yeah. Me too…

His handling of a top 10 11-year veteran point guard is a fire-able offense all by itself, IMO. And he gave everyone the childish reason why: he felt bad when he got replaced (by a better player)… Huh??

Blake has to be one of the least effective starting point guards in history. Seriously. Somebody should look it up. For Nate to stubbornly stick by his loyal buddy for this long in the face of all evidence and reason is worse than Skipper keeping Gilligan around…

Nate routinely gets out-coached during the game. He rarely seems to make any effective adjustments in strategy. His formulaic substitution patterns (often taking out the hottest player!) have sucked the life out of the offense on more than one occasion and cost us more than one game, already, this year.

He continually preaches ‘gotta run the ball, gotta push the ball, gotta attack’… and yet is somehow shocked that, because he is such a control freak that he has to call every play – is WHY we don’t run more?

Thanks, felt good to get that off my chest!

by Visionary2 on Dec 18, 2009 9:48 PM PST reply actions

To top off Nate's unbelievably horrible handling of Andre,

He finally decides to start Miller after jerking him around all season, but then plays Blake twice as many minutes as Andre. It’s a joke. Is Nate trying to mess with Miller and disrespect him? I can’t see how Miller could want to play here much longer.

by Coastie07 on Dec 19, 2009 1:23 AM PST up reply actions