The Nate McMillan Saga Continues...

There has been numerous posts/comments about whether or not Nate McMillan is the coach that can take the Blazers to the land of championships and parades. There is the “Fire Nate Now” camp, the “Nate Deserves a Chance” camp, the “I Believe Nate is our Coach” camp, as well as everything in between. It nothing personal against Nate, but  I am fairly entrenched in the “Fire Nate Now” camp and have been for the past couple of years.

This post explains why...

Before I delve into why I think McMillan is not the man for the job, I must first share with you what I believe the role of a head coach on a professional basketball team should be. The head coach is, first and foremost, the TRUE leader of the team. A coach defines the players’ roles and creates the identity of the team and, with the aid of his assistants (and if he’s smart) the players, the coach will design what he determines to be the best offensive game plan/defensive schemes for the team, getting everyone (coaches and players) to take a vested interest in seeing the team succeed and ownership for its success. A coach should focus on maximizing the strengths of the team and minimizing its weaknesses. Players, such as Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, and even Brandon Roy all have the title, “leader of the team” and they play a significant part in ensuring that their respective team attains it goals, but make no mistakes about it, the head coach is, and always will be, the TRUE leader of the team.

Basketball is a game of strategy. A more nuanced game of chess. Every team has its players (the pieces) and every team has a coach (the strategist). One aspect of a coach’s job is to understand the pieces (players) at his disposal and the skills they employ. He must then maximize their potential as quickly and efficiently as possible, creating the most outstanding team he can.

As a coach, and a strategist, you must understand your player’s strengths and weaknesses and how to properly employ them. In my opinion, Nate McMillan has not been able to do this effectively, neither on nor off the court. In my eyes, there are two distinct areas in this sport of basketball. The on-the court area (game mechanics, strategies, schemes, plays, execution, etc.) and the off-the-court area (team philosophy, vision, mindsets, player’s acceptance of their roles, team building, etc.)

On the court, McMillan has done quite a bit to show me that he is not up to the challenge of leading this team to a championship. In the beginning, I gave Nate the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes I’d question his decisions, but I trusted that he saw something I didn’t. I don’t feel that way anymore. He has made too many bad decisions for too long for it to go unnoticed.

Nate has shown to be inflexible with his starting line-ups and unimaginative with his game-time strategies. He is not adept at making smart, in-game decisions (as evidenced by his questionable substitution patterns) and he has even shown an inability to fix a conspicuous, long-standing problem the team has had for some time now. (How many inbound plays have we seen turn into timeouts over the years?)

I will limit my discussion of McMillan’s on-the-court deficiencies in this post, because there are plenty of other posts out there on the subject and I want to really focus on the off-the-court issues, which I think are more indicative of McMillan’s inability to coach this team. We’ll start with...

THE ANDRE MILLER SITUATION

Miller is a proven, up-tempo point guard that runs the fast break well and is more than capable of running a team, especially on the offensive end. Over the summer, Andre Miller, Nate McMillan and Kevin Pritchard had a magical dinner where they shared their spritzers and talked about how to improve the team. According to the media, the meeting was a smashing success and shortly thereafter, Miller signed with the Blazers; many thinking that the Blazers had made a shrewd and savvy move.

In my opinion, this is an instance where McMillan failed as a coach. Miller apparently envisioned himself coming to Portland as the starting point guard and could see himself taking this team all the way to the promise land right from the get go. McMillan, on the other hand, seemed to think Miller would be better suited coming off the bench with the second unit.

Whether you think that Miller should start or come off the bench is irrelevant. Whether you think Miller is in the wrong or not is irrelevant as well. Nate McMillan is the coach of the team, and as I stated above, the coach is the TRUE leader of the team and it's his responsibility to lead his team.

McMillan’s lack of communication with Miller is where he failed as a coach. He omitted (whether it was intentional or not doesn’t really matter) vital information (that being Miller’s role on the team) in his initial conversations with Andre Miller and, in doing so, destroyed their relationship before it ever even started. Sure, Miller is culpable for some of the fallout, but the ultimate responsibility rests squarely on Nate McMillan’s shoulders, he is the coach after all.

If Nate was honest with Miller from the outset, explaining his vision of the team and how he saw Miller’s role on it and then took the time to ask how Miller envisioned himself on the team, the two could have come to an agreement on his role before any contract was signed. This would have, at a minimum, ensured a much higher rate of success regarding the Miller/McMillan relationship and ultimately benefited the team. In this scenario, Miller either agrees with his (clearly defined) role on the team beforehand and everything is great in the world, or Miller walks away and we are stuck with the same team that won 54 games last year. Either won is acceptable in my book.

Instead, Nate decided that it was neither important enough to clearly define Miller’s role on the team before signing him nor ensure that both he and Miller understood and agreed upon Miller’s role before signing him. By doing this, Nate has lost the trust of Andre Miller and has therefore damaged the team.

Next up we have...

THE BRANDON ROY DRAMEDY

Brandon Roy had positioned himself to be the face of the franchise. The “Man” of the team...until now. There is a beast called Greg Oden that is growing up before our eyes and his very presence has altered everything around him on the basketball court. You know it, I know it, everyone else is seeing glimpses of it. There was a reason he went number one in the draft (and Roy and Aldridge did not). Oden is becoming what I secretly hoped he would...UNSTOPPABLE, on both offense and on defense. He is quickly becoming the “game changer” of the league. He’s not there yet (he's only 21!), and there is no guarantee that he will ever get there, but so far he is looking very promising and he has more potential than anyone else in the league to be next “most dominant ever”.

The by-product of Oden’s evolution? The supplanting of Brandon Roy as the “Man” in the Rose City. This is another area where I feel Nate McMillan has failed his team. As the coach, your job is to ensure that Oden’s evolution and Roy’s transition go smoothly, for the betterment of the team. Unfortunately, by all accounts so far, it doesn’t appear to be happening. In fact, at the worst, this could end up being another Kobe/Shaq situation, only this time Kobe (Roy) is the incumbent superstar. The coach needs to recognize that changes in the landscape are coming and ensure that everyone remembers to keep their focus on the ultimate goal. The route may change a bit, or a lot, but the destination never does.

Lately, we have been hearing that Nate is holding meetings with “The Big 3” and that is great - hopefully we will see tangible results on the basketball court. Because right now, our reigning superstar, Brandon Roy, is apparently confused as to what his role is on this team is?!?! There is only one reason for this. It is because Nate McMillan has not been doing his job, he is clearly not communicating with Roy and now Roy is suffering for it. This is not on Roy, he's 25 years old, he is not the 45 year old NBA veteran player and coach with the insight. McMillan is (right?).

I’m not saying that these growing pains weren’t expected, but what I find really disturbing are the comments I’ve been hearing from McMillan and Roy. As the coach you should make sure your team understands the team is focused on achieving its ultimate goal and that right now is nothing more than a transitional period. The coach has to explain that the reason the roles for the players have not been clearly defined is because the coaching staff needs to really see what everyone is capable of, especially with so many new weapons (e.g. Miller, Webster, Oden, Bayless, and even Cunningham) at their disposal. They need to experiment and see how they all work together. If the players were made aware of the coaching staff’s plan (whatever it may be) from the beginning, they would probably be much more willing to buy into the coach’s game plan from the start.

If this plan was clearly expressed, you would possibly hear a response from Brandon Roy (when asked about his role on the team) like, “Right now we are just trying out some new things with the team. We’ve added Dre, Martell is back, and Greg has improved a lot.  We have so many weapons that we are experimenting a bit. We can try so many things, so many different line-ups, and we have to find the best fit for everyone so that this team can succeed. It may take a bit of time and I understand that it will be frustrating and sometime things will seem confusing, but we are all focused on the same long-term objective and we will get there.”

That would be comment I want to hear from my young superstar. Instead we are getting such gems as (and I’m paraphrasing here) as, “I don’t really know what my role is," and, “When I don’t get mine, everyone else suffers." and thus the team truly does suffer. Only not in the way Brandon intended.

Those are alarming comments to hear from your two-time All-star shooting guard. That comment tells me that there has been no real communication between the coach and the team’s superstar in terms of what the team is really trying to accomplish and how they are planning to do it. Having a disconnected relationship between the team’s coach and it’s superstar is not a good thing and, quite honestly, is completely unacceptable. Yet another indicator to me that McMillan is not the man for the job.

and lastly...

THE TRIUMVIRATE

The big three, Greg Oden, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Brandon Roy. The pillars of the franchise. So far, Nate has shown an inability to corral these young men and make them realize the potential and opportunity that they truly have. Oden is a game changer that no coach can truly stop or prepare for, Aldridge’s skill-set creates a virtual mismatch (usually in his favor) against every PF in the league, and Roy has established himself as the bona-fide superstar, he is the everything man; he creates, he shoots threes, he shoots fade-away jumpers, he hits last-second, game-winning shots. He does it all. The crazy part? They are all still young and developing!

It’s almost like a comic book superhero team put together for the sole purpose of creating the next NBA dynasty (the team is in Teen Titan mode right now). Each of these players are great players by themselves (they are still young and they all have the potential to become Hall-of-Fame players, regardless of the team they play on). You could take Oden or Roy and put them on any scrub team in the league and they will change the landscape of that team instantly. Aldridge has the potential to do the same, though I’m not sure if he could impact a team at the same level as those two. Regardless, no team in the NBA would say no to any of these three players.

To me, a great coach would get these three guys to see a greater vision. To get them to look past “pecking orders” and “players sacrificing”. He would get them to realize that even though they are all great individually, they could be so much more if they were a united front. Show them how their skill-sets are so complementary that it almost seems  scripted. As the coach, you get them to buy into the belief that there is no such thing as “sacrificing for the team”, because that would imply players have personal agendas contrary to the team’s ultimate goal. He would get them to realize that whatever a player contributes, he contributes to the team winning and nothing else matters. The coach convinces them that the individual accolades will come if they keep wining and that even though they will be great, they ultimately mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Convince them that being a “scoring champion”, a “10-time All-star”, "Defensive Player of the Year “, and even the MVP of the league are all great tributes to have but would, ultimately, pale in comparison to being one of the invaluable pillars of a team that has the potential of winning 4, 5, or even more championships in a row.

I believe that this team needs a coach who envisions a team, with those three at it’s core, becoming the next NBA dynasty. Roy and Aldridge are already locked up for the long term and I can’t imagine the team not resigning Oden at any cost. As long as you do a good job surrounding these guys with complimentary role players throughout the years they will continue to dominate the league. If a coach was skilled enough to get those three, the Triumvirate (as I like to call them), to truly wrap their minds around that concept and how amazing it would be. If he could get them to commit to the importance of being such an invaluable piece of the next great NBA dynasty.If he could get them to be genuinely excited about living up to the personal challenge holding themselves to a higher standard than anyone else does. Get them to really believe they could become one of the greatest NBA dynasties ever (and I believe they could). Then you have the start of something really amazing.

The coach’s job is to convince these guys that they can achieve such a dream. It’s his job to get them to buy into such a grand vision. If he can do that, the players would trust him with their lives and there wouldn't be any self-proclaimed “chemistry” problems. There would be no “finger-pointing” or “me first” comments from this team. There would be only one voice, one message, one team; dominating the league with its three pillars, all of them focused on one objective...winning multiple championship and becoming a dynasty. This is what a great coach would do.

Instead, we hear comments from McMillan, such as, “They’ve got to figure it out” and “We’re not scrappy enough” and we can’t forget my personal favorite, “We’re not playing with enough effort." These comments are nothing more than accurate generalities at best or egregious exhibitions of Nate’s lack of understanding to what’s really going on at worst. Either way, I’m not satisfied with what I’m hearing from him. If the team is not exerting any effort, then it’s the job of the coach to figure out why and fix it. Instead, McMillan is putting all of the onus on the backs of a 25, 24, and 21 year old. For sure, those three need to step up and become leaders for the team, but they answer to the coach. They have to believe in the coach and his ability to make them great. The coach needs step up and be the TRUE leader of the team.

Now, obviously McMillan has more to say to his team than what he utters to the media; however, I believe that if he was having any success in this area we would be seeing some tangible, positive reflection of it on the court and, so far, I have not seen it. Even when the team was winning, everything still seems “off”. There seems to be a lack of focus by the team and this is caused by a lack of focus by the coaching staff. If Nate’s comments to the media are, in fact, any reflection of how he gives his speeches to the team, then I believe he is not ready to take this team to the next level.

In closing, I will say that I don’t think Nate is incapable of becoming the coach to lead this team. I do think, however, that he will not be able to develop into that coach fast enough. There is a steep learning curve for Nate in coaching a team of this caliber (as there would be for most any coach) and I’m afraid I just don’t see the capacity in him to get there fast enough. He is too stubborn and too set in his ways. To be honest, I don’t think he even sees the same vision I see, which tells me right there that he should not be the coach of this team. The leader of any team should always strive to push the team to excellence. The Blazers have been anything but excellent lately.

This could be all be remedied quickly enough, however, if McMillan practiced some serious self-honesty. If he would honestly assess his own deficiencies he could mitigate most of them by finding people who are more skilled than himself to do the job. A great leader surrounds himself with people smarter than himself. Unfortunately, Nate’s propensity for being “Sarge” will prevent him from ever really listening to anyone else or every relinquishing control. He will always think his way is the best and in doing this he will seal his fate. I think a good example of this is illustrated by Nate’s inability to let Miller run the offense. He has Andre Miller, an 11-year, veteran point guard at his disposal, and refuses to let him take ownership of the offensive. Miller's strength is running the offense...so let him. This is fairly apparent to everyone but Nate McMillan. Or it is apparent to him and he refuses to budge. Either way he has failed to coach competently. By trusting in his player, in this case Miller, he would build trust with him and as make life easier on himself. The end result, the team prospers. Of course, if McMillan had been honest about his intentions with Miller in the first place, this whole Miller vs Blake saga would have never began.

McMillan has proven to be too controlling and fixed in his ways, this was fine when the team was rebuilding and the irresponsible youths of the "Jail Blazers" needed someone to fill that role; however, those days are over. It’s time to get someone who can coach/mentor/teach our young juggernauts to think on their own and guide them to greatness, as a team. McMillan does not appear to have the skills to do this effectively or efficiently. In order for McMillan to keep his job he must evolve at the pace of this team, which he has proven unable to do. This is why I think he should be fired. I understand the sentiment to let him finish out the year, and I really don’t have an issue with it. In the end, I just don’t see McMillan realizing that he needs to grow more quickly as a coach and will, ultimately, not be asked to return. We need a coach who has the ability to mold these young men into being more than themselves. Unfortunately for Nate McMillan, he does not possess the skills to do this.

Simply put (and it's nothing personal), at this point in time, Nate McMillan is just not qualified or capable of maximizing the potential of this team effectively or efficiently...that is why I think he should be let go.

 

OV