I gave up caring what other folks said about the Blazers about a year ago. There is no way they can watch enough games to cover every team so they just rehash what everyone else is saying.

Is that all these guys don’t get a big friggin gold star. There’s probably anywhere from 5-15 worthy head coach of the year candidates every season. It’s only proof how much of a joke “awards” really can be.

is scared to death to drive to the lane somehow it seems that being an effective defender is pretty easy.

Now what’s Nate’s excuse?

Its a fact. Rookies have something called “no experience in the NBA”. That often times (surprisingly) means that they have a hard time contributing in their first season. And yet ours have.

Offensive rebounding is quite different from simply being big. It is about positioning, commitment, footwork, and yes being big has its own factor to play. They were taught all of these things, by their coaches. You don’t wake up one day with the ability to rebound. Kevin Love can rebound like heck, and he is not the biggest, strongest, jumpiest, or fastest person out there. He was coached in how to do this.

The reason why we can say look at the rookies we got, is because Nate has groomed and taught them. Do you remember when we first saw them. Rudy running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Greg foulling and foulling and foulling. Nicolas being umm… underwhelming in the Summer League. They have all had ups and downs, and they have gotten back up from their downs because of the coach.

Turk/Lewis/Nelson would not have been considered for the West All-Stars because we have better teams and players out West. And yet you don’t consider this fact when understanding records, we have more games against tougher opponents, and are in a dog fight out west, and we are in a position to claim homecourt advantage.

and you see that as supporting why Nate should NOT be COY? I would say that shows exactly why Nate SHOULD be COY

4 rookies isn’t an exuse. It’s real. The fact that KP handed Nate a roster with 4 rookies cannot be in dispute. To say that Nate hurt their development ignores the true role of the coach….which is to develop the TEAM…and last time I looked, developing the youngest playing rotation into a team looking at home court advantage in the playoffs is a HUGE accomplishment. It shows an amazing ability to develop the team….to get them to accept roles that facilitate winning. And frankly, I’d rather watch the Blazers win than see a rookie blow up for 30 points. If watching young players lose while they rack up stats, watch the Thunder.

And if it’s the coach’s fault that the rookies aren’t developing as fast as you’d like, (because coaches are responsible for a players development……that seems to be your point with the rooks), then he must also be responsible for LA and Oden’s offensive rebounding.

Hollinger’s Power Rankings (based on his advanced stats) rates the Blazers as the 4th best team in the league…..just about dead even (within 16 hundredths of a point) with Orlando. Yet they are substantially younger than the Magic, and as Kevin Pelton has successfully shown, there is a strong correlation with age and winning %. So Van Gundy starts with an advantage.

Just saying….I think you are selling Nate short.

they were good enough to win the championship, but never did. That Larry O’Brien trophy puts you on that first tier all alone.

Nobody rightfully expected them to beat the Bulls in the finals anyway. Don’t get me wrong, being a 2nd tier team isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Heck, the Blazers are a 2nd tier team right now, along with 2-8 of the west as well as Cavs, Orlando, and Atlanta (used to include Detroit but they’ve dropped off). I only say Cavs because they haven’t actually “done” anything yet… yet.