Evidence that Nate is a great coach

so that is out….but COY …..he should be in the discussion

I don’t understand the Anti-Nate crowd. I guess they’d rather have a team that gets more cool fast break highlights and wins 20-30 games a year than a team that plays under control and wins 50-60 games a year.

Nate is a great coach, the fire-nate-campaign is ridiculous.

Look, I think Nate has grown because of all these injuries. The main gripes fans had with him were that he was stubborn and losing the coaching battles to superior coaches.

Since the injuries he has been more fluid in his game plans and his substitutions. Bayless has taken tremendous pressure off of BROY— even with all of these bad shooting nights, Nate is smartly continuing to play him significant minutes. Nate seems to be making quicker decisions and allowing his players to play. They don’t have so much hesitation in their games. He is also riding the hot hand a bit more.

All of these adjustments and letting go of a strict way of doing things is probably helping him grow. I hope the record shows him that he may want to keep some of his ways of thinking/tactics when he gets his guys back. I think thats what most anti-Nater’s have wanted from him. This is encouraging.

I did have my doubts about Nate,
but they have all easily been crushed.

is easily one of the main reasons we moved on from the jail-blazer era… so i don’t understand why people criticize him so much, i know that some people were annoyed about the issues early in the season, i was one of them, but thats happens with most teams and its just something that has to be worked out. at least we don’t have a coach that benches one of our best players… (Mike D’Antoni)

He gets his players to run through brick walls and I believe he is one of the better coaches in the league. However, there are obvious problems that were apparent even before all these injuries began. He seems to get outcoached quite often and his offensive scheme consists of three things: flex cut pass to the corner three, high pick and roll, and isolation for Brandon. I guarantee you Nate goes to sleep every night after praying for the health of Brandon Roy, because if Roy gets injured this team will have trouble scoring more than 85 points in a game on a consistent basis.
Another problem is preparedness. Looking back at last years playoffs, the Blazers looked completely unprepared for the Rockets and they have at many times looked equally unprepared this season. The Blazers have more talent than almost anyone else. They need to walk into every game thinking they will win and it’s Nate’s job to make sure they do that. Hopefully, this problem will disappear in time.
The last complaint I have about Nate is that he is too conservative. Yanking Greg or Joel because of foul trouble is a great way to lose control of the game. We’ve seen it over and over again. The Blazers build a big lead because of Oden, then pee it away because Nate is afraid of Greg fouling out. Seriously… How many games has Greg fouled out? Well, we now know that we can win without Greg and Joel, so what’s the harm in letting them foul out once in a while? And would it kill him to show some emotion once in a while??

Please. Anyone would have been frustrated but they have always been professionals, not detrimental to the locker room.

Nate had a tough job coming into this year, no doubt. With all the talent we have on paper, it’s gotta be hard to figure out those lineups. Ultimately an NBA head coach has to make some tough decisions, though, and I think Nate has had a hard time with that. He plays favorites with some guys, and much of the time his in-game substitutions make little sense. He has a quick hook with guys who need a slow hook, and he has a slow hook with guys who need a quick hook. I think Nate has lucked out in a sense with all our injuries. I can’t help but wonder if he had a full crew to work with if this team wouldn’t still be struggling. I guess we’ll find out when he starts getting some guys back in a few more weeks.

And Nate should get a bunch of credit? Please. I’ll agree that injuries are the best thing that could have happened to Nate after how horribly he was handling the team at the start of the season, but that’s not credit. That’s luck.

I’m with Flapbreaker and BlackNoiseNW above in the frustration of three years running with massive apprehension and confusion over the starting lineup. Everything about it. From whether the best guys are starting to whether they have to “earn” it to whether it’s a best fit or even whether it’s who’s playing in the 4th quarter. It’s chronic. I don’t see it as a sign of a good coach.

But there are other issues as well.

This team has had horrible perimeter defense for every year Nate has been here despite arriving with a reputation for a defensive-minded coach. In particular, this team has never been able to handle the P&R, which has been discussed here ad nauseum. Please note that the entire back court has changed personnel several times and there has been no improvement.

Another well-chronicled issue is the pace of the offense. Nate says he wants a fast one… that he’s pleading with guys to run up the court… that he even invokes some kind of rule to get across the half-court line by a certain time on the shot clock. But we don’t see it on the court. Again, I don’t see elite coaches doing that. They either have a slow pace—and they don’t apologize for it. Or they have a faster pace—and they figure out a way to do it. They don’t fail at making it happen.

More importantly, I look at what happens to players that leave here and also those that arrive. You can make snide comments about “foreign/white guy” (which I assume is referencing Sergio because there certainly isn’t a great chorus of Blake love that I’ve noticed around here when he was starting) but it also involves Jarret Jack and even Von Wafer along with Sergio. These guys seem to do a lot better after they leave. Guys who get here seem to struggle (Joel being the exception here). That’s my biggest problem with Nate: he doesn’t seem to be able to develop talent.

That being said, I was impressed last year with the way Nate is able to contrive wins by the what appears to be the force of his personality. I’m very impressed with that ability again this year. someone above said he can get his players to play for him. I can’t dispute that. In fact, he may be the single best coach in the NBA at this aspect of the game.

But I don’t think that’s enough. It’s great at this moment in the season.

I want a stable coach. I’m jealous of the Utah Jazz and their coaching stability. I wish that we had just kept Rick A all of these years. If someone can show me that Nate has potential—like his players—to improve in this way, I’m ready to hear it. But I haven’t really felt it yet with my own eyes watching the game.

I read them. I understand (kind of). I think it’s insane that you hold the idea of an open competition for the starting job against him. There were people who brought different skills to the positions. Figuring out who fits in best best is not only a good thing, it shows flexibility (which he again is getting knocked for). The schemes and substitutions? I can’t really go into this because obviously everyone is a brilliant coaching mind here. Sorry to spit a little venom, but my question is who should be the coach? That’s what I want to know? You’re not happy now, what would make you happy. This guy is great and we are lucky to have a coach of his caliber. Thanks for the post Manzell.

There are so many points of data that we have no clue about – opponent scouting reports, Synergy Sports analysis, long-term development plans, individual player development, and more. Even the things we can see we tend to selectively tune out.

The offense is based on Brandon Roy, post players and shooters. Those three components are part of the collective decision agreed to by coaches and management. Anyone who does not fit those descriptions had better play great defense. All the offense arguments against Nate seem to be disagreements with the base offensive plan. It was #1 in the league last year in offensive rating.

As for defense – that is learned. Players mature and gain instincts about the play on the floor and skills to react to that play. Anthony and Wade both got it this year from being on the USA team with Nate as the defensive coach. Our guys are a few years behind them and will get better each year. Losing Nic hurt a lot.

Even more important is that Paul Allen and KP are actively engaged with the team and will know better than any of us when a coaching change is needed. My hope is Nate can become the next Jerry Sloan and spend 20 years here. Larry Miller knew a bit about building an organization and stayed with Jerry from the beginning through the ups and downs. It has made the Jazz a model franchise in that regard. A stability that allows the team to draft a particular skill set in its players and keep them their whole career (at least the best ones). Portland is drafting around Nate as well to maintain the stability and produce championship contenders.

But I don’t really see a compelling reason that he needs to be replaced. Overall, even though some things he does frustrate me, I can’t really justify firing him. And in many ways he is to be commended.

That is, unless we then promote Monty Williams to head coach. That guy has the potential to be a great NBA head coach.

That said he hasn’t been horribly outcoached lately like he was earlier in the year.

But if the regular rotation players hadn’t all been hurt, I think the team would’ve underachieved. There was certainly no evidence pre-injuries that Nate had a handle on the situation.

All things considered, I’m pretty sure Nate is not the coach of the future for Portland. That isn’t to take anything away from all he has accomplished, but I think the team has “outgrown” him. The first month of the season made this point loud and clear. At full strength our offense wasn’t working, our players were confused, our defense wasn’t great, and we weren’t winning. The rotations were CONSTANTLY changing, our strengths were underutilized and our weaknesses were overexposed. Nate had trouble fitting our personnel into his scheme, or more importantly – his scheme into our personnel.

Had we remained healthy, I’m quite confident that this season would have ended in disappointment. Jerryd Bayless would have ended the season on the bench. Andre Miller would either have been traded for junk or just wasted, and Rudy Fernandez would have continued to be under utilized. Greg Oden would have spent most of the season on the bench with two fouls. We probably would have won LESS games than last year and had another 1st round exit. In that scenario (one that I think was bound to happen) Nate should have been let go. Those issues are all things that are the coach’s responsibility and Nate was screwing them up left and right.

As it stands now, Nate (and KP to an extent) may have gotten lucky with the injuries to this team. Jerryd Bayless being forced into action was great. Nate, for the past month, has basically had all his rotation and line-up decisions made for him. When players start to return one at a time (Batum and Rudy), Nate SHOULD be able to insert them into the line-up to positive results without messing up the chemistry too bad. The fact that he has been able to take a team with a very depleted roster and get them to continue win games has been huge, and I think Nate deserves a lot of the credit. Sitting at the top of the division after all the adversity this team has been through is nothing short of amazing. That said, Nate has always been able to take “lesser” rosters and get them to overachieve (he did it in Seattle and he did it in Portland too). Getting a stacked roster to just meet expectations is what he struggles with.

I couldn’t in good conscience fire a coach who has done as much for the franchise as Nate has when half his team has spent the season on the sidelines. I’ll give him one more year, but if 2011 ends the way this season started, it is time to move on. For this roster NOT to be a title threat at the end of next year is unacceptable in my mind.

I dont know if Nate is a “Championship” level coach yet, but is this team a “Championship” level team? Not in my eyes. Not with fragile Oden, soft Lamarcus, and one dimensional SF’s.

And unless your name is Phil Jackson, Greg Poppovich, Larry Brown, or gulp Doc Rivers, then there arent too many championship level coaches available. Let me guess, Rick Adelman has all the answers! (note, never won a championship).

Nate is what he is. A very good coach. But this is a players league, and unless Lamarcus starts playing like he is 6’ 11 and Greg stays off the operating table we really dont have a hope anyways. And if you take a look at all the HORRIBLE coaches in the NBA, we should all consider ourselves lucky that we have somebody that at least knows how to manage a clock and has put an identity on what kind of team we will be.

The Blazers are in first place in the NW division despite the fact that they’re missing 7 of their 10 best players, they have improved by an average of 11 games a year during Nate’s tenure, young 2nd round rookies are stepping into Nate’s system to make big contributions, and the team is playing with more heart and hustle than any team in the NBA but instead of debating whether he should be coach of the year we’re debating whether he should be canned. What does Nate have to do to make you happy? Sometimes I think that if Nate tuned water to wine “fans” would be on here complaining that the wine wasn’t Pinot Noir.

As far as whether or not he can win a championship we don’t know yet becasue he’s never had a championship level roster yet. This debate reminds of the comments people made about Doc Rivers and Tony Dungy when I lived in Central Florida. Everyone said “They’re good but they don’t have what it takes to win a championship.” Both were canned and later won championships elsewhere.

In the Houston series goes we’re lucky it was as close as it was. The rockets exposed 2 big weaknesses in our roster.
     A. Only one player can create oppurtunites off the dribble.
     B. Almost no veteran experince.

B will be fixed with time and A should be fixed by the development of Bayless and the signing of Miller.

We’re lucky to have a good coach and to fire him so prematurely would be a huge mistake.

there is no evidence here, what-so-ever, that Nate is shinning……Nothing has been proven at all….And no credit is due …..this team has done one thing and one thing only…They have come together as a “team”….they have done this by just going out and playing ball….period! they have done this out of necessity …..and why would one want to credit Nate and the coaching staff for this? they have never shown anything in the past that relates to the difference between winning and losing a game……..it’s all about the players….It’s still a matter of Roy’s play and and dependence on outside shooting(live or die ie. Philadelphia)…they are working harder because they need to pick up slack for missing players…because of this fact, it has helped them re-discover what it takes to be a “team”……..I really think you should give more credit to Howard than Nate…..He has been a real stabilizing influence on this team….
   Yes it’s easy to credit or discredit the coaching staff for rises and falls….they are the ones, on the first line of scrutiny, when people surmise a team’s success’s or failures …..however, the jury is still out on Nate and the coaching staff…..they have proven nothing….and you can just as easily justify their failures (as people have previously commented)

If Rudy is not playing a lot more minutes than Steve for the rest of the season our Euros are going to conclude that playing in the NBA on a Nate coached team is a career dead end but would rate him as a good coach,great is a real stretch

I was especially dubious of Nate’s continued reign after the Houston series. His stubborn persona often rubs me the wrong way. But when it comes right down to it, Nate has done his part of bringing respectability back to the franchise in more ways then just how he coaches. He’s a generous community advocate for one. He has faith in his players and the players respect him. He’s getting the most out of an unbelievably screwed up situation and that is entirely meritorious. I’m done criticizing Nate. I prefer the tag Blazermaniac to Blamermaniac anyways.

but if the team looks better and plays better the LESS players we have available, doesn’t that take credit away from the coach? Seems to me the players deserve a whole lot more credit than the coach. A large portion of his job is adequately substituting players, and the less he’s had to do that, the better the team has done.

So when we succeed with a full roster it is because we have so much talent and has nothing to do with the coach and when we succeed after losing 6 or 7 of our best players it’s because it relieved the logjam of minutes and has nothing to do with the coach. So when does a coach get any credit for a team success? It seems odd that so many fans want to blame a coach when things go wrong but do not want to credit him when things go well.

The idea that success after losing the majority of your top players shows a coaches failing seems crazy to me. Lots of professional teams have crumbled under far less adversity than the Blazers have had this year. Keeping a team motivated under these circumstances is not something just anyone can do.

Nate has succeeded in the criteria that counts most to me. The team is winning and has improved every year. If you want to judge a coach by a different criteria I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.