There's "No Question" Nate McMillan Wishes LaMarcus Aldridge Was On Team USA

With the injury to David Lee it underscores the fact that these guys are maybe putting themselves at risk. And maybe I’m being unpatriotic, but I’d rather we have a healthy LMA (and Greg and Brandon and even Nic) than see them put on the shelf and potentially unable to compete when the regular season starts.

I also heard that he wanted to spend more time with his young son in Texas, so it’s also hard to fault him for that either.

I’m a huge Aldridge supporter, but the more he does things like this that prove against him adding anything to his game, the harder it is to defend him later on. He needed the extra time in the post. Time to work on a back-to-the-basket game. High-level competition like this would’ve done him very, very well.

“We’re going to have to certainly make some adjustments

Who is this guy?

But we have to take advantage of the speed that we have

Seriously, who is he? I wish the Blazers coach had this attitude…

would prohibit NBA players from playing for Team USA in the summer of 2012?

I know Aldridge wants to be around his kid, and that’s great. He’s getting paid a ton of money to play b-ball and well he should. Anybody in their right mind would want to play in the NBA and someone like me would LOVE to play anything for the USA. I am a vet of the army and Iraq war, it would have been way better to play a game/sport for the US rather than fight in a war, but I digress.

Aldridge has been known for being a fadeaway style PF, which is silly to me. PF that is 6’10 should not shy away from contact, he’s not a huge guy, but he should be big enough to atleast put up a fight. I think that doing this would have helped get his mind right early. Sure you have to worry about injuries, but it’s a risk you have to take.

NBA players=generally clowns who know nothing about the world

I mean, if you were LMA, and KNEW you were soft, and didn’t want to play the center against the rest of the world (big burly Russians, e.g.). And you knew you wouldn’t look good (for your next overpaid contract). And you have a new kid, which can be a nice convenient excuse. Why wouldn’t you take it easy?

(Not that I’m condoing it, at all, but I understand a lazy overpaid multi-millionaire not wanting to disrupt his vacation in Bora-Bora…)

In another few years each team with a few stars will take turns having games off. It will turn into a “star” rotation with the player being able to rest a day depending on the levels of sand they have in their private areas. Just a guess

I think he will have a good year. Last year’s injuries threw everybody out of whack. LMA had to play many games with two injured ankles because there was nobody else. A lot of men’s bodies don’t mature until their late 20’s or early 30’s. He could turn into a rock. Ever heard of “old man strength?” Juwan was old and he had attitude! I agree he’s soft now and that’s frustrating, but what he does well, is shoot, deflect passes to cause turnovers, and run like a gazelle on the fast break.

Nate said today on 95.5 that the new coaching staff will look at new ways of doing things, and Buck will be a great influence on LMA. Buck’s blazers were a running team, not to mention Nate’s sonics. I think a team can be both a running team and a post up team. We have the players to do both. You take what the defense gives you.

The Bruce Lee style of basketball.

 “I talked to LaMarcus a few times about participating and he thought about it, but he had some commitments that were already in place which wouldn’t allow him to play.”

How lame. Aldridge wasn’t aware of the Team USA schedule when he made those other commitments?

What is all of this? No other major league sport tries to run two seasons – one for the real show and one for a group of nations that want to accomplish what? You don’t see the NFL or MLB madly critisizing their players because they don’t have a second season related to countries who’ve decided that their agenda – whatever it is, should be played out every summer after the real show when players play 100+ games. The first responsibility of these players is to their team and their franchise, and their families. This idea that we should sit here and try to make this a “patriotic” issue doesn’t wash. Somehow basketball players have been caught up in an endless season. If you’re any good, they expect you to play pretty much year round (with practice), every year until you are no longer good enough. We used to have Olympics every four years, now its 2 – better for the ad dollars.

Last year we lost Batum and then Fernandez early – and for extensive playing cycles. The operation Batum should’ve had in the summer came during the season.

And in the end, if the US had all of its top talent on the floor at one time – do you really have any question who would prevail. So what are we trying to prove?

I remember how the US and Russia used to dominate the Olympics – not because we were naturally better athletes – but because we had the coaching, money, training and the facilities. Now, the rest of the world increasingly imitates us, and our medal count is falling in direct proportion. After all – we’re all humans – and the country we live in has nothing to do with where we get that skill from.

Sure – it can be fun. But it proves absolutely nothing any more. Mac’s problem is he’s a basketball junky and doesn’t value what time off brings to the mental side of the game. No one can play year round at the very top mentally.

I’m a VN vet, my daughter-in-law was in Iraq, my family has been in every war right back to the Revolutionary War – but this has nothing to do with patriotism. So why don’t we stop pretending that it does?