One-on-One with Nate: Start Gerald Wallace!

,,, including who the Blazers should keep, go get, and play. Now he suggests that we should not challenge Nate on this. I see an inconsistency.

Okay, let’s say — and it is not me making personal this discussion, just trying to understand it — let’s consider the possibility that what he doesn’t like isn’t so much what I said but how I said it.

He doesn’t like me lampooning Nate. But am I? I think that Nate’s decision here, especially not starting Crash at home against his former team — does this remind anyone else of the slap in the face that PJ Carlesimo gave Jermaine O’Neal in front of his family on that road trip? And more especially, doesn’t this have that whole Andre Miller fiasco written all over it? The question I ask with this satire is: Am I the one bordering the absurd, or am I just one of the many pointing it out … in Nate’s own language?

I don’t think my opinion should be conveniently aligned with what the media may be saying

The irony is, your opinion is in alignment with what the media has been alleging, whether you realize it or not. You are free to come to your own conclusions and express them here, I’m fully in favor of speculation. But I will express an opposite viewpoint just as vigorously, and try to offer perspective re: why the team (coach, front office, training staff, etc) is doing something that you or others are strongly objecting to.

Next week we may agree about another Blazer-related issue, I’ve found this to be the case with many Bedgers, over the years. I even agree with some of the media, from time to time…horrors!

AK1984 could better answer this question re: McMillian’s time in Seattle. (I remember Rashard Lewis was a long-range shooter.) With Portland Nate has used Roy as the primary scorer, and tried to establish a post game with LMA…or Oden when he was healthy

Perhaps the reason wants Wallace to come off the bench and be the inside threat at the 4 is because is system is set up that way, and he doesn’t want to change it to accommodate Crash during a stretch run?

We can debate whether Nate will ever change his system to accommodate Wallace’s game at SF (I think I already know AKs response to that…) but if McMillian is extended we’ll just have to wait until after the lockout to see how that all works out.

my question is, if the offensive system is so complex, how come Camby was so easily integrated into the lineup last year, or how was Wesley integrated so easily this year but Rudy hasn’t managed to be integrated as a starter in three years? Also, do the first and second unit’s run the same offensive sets, or are they different because of the differing levels of talent at different positions in the separate units?

You seem to want to presume a lot about the complexity of Nate’s offense, while trying to project that other people don’t understand much about what the team does. Did NY wait to play Carmelo, or NJ wait to play DWill, or any other team that traded for a player one year out of an all-star game start the guy off the bench? Is Wallace out of shape, or is he a head case or is he dumb? Do you think it should take him weeks to play with the team’s first unit? I think he could be making strides in learning the system now, but think that what you are proposing is holding him back from understanding how to play with the starting unit which is a different offensive system from the second, like nearly all NBA systems, employed to give the team a different look and have a change of pace.

So if he will inevitably start, which you said you thought he would, why delay the inevitable? We don’t have to agree on this, but lets not turn this into a pissing contest about who is smarter.

rec

It must be so easy for you to keep score, when there are no gray areas to explore

But as he found out last season with Andre Miller, his coaching style sometimes needs adapting.

It was the first week in January last season and McMillan remembers being alone in his West Linn home, sitting on his sofa, chagrined.

Earlier in the day, he had a long, heated and pointed argument with Miller in front of the team.

…

"I just remembered sitting on my sofa, just thinking about it, because I felt bad about it,’’ McMillan said. "I really questioned myself about trying to change people. It’s not that I was wrong, or he was wrong, but it was like, where do we go from here?’’

That’s when McMillan realized he and Miller were essentially the same person. They could co-exist because they were so alike.

"I was like, I’ll be damned. We have a lot of things in common. We both just like to come to work and get our work done. Not talk a lot. Just go about our business.,’’ McMillan said. "I wanted him to lead and take the team by the reins and be vocal, but I had to realize he does do that, but in his own way.’’

The two let down their guard, and today both claim a mutual respect.

"I told him when I first sat down with him that I liked his style of coaching,’’ Miller said. "I think I know a good coach from a coach that’s not so good, and he definitely teaches the game the right way. Our guys are continuing to play hard and continuing to practice hard, because there is a level of respect there. When you have that respect, guys continue to work, and that says something about his character as a coach that he can get that out of his players.’’

All’s well that ends well. New Blazer players don’t always plug right into Nate’s system and start producing immediately. We’ve seen this with rookies and veterans, alike. But the coach does tend to draw the best out of most of them—and he generally puts them into situations where they can succeed—as long as they are sharing the ball and helping the team win games. Like Miller has done. From day 1.