This was the last chance for Nate in my mind anyways and he failed miserably. He seemed to pull out a pretty good regular season but come the Playoffs, he looked clueless. 

I haven't a clue as to why the decision to give Nate a contract extention during the season was ever a good idea. They should have waited until the season was over to make the decision but now we are stuck with Nate for the next few seasons. We are stuck with his slow-paced style of play where we don't run unless we have forced a turnover. Where the players still can't set a pick or rebound the ball. Or know how important it is to hit their wide-open shots in the Playoffs. We are still hopelessly average on defense and mind-numbingly boring on offense. Without Oden and Roy it does not work but why build a team so dependent on our most injury-prone players? Both Oden and Roy are no longer pieces to build around therefore the roster has to change and change dramaticly not just the odd in, odd out either. Naturally the offensive and defensive system has to change as well, that goes without saying.

We all know the starting lineup as it stands today but none of us know if Roy will still be a Blazer in November or if he can win the starting SG spot. Let's say, for the sake of arguement,  that the Roy we last saw in the Playoffs is the one we're likely to see in November. Thats not good enough to start just good enough to be a slightly iffy backup SG who is capable of having the odd 20pt game. But this isn't about what we can expect from Brandon but the entire team.

The same goes for Oden really, except we really have no clue as to when he'll actually get on the court and what he'd be able to do once he does.

Therefore we shouldn't go into next season expecting anymore than that from either of them just to be on the safe side, right or wrong?

Without Oden and only 1/2 of Roy we don't have a team capable of doing anything in the Playoffs. Sure we'll have Wallace for the entire season but its not like he's a great Playoff performer either nor did he play real well this time round with us. But it wouldn't be surprising if Gerald does well next time he plays for us in the Playoffs.

Fact is we've got to stop expecting the injury-prone players to stay healthy for the entire season, we need to be prepared for when they get injured.

My Plan would be:

My feeling is that we no longer need a pass-first PG like Miller to lead the team, we can be better with a scorer. We'd be to run the pick-n-roll, finally. We'd also have a player that is a one man fast break as long as he has speed. That's why I hope that we go after Brandon Knight real hard. I'd trade almost anyone, except LMA, for Irving but since we aren't likely to entice Cleveland to giving him up I suggest trying for Knight instead. Even Kemba Walker would improve us but his small size bothers me but I'd still take him.

Even if we can't move up high enough to draft Knight or Walker I'd want us to trade Miller for a better scorer perhaps Felton or Stuckey. Fact is Miller is the safe option for Nate and it hasn't worked so its time to make whole sale changes. Trade Camby, Miller, Rudy, Mills, Babbit, Oden and even Batum to bring in more athletic players. That's what I'd like to see, will they do something this drastic? I doubt it but this group of players have failed to get out of the first round and I don't see this group doing any better next time, do you?