Via the Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa, Darius Miles completed his fourth consecutive day of training camp and earned some approving words from his coach, Doc Rivers.
"Before practice, [Miles] was thinking about shutting it down for a day, but he was encouraged to practice and I thought he had maybe his best practice so far," said coach Doc Rivers.
The story behind the story has to be Darius's words about his previous training camp experiences.
"I just have to learn the plays and what I'm capable of doing, pick my spots to help the team out," Miles said. "I don't think I hit the wall in the first practice. When you first come to a team, you don't know what to expect, even though I'm a veteran player. This is the first team I've been on where, after you run plays, you get back to the other end, you sprint to the other end. Once I got used to the routine, I felt better and better.
"I'm used to being on teams where they have four or five straight two-a-days and they run you into the ground and you are crying for a day off. My first couple years in Portland, Nate [ McMillan] didn't give us a day off until December. I'm thanking Doc for this."
Given Nate's track record of over-achieving given his roster's talent level, it's a criticism that, overall, rings relatively hollow.
But with injury concerns (minor and major) up and down the roster, you've got to wonder whether Nate will handle things differently. To my knowledge the team ran 2-a-days last Tuesday through Thursday, with a shootaround on Friday morning, the Fan Fest Friday evening, practice yesterday, practice today, practice tomorrow, and a game on Tuesday.
For all the talk of a deep, loaded roster, take away even one of our projected starters (including Blake... especially Blake...) and, all of a sudden, that early season minefield looks infinitely more difficult.
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UPDATE via Lance (who else?): As always Nate is one step ahead. There was no practice today. So, the scoreboard on this one reads...
- Nate 1
- Darius 0
- Me -1 for even slightly doubting Nate and then driving over to the PF for no reason.
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-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)