Are you happy with the decision to have the same starters from last year? If no, please explain. I want to see how divided this forum is on their trust in Nate.
Personally, I just don't think you reward a #1 pick that has been in the limelight of "The Next Sam Bowie" nonesense, while working twice a day, 4 times a week in the offseason. He has clearly shown significant speed, footwork, weight loss and conditioning of someone out to prove to the world he is the true #1 pick in a deep draft. As for Miller, I think he is the best choice to start. I was able to live with him not starting, since it may be Nate trying to work Miller in to the system.
That's assuming Nate has actually made that decision. And he may have. I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I voted start Miller and Oden.
Academically I can see why Nate would chose to work them into the starting lineup slowly and let Roy, Miller, LaMarcus and Oden get their rhythm and cohesion worked out over time, but on the other hand I think you reward excellence and maybe take your lumps in the short term in the win-loss column now if it means they are better able to play with each other entering the post-season. I get the feeling Nate's trying too hard to appease bench guys and making this more difficult than it really is.
I get the feeling he's trying too hard to appease Roy. Nate does have a tough job to incorporate all these talented (and often similar) players into a cohesive team. It's easy to sit here on the sidelines and lob stink bombs; not so easy I'm sure to deal with these multi-millionaire spoiled egocentric athletes. I do wish Nate would keep his mouth shut about announcing what guys are going to come off the bench or start before anyone has even laced up their sneakers, like he seems to do every year. Nate, a little advise: Shut Up.
I don't see there any reason to appease the bench as much as making sure you incorporate the big three. You may lose a few games on the "learning curve" but sometimes the reward is much greater in the future.
To me, this is pretty straightforward. Changing the starters now will cause some rough patches. We may even lose a few games in November and December.....BUT.....when the play-offs roll around, we will be a stronger team than last year. We need to make the short-term sacrifice to reach the long-term goal.
I completely agree. There will be growing pains. They are the pains Portland should have actually felt two years ago but injuries put them off. Now it appears Nate will put off the pain a bit longer. Why he would do that is a mystery. I voted for Oden to start. I don't care as much about point guard since neither of these guys is the long term solution. Oden could be here for 10+ years. The transition to him starting is inevitable. Wouldn't it have been nice to have a third guy on the floor who could score and put a bit of defensive pressure on Yao last year against the Rockets? I think it would have been nice.
I seem to be the lone vote in trusting Nate. Here is my reasoning. Brandon is the starter at SG--period. If Brandon is the starter, he struggles with Miller in the lineup (handling the ball) and also independently with Oden (touches in the low post). Miller and Oden seem to work well together. So, it does make some sense to put Miller and Oden in the second unit--provided you bring them in early enough to get "starter" minutes. Second, if you start Miller, Roy, Oden, Aldridge, and [whoever], that leaves Blake, Rudy, [SF], Outlaw and Joel as the second unit. I think that unit will be very anemic. They looked really bad in Staples. Understand that I still want Oden and Miller at 30 minutes, just maybe with less overlap with Brandon.
Can anybody confirm that this is Nate's decision? Somehow a second hand quote of Jason Quick by MIXUM seems a bit thin...not even worth a vote in a forum poll.
I'm on the boat of I'll believe it when I see it. I do think oden should start and I could go either way with miller as I could see the punch off the bench however if he is a bench player he needs to get as much time as he can with oden so he can get him the rock. And I'm on the please get outlaw outta here! Boat. As much as I like him I really wonder how many hamsters are turning the wheel in his head during games.
It's second hand in that I haven't heard it come out of Nate's mouth, but I did hear Quick on yesterday's Wheels at Work show provide the statement that was directly attributed to Nate ... It may be a lie, but I'm not sure Quick would be endearing himself to anybody on the team or in the fan base by saying this if it weren't true.
I don't know if Nate plans to use the lineup that JQ describes....we'll see. If he goes with that lineup, and they win a buttload of games (60+), I'm good with it. If it isn't working after 10 or so games, Nate better be giving Greg and Dre a shot at starting, or he'll be losing this longtime fan.
I think Nate is too safe... Just like Blake, no mistakes but no risks or gambles. Blake doesn't turn the ball over much (except this preseason) but he doesn't force anything. He also has less Free Throw Attempts for his career than games played, which tells me he doesn't take the ball where defenders are. He doesn't put pressure on the defense... But he doesn't make drastic mistakes.
I actually heard someone today say that if Oden doesn't start they will have a hard time thinking of Nate as anything but an Assclown.
