I called this the day Roy came out with the statement that he is done worrying about others on teh court, he will be focusing on his game and how he can improve. He basically opened the door to Nate starting Miller, and as I suspected, Nate is going to jump on it. This has always been about Roy. Posters put it on Nate (that's it's his call) and I agree with taht. But this is a leauge where players have had enough pull to have coaches fired . . . when your star isn't playing like he normally does and let's the reasons be known, it isn't easy to go against them. Anyways, if Miller starts, this confirms to me that Roy has been controlling this decision and not Nate.
blazerbanter #Blazers' Aldridge (right knee bone contusion) now listed as questionable for Saturday's game against #Rockets, according to Portland. #NBA
He is a game time decision, but Quick said he was jovial and appeared to be moving without and pain. Quick predicts he will play . . . Oden is more certain to play, but Quick expects LA will play too.
This injury has been lingering since early November...with nothing to go on other than an uninformed guess...my bet is he won't play.
And that's when I get my final confirmation that Nate needs to go. Do you think Phil Jackson let's Kobe tell him who to play? When to play them?
Only if we could trade HCP for Chris Paul. Right now all he'd fetch is a used box of moist toilettes.
How does Miller starting confirm that Roy is calling the shots exactly? because he stated he needs to shut up and work on his game, that means it's been him the whole time? I'm guessing Phil doesn't mind taking some helpful suggestions from his best player on the floor.
I know Kobe has personally had coaches fired. I think if Kobe fueds with Jackson, it will be Jackson who would leave or be fired. So yes, I think Kobe can and does control alot with Lakers. But Kobe can play with anyone and I don't see him making a huge issue with Jackson on who he plays with. I know Kobe likes Fisher and it would be interesting to see what Kobe's reaction would be if Jackson started Farmar instead and Farmar took shots away Kobe.
Well then maybe it was just a lucky guess that I predicted that after those statements by Roy, Miller will start (and I've never made that prediction after any of Roy's other statements to the press). All the other statements by Roy seemed to confirm the idea that Roy wanted to play with Blake and sure enough Blake starts. I have no inside knowledge and admit I could be reading way to much into Roy's statements . . . but it is strange taht once Roy stopped talking about who he plays with and actaully he doesn't care anymore (not going to be concerned with it) that all of a sudden Miller starts. Some will be convinced this is all on Nate, some (minorit yI'm guessing) will see this as being a Roy thing. Probably somewhere in between . . . Nate has the control and job of picking players and minutes but Roy has very much influenced Nate's decisions.
Why do you do this to Webster? Honestly. He's been pretty good when starting, and he loses his job for nothing? You know he's going to stink it up on the bench.
Like who? Del Harris? Kurt Rambis? Jackson has been there for a large portion of his career. Harris was fired because he couldn't win with Shaq and Kobe. Rambis was fired for the same reason. Jax has been there for most of the ups and downs with Kobe.
My bad, it was magic Johnson who had a coach fired: Johnson has some experience in this area. He asked to be traded in November 1981. Almost the entire Lakers team had revolted against then-coach Paul Westhead when Johnson said, "I've got to go ... I haven't been happy all season ... I'm going to talk to the man tomorrow and see if a trade will happen." That "man" was Buss. Westhead was fired the next day. But what do you think Nate, if Kobe had a feud with Jackson and said trade me or fire Jackson, what would happen?
I guess it would depend on how the rest of the team was playing, and how long it had gone on. Phil has won four titles with the Lakers, six with the Bulls. I think he has some clout. Plus, isn't he still banging Jerry Buss' daughter? Phil isn't the kind of guy you just toss aside. McMillan really hasn't proven anything in this league. Sure, he has taken this team from the cellar to the playoffs, but as some of us have said, that could easily be attributed to the team's talent level since he came on as coach.
