Nate to make staff changes

I would rather go with some up and comers. Bill Laimbeer amazingly enough is considered a coach on the upswing. Bill Cartright also would be good.

 

I keed. I keed.

 

I'm down with Bill (oops -- Laimbeer that is). Hated his guts as a player, but I'd love to see him on our staff.

 

All you have to do is look at the Seahawks to get an understanding of what PA is doing. And I do believe it's directly related to his health. He wants it all, and he wants it now.

 

Apparently it's beat up on MM day?

 

This is, of course, why you hire a retread scrub coach to the coaching staff.

You know, a guy who hasn't even sniffed the finals.


The Seahawks grabbed one of the best college football coaches ever.

The Trailblazers are hiring a dude with a life time winning percentage of 44% and who has never had much success in the playoffs (his teams only made it twice in all the seasons he coached.).


I don't see the two as very similar.

 

I don't think the choice of assistants is coming from on high (though a new GM might want to install a guy or two). To me this seems like a pretty clear indication that Nate is now firmly in the hotseat and he's got exactly one year to take this team from promising, young, good regular season performer to savvy title contender, nothing short of a WCF appearance will save his job I'd wager. So the edict probably came down from up top: "get better, shake things up, it's on you now," I think Allen likes Nate and respects him, but he wants results. Nate gets to select his staff and live with the results, if that means he's comfortable with Bernie Bickerstaff as his lead assistant, then so be it. If Bickerstaff can be a valuable voice helping Nate make adjustments in a playoff series so be it.

I'm just happy that this signals that Allen still wants the team to achieve great things and that he's not simply sitting back and letting the chips fall where they may -- after all it's his millions of dollars that he's dumped into the team, he can make whatever demands he likes -- if the end results are that this team is pushed harder to be better and they get there with or without Nate and with or without KP then so be it.

 

This could also be as simple as they felt that players were starting to tune coaches out. If coaches felt they were no longer being effective, it is time to change. Coaches often recognize this and know it is time to move on.

 

I do. It all smells of desperation.

 

Bernie was a pretty average coach when he was in Seattle. The good news is that (at least in Seattle) he likes a post up offense. So much so that he made Benoit Benjamin a primary scoring option (ouch!). This could be a good thing with Greg returning as a hungry, healthy beast. Maybe BB can help Nate convince Brandon that the team's championship hopes go through the low post when Greg is healthy?

The bad news is that his walk the ball up and throw it into the post offense, went against Gary Payton's strengths, which damned near got GP run out of town. This will probably be bad news for the fans that want to see more running on the offense (me included.)

Nate might want to watch his back. When Bernie was in Seattle, he brought KC Jones in for an assistant coach. By the end of the year, KC had taken over for Bernie, who had some health issues during the season.

Hope this works out better here than it did in Seattle.

Go Blazers

 

Originally, I was a little upset about all the changes (KP, Monty, Dean, etc.) -- but now, I think it's okay. It's time for everyone to put on their big boy pants and grow up. That trophy is not a goal that makes itself easier because it really likes high-quality citizens. It's as hard for the good guys as it is for the bad guys. If we're going to continue being good guys, we have to be good guys that win. Results.

Ed, you should be proud; I've finally found your bandwagon.

 

I´ve always like Monty and never been real impressed with Dean. Not surprising to see Monty get a head coach job and Dean let go.

 

Just a thought, but what about Terry Porter?

 

Unfortunately, as far as I know, TP never played in Seattle. Sorry.

 

The Blazers played the Sonics 4 times a year during the 10 year span he was with them, 2 of those times, each year, in Seattle. How he managed to miss all 20 games there is a mystery, but also a mystery that should be celebrated. I think they should hire him anyway, just for the Chuzpa of avoiding all those games!

 

Ha, ha! I guess I could have worded that better. Especially around you mugs.

 

Ben at Blazer's Edge has a pretty comprehensive take on all the coaching changes and he seems pessimistic. I myself am not excited about Bernie Bickerstaff. If there wasn't someone more innovative available maybe they should have stuck with what they had. Maybe it makes sense to Nate though; i was thinking how Bellotti brought in a younger innovative assistant coach and soon he found himself in a different job that he didn't really like.
http://www.blazersedge.com/

 

From the story in the Oregonian it doesn't sound like he has made his final decision: "McMillan said he has a short list of candidates, but can not speak to some of them until July 1, presumably because they too are under contract through June 30."

 

So since he is pessimistic, does that mean he doesn't know what the hell he is talking about either?