LA cliff notes: Tonight I had to force the issue going to the basket I've been tired, this is my second game feeling decent, actually had my legs Wanted to work on being a leader, loud, and step up the team's defense When asked about Perk: Guys are going to learn, I've gone at it with every guy in the league, I'm not going to back down from anyone, and my teammates need that from me.
You mean their starting SG? Who sucks? It's no coincidence his absence led to a great game by Harden....who should be starting anyways.
What you (and others?) don't get is that MM has never said Nate is incapable of running, just that for 10 of his 11 years as a coach he was unwilling ... even when he had Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen in their prime. All I've ever read is him stating this fact and then drawing the fairly reasonable conclusion that Nate was very unlikely to change. If you can't tell that MM is both shocked and happy with the turn of events then you're blinded by your own personal distaste for him.
That's smart!!! Aldridge is looking like a hell of a leader. Looks like he's ready to carry the torch.
Here we go again. Nik telling me again the way it is and if I don't agree my opinion is based on emotion. Getting old, don't know what to say except you are wrong. If MM wants to somehow explain that he has told us about Nate all along and this game proves it . . . and you want to believe that, go ahead. I won't be so presumptive to try and explain that the only reason you agree is because you have some love thing for MM. Go Blazer!
So MM wasn't right about the team needing to push tempo and actually practice fast breaks and attempt to get easy buckets? And it's not just a single game it's 4 attacking games and 1 slow, jumper heavy game with a perfect correlation to wins and losses ... and that is the way it is.
Nate continues to show that he runs the right offense for his roster. Last year this team had a team built around Roy - then Roy went down, Aldridge found out that he can actually play like a superstar and we only got Wallace - so Nate had to change the offense mid-season - and the team went to more inside-out game with LMA, but the other ingredient needed for running - Wallace, with his defense and running game did not arrive until late in the year. So - the reason this team plays different is because Nate was able to design offense and work on it with the roster he had in mind. Before that he had roster built around Roy (not a great high-tempo player) or ZBo before (pound it in the post, slow down). The Seattle teams also never had a PG that could push the tempo (Luke Ridnour, anyone?) - or the defense that could really help with causing turnovers.
If the roster is not right for it - saying it means nothing. It's like saying that a team built around Andre Miller should be based on outside shooting. Well, duh. This team needs to run because it does not have a dominant ball-handling half-court player. That was very different in previous years.
Still averaged 20+ points and 8 assists a game. Not too shabby. Now I'm not knocking Nate mind u. Just saying gp was still good
James Harden is gonna be a very very good player. In fact without a doubt best sixth man in NBA by end of season.
And they say Ray Allen has a quick release. [video=youtube;5etP8d2x3aY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5etP8d2x3aY&feature=plcp&context=C372ba47UDOEgsToPDskKWuUPq8MT5lhPkYWomdqrD[/video] Holy shit. Give the guy 30mpg. PLEASE!
He should be starting. He's the second best player on that team. Thabo sucks, but will continue to start (when healthy). Not because he deserves to, but if you start Harden the ball hog Westbrook will freeze him out. Westbrook has a hard enough time accepting the fact that he's Robin to Durant's Batman. No way does he accept being Alfred to Harden's Robin. BNM
Just because Roy was at his best as a deliberate isolation specialist, doesn't mean that the system took full advantage of Aldridge, Batum, Miller, et al. Nate all but admitted that the team didn't practice fast breaks and it showed. Certainly they have more personnel who excel in an uptempo system now, but the truth is that Nate MacMillan coached teams have almost always played a very deliberate, methodical style of basketball ... until this year. Maybe it's a little bit of Roy leaving the team (though, they certainly were planning on him being here when camp opened) or maybe it's hanging around Chip Kelly, or maybe it was seeing his hero Greg Poppovich take the reins off of the Spurs last year as they sped out to the best record in the Western Conference, but it's more than just a personnel grouping changing, this is the kind of philosophical shift that only comes from a coach making a determined effort to honestly evaluate his own performance and admitting that a change needed to happen. Whatever the case, it's to Nate's credit ... it's mildly shocking, but it's great.
I think they're going to have to trade Westbrook. Not only is that team facing some pretty big luxury tax bills in the future if they tried to keep him, Durant and Harden (and Ibaka and Perkins and ...) but for chemistry's sake I don't think it's likely to work out long term. I like Westbrook, but he's just a little too much of a scoring point guard to peacefully coexist (or even maximize his talent) playing the role of a strict facilitator ... I have no proof, but my hunch is that he probably enjoys scoring more than he does passing.
