People say that lack of talent caused it and I don't agree. Except for Roy, this was by far the best roster on paper that McMillan ever had. My theory above says that the opposite, too much talent, caused his downfall. He finally had no excuses about inexperience or injuries, and was guilt-tripped into coaching his Kryptonite, the uptempo game. He's effective only with a sucky team. As I've said before, he veers toward the middle. He regresses to the mean, .500. He brings a bad team up and a good team down.
Maris, I know you wanted to keep him, so jump right in and say so. Sometimes we each refrain from disagreeing, but go ahead, I know you want to, it's okay! (I consider Maris my friend.)
No Roy in the locker room. No Roy on the court. The start of the year was amazing. We came back down to Earth and are now performing to our level of talent. Am I the only one not surprised? I know a lot of you irrationally believe the team will win every single game played, and if we lose its the end of the world. I had high hopes for this season just like everyone else, but I was prepared for us to suck. When you remove an All-NBA guard from your roster, this is what happens. Honestly though, you are retarded if you think otherwise...step back and look at what has happened to us.
I don't buy the no Roy argument. Roy was crap all of last season. I'm a big Wallace fan, but he had major flaws in his game this season. His play was vastly superior at the end of last season when we first acquired him. That makes the addition of the NJ pick even more impressive. I'd say mostly the problems with this team were terrible play by Felton. Andre Miller was our second best player over the entire course of last season, you can't subtract your second best player for your worst rotational player without taking a big step back. Now Millers lack of an outside shot prevented this team from doing anything in the playoffs, so I was in favor of the move to try something different. But that trade was a big gamble, and we lost terribly. Also, I think Nate was a victim of his own success. He was able to get impressive performances and combined synergistic efforts out of short handed rosters. His teams exceeded expectations. But that raised future expectations and eventually just like the housing market the bubble popped.
A small impact could be that it was a rushed early season and our team just happened to gel slightly while other teams were putting their act together. But our team fell apart while other teams fixed their problems.
This is stupid, even coming from you. Roy was an All-NBAer. Except for Lebron, this is the best roster the Cavs have had in years. Why do they suck? :MARIS61: :MARIS61:
Before we blew it up we were 9 deep in experienced, proven players. I read several columnists noting how strange it was that we weren't a lot better. I'm not the only one who thinks we had one of the better rosters in the league.
Your starting C was 38 years old and score double digits 4 times all season. Two of your starters were Bobcats, and they didn't make the Bobcats very good when they were young guys. Your starting SG was Utah's 4th best player. LMA rocks, but that's it. Crawford, in theory, gives you a 6th man of the year candidate. Batum is Scottie Pippen reincarnated, NOT! I don't know where you get 9 deep.
C Camby Kurt Thomas (your starter last year) F Aldridge Wallace Batum Rhino G Felton Matthews Crawford Just as I said--Except for Roy, this is the best roster McMillan ever had. Care to show me a better one? It's also a little above-average compared to the league. Most teams are rife with newby no-nothings, or undrafted short-term pickups, in key roles. Interesting that to disprove how experienced they were, you note Camby's age. His rebounds per minute suddenly decreased this year under McMillan, proving it was bad players, not bad coaching? Betcha they go up under the coach I alone wanted, Kevin McHale.
You complained about his points and I answered for rebounds. I should have said points. Might as well look it up...yep, his points per 36 minutes have doubled in Houston. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/cambyma01.html
And like I said, saying "except for Roy" makes the entire discussion meaningless and moot. It's like arguing why the Cavs suck... except for Lebron, they have just as much talent. Stupid post.
I was answering Denny's objection, that we're in the bottom 3 teams because we had a bottom 3 roster. I didn't bother to answer your stupid objection that improving 8 out of 9 top players counts for nothing, and gives McMillan an excuse to muff the season despite being the most experienced and injury-free roster he's ever had. Denny and I are talking. When the adults want to let you talk, we'll call you to the dinner table.
I'm reading that a handful of people feel this was one of the more talented teams on paper we've had and there is no doubt there was more emphasis put on running this year like many of the posters were calling for. Yet when the dust settled it doesn't appear this running idea was as great as everyone made it out to be. Been a tough year for sure.
You guys are insane. Our roster was nowhere near as good as when Roy was healthy. He was that good. We had a bunch of decent role players this year who are either over the hill or one-dimensional and suck when there is no star ball handler to control everything. It's pretty goddamn simple. Andre deserves a TON of credit for what he did last year. He picked up (to an extent) where Roy left off. That trade was one of the most major fuck-ups this team has made in a long time. Was a million times worse than drafting Oden. This is a guard's league. If you don't have an all-star guard, your team is pure shit and teetering on the playoff bubble at best.
I meant no offense by my post. The Blazers were one of the youngest and most talented teams. They drafted LMA and Roy and then Oden. There was talk of an embarrassment of riches and depth, with guys like Batum, Outlaw, Webster, Frye, Blake, and Przybilla. Plus all the EuroStash guys. The loss of Oden and Roy saw the team forced to consolidate those young players into older guys on their last legs. As others have pointed out, it was a train wreck, and it was one that happened in slow motion; a trade at a time. In spite of the craziness in the front office, they actually did their best to win the most games possible. This affected restocking through the draft. Your drafts have been weak because you didn't trade for draft picks towards the front of the draft and the guys you did pick didn't turn into starters. You had #1 draft pick rookie scale tied up in Oden and Roy had his $MAX contract. This hamstrung your financial flexibility; you weren't players in the LeBron/Bosh/Wade/Boozer/Amare class of FAs. I've always been a fan of Andre Miller, but he's a symptom of the problem. He's 35 years old, and you have a worse future making playoffs and middling draft picks with him than without. The Blazers are doing the right thing, IMO, in dumping 30 year old former all-stars for a look at young guys who were once high draft picks, plus one of those picks they get to make on their own, likely near the front of the draft. They're getting their fiscal house in order and beginning to play the roster management game by the best strategy. OKC and the Bulls have the two best records in basketball. OKC has a core of Westbrook, Durant, and Harden - all their own draft picks and developed with the team. The Bulls have a core of Rose, Noah, and Deng - all their own draft picks and developed with the team. The Blazers WERE on that same path but were devastated by injuries. They're getting back on the path, so I think the future is bright.
BTW, the Bulls in consecutive years traded away their #1 scorer. First it was Jalen Rose, then Crawford, then Curry. It put them in position to draft Deng, Gordon, Hinrich, Noah, Rose, LMA, and to sign a $MAX FA in Ben Wallace (a horrible move in retrospect). For the most part, they were shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic (good teams, not good enough) until they lucked into Rose. The point being you will find your next star and have the flexibility to sign a big-time FA, it's just a matter of when. "When" being while LMA is in his prime would be awesome.
Yeah, the team is on a great path finally. You build through the draft, it's quite simple. Fine tune through trades. The Lakers are really the only team I can think of that built through trades (kinda) by getting Shaq. Miami doesn't really count because they drafted Wade who later enticed LBJ and Bosh to town. Wade was the foundation. You really wanna know what went wrong? Drafting Oden 4 years ago. I still think it was the right move, but that was the beginning of the end. Roy could've saved it. It sucks knowing the team was doomed back when all our hopes were so high. Who would've thought in 2008 that we would be completely rebuilding (almost) 4 years later?
All but a few homers laugh at that statement. I guess I'm the only one here who values experience, but I think the pre-trade roster this season would have been a winner with a normal coach who likes to fast break.
I think this season was the culmination of the last 4 years of injurys and bad luck. You can only keep fighting for so long before you eventually become overrun. The straw that seemed to break our back this season was the Scott Foster BS call against OKC. That one moment seemed to change our outlook from scrappy and hopeful against all odds to disheartened. I do however have to give Nate and the team props for the last 4-5 years for keeping us winning and (somewhat) focused admist all the adversity.
