Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and roll!!!!!

Seriously this is becoming a joke. How many times was bayless covering Dirk last night? KP please hire Jeff Van Gundy he can at least coach defense! P.S Could you please teach the team how to throw an entry pass too, I know it's asking a lot but oden is a big man not a guard. He needs someone to be able to get him the ball. Travis he is on your team bud, just look and see if the guy is wearing the same colored jersey.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Well, according to Nate (and he reiterated this on the MSP this morning on 95.5), he doesn't teach his players to switch on the screens. To his credit, he acknowledged they switched way too much last night, and he blamed part of it on the fact that certain guys don't have the build or tenacity to fight through those screens rather than taking the easy way out and switching on to the screener.

He did say that he thinks Bayless is his best pick-and-roll defender at the PG position.

He sort of threw Sergio and Rudy under the bus a bit, saying they tend to avoid the contact because of their builds.

-Pop

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Last week in a video interview, they asked Lamarcus what he needed to improve on, and he said he needs to improve his defense, so he can guard different guys, because as a team, they do a lot of switching. Go figure.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I agree. I like Nate, I really do but this comes down to one thing: coaching. I get it, our players are young and they probably have to be coached about things like this but if they are continuing to not do it the right way over and over and over to the point where even my wife at home who knows basically nothing about basketball then there is a problem. "Honey, why is Bayless always guarding the big guy and Oden guarding the little guy?" Either the coach isnt coaching or the players arent listening. And I dont think its the players choosing not to listen. I dont want Nate fired or replaced, I just want it fixed. And it shouldnt take the whole season to get it done. If its so bad that other teams are game planning to expolit it as a weakness???? Thats a HUGE problem. And I dont want to hear about how all team have a hard time stopping the pick n roll cuz I agree with that but we are clearly one of the worst and that is not good.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Outside of Joel and Greg, what's the excuse for the others not from Spain?

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Most teams look for matchups to exploit, figuring that if your power forward can’t guard theirs they have an advantage. The Blazers have revolutionized that concept for the opponent. If you have a mismatch against any Portland player you can just run screens until you get them matched up against you. The Blazers’ point guard on your 7-foot power forward? No problem. A center against your point out on the perimeter? You got it! Call in the next 12 minutes (because you know we can’t do this all day) and we’ll throw in a case of ineffective double-teams, three or four instances of slow interior rotation on drivers, and a lifetime supply of not getting out to your shooters. Regular readers will know this is not a new phenomenon for the Blazers. But the Mavericks with their Dirk Nowitzkis and their Jason Kidds and Jason Terrys make it painfully obvious. How many times can you see Jerryd Bayless on Nowitzki before you throw your hands up in disgust?

all you need to know from blazers edge.

like i said...i still think we miss the playoffs. this team is simply not very good.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I dont think we will miss the playoffs but considering playoffs are all about the halfcourt game and exploiting matchups then this pick n roll BS concerns me more than just a little. I dont expect us to cruise through the playoffs or anything but it would be nice to give ourselves a fighting chance based to by trying to win on more than just youth and talent alone.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

If I'm not mistaken, they assigned Nate as the defensive coach to the Olympic team. Nate gets praised by other team's players and staff for his focus on defense. Nate knows defense and emphesises it. Considering they are the second youngest team in the league, I'm not surprised the team struggles on the defensive end of the floor . . . it would be a lot worse if not for Nate.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I don't think he necessarily meant they do it intentionally. What he was meaning was, he ends up switched a lot. All season long I have been lamenting about certain guards in the lineup not fighting through picks. When you cheat on picks, teams tear you up. Any time you cheat on a pick, it is an automatic switch. You cannot avoid it.

Look at all the positive things that can happen when you cheat on a pick:

Cheat under, big gets swapped on to a small. Bad.

Cheat under and big doesn't show in order to try and avoid the switch, and the guard shoots over the top for an easy jumper.

Cheat under the pick, and have your big show in order to pressure the guard, and the big man rolls to the hoop.


The solution is: Don't cheat under the fucking pick. Then it solves all that bullshit.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I guess Nate needs glasses because it seems everyone here, and the blazersedge guy, and several posters wives, and the NBA play-by-play, see Jerryd Bayless repeatedly switching on picks and getting scored on by the pick and roll.

I can't remember a player in Blazer history who has gotten burned this often by such a basic play, because our previous coaches would simply not play him until he improved.

Sergio and Rudy actually end up getting burned less often by it because they see it coming and go over or under it to recover.

Fighting through it only works for really big, strong guys, which Bayless is not.

Fighting through picks is why Steve Blake is sitting on the sidelines in pain.

He's got a lot of heart, but being only 6'3" Jerryd needs to use his mind more and concede there are bigger men out there.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Hey anybody buying that bridge in brooklynn Maris is selling? I heard the government might be giving a 10% tax write off in the new stimulous package. It would make it a great deal.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I'd have to agree about our defense being just flat-out terrible..

But here's to MB's blog about last night's game:

http://mikebarrettsblog.blogspot.com/

And people actually call him out on his blog for sugar-coating things. Kind of interesting stuff.

But yeah, some defensive principles definitely need to be changed. It gets old to continue to see opponents shoot 50-plus percent in the first half and take the lead.
And then it forces us to have to come back in the second half, and I swear that was the case last season when we always had to make second-half comebacks to win a ballgame.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

Boise Blazer - even my wife at home who knows basically nothing about basketball then there is a problem. "Honey, why is Bayless always guarding the big guy and Oden guarding the little guy?"

roydezlaw - Outside of Joel and Greg, what's the excuse for the others not from Spain?

blazersedge - But the Mavericks with their Dirk Nowitzkis and their Jason Kidds and Jason Terrys make it painfully obvious. How many times can you see Jerryd Bayless on Nowitzki before you throw your hands up in disgust?

Acting tough impresses the casual observer, but smart fans like to see smart players.

Running yourself into a brick wall over and over, only to be stopped by it every time isn't smart basketball.

It's just plain stupid.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

The question is: Where is the fine line between what Nate classifies as an "emergency" to switch and what the players classify as an "emergency" to switch??? If Nate just this morning said the Bayless is one of the better pick n roll defenders doesnt that seem to imply that Nate agrees with most of the switches that Bayless makes? If thats the cases then the players are simply doing what they have been coached to do right? Then this is a coaching issue and not a player issue.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I agree it's probably a lack of clarity between coach and player. Of course you want players to be tough and not take the easy way out, or let themselves be pushed around, but our guards are not ever going to be able to go "through" most picks simply because the picker is bigger and stronger.

Sometimes you just have to face reality and adapt.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

I guess what bugs me is not much that we are stuggling with the pick and roll because I agree that all teams struggle with it to an extent but more so that compared to other teams we are easily one of the worst teams at it and all teams struggle with the picker being "bigger and stronger". So why are we SO different??

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

There are a few things going on with our pick and roll defense and it's got a lot to do with our bigs (Oden being a primary offender, and LMA has been guilty lately) not fully committing to jumping out on the guard as he tries to come off of a pick and then also quickly recovering to the pick setter, the second component is that I don't think guys aren't doing much communicating on the defensive end -- a lot of that will only come with a few years of experience. Lastly I think we have to chalk up the struggles to not only youth, but youthful offensive minded players (for the most part).

I really believe KP needs to add some veterans with some defensive savvy before the deadline or during the summer for this team to take a leap, and at some point the players on the roster have to start holding each other accountable on the court -- Jerryd did this a little bit with Travis last night when he kind of called him out on the court for failing to pick up Josh Howard on an inbounds pass, which resulted in a quick non-shooting foul preventing the easy bucket he was about to get, it's a start, but also pretty damning that you need a rookie guard scolding a six year forward into keeping his assignment.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

The coaching sucks. Period. The offense is stale and moves like molasses. I really think our offense is hurting the development of the players. Rudy has become a player who blends into the background in our offense. He's almost irrelevant. "Rudy, stand in the corner and we might pass you the ball if there are 5 or less seconds left on the clock."

Greg should be getting A LOT more P&R's yet he gets very little touches and has to rely on his post game that's just not there yet.

Nate, you suck.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

As good as a defensive player that Nate was, I believe his coaching is WAY overrated.
Yes, I know, he was selected as a USA team assistant coach, so he must be good right?

Well, I think anyone on this board could coach the USA team and still get decent defense. Look at the roster Nate had to work with.

Its high time that people stop giving Nate the benefit of the doubt, the free pass based on his playing career.
As a unit one could expect this team to improve for an extra 2 to 4 extra wins per season for the next few seasons, based on youth, learning, growth as a team and experience. Yet, Nate seems to have found a way to quell even that growth.
All I see, night in night out, is a bunch of soft playing pansies who look like a varsity team compared to most opponents they face off against. I for one am sick of it.

For the benefit of these players and the teams future, Nate, you are the weakest link, it's time to go!

p.s. I'm not going to even touch the subject of his substitution rotations and adjustments.

 

Re: Earth to Nate!!! Stop teaching your players to switch the pick and role!!!!!

to be honest. rudy hasnt shown he can do much more than shoot 3s