I seem to remember Pritchard coaching the team before. Wasn't exactly a thing of beauty. Or even a thing of utility. When I look back on that era, I remember my six-month-old son who always seemed to trap stray globs of formula under his chin, especially right before bed. It built up a ripe stench if you didn't catch it until morning--I called it "neck cheese." Pritchard is a fine gouda or Wenslydale among the typical NBA GM Kraft cheddar. But if you put him in charge of coaching a team for half a season, expect neck cheese.
Pritchard is a man that chooses his words wisely. The quote you're referring to was a response to a question he was asked while he was coaching the Blazers. While I don't have the exact quote I'm pretty sure it was along the lines of him not wanting to coach this team long term. Emphasis on the tense (being Telfair, ZBo, etc) . I would say that Pritchard has succeeded in dismantling that team he was talking about and is maybe one or two more pieces away from assembling a team capable of a decade of contention. Pritchard comes from the Larry Brown, Rudy Tomjonovich coaching tree. He won an ABA Championship as head coach and NBA Championships as an assistant. Coaching is in his DNA, I can't see him not coaching again, I can't see him not wanting to coach an NBA Championship team.
IIRC, Pritch "coaching" was more of an extended tryout for the team than anything....getting chemistry feels, etc.
He took over mid-season with the sole purpose of scouting the players. Winning wasn't even a concern. He intentionally put the team in position to draft high (see: Chris Paul) while inflating the value of players that needed to be traded. He did a brilliant job, Nash just failed to execute.
He really wasn't that great of a coach. He had Dick Harter as his defensive coordinator type coach, and Rick Carlisle as his offensive coordinator. Bird didn't do crap.
That's one name that intrigues me. We suck at defense, and he supposedly is a defensive genius. In the end, though, I don't hate Nate as much as some. He's done a good job building this team up, but to take that next step, it's still up in the air if he can take us to that elite status.
Wwll my logic was if it is so obvious that Nate is a bad coach, shouldn't they fire KP for not making a coaching change.
After seeing the names mentioned here as replacements for Nate, I feel incredibly lucky that we have him. Bake it!
Nate does instill professionalism and discipline into our young players. Great mentor, lousy ingame coach. Seeing as there is no one better suited at the moment, maybe its best to let it ride until the perfect candidate comes up. He sure could use an offensive assistant though. On second thought. . . Get a real NBA coach in here Mr Allen!
you mean the horrible offense that is 2nd in the league in efficiency? i agree that oden needs more plays run for him as that opens up the offense and makes it even easier for everyone, the problem for the blazers is not on the offensive end. the problem is that while blazers are an elite offensive team in terms of efficiency, they are below average defensively. getting oden involved more in the offense to get the opposing bigs in foul trouble and to get oden going defensively definitely is something that would be an improvement in that area, but the team really has to do a much better job defensively if they want to get anywhere.
I think we just need a Trade Oden! thread to complete the trifecta. Blazers Suck! Fire Nate! Trade Oden!
Trade Oden? He's just inconsistent and lacking in self confidence. Maybe he needs the chops back? "Mount Amish" is the man!
