From Blazersedge twitter feed: B. Roy: "I called Coach [McMillan] + he said Andre and Greg are coming off the bench. I said, 'Coach, you sure about that?' He said, 'Yeah!' www.twitter.com/blazersedge If this is true, shoot me now. Thank God he's only on '1-year deals to prove himself'. It'll be easier to replace him with a real coach when the time comes.
Good Lord this better not be true. If it's then Nate should be fired on the spot! what a freakin joke!!!
Right now, I'm certain that's the case. Come the fifth game of the season, we'll see. A starter has to lose his spot because of superior play from his backup. Miller hasn't had a chance against Blake and Oden didn't beat out Joel last year. I know it's August, but this issue isn't going to be settled until training camp.
How could Nate even know who he's going to start? He doesn't. I wouldn't read any thing in to this. I'm waiting until training camp when the battle on the court begins, and then I have no doubt that Andre and Greg will earn the starting spots.
McMillan tends to say this kind of stuff, but when the chips are down he gives minutes to the guys who play best. Miller is such a vastly superior talent to Blake that this plan probably gets tossed out the window by the end of preseason. If we were talking about a young player like Sessions, I could see McMillan stick to his guns and start Blake over the season. As for Oden, I don't really care that much. We tried starting Oden last year, and his head wasn't always in the right place. As long as he gets as many minutes as foul trouble allows, who starts doesn't really matter. Hopefully Oden shows enough over the first month to make it obvious that it's time for Przybilla to come off the bench.
Nate, prove to me that you're not an idiot. For once in your career as a coach, please. For fuck's sake, don't do it.
Why is this a big deal? If anything, I'm glad Oden will be playing with Miller more - maybe Miller can actually get him the ball. And maybe coming off the bench will mean Oden can work on his offense against scrubs until he's more confident with it. So long as Miller's okay with this, it's a non-issue.
The big deal is the glaring weakness we will have starting out the game @ PG. And Oden is (should be) ready for big time. He needs to be a starter. He's also more of an offensive threat than Joel. We can't have two offensively inept players in the starting lineup. That just brings back the same problems as last year with our stagnant offense and the heavy loads BRoy and LA need to carry.
Nate will make them earn it, he always has except in the case of Roy who was just superior from the start. I think he is basically saying come in and beat the vets out. Nothing is earned. But at the same time, I have seen Nate fuck up before. So it may happen again. It probably will. He definitly will never be mistaken as a Phil Jackson/Greg Popovich.
Blake has done nothing to lose his starting position, nor has Joel! That said, this is politics 101. This will all change in about a month once the plays are learned. Wait.... we don't run plays... about two weeks then! Another thought might be that Andre will get Greg involved where Steve plays two man with Roy. Makes sense to have them starting together. I got from listening to Nate that Greg wasn't still in the shape he'd like to see. So GO coming off the bench makes sense. Imagine the pick up tempo of unit #2 coming into the game. Rudy,Andre, Outlaw, GO, and LA? Not to worried about this.... Nate wouldn't have pushed for Andre this way if he didn't want him to develop Oden..
Considering the way Batum has stepped up in Europe this summer, maybe he's ready to be the 3rd option in the starting lineup to help take some pressure off Roy and LMA at the start of the game... Nah, I'm not buying it either.
well this makes zero sense. Miller did nothing to lose his starting spot either! You play the best players. You blake homers are comical. Miller>Blake and its not even close people
