I keep hearing on the radio that the Blazers have chemistry issues. Really? I'd say it's more a matter of undiscovered roles.
Now for my real response. All through the preseason, Nate should have had a rotation. Toggling the lineup like he did set us back. Entering the season, everyone should know what their roles are, and I'm not sure they do. I can't be the only one who thinks this way? Settling on a line up early and going with it would have been a better way to do things, IMO. All of the other top teams do it this way, so it must work....right? Things will right themselves eventually, but it didn't need to be like this. Over the last few years, this seems to be a problem with us. Outlaw over Batum, Jack over Blake, Blake over Miller. Looks like it's a pattern with Assclown, and it's something we need to get used to.
You aren't. He should have been going with Andre, Brandon, Batum, LMA, and Oden all through preseason with maybe a dose of Webster for Batum. Those are the five best players on the team and they need cohesion with each other while the rest of the team figures out how to operate best in their own roles. If we were still struggling with Andre in the lineup, or Greg was bad, it would have been so much easier for the team to go back to Blake/Brandon/Batum(webster)/LMA/Przybilla than the other way around. That team has chemistry with each other in the event that the lineup was absolutely necessary for a variety of reasons and they didn't need time to practice with each other. The lineup I and you desire, however, does and that isn't a bad thing - it's just a fact of life. McMillan often seems to come out the gates struggling on a rotation and lineup, flip flops and messes with the minds of the team. He's done it several times to start the season as you said.
Over the past few years, there have been only two constants - Brandon and LaMarcus. They, and Greg, are the pillars. The PG and SF positions have been in flux. I suppose, with this team still being close to the youngest in the league, that was/is to be expected. That said, Andre should start. And, I believe he soon will be.
I do not lay all the blame on Nate. Keep in mind that last year we had virtually the whole team in early to start playing together before training camp actually started. This gave them time to get familiar with each other and, I believe, led to people understanding better each other and how to work together. As compared to last year, there were some seemingly small, but significant changes. Greg Oden is by no means the same Greg Oden as was on the team last year and I think everyone is still trying to learn how to work with him and incorporate him better into the team. Realize that this is a team that has had Joel in the center for the past several years so having the center be part of the offense is no in the mindset. We complain about Greg not getting touches but I believe that will gradually change as the team gets to know each other, their true abilities, and roles, better. Miller coming into camp was a huge change from last year. Last year Blake was our starting PG because we just didn't have a better option. Sergio - great passer but can't do anything else. Bayless - had his chance and didn't produce. Sticking Miller on the backup squad in some ways makes sense as it disrupts things less but let's be real, while Miller hasn't been outstanding, he has been better than Blake (of course, Sergio may be better than the way Blake has been playing). Why not just bit the bullet and put Miller with the starters and yes, there will be discomfort and adjustments for a time, but put your best guys together so that they get used to each other and thus, are more comfortable together at crunch time. Having Webster back also brought a new element into the mix and he has shown improvement and hunger. This has lessened Outlaw's minutes, and correspondingly, the Outlaw scapegoatism. I'm not an Outlaw fan but with the more limited time he is getting thus far this year, I'm fine with him. Really, although largely the roster is the same, what changes there are, are significant and will take quite some time for the players to really adjust and grow into their new roles and learn to work together. For Nate's part, I believe he tried too many things in pre-season and didn't do the most important thing, get your primary guys used to playing together. Yes, some of our guys who haven't seen time yet got experience and evaluation but pre-season is about preparing the team for the season as well as testing. Our testing/evaluation time in pre-season seemed to vastly outweigh the prepare for season time and it is showing now, and probably will for at least several more weeks. Guess I've rambled enough. Them's my thoughts and I'm sticking with 'em. Gramps...
When Blake came in for Miller with about 5 minutes left was anyone else on edge thinking about how Miller felt about that? If so, how did you feel when about a minute and a half later, Miller came back in for Blake? If I were either one of them, that would have seriously been messing with my head. Especially Blake.
This is why I call Nate the Anti-Phil Jackson. Nate's good at some aspects of coaching, just not player management.
Gramps has never written a post that long in his life, and a 90 year old leopard cannot change his cancer freckles. That is definitely ghost written. Probably by the nifty computer program that does the game. There may be no real Gramps human behind his program, I read it here, can't remember the day. http://hoopshype.com/rumors.htm
KP is no chemistry major. He collects as much talent, which can be a good thing, but he did it with total disregard to playing time. Bayless is good enough to play but he just doesn't fit this team. He goes out and tries to play a role that really isn't him. His development is stunted. Outside Roy/Aldridge there really are no defined roles.
Why, because he is right? I have watched every Boston game so far this year except for one half of the Cleveland game. They come in with a scowl on their face, every player from top to bottom plays very physical, and they don't stop when they get you down by 20, as Charlotte found out when they lost by 40+. They kicked the shit out of Chicago last night, and last year Chicago took them to 7 games in the playoffs and 6 out of the 7 games were overtime games. They walked all over them. The problem with this team as I have said many times, is this team has too many nice guys on it. Or at least too nice on the court. For instance, Chris Paul is a very nice guy off the court. But on the court he turns into one pissed off Mo-Fo. This team could use more of that.
I noticed some bad chemistry between Roy and Rudy against Denver. At the start of the 4th quarter after Rudy hustled for a rebound and gave it to Roy for Roy to ignore Rudy again as he drove to the basket, TNT's camera caught the look on Rudy's face as he turned to run back down the court, it screamed to me, "I hate playing with this ball hog". Luckily, Nate chose that moment to take out Roy and Rudy went lights out for a few minutes. I may be totally wrong but that was my thought when I saw that look on Rudy's face. He grew up playing team basketball and Portland plays Roy basketball.
Interesting you bring that up. I know Rudy often passes the ball as soon as he gets it, just to move the ball. Most coaches will preach that you don't hold the ball when you get it, do something with it, anything but stand there with it. They don't care if you dribble attack, or pass, or shoot, as long as you do anything but stand there and do nothing with it. At the same time, I think it's high time the team actually come to terms with the fact that Brandon Roy is the best PG on the team, and they should play Roy and Rudy together as starters. Rudy works best off the ball. They can share the duties of bringing the ball up court. Rudy showed he could stay in front of Ty Lawson, who is one of the fastest players in the league in the last game. So why not start them both, and cause the other teams the discomfort of having 2 6'6" guards to deal with at the beginning of the game.
I think, after Blake threw a pass straight out of bounds and got burned by Denver on the next play, that he knew why he was being taken out.
Great point and it reminds me of why I hate it when some of the other players say something like:"It's Roy's team." It's fucking pathetic if you ask me. A winner does not need to diminish his role by supplicating his importance to another player, albeit he of more talent. The team has too much talent on it not to take advantage of players who have the hot hand or to not play to a style that leads to more transition. The day that Roy plays more like he did at UW, the closer this team becomes to a title contender.
not quite Channing's "worst 23 seconds in basketball history" from last year, but I agree....Blakey's mind wasn't being messed with. And I applaud Nate for that. Last year he would've left Blake (same applies to Outlaw last year and Jack and Webs the year before) in for so much longer, continuing to play poorly and digging us a hole, rather than just sitting them down for another opportunity later. I remember one game specifically where we were sitting pretty close, Jack (who had been playing erratically) did his "step on the line" turnover, and looked to the bench to see if that was the straw that was going to make him get benched. Nate left him in, and my wife looked at his face and said "I think Number One's about to cry".
