Against the Rockets if both of these teams played rat ball the Blazers would have crushed them. Look at the two rosters and we have the talent. The team is out of sync, chemistry bad, yadda...yadda... You fix all that on offense, the team needs a fun game where your first 7 players finish in double figures. Just throw the ball out and tell them to go for it. The season is quickly becoming a grind. Everything and everyone is being micro analyzed. And this includes Nate. The dude needs to sit back, you can't decide lineups 3 games into the season. To little info. The players will decide who should start, let them play. I think the focus on turnovers is too earlier. The team needs to feel each other out. Learn what they can do now. Our players are more afraid of throwing bad passes than they are in focusing how to get the ball in the place best for their teammate to score. There are careless ball handling turnovers and there are bad passing turnovers. The ball handling turnovers are the bigger sin, IMO. Trying to get your teammate the ball is a necessary turnover. How do you know if you don't try? How do you score if you don't know? Oden getting 7 turnovers isn't a big deal. It means he actually had the ball in his hands 7 times. Now we want to limit his turnovers, so we do this by limiting the number of times we give him the ball. "Hey, only 2 to's tonight!" Yes but we only throw the ball to him 3 times. Who cares, he needs the ball. He'll learn. He's learning. He needs the ball more. You got to just let them play. Have fun, we don't need grind ball this early in the season. We need chemistry. Against teams like the Rockets and Thunder with this team you need to let them have some fun. Let them play. Worry about turnovers and defense against the teams that actually have the talent to match up with us. At least until the all star break.
Yeah! We Won! But I still think Nate should have used a different approach for these last two games. I look over at Channing Frye in Phoenix it makes me think many of our players could use a green light to work out their shot problems and develop chemistry with the players on the court. This kind of speeches and motivational tactic need to wait: It's a long season. I think the team does need to improve their defense but not until we gell more on the court.
Nice Sly and I agree. I think Nate has a "Choke Hold" on this team. Could it be that he's stressing too much on the defensive end, therefor we are a little out of sync offensively? I think we need to stress our focus on the defensive end, since D always wins championships. But more importantly, we need to keep a fire going under our players.
Miller is a great example. He loves to throw the alley-oop to players. He needs to be given the green light to learn what they like, what their tendencies are and they need to learn to look for the ball from him. While I may not agree with not starting him at the very least you have to put him in a position to rack up assists. Otherwise why did you get him? Right now, IMO, he's being handcuffed. Told to focus on fewer turnovers then to focus on pushing the limits of how and when to get his teammates the ball.
Yep it reminds me a lot of car racing. The true champions are ones that push their cars to their very limit. The safe drivers may fair well, but they will never win it all. I can say the same for Nate's coaching style. He needs to let loose a bit and let these guys play a little. Sure we may have more turn overs, but that will tighten up as we play that style more often. Running or "Letting Loose" takes timing and coordination. You can't ask for it every 1 or 2 possessions per game. When Miller is running the second unit, have them pressure D and force turn overs. Then give Miller the "Green Light" to push the team in transition.
Sorry, I do not buy it and I have been racing cars for quite some time. The guys that push their cars to the very limit are usually the ones that are the true champions - but the way they got there (the true limit) is by working on their biggest problems. Nate recognizes that what differentiates championship teams from entertaining teams is defense. This team, with 3 exceptions (Batum, Joel, Oden) - is built on offensive players. Nate is challenging them to get the tough part (defense) figured out - so they can take their game to the edge. The ones that go to the edge with what they are comfortable with are not the true champions. Want to guess how far PHX is going to go this year? Think they would go further than they had so far - playing with what they like to do and ignoring what they are not good at doing (defense). Tony Parker is an offensive player. You heard how Pop was breaking him at the start of his career to mold him into a player that can play for a fantastic defensive team. Nate is doing the same for this team. He is making them address their weaknesses so they can get on the rugged edge and keep it there. Jacques Villeneuve got the "gold" ticket from an early age as the son of the great and late Gilles Villeneuve. He got great cars in CART, in F1 and he won. Then he moved to BAR to develop a car - and went nowhere fast. He never had to deal with developing a car from scratch - and thus was a 1 time WDC because he was lucky to be in the best car on the grid for one year (without a much better driver than him in the same car - as happened the year before - when Hill won). Schumacher on the other hand was a no-one that had to do the hard work of building cars. He helped turn Beneton around, won twice there, went to Ferrari who did not win a WDC since 1979 and won 5 more there... If they get the pressure D right - the fast break opportunities will be there.
I don't think you quite understood what I was saying regarding running more. And I want to reiterate that I am a true believer that "Defense" wins championships. With that in mind, Andre Miller, Fernandez and Outlaw are all offensive players and Fernandez and Outlaw are very athletic. So wouldn't it be beneficial to have them pressure D more and create easy buckets off turn-overs? I am not asking the starters to run more, or even have the "Run and Gun" offensive be more than 20% of the team's offense. But when you have the players suited for a faster pace on the floor, utilize them to pressure D and run on every opportunity.
Fair enough. I just doubt, very much, that Nate tells them to slow down and not push if the opportunity is there. I am willing to bet that what Nate was upset about were the unforced turnovers - not the push the ball turnovers. But, what do I know?
Well speaking honestly, it seems you know a lot, so I take your opinion seriously. Hey I'm no coach and I doubt I could even manage a "Ball Boy" duty during the game. I like watching success and I doubt even the dumbest NBA IQ can't see it's hard for Fernandez, Outlaw and Miller to have their hands tied. I just want what's best for the players on the floor. Hell I doubt you will see a complete transition from the Black Team to the White team. I expect at least one of the starters on the floor for most the game.
<licks finger, grabs pencil & back of envelope> "Note #83941--don't mention auto racing around andalusian"...
