Haven't you heard? He threw the team under the bus and caused them to miss the play-offs last season and then destroyed team chemistry by signing Andre Miller over the summer and refusing to make a consolidation trade. It's clearly his fault we're in this mess we're in right now. BNM
And we were 3 missed free-throws away from beating Denver. During our "terrible first 5 games" that was the only one I saw all of us on the same page. We should have won that game. So I think we would have 2 quality wins against playoff teams.
Nate started Miller because he had to. It was the obvious thing to do. I thought the Miller/Blake/Roy lineup was stupid at the time. I'm still not convinced it will work long term. I guess we'll see. There have been some definite positives with that lineup though.
Denver came out strong to start the season, but I have watched their last 2 games and they are starting to show some vulnerability. They came very close to losing in Chicago the game before last night. If Brad Miller had 0.1 more second on the clock, they lose. The last 2 games they have been lit up by fast PG types who penetrate the paint. They have also been giving up more points than they had been.
Denver had an amazing game from 'Melo against us - he was in super-duper destroy the world mode - and sometimes, superstars in this league are just like that - and there is not much you can do about it. While I appreciated Webster's effort against 'Melo in that game - that (and the Atlanta game) were the games we really missed Nic.
It is the opinion of many that the winning streak is due to Miller starting, not the 3-guard lineup. We haven't had a chance to separate the two (as I mentioned previously, we're 4-0 with Miller starting), so you can't dismiss the position so hastily. To be fair, Denver has played an extremely road heavy schedule.
You actually make a very good point. I think it has more to do with Roy accepting Miller starting, than Blake and Miller being on the floor at the same time. Well we will soon find out as well. After we are done with this road trip, we will be playing 3 more road games than Denver.
I think it's about smarter defensive rotations than anything else. Webster is a better individual defender than Miller - but Miller, Blake and Roy seem to be able to interchange guarding on the perimeter a lot better, imho - they are loading on one side to the other a lot better than what we have seen earlier in the year. In the 2nd unit - it added time for Bayless who drives better to the hoop than Miller, this year, and leaves Rudy to play more with the ball orchestrating the offense. The biggest thing on offense that happened with Miller in was that by forcing Roy to accept Miller as the primary ball handler until the 4th quarter - spacing is a ton better - it is much harder to sag off Brandon and Blake than it is of Miller.
You are correct. This is the same defense that the Sonics played when Nate was there. The perimeter players switch everything so they don't have to fight through screens. They try to force everything baseline that they can. Every once in a while you see the Blazers get a little confused running it, but overall right now they are doing a good job. It is more effective when they are setting picks on the perimeter than it is when you have a one on one creator type out there who doesn't want the high pick.
The additional thing that happens with it - is that it helps protect our bigs a little better from foul trouble.
This should help cut down on Greg's fouls, too. With the previous defense, Greg picked up a lot of fouls when jumping out to stop the penetration on the high pick and roll. If our three guards can do a good job preventing opposing guards from attacking the middle, and forcing them baseline, hopefully it will keep Greg in the game longer. The real challenge with this line-up will come when we play teams with a big, strong "small" forward (Denver, Cleveland, Lakers, etc.), In these cases, I can see Roy getting in early foul trouble if he has to check Melo, LeBron, etc. This is where Batum would come in handy. With him out, for those games, Nate may want to start Martell over Blake. I guess we'll see. BNM
