IMHO I don't think that Nate made the best use of our preseason games this year. He should have tried to integrate Miller into the starting unit instead of trying to see if Blake or Miller should be starting. Everyone knew what the answer was going to be. Miller was always going to be our starting PG. It was a colossal waste of time. We came out of preseason without knowing who our starting lineup was going to be in two of our 5 starting positions. These games against lesser teams has been like a second preseason for the Blazers. The scheduling gods did us a huge favor. We've had a chance to pick a lineup and begin to fine tune it. I have no idea if Blake is going to stay in the starting lineup but now we have no doubts as to who 4 out of 5 starters will be. Now the players are developing chemistry, learning each others traits, likes and dislikes. Now Nate is adding new plays to help this. Against better teams this would have been more difficult. Look at Oden for instance. Against tougher teams Oden was having foul problems. These run of games against easier teams has not only been a huge benefit to Oden it's also shown the rest of the team just what a huge factor he can be. I know that people have been saying that our current win streak doesn't mean much because the teams we've played suck but I think this was the best thing that could have happened to us. We needed a second preseason.
Yes Stern gave us a break this season. Maybe it was to make up for the incredibly hard schedule last season? HAHAHAHA. But I get where you are coming at. We have solidified 4 positions or actually "starters" since some are playing out of position.
I admit, I haven't seen every game, and saw even less of what the Blazers did during preseason - but I don't have that much of a problem with how Nate approached preseason. He was faced with integrating a new point guard, dealing with the questionable readiness of Martell Webster to fill in for the suddenly unavailable Nicolas Batus, and there was the whole question of who to start at center - Oden or Przybilla? That's a lot to figure out and simply handing the keys to Andre Miller, when he was obviously not playing well with Brandon Roy to start with, wouldn't have been smart. I think what we're seeing is the middle of a gradual evolution of the Blazers. Before long, we're going to see Miller/Roy/Webster/Aldridge/Oden... but it's not quite ready. And it won't just take this "second preseason" - it'll take until the end of 2009, I bet.
