Note that this is a "best as can do" summary. Blazer beatwriter Jason Quick on the 'The Fan' this morning: Dawson: What do you think about the road trip? JQ: I think it's a really unstable team and it was an awful time not to have Nate there. This team needs an overhaul in terms of a trade or adjustments in the starting lineup. Nate was thinking about starting Miller before the road trip. I think a change will be made now that they are back. Blake has played himself out of the starting lineup...there is no way he should be starting right now. The organization needs to figure out why Andre and Brandon can't play together and that should be addressed starting this week. I don't want to place this all on Blake. Miller hasn't played that well either but he's played better than Blake. He came in as a player with a very high IQ but he has made some rookie mistakes and some ball handling mistakes late in games. Miller is not off the hook here but I believe he can help this team. To throw a wrench into it even more, Bayless is playing his tail off. There are other things going on here that I can't get into. Dawson: Worse than the Jail Blazers: (idiot) JQ: I have to be careful here. There were some things that happened on the road trip...this team just doesn't believe in itself every night. Their body language....they just haven't gotten over the loss of Oden. They can still salvage this season but that may not happen. Jaynes: It seems like injuries have complicated it but at some point, don't you have to settle in on starters and a rotation? JQ: Let's not forget how important it was that Nate wasn't there. Dean couldn't make major decisions on the trip. From today on, this is when this coaching staff was going to be measured....I'm not going to go any farther. It is really a 7-man rotation right now. There is no second unit anymore and you have to play the best players right now and Steve Blake is not that player. Jaynes: Some of Miller's ballhandling have been terrible but I think they need to try a traditional lineup with Miller and Roy and no 3-guard lineup. JQ: I think that is right and obvious to everybody. I think he could start tomorrow although I haven't talked to Nate in a while. There were issues before the injuries and they clearly miss Greg Oden and Travis as well. There are so many issues here. They need someone else to give thema contribution here....Martell...Blaek if he could ever make a shot. That margin for help has decreased a lot. They don't have that extra guy in Rudy or Travis to step in and make a contribution and score 15-20 points a game on occasion. Dawson: Any trades? JQ: There are several options out there but Kevin was talking about looking at all options, not necessarily a trade. They had scouts on the trip and are very aware of issues that have come up. I think there has been strong communication between managmenent and the coaching staff regarding the rotation. This team is not going to win a title this year. You hate to say it is a loss but I don't see this team making it out of the first round so I don't see them making rash decisions just to win a first round series. Kevin has been pretty patient in his trades during the season.
This is what bugs me about Quick. He hides behind ambiguity like there is a big story(s) he can't share. This "I have to be careful here" and "I'm not going to go any further" act is so old. Either break the damn story, or don't say anything. It's pour journalism, and it can only lead to fans speculating the worst - it's how rumors get started. You can't say "Things happened" and leave it at that.
Perhaps JQ has hear personal conversations between Nate and KP regarding a trade in the works but he doesn't want to reveal this information if a deal fails to go through through PA.
The fact that it took this long....and for it to get this bad... for some to see that Steve Blake does not deserve to be starting let alone get the 30+ minutes he is logging minutes is ridiculous to me. Quite honestly, I wonder now more than ever, if Nate and his coaching staff are the right group to lead this team to further success....
I got the impression that Quick was alluding to some players (Bayless, Miller perhaps) being pissed off. I am sure Bayless isn't too happy with Quick right now....putting words in his mouth and alluding that he was bad mouthing Blake\Miller....
Seriously, why the fuck does anybody take Quick seriously? The players who are smart (like Andre Miller) hate him and wouldn't say jack to him. Other players (like Stoudemire in the past) have just used him to push their agendas. He's a gossip columnist, he's not a serious journalist. If you listen to him and think "this confirms what I suspected" or "my goodness, something is deeply rotten in the state of Blazerdom" then you are a sucker.
Thanks for the post man, any information is good information. I know Jason Quick is saying his bit on what he thinks should happen, but we have watched this management and coaching staff for several years now, and I don't get my hopes up for a lineup change, or mid season roster change. We could draft John Wall and fucking Nate McMillan would start Blake in front of him.
Actually, they need to figure out IF they can play together, not why they can't. The coaching staff has long been operating under the assumption that Roy and Miller can't co-exist in the starting backcourt Yet, 25 games into the season and we have yet to see a staring backcourt of Roy at SG and Miller at PG - the line-up that should have been starting since day one. Blake's total suckage on this road trip may finally force Nate to do what he should have been doing all along - starting the better player. BNM
I didn't need for Quick to insinuate that this group isn't getting along together. I could feel it at the start of the season before everything fell apart.
Winning fixes everything. Losing rips the team apart, because guys who were content to sit no longer stay content to sit when they feel they could help. I have always felt that players who bitched about playing time when the team is winning have no ground to stand on. But players who bitch about playing when the team is losing and players are not playing well, have every right to make their voice heard. That is our situation now.
This is what Jason Quick actually said in the interview. I recommend people go and download the second hour's podcast and listen to it for themselves. Spanishfly did an admirable job transcribing, but there are some gaps and some things left out that modify context a little bit.
Justed wanted to add, I think Quick was being a little ambiguous about wanting to go on the record because the things he's aware of might have been said strictly off the record. I have no idea what those issues are, but I'd hazard a guess there's something of a disconnect between management and the coaching staff about rotations -- something alluded to later on in the interview.
I think you are spot on. Over the last few years we have never seen Blazers use the press to send messages to the coaching staff and or management. We have seen some form of Blazer players using the press for sending messages, however politically correct they may be worded, from the start of the season. Lately, it has become less politically correct and more vocal. The whole fact they are using the press, emphasizes the disconnect you speak of.
Yes. Here's the link you want. http://955thegame.com/Multimedia/Podcasts/ You might have to wait a couple of hours, but they are usually pretty good about uploading things.
That's exactly my point Nik. If it's something "off the record" than don't go there. Don't say "I have to be careful here". Maybe he IS in on some inside info that would make us gasp . . . or maybe it's absolutely nothing of consequence, but rather Quick's agenda of appearing 1) loyal to his sources and 2) that he's actually close enough to know what is going on behind the scenes. It's not the first time he's done this. I've wondered if he knows much more than we do. It seems that he's kept at arms length by the players & the organization and that he'll grasp at straws when he needs to.
I'm certain he doesn't know everything, but I'm sure he's privy to enough that he knows something. My guess is that most of his best sources aren't part of the organization at all and are probably agents of players and other sources around the league that hear things. As for him hedging in an interview, I don't really have a problem with that at all. When you are being peppered with questions about what you know or have heard it would be somewhat difficult to keep all of what was said in confidence and what is repeatable perfectly straight. You may not like that he intimates that he knows more than he's letting on, but that doesn't mean he's making it up. Clearly there is something going sideways with this team, no?
Maybe something did happen.............. and he doesn't want to burn bridges by letting it out. It's his job to inform the public, but he's already upset some of these guys and doesn't want to again.
