I'm a Nate fan (for the most part,) and am probably giving fuel to the Nate haters out there, but here are Frye's thoughts on his ex coach (Frye does a radio show and this is someone who listen to him): Frye on the radio pretty much (sum of it) said that Nate only knows how to coach Nates type of player. And Frye said that hes not trying to say thats bad or good or wrong or right, he was just saying thats how Nate coaches
Pretty much. I think Nate is pretty rigid in his expectations for players and he does demand a certain amount of commitment to defense (OK, a lot of commitment) and I don't think he really likes or knows what to do with players who play soft or who think shoot first which isn't a ringing endorsement for his ability to coach, but in some ways I think he was given a lot parts who didn't really fit his way of doing things. KP seemed to have an aversion to trading for or otherwise acquiring "Nate guys" while he was here. I don't want to see a roster full of "Nate guys," but I get the feeling some overtures have been made to give him a few ... the Matthews signing in particular and the picking of Armon over Patty stands out.
It's true. Frye was totally a different player in Phoenix. The spacing in that offense is awesome. Of course you can attribute this to Nash but Frye played well with Dragic as well. If Frye is open from mid-range to three-point range it's almost automatic. He just didn't have a rhythm in Nate's offense. When he did pick-and-pop it was late in the clock and with a defender in his face.
Frye missed a hell of a lot of open shots in Portland, this seems like a copout to me. I think the truth is that Channing is a AZ guy.
Is it a Teams Identity" the correct phrase both Mike Rice and Steve Jones have used over the last 20 years when describing successful teams? I think that is it. Teams who win, know what their identity is, and what it takes for that team to be successful. I think if the coach, the players, or the gM have different opinions on what the team's identity is, well then they are screwed.
This is an every other year thing. Happened in NY, happened in Portland, will very likely happen again in PHX next year.
Maybe. Does Nate have a track record to justify inflexibility? Those guys do, if anyone does. I'm not sure Nate is anywhere near their class in terms of success, though. Ed O.
I think it's more of what Nate wants rather than his abilities to coach. When Oden went down last year and we had all those injuries Nate had to change his style- and we won over 50 games. He had to change his style when Miller became the starting PG. And we did better than before. So I think that while Nate has a system, he can be flexible when called for and still do well.
How many titles has Sloan won? This was his second time around with two US Olympian Gold medalists on the same team; he's 0 for about 12 in those situations in terms of winning an NBA title.
Channing is correct, and he should know. Nate only knows how to coach one way, and with certain types of players. It's the same thing, and it's not news. Kevin Pritchard tried to stock the team with KP types of players instead of Nate kinds of players. Nate won that battle by attrition. Frankly, I prefer KP kinds of players, but I'm just a stupid fan. I think it's awesome the Blazers are focusing on getting more defensive players, though. Defensive and rebounding, and pushing the ball, win games. I disagree that defense and rebounding defines "Nate Ball" though. Nate's 'offense' is just going to be along for the ride. Unless his new assistants instill a little more flexibility. My fingers are crossed.
Yeah... and he didn't really have 3-point range until after he left Portland. It is as if he is thinking he could always shoot the 3 pointer.
I love how everyone complains about the way Nate uses Aldridge, as a pick and pop player, what Aldridge is comfortable at, as opposed to forcing him into the post. yet at the same time, say that Nate doesn't know how to utilize players, and somehow it's his fault Channing didn't succeed here. Even though all Channing did was shoot jumpers here. People are actually wanting the soft jump shooting PF now? Also, as is evident by his time here, Channing, like Martell, and like Rudy, and seemingly like a lot of the people KP built the team with, excel through extended playing time. Not in bit, sporadic minutes a reserve might get. Everyone ignores that, and assumes Channing should have gotten tons of minutes here. To loft jumpers. And not be in the post. Amazing. Simply amazing. Sometimes, I think people just want to complain about Nate without giving any thought to what argument they are taking up.
The difference between Pop/Sloan and Nate is that there is enough flexibility in their offensive sets to allow for a bit of uptempo play as well as their usual slow ball. Nate is still afraid to take the training wheels off of our team.
