<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A strange malady overcame the Sonics when they visited Spokane on Sunday, and they have yet to recover from it. They are still in a funk from their 100-84 exhibition defeat against Utah. It was evident in this week's listless practices, Wednesday's foul-prone scrimmage and coach Nate McMillan's admission yesterday that his team is far behind schedule. "We're not where I think we need to be or should be in training camp," McMillan said. "Part of that is due to the players that are out there, and some of it is due to change (in practice policies)." Injuries to Ray Allen (stiff back), Rashard Lewis (plantar fasciitis, left foot) and Ronald Murray (strained left thigh) have forced McMillan to install a new defense and develop six new players ? seven if you count Nick Collison, who missed last season. The Sonics coach also said his team is not in shape to play the type of man-to-man defense he's trying to implement. The lack of conditioning, according to McMillan, can be attributed to a new league-mandated practice policy that limits workouts to three hours a day during training camp. The new rule forced McMillan to cancel a workout two weeks ago, and he wasn't allowed to hold a morning practice before Wednesday's scrimmage. Yesterday, he stood calm and cool after yet another less-than-perfect workout, but his anger has exploded at various times the past few days. On Tuesday, during the final minutes of practice, he verbally tore into his players about their lack of defensive discipline. Asked yesterday if he has been in a foul mood, McMillan acknowledged, "Maybe so. Maybe I am." He has admitted in the past he hates being handcuffed by outside forces. He knows he should remain on the court and continue mentoring a team currently made up of 11 players with fewer than five years of experience. However, the rules and a limited number of healthy bodies force him to betray his instincts. The old-school player in him says his team, which is 1-3 in exhibitions, needs more defensive drills to avoid being blown out as it was in two of its losses. McMillan figured that because the core of the team is returning from last season, the Sonics would be further along. He expected more from Collison ? a lottery draft pick two years ago ? and his two point guards ? Antonio Daniels and Luke Ridnour ? who are shooting a combined 30.4 percent from the field. "We understand that we're behind, and it's somewhat disappointing because a lot of guys have returned from last season," Daniels said. "Things may not work as well if we don't have Ray and those other guys in there, but we should still be able to pick up the plays. And right now, that's not happening." McMillan wants desperately to compete against teams such as Utah and San Antonio, which Seattle faces tomorrow at the SBC Center. But he knows that to do so would mean playing Allen 40 minutes "in a game that doesn't count."</div> <font size="1">Full Story courtesy of Percy Allen and the Seattle Times.</font> The last paragraph had me nodding, it really is like a catch-22. Are you trying to win, or trying to get your younger guys court time? You can't have your cake and eat it too. It will be interesting to see how the start of the season goes. This team is usually quick out of the blocks, before fading come the new year, and I'm intrigued to see if there really are problems, or if Nate's just making mountains out of molehills, so to speak.
Nate McMillian is trying to win. He is in the last year of his contract and will be fired if the Sonics have another year like they did last season. Upper management wants the young guys to develop b/c they have a vested interest in their development. The amount of time and money that NBA teams spend on scouting for the draft along with the four year commitments that most NBA teams give their first round picks makes the front office insist on finding minutes for these high round draft picks. These are the players that they will market for years down the road. The Sonics are in a very bad spot right now. Two of their top three players are nursing what could be serious injuries (I'm expecting Flip to tough his way through his) and w/o Lewis four of the five starters will be ask to play above what they are capable of playing. There is a reason why we've been losing in the preseason. Right now we aren't a good team. For the Sonics to be playoff contenders we have to keep our three core guys Allen, Lewis, and Murray healthy and hope that one other guy really steps up and has a career year (the likely candidate would be Fortson if he could average in the 13 point 11 rebound range). An opening day starting line up of Ridnour, Allen, Radmonovic, Evans, and Potapenko will be the worst starting line up in the league outside of maybe the Bobcats. Murray and Lewis, get healthy soon.
A question for you, Shiek, purely out of curiosity. Do you think the current situation is fair on Nate, and if so, would you agree with him being fired if we don't make the playoffs. I ask this as I'm interested to get a perspective from someone who coaches at a good level of basketball, like yourself.
I definitely think that this situation is fair for Nate McMillian. He has been coaching this team since 2000. He is currently the longest tenured (with one team) black coach in the league. Not that it should make a difference but last year Lenny Wilkins, Isiah Thomas, Paul Silas, Dennis Johnson, Bill Cartwright, Doc Rivers, Frank Johnson, Byron Scott, Randy Ayers, and Don Chaney were all fired from their respective teams. What do they all have in common? Although some of them have been rehired, their former organizations really gave them a short leash. I believe that their is still resistance to hiring black coaches, especially in other sports. This is very disturbing to me. I'm proud of the fact that the Sonics didn't give McMillian a short leash and have given him an opportunity to fail. But at the same time, I think that the team is tuning him out. Even talking to David Young, I got the sense that the players don't have the proper respect for him. McMillian has been coaching for almost four years and the Sonics have made the playoffs once. Interest in the team is at an all time low. Why should we keep McMillian around if we aren't getting our targeted results? He may be a good teacher, but good teacher need to be able to get their students attention on a regular basis. I hope that McMillian doesn't get fired b/c I want black coaches to continue to succeed in professional sports. It is time, however, to stop making excuses. The personnel that the Sonics have is enough to make it to the post season. Although we are young, we do have an abundance of talent on the perimeter and we have one of the best rebounders in the league on the interior. McMillian has to make it work, and stop trying to play mind games with his players. He really isn't that smart for that. If he can't make it happen this year he and all of his assistants (along with Rick Sund) should be fired.
Short leashes are not just for black coaches, nowadays every coach is on a short leash. Eric Musselman, Tim Floyd, Rick Carlisle all fired even though they had success. Agreed that Black coaches are on a shorter leash to a certain extent. It's business and owners want to make money and so become impatient with their coaches. Players are more marketable than coaches, so whenever things go bad the coach becomes the scapegoat even if he is on a team with minimal talent. Nates leash is longer than most coaches in the league, because he was a great player for the team back in the day and the fans for the most part like him. It will be tough for Nate this year to earn an extension, though probably the most complete team the Sonics have had during nates tenior, this is also the deepest western conference we've seen in the past four years. I think Nate will be the coach of the Sonics next year if he can even remotely have this team competing for a playoff position. Of course this team is going to struggle right now with Shard and Flip out. That hampers our team?s depth dramatically. Forcing less talented players to log big minutes (Vlad, Young...). I don't think this losing streak is anything to worry about. Nate is implementing a new system and some of the players are having trouble adjusting right now and, Murray should be back by the start of the season. The only real concern is Lewis's foot.
