<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PHOENIX -- The call from the Trail Blazers front office has yet to come, so Nate McMillan says he will continue to shuffle his young players into the game, knowing that they are overmatched and not ready to assume the roles they are being asked to fulfill. But after the Blazers' humiliating 130-85 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday -- the fourth-worst loss in franchise history -- one had to wonder whether team president Steve Patterson was beginning to shuffle the Rolodex on his desk in search of his coach's number. The Blazers promising start has deteriorated into a free-fall of five consecutive losses, and with the uncertain but dismal diagnosis of leading scorer Darius Miles' right knee injury, neither encouragement nor change appears on the horizon. "As I told the team, we have 15 guaranteed contracts . . . but we aren't bringing in anybody, and we haven't talked about bringing in anyone to replace Miles," McMillan said. "This is the team we plan on going with, so we gotta continue to work." But does there come a time, after so many losses, many of them lopsided, when the rebuilding effort becomes counterproductive? "That will be a conversation that maybe we have," McMillan said. "When do we make the decision to change? We haven't talked about that. That's something when I'm called in that we would talk about." So while McMillan's phone remains quiet, so does the promise of what was hoped would be an exciting season of growth. With Miles out indefinitely -- the team expects results at the end of the week from a second doctor -- the learning curve of players like Martell Webster, Viktor Khryapa, Sergei Monia and Travis Outlaw is forced into the forefront for everyone to see, warts and all. </div> Source
