I find it difficult to feel much sympathy for Nate; this is big boy basketball, he's well compensated and these guys get fired all the time. He had his run and presumably somebody else will soon.
Maybe not. That said, though, one would think Nate wouldn't have to be addressing the offense for the probably the 6th straight game.
Who was the offensive guru supposed to be? Bickerstaff? Ociepka is known for his defense and Williams for hustle? footwork? I don't really know about Williams. I didn't know we were bringing in 'offensive guru's'.
94.8 vs 95.7 Those are the points per game we gave up last year vs this. Ocepka is supposedly a defensive specialist, but the numbers aren't there. 98.1 vs 94.4 Those are the points per game we scored last year vs this year. Nate has said in intervies, and in print that he is responsible for the offense.
Really? You folks are really having this conversation about the assistant coaches when the player deficiencies on this team are obvious? Half the guys that made our bench tick last year are gone. Half of our squad plays the exact same position. We have no depth at PG, and Roy is no longer able to sustain the elite level of play he once played at, and you guys are now bitching about the assistant coaches? Buck Williams was brought in to coach the bigs, but there have only been 2 bigs to coach all year long until Joel came back the other day. That's more than half the problem in itself. Small teams get punked in the NBA, that is a fact. Every once in a while a small team will scrape into the playoffs and make some noise in the first around against a team that doesn't match up well, but for the most part, it is just a matter of time before they are punked and out. Then once you consider the fact that Portland is small, and not very good at being a small team, it gets worse.
Or you could say that the team that gave up in an embarrassing loss to Washington (one of the worst teams in the league) has all five starters returning from last years playoff team, replaced Martell Webster with a better player in Wesley Matthews has not been playing up to the level expected. The coach consistantly throws the players under the bus and blames them after every loss and stubbornly continues to employ strategies that are obviously ineffective and don't put his players in a position to succeed. He is also the same guy that yanks young players in and out of the lineup and destroys their confidence. Either Nic Batum is the next Scottie Pippen and there was good reason to make him untouchable in trade talks, or he is another highly overrated player whose confidence and trade value will be destroyed by the coach.
