I like Canzano's piece on this concept. Will the Blazer management ever pull this idea and let a rookie bench player get minutes to see what they are about? I doubt it. I would like to see Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams play more. Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...f/2012/02/canzano_jeremy_lins_unlikely_s.html
It's a stupid article and a stupid way of thinking. We get, generally, 1 first round and 2 second round picks per year. For every Lin that is overlooked there's 500 players with more proven talent to draft each year. And a team is supposed to go looking for that 1 in a million player that comes along in the NBA every 5-10 years??? Another thought. Let's see how Lin is doing in a couple of years. Frankly, flash in the pan players are a dime a dozen. He's fallen into a perfect system for his game at a perfect time against a league that doesn't know his game, but will be defending him differently soon. Who knows, maybe he will be a top tier player for years to come, but to anoint him after a few games is idiotic.
Nate will never let him play through his mistakes. E-Will played good defense yesterday and had a 4 point possession. But that one airball and it was over, Nate said no more.
I don't see an "idea" in play. Canzano himself writes that D'Antoni was forced into it by injury. A head coach is really not tasked with "seeing what the team has" by throwing inexperienced guys against a wall (metaphorically) and seeing what sticks. A head coach is tasked with trying to coax as many wins as possible out of the roster he's given. So if Elliot Williams or Nolan Smith aren't good enough, in his estimation, to play over other guys on the roster, I wouldn't say he's failing at his job by not just giving them burn and seeing what happens (of course, he could be failing if he's mis-evaluating how good they are, but that's a separate issue). McMillan did play Batum nearly 20 MPG as a rookie, so it's not like he absolutely refuses to play rookies. Now, if by "Blazers management," you mean the front office...they could certainly just trade away enough veterans such that the rookies and second-year guys are the best options left. But that would probably be a total disaster unless it turns out Williams and Smith are great talents. In the more likely scenario that they aren't, you have no backup plan.
