Tuesday's game against Miami is huge right now. If they come out as listless against Miami as they have in the last three games they are going to get destroyed. I know this has been mentioned before but December is a season in hell for Portland this year. A large number of road games against decent to excellent teams. Home games against teams they have a lot of trouble against. Frankly I would be glad if Portland went .500 for the month. For that to happen they need to start to right the ship on Tuesday. If they don't it would not be surprising for Portland to come out of December with a loosing record.
You have to take some of the comments by players after games with a grain of salt. It has to be frustrating when things aren't going well. What it appears to me is that the communication right now isn't flowing. Both sides appears to think the other should do something in order to right the ship. Finger pointing is not good for a franchise. It kind of reminds me about when New Orleans found out they weren't as good as they were the year before. They let the whole year and part of the next one roll on before they moved Scott.
Actually, given his 6 minutes of PT, it looks like the coach that's painting him as the scapegoat. Blake plays like absolute shit against Memphis and the first half against Utah - and Miller is the one who gets benched. Miller may not have played well in his 6 minutes against the Jazz, but he certainly outplayed Blake in the 2nd half against Memphis. Miller's ability to get to the FT line and score points with the clock stopped was one of the main reasons the Blazers were able to cut the Memphis lead to single digits in the 4th quarter - well until Blake bricked his only two FT attempts of the game. Blake's PER is 9.9 and Millers is 14.5. Yet, it's Miller who gets benched. Yeah, that makes sense. Nate's boneheaded devotion to Steve Blake boggles the mind. How a guy playing that badly gets a free pass while a guy who produces 50% more gets benched makes no logical sense. BNM
Yeah, but we've been saying this since preseason. Now that we're 19 games into the season, it's just the same story. Miller is the better point guard, Steve Blake sucks, and McMillan won't go away from his Blanky. Nothing has changed.
Which is EXACTLY the problem. If the coach is too stupid and boneheaded to even try playing his best players together at their best positions, it's time to look for a coach who will. BNM
A-effing-men. Trouble is, KP has these guys surrounded by rhythm jump shooters with no real defensive specialists, or real garbage/hustle type players. JB kind of does this when he comes in (all 5 minutes a game anyway), Dante kind of gets this, but he's a rook, other than that we have Rudy and Martell dribbling around the perimeter for 4-8 seconds before taking fadeaway 23 footers at the end of the clock, no ball movement, guys standing around and an 11 year veteran, uptempo point guard, shackled into a half-court iso offense that has him spotting up on the wings or in the corner as often as not. I think Nate is partially to blame, but I think the lion's share of this mess belongs to KP, he's been mostly paralyzed when it comes to trades (for whatever reason?) and hasn't taken the necessary steps to fit pieces around his core that fill holes, instead he keeps drafting jump shooting finesse players (Claver, Cunningham to a certain extent) and can't seem to get it that you can't really sustain a roster that features 7 players on rookie scale deals. 2 of our 3 "core" players are mostly finesse guys that don't exactly intimidate people on defense. It's time to cashier some of these offensive minded players and stashed assets into guys whose pride is tied up in their defense and hard nosed play.
Yes, yes and yes. Blake had a career year last season, but has done squat this season to earn the PT he's gotten. He's not shooting well (which is why he's on the floor) and he's getting burned continually on defense, while turning the ball over. Meanwhile, Andre was given a Sergio-style leash last night for someone who is clearly our best PG on the roster. While Andre certainly hasn't been playing at an elite level either, he just hasn't been given the fair chance that Blake has been given. If I have to see Blakey trotted out there as the starter for at most the next 10 games, I'm going to puke.
Anyone else would be better than the way Nate is misusing his personnel. Of course, my ideal replacement would be Phil Jackson or Rick Adelman, but neither are available. I'd take McHale (lousy GM, good coach who knows how to coach big men), or even Van Gnudy. Van Gundy doesn't thrill me, but he still managed to get Yao Ming plenty of touches while playing with a ball dominating guard (Francis/McGrady). I'd even go with the old man Hubie Brown for the remainder of the season - health permitting. Hubie forgets more about coaching every day than Nate will ever know. For now, I think I'd just go with Monty as an interim coach until a permanent solution can be found (with McHale or Hubie as an assistant - if you can get them). Something needs to change. Either Nate needs top pull his head out of his ass, or he needs to go. He pissed away the preseason and is now pissing away the regular season. BNM
Sounds like a good plan. It's key that we find someone good though. I don't want to see this team waste 2-3 more seasons under a coach that is as bad as Nate or worse.
Good question. I have players in mind, but I have no idea if they would actually be available. Guys like Shane Battier, Kyle Lowry, Brandon Bass, Caron Butler, Monta Ellis, Mario Chalmers, etc. Players who either can be effective off of hustle plays, or who play good defense and don't require a ton of shots, or are multi-faceted enough that they can play more than a single role. -Lowry plays good D at the point guard spot and can create dribble penetration -Battier plays good D and is usually content to spot up for three in the corners or on the wings -Bass has always been productive in limited minutes and has a good motor -Butler is having a down year, but it's not inconceivable he'll rebound -- he'd be one of those two or three for one deals -Ellis may or may not be on the block, but he appears to be a pretty good point guard defender (or at least he seemed to take the challenge of defending Roy, Miller and Blake seriously) and plays more like a shooting guard which might compliment Brandon -Chalmers plays good perimeter defense and can knock down outside shots and to get these guys I think it's pretty clear that there's no way KP is going to be able to "steal" anybody, he's probably going to have to put guys like Miller, Rudy, Bayless, and/or Webster on the block and then sweeten the deal with the draft rights to some of his stashed overseas players and throw in some expirings like Steve and Travis.
Maybe I'm crazy, but... http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ya6r952 and then try to trade Roy and Aldridge to Cleveland for LeBron. Miller/Bayless Rudy LeBron/Webster West/Cunningham Oden/Przybilla
Blake or Outlaw for Bass. Orlando didn't expect Bass to become a 3rd stringer, but SVG seems to demand the three point shot from his PF, so Ryan Anderson has supplanted Bass as the backup. Bass is a nice luxury if one of their players get injured, but paying close to the MLE for a 3rd stringer is never a good thing. Outlaw and Blake are expiring and Blake could actually help them with Nelson constantly getting injured.
Ummm ... How did you get around the poison pill provision in Roy's and LaMarcus' contracts? The link from the trade machine isn't working lately.
When Roy is asked "How do LA, Oden, and you coexist in this offense"....instead of saying that I just play and coaches are supposed to coach..... A SEASONED AND EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL FACE OF A FRANCHISE SHOULD CLEARLY SEE THAT the last two championships were won by teams with similar make ups...ie, LA-Kobe,Gasol,Bynum and the celtics with Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett...........this team is now built the same way with Oden emerging......PUT MILLER INTO THE STARTING LINEUP AND COACH NATE WILL LOOK LIKE A GENIUS AND GET EVERYONE OFF HIS BACK
