Oden injury or not, this was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever seen in my entire life. Substitutions, strange lineups, horrible in-game adjustments. Back to the drawing board for coach. -Pop
I disagree. There wasn't much Nate could do. No-one other than Outlaw, Rudy and Joel have played worth beans. Roy has picked it up lately but he also no longer has Kobe shadowing him. Nate has tried a variety of different players and combinations trying to find some kind of group that could perform with any kind of efficiency or consistency. This is on the players, not Nate. Gramps...
The team looked shell-shocked from the start. Oden in or out, things didn't look good. The cluelessness could be partially due to Nate not properly preparing them but it seemed to me that were just flat out intimidated and mentally beat from the start. Gramps...
Jackson took our team out of the game. He's done it before. This is what happens when you have a young team.
What do those guys have in common? They are some of our most veteran players. Face it. The kids just were a little awestruck tonight, and a championship contender playing at home came out early and stomped on them. And, of course, Oden was out early. I'm much less concerned with this particular loss than I am with yet another Oden injury.
What happened to the Rudy/Sergio connection? I think they played together for about 4 minutes, and Sergio didn't even play in the second half. How many times did McMuffin have Channing Frye guarding Lamar Odom, only to watch him get beaten off the dribble at least half a dozen times? Not to mention Frye provided NOTHING tonight and got significant minutes. Ran absolutely no plays for Aldridge to get the ball in the post against one of the worst post defenders in the league in Pau Gasol. How do you go from starting Nicolas Batum to not even getting him into the game in the span of one day? As a result, our first team offense suffered because Travis "Black Hole" Outlaw was in there. CRAPPED ... THE ... BED. Players didn't help him, but McMuffin really didn't do much to put them into positions to succeed. -Pop
they just started slow and couldn't knock down any shots. not sure you can blame that all on the coach(and definitely not the 2nd part). the lakers played a decent game, the blazers didn't and this is the result. rudy really was the only guy who didn't look nervous and actually looked ready to play in the first half. pretty much everyone else was missing shots that they should knock down the majority of the time. the sergio/rudy connection probably disappeared because sergio was terrible while he was in the game. bad defense and they only gave him credit for 1 turnover but i could have sworn there were more. the biggest problem i thought for the blazers tonight though(other than shots just not falling at times) was everyone drifting to the perimeter. probably even half the times oden touched the ball were him on the perimeter passing it around. aldridge and frye were quick to abandon the post game and settle for just shooting jumpers(granted that's nothing new for them) but the whole team really kinda gave up on getting inside for a long stretch other than roy who just couldn't anything to go in. rudy certainly looked solid though.
I wish I could disagree with you, but he should have started Batum. On the other point, what player in the league is Frye capable of guarding? None that I can think of. He's not a good post defender, and anyone can beat him off the dribble.
Our offensive sets were pathetic all night. I'm not sure if that was the point guards fault or just poor coaching. Blake and Sergio were completely lost all night.
We have consistently been in the bottom 5-10 in the league in major offensive categories since McMuffin got here. Tonight really didn't give me any reason to think that's going to change. -Pop
Too much one on one tonight, once you guys got to passing, you had open shots that you guys were hitting. Just opening night nerves.
What else is there to say? between Oden, Roy and Aldridge they were 9-31 and Brandon was 0-10 until garbage time kicked in late in the game. Nate can't hit the fucking shots for these guys. Let's face it, we got our ass whupped by a better team on their own court, and our guys looked really jumpy. Look at the bright side, it's over with.
I really hate this argument. If the guys were taking good shots, then yes you just chalk it up to missed shots. But the team consistently lacked ball movement, didn't push the ball, etc. If that happens over the course of four quarters, either the coach didn't see it and therefore didn't suggest adjustments, or he can't communicate well enough with the players to get the message across to adjust the game plan. Either way, it's not a glowing endorsement of Nate. -Pop
There is one more thing to say - our defense sucked. They probably had 40 pts of open shots or easy baskets. Even with the horrible shooting, if we play better defense we would have had a shot.
I especially loved how firm Nate was with his decisions. Not. Batum start--- no. Sergio back up PG--- how about 5 mins? Prepared roster-- no. Any sign of leadership-- no. Any inclination of competence in coaching -- no.