.................Meanwhile, in Portland, Nate McMillan has been the most deserving Coach of the Year candidate that isn’t getting as much credit as he should. And the main reason he won’t win C.O.Y. is because the media predicted the Blazers would be good this year anyway. The fact that they are good, but not in the West’s Top-5 like most predicted, actually works against McMillan.
After losing his top two centers (Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla) to season-ending injuries relatively early in the schedule, McMillan had to — before the team was able to pick up Marcus Camby at the trade deadline — devise strategy to keep the Blazers in the playoff picture while playing 56-year-old Juwan Howard and little-used youngsters Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph in the post alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, who needs a tough-guy banger next to him to be most effective.
McMillan had to get Andre Miller, who appeared to be a mistake of a signing in training camp when he reportedly clashed with coaches and teammates, to play along with the system. He had to figure out when to play the veteran ‘Dre (who made it clear he sees himself as an NBA starting point guard and nothing less) as the lead guard and when to hand over the reigns to Brandon Roy, who is used to the role of running Portland’s offense in crunch time. And as the injuries piled up and even B-Roy got nicked up a bit, McMillan had to figure out how to best keep his star player from also physically falling apart while still trying to win games.
McMillan had to juggle playing time between a cast of small forwards — Rudy Fernandez, Martell Webster, Nic Batum — who are all young, who all want to play, and who have a diverse set of skills, and manage to keep them all happy and buying into the system. Keeping Rudy’s tendency to jack shots in check was one hurdle, and McMillan had success playing Webster as his defensive stopper at times during the season, although the book on Webster said he was little more than a spot-up shooter.
Through all the injuries, potential chemistry landmines, personnel juggling and higher expectations (a real factor with a young team like Portland), it’s an astounding feat that McMillan has still guided his team to the playoffs in the tough Western Conference, even if it is as an 8-seed.
But will he be rewarded with the Coach of the Year trophy he clearly deserves? Probably not, because he was supposed to get Portland here anyway. The Blazers are who we thought they were, a playoff team with 1.5 “star” players who either gets KO’d in the first or second round. Maybe if the Blazers stink next year, then make it back to the playoffs in 2012, Nate will have his shot.
