Props for Nate?

[Ed O]

Well, whatever McMillan says his philosophy is, what he has his teams do is pretty evident over his coaching career: play half-court by default and run only in obvious fast-break situations (long rebound or turnover leading to numbers).

What Nate says and what his teams have done are different things, as you allude to. And it's not like it's just this Blazers team. His Sonics teams (with one exception) have been the same way: very slow-paced.

Ed O.

 

[Tince]

I'm curious. How many of these people who do not like Nate have coached at a high school level or higher?

It's similar to someone who has never picked up a golf club, saying, "How hard could it be to his a little white ball with a stick?"

 

[Minstrel]

I'm curious. How many of these people who do not like Nate have coached at a high school level or higher?

It's similar to someone who has never picked up a golf club, saying, "How hard could it be to his a little white ball with a stick?"

Well, I'm not in the group of people who don't like McMillan, but I don't agree with that sentiment. By that token, none of us should really be criticizing any GM or coach. Or, really, any player. Playing basketball in high school doesn't really give you much experience-based foundation for criticizing professional basketball players.

Nor could we praise any of those people. If we're not qualified to render negative opinions, we aren't qualified to render positive opinions.

This forum would be rather boring with no appraisals, negative or positive.

 

[Masbee]

The Showtime Lakers are one of the very few teams that both had the talent advantage and were a running team. But even that is overstated...they didn't run every possession. They were excellent in the half-court and ran whenever they had a good opportunity. And even that is a rarity among the best teams. They also had one of the most special transition players ever, in Magic Johnson.

This made me curious. So, I looked up the 1980's Lakers (Magic era) and their Pace factor ranged from 4th fastest to 12th fastest in the NBA during that time.

There are no fast break statistics, and Pace does not mean the same thing as fast breaks, but it gives us a clue that they didn't push the ball as much as several other teams of the era.

 

[Minstrel]

This made me curious. So, I looked up the 1980's Lakers (Magic era) and their Pace factor ranged from 4th fastest to 12th fastest in the NBA during that time.

There are no fast break statistics, and Pace does not mean the same thing as fast breaks, but it gives us a clue that they didn't push the ball as much as several other teams of the era.

True, but they probably pushed it the most among the top teams. Teams like the Nuggets, Warriors and Suns pushed it to ridiculous levels, but were also lesser teams that tried to run better (and worse) opponents out of the gym.

But I agree, and it was part of my point, that even the Showtime Lakers did not constantly push the tempo. They were just the closest example I could think of to a dominant team that was known for high pace.