McMillan is a good coach for players. After all, how many guys have left his Blazers and gone on to have better careers elsewhere? Outlaw, Webster, Telfair, Fernandez, Rodriguez, Bayless, Blake, Udoka, Magloire, James Jones, Dixon, Miles, Khryapa, Monia, Ratliff--just look at all these guys that went on to have the same, worse or no career after leaving Portland.
The best I can see are Andre Miller, Channing Frye, Zach Randolph and Jarret Jack. Andre's winning more now, but really he's putting up the same PER in Denver that he did here. Fry had his moment in the sun in Phoenix, got his fat contract, and is worse than he was when he was here now. His moment of success had less to do with great coaching and more to do with great fit/great money motivation.
Zach Randolph is undeniably a better player now. (Well, when healthy.) Were there things Nate could've done to get his current level of passing, willingness to defend a little and overall team play? Maybe. But I think a lot of his turnaround was just hitting rock bottom. Getting passed around like a spliff at a Dead concert by Portland, New York and even the fucking Clippers maybe made him grow up a little.
Jarret Jack is the only other guy that I can see who has really blossomed after leaving Portland. And that's only this year. He's now on his fourth team. Was it Nate really holding him back or just finally him finding his own way?
I'm to the point where generally I don't really mind trading guys because I have a pretty good idea they won't "blow up" elsewhere (a la Jermaine O'Neal). I could tell when we ditched him that Jack was going to have a solid but unspectacular career. I hated dumping Zach (still do) because I knew exactly what he was worth on the court.
Nate in general gets the most he can out of a player. He's incredibly stupid and stubborn about lineup changes, and I can't understand how he's leaving Batum on the bench.
But I don't really put all these close losses at the feet of Nate. Matthews is not a closer. Crawford and Felton are just shitty guards who can't seem to run an offense. Gerald Wallace finger rolls everything when he used to hammer down dunks, so you know he's lost a lot. (He seems to be approaching the latter end of the Ron Artest career path.) If we trade any of these guys I have very little doubt they'll be the same or even worse elsewhere.
So don't fire Nate?!?! Well, not exactly. I kind of want to see how Batum and Aldridge, and really the rest of the team, would fare under a coach who had a real commitment to the fast break. We're playing at a faster pace now, but the actual execution of that pace has been pretty unimpressive. Nate hasn't much experience coaching a fast team and it shows. Batum and LMA have never had another NBA coach, and I think they could benefit from a different opinion.
But I'm under no real illusions. Batum is not going to instantly blossom into a 22 PER player under a different coach. He'd do about what he does now, but for around 8 more minutes a game.
It's time for a change, but not because of some recent close losses. I pin those losses on our guard talent. After all, McMillan was a great coach at squeaking out close games when he had a great guard in Brandon Roy. But sometimes an organization reaches a point where it's just time to turn over a new leaf and get some fresh ideas.
