The Daily Dime: McMillan and Oden

[Nikolokolus]

Some nice words for our coach and 20 year old "big fella"

East scout on Greg Oden and the surprising Portland Trail Blazers

"Guess what? They're only going to get better. And even though Brandon Roy is playing even better than he did last year, I think the No. 1 reason is the coach. Nate McMillan is really good. Everybody says they should be out running, but they're so young. He's keeping things under control and emphasizing defense, and they're not turning the ball over as much as they would be if they were running.

"[Greg] Oden has helped a lot, by the way. He's enough of a force defensively at this point in his career that people shouldn't pick on him for his lack of offense. And now Joel Przybilla only has to play 20 minutes; Oden and Przybilla together give you a pretty good center combo. But the one thing hidden in all this is that Utah hasn't been healthy. When Utah gets healthy, I think they pass Portland up and win that division."

Funny how Nate gets so much respect from writers, scouts, other coaches and so little respect from his own fan base.

 

[TehChad]

I, for one, think McMillan is a great coach. Any coach who can lead a team as young as ours to a 14-7 record through a stretch like the one we've had deserves recognition.

 

[andalusian]

I am a big fan of Nate. Taking last year's team to .500 ball? Crazy. Taking this team with 2 starting rookies to a 14-7 start given the schedule? Unreal.

Nate is not the problem.

 

[Webster's Dictionary]

But his rotations are terrible!
He doesn't give the young guys a chance to play!
He strangles the offense and doesn't let it do 50% of what it could if it ran!
and I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!

 

[julius]

But his rotations are terrible!
He doesn't give the young guys a chance to play!
He strangles the offense and doesn't let it do 50% of what it could if it ran!
and I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!

You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done! Now come on, get to it!


Woooo-tini!

 

[ptownblazer1]

I am a big fan of Nate. Taking last year's team to .500 ball? Crazy. Taking this team with 2 starting rookies to a 14-7 start given the schedule? Unreal.

Nate is not the problem.

Who says we have a problem?? Crazy talk is that we are looking for reasons why we are losing these games...Didn't everyone say that 12-12 would be respectable after the first 24 games?? I think we have exceeded that, I think!

GO BLAZERS!

 

[alex42083]

Count me in as a Nate supporter. He does have a lot of respect around the league, he was considered good enough to be invited to assist with the Redeem Team, and those players loved him.
It's just a loud vocal minority who hate Nate after every loss, and don't praise him when we're winning. He is still the perfect coach for our team IMO until we start to see signs of the players tuning him out, or we stop improving. But every year, we've improved since Brandon arrived.

 

[blue32]

The only thing I hate about Nate is the sub pattern, and maybe sometimes the offensive sets, but now I cant tell if its the players overriding him or him calling the wrong plays...