Couple of additional articles
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The state of the Blazers really isn?t anything newNovember 29th, 2009 by Dwight Jaynes
I?ve always felt that you can tell easily how disciplined a basketball team is ? is it doing what its coach wants it to do?
If you apply that reasoning to the Portland Trail Blazers, the answer would have to be ?No.? And even though coach Nate McMillan has that reputation of a tough guy and a nickname (?Sarge?) to match, I don?t believe the Trail Blazers are a very disciplined team. Certainly, they can?t be doing what their coach wants them to do ? not just in the last two games, but for most of this season.
Fact is, what?s going on now with these guys isn?t new. It?s the way they?ve been playing all season. They?ve just been getting away with lackluster defensive rotations, allowing lots of open shots and, in general, not moving the ball or moving bodies on offense. They have become VERY stagnant, in fact, on offense ? four guys standing around watching one guy with the ball.
I?m not saying what McMillan is asking them to do is correct, either. At this point, I?m not sure what he wants them to do. They?re basically not doing much of anything.
I?m not sure if they?ve tuned out their coach or they?re just bewildered about their roles and responsibilities, a result of the coach?s sometimes erratic, sometimes rigid, substitution patterns.
If they have a defensive system, they aren?t following it. They don?t help each other. They don?t hustle. They don?t close on open shooters and they allow a lot of uncontested shots. And as I?ve said before, it?s not good enough to merely allow penetration and then depend on the centers to block all those shots. NBA players these days are too skilled on offense. They?ll score on the centers, draw fouls on them and create havoc.
I can?t even remember how many times Greg Oden or Joel Przybilla has slipped over to block a shot on somebody else?s man, only to have the ball passed back to their own man and a Blazer teammate failed to switch over and cover the center?s man. It happens way too often. It?s as if Portland has no system of help defense.
On offense, the Blazers continue to rely on one-on-one stuff. They talk wistfully about pick-and-rolls, but really ? even last season when they were running a lot of them ? most times the screener was never a real part of the play, it was just a way to set up the man with the ball for another one-on-one play.
I?ll say something else, though. To lay all this on the coach is wrong. Nate McMillan has trusted his players and it may be his downfall. So much responsibility has been put in Brandon Roy?s lap and so far, I don?t believe he?s justified that trust.
This season has brought us a different Brandon Roy ? right from the start of training camp. He?s made it obvious, through his actions and words, that he didn?t care to play alongside Andre Miller. He publicly lobbied for Steve Blake to start. He?s pouted on the court and in print more often this season than in his entire career.
He wants the ball in his hands. Yes, he?s made that clear. But at times he?s made himself sound pretty selfish with his declarations.
It?s as if Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge wanted this team to forever retain the same players it had last season, when they got all the shots they wanted. But to get better than 54 wins, the Blazers ?added? a talented ?new? center this season, a healthy Oden. And they went out and signed a new point guard in Miller. That?s improving your team at two positions.
But to hear Roy talk about it, those additions are a reason he and the team have not been as effective. It?s as if the team has gotten worse for adding two better players. I don?t like that. I think it?s disburbing. Lately, it?s as if Oden is being blamed as much as Miller ? all that stuff about ?We don?t know if we?re playing inside-out or outside-in . . .? Good grief ? this is crazy.
Man, good thing Chris Paul and Dwight Howard didn?t show up here ? the Blazers would be horrible, right?
And the thing is, nobody seems to want to take the blame here. The players say they?re confused about their roles and the way the team is supposed to play. The coach says it?s up to the players to figure it all out.
McMillan has been so anxious to say this is ?Brandon Roy?s team.? Roy is anxious to make it his team. Problem is, Roy isn?t a coach, he?s a player ? and one who is still not all that experienced. I had a former NBA coach ask me a month ago, ?They?ve handed him the keys to the car, are they sure he?s ready to drive it??
So far, he hasn?t been. There?s a lot more to being a leader than being just the best player on a team.
Of course, this team has been undercoached. I don?t think there is any question that so much of what goes wrong is systemic in nature. This is a team that isn?t getting points in the paint and isn?t getting many fast-break points. It allows a lot of open shots. Those are system-related problems.
That means the coach is at fault.
But I don?t think the Blazers are playing hard, either. The players are at fault, too. Last season, they overcame the problems with the system by playing hard and getting a lot of rebounds. If they stop playing hard, it?s all going to come tumbling down on them, as it has lately.
There?s still a lot of the season left to see if either problem is addressed. But trust me on this, it?s not too soon to worry about it. And to think about some pretty drastic solutions.
As the Blazers turn: Coach calls out his stars; star calls out his coach?November 28th, 2009 by Dwight Jaynes
I was really not sure what Nate McMillan meant with his post-game remarks last night. But it sure sounded as if the coach was calling out his two stars. Kerry Eggers seemed to think so, too. And he put it all into context with a Brandon Roy quote I haven?t seen anywhere else that seemed to say, ?right back at you? to the coach:
McMillan seemed to single out Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge in his postgame remarks to the media.
?Brandon and LaMarcus are our captains,? McMillan said. ?They?re the guys we feed off of. They?re the guys who can do a lot encouraging and support. We need that. We?re going to play off of them.
?In a game like that, we need somebody to gather the troops and we ride them. It?s not calling them out ? (but) those are our go-to guys, the guys who make it happen.?
Sure sounded like a coach calling out his stars.
Roy was only 9 of 22 shooting but had a near triple-double with a game-high 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Aldridge made 7 of 16 shots and finished with 16 points and five boards.
?We?re still trying to find a rhythm,? Roy said. ?We have a number of guys who can play, and we?re still trying to figure it out how to (spread) it around.
?I don?t think it?s energy. I think it?s guys confused on what exactly who we?re going to, and are we going to go inside out or outside in, or are we going to pick-and-roll. Because of that, we go through stretches where we look like we can?t score.?
That would seem like a star player calling out the coach.
To me, last night was one more example of this team not really having enough structure at either end of the floor. That?s why there?s confusion.
There?s too much one-on-one on offense and that eventually catches up to you when the other team has some energy and is willing to help each other out.
Then, on defense, the Blazers don?t help at all. They expect Greg Oden or Joel Przybilla to mop up whatever messes they create on the perimeter and it?s too much for them to handle. Good teams involve everyone in the help defense, not just the centers.
The other thing that happened to the Blazer defense last night was that percentages really caught up with them. They?ve been playing bad teams, especially some poor offensive teams, lately and have been allowing a lot of open shots. But the teams missed those shots. And on those nights, you look like a pretty good defensive team on the stat sheet.
But does anyone really think this is the best defensive team in the league? Portland allows too many open jumpers, too much penetration and a lot of layups.
Meanwhile, the Blazers get outscored every night on fast-break points and in the paint. That?s going to make it, in the long run, difficult to ever improve much.
All is not right with the Portland Trail Blazers. You can talk about it being early in the season all you want, but there are some problems to be dealt with and it?s better to do that sooner than later.
