Fire McMillan/Pritchard Poll

[The Sebastian Express]

You mean Jeff Van Gundy who gets his team to play hard-nosed defense and not this switching crap that gets our bigs into foul trouble while the other team still scores points? Sure, sign me up for a competent coach who also fights for his players.

You mean Jeff Van Gundy who can barely coach a team to 90ppg? You mean the Jeff Van Gundy who has on more than one occasion said he's not that interested in returning to coaching?

I'd rather average 90 points a game and be a competent defensive team than average a whopping 98 and not be.

ps Portland averaged 93.6 during the playoffs against the SUNS.

THE SUNS.

(no offense to Suns fans).

[iverigma]

Let me ask you this. Can you look into the future and seeing the Blazers competing for the NBA title under Nate?

Think about it.

I always believe it's superstars - not coaches - that win championships for you. Before the start of 07-08 season Doc Rivers was criticized heavily as a coach but he won championship once he got KG + Allen. That's just one example.

That being said, I do believe - at least hope - next season would be McMillan's final exam. He's done a good job but if he can't fix some of the offensive/defensive issues I'd hope he gone.

[DusterBuster]

You mean Jeff Van Gundy who gets his team to play hard-nosed defense and not this switching crap that gets our bigs into foul trouble while the other team still scores points? Sure, sign me up for a competent coach who also fights for his players.

You mean Jeff Van Gundy who can barely coach a team to 90ppg? You mean the Jeff Van Gundy who has on more than one occasion said he's not that interested in returning to coaching?

I'd rather average 90 points a game and be a competent defensive team than average a whopping 98 and not be.

ps Portland averaged 93.6 during the playoffs against the SUNS.

THE SUNS.

(no offense to Suns fans).

And THIS is my gripe with McMillan. His offense is far more of a problem then his defense imo. I think people make WAY too big of a deal out of his switching defense.

My problem with McMillan is how tight of noose he has on his players on the offensive end of the floor. His desire to "protect every possession" make the Blazers one of the easiest teams in the league to defend. It's a predictable offense that has zero room for error. The Blazers play at such a slow pace and get so few possessions that when a play doesn't go exactly as it was drawn up, the Blazers end up fighting the shot clock and usually hoisting up an ill-advised 1 on 1 jump shot. The Blazers don't need to be playing Suns or Warriors style basketball, but they need to get up and down the court much better than they do under McMillan.

This is why I don't like the idea of Van Gundy. It doesn't cure the Blazers main problem.

[DusterBuster]

Let me ask you this. Can you look into the future and seeing the Blazers competing for the NBA title under Nate?

Think about it.

I always believe it's superstars - not coaches - that win championships for you. Before the start of 07-08 season Doc Rivers was criticized heavily as a coach but he won championship once he got KG + Allen. That's just one example.

That being said, I do believe - at least hope - next season would be McMillan's final exam. He's done a good job but if he can't fix some of the offensive/defensive issues I'd hope he gone.

Very good point. Coaches in the NBA get more credit than they deserve when they win and take more blame than they deserve when they lose. At the end of the day, it's the Blazers who have to go out and preform.

Rivers was about to get canned before they got KG and Allen, after they won, Rivers was considered some coaching genius. It was ridiculous. He wasn't any different of a coach. He just had good players.

Nate's certainly got his flaws. I'm not debating that. I am debating the people who claim we'd be better off with ANYONE but him.

If he gets fired in Dallas, I wouldn't mind replacing Nate with Rick Carlisle. His defensive schemes probably aren't as good as Nate's (although, who can tell with the softies he's got on the Mavs), but his offensive scheme is worlds better in my opinion.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Too bad it's not a democracy.

The front office still will likely be listening to what the fans want or risk alienating them. KP is still popular among most Blazer fans while Nate is decidely less so

from the sketchy reports, it sure sounds like KP is in such trouble with management, that any fan support he might have will be irrelevant to those making the decision.

If KP did not have fan support he would be gone already and it may be fan support that lets him keep his job. I'm not guaranteeing he'll it but what the fans think will weight their decision. With Nate the opposite is occurring as most fans are very frustrated at not seeing him develop at all. Nate is the exact same coach as he was when hired

[Effigy]

You guys are making Portland fans look like poop flinging monkeys. How the hell can anyone want Nate fired after taking a team that won 54 games last year, and lost 310 games to injuries and steered us to 50 wins (and would have been 51 if we didn't sit everyone for the GS game after clinching the 6 seed? Nobody does that. Do you honestly believe that our team is so absurdly stacked with talent that even with all those injuries we should be cruising to the finals?

Let me ask you this. Can you look into the future and seeing the Blazers competing for the NBA title under Nate?

Think about it.

Yes I can. We need better players and above all, we need to be healthy, but do I believe that Nate McMillan can be a championship winning coach? I really do. I think our defense was better this year. Nobody in the NBA plays flawless defense, but I saw encouraging improvement in that area.

I think all fans over react and want to blame coaching for everything Jazz fans have wanted Sloan out for years and all he does is win. You love the players, and aknowledge that trading them for upgrades will be tricky, so you convince yourselves that if we just had a different coach we'd be on our way, when really, statistically we over achieved this year, and so it 's far more likely that with a new coach we'd be a .500 team. Not good enough to make the playoffs, or bad enough to get a good lottery pick. You guys have this unrealistic expectation, that firin Nate we can only do better when in reality it is far more likley that we'll get worse.

[Effigy]

If KP did not have fan support he would be gone already and it may be fan support that lets him keep his job. I'm not guaranteeing he'll it but what the fans think will weight their decision. With Nate the opposite is occurring as most fans are very frustrated at not seeing him develop at all. Nate is the exact same coach as he was when hired

The fan support isn't going to mean anything when he's fired within the week. Allen was trying to avoid an incident in the heart of a playoff run, but the writing is on the wall, and no matter how we fans feel, KP is on his way out soon.

[SalemStoner]

I think the best possible case for the Fire Nate McMillan idea is the tape of the games that Greg Oden played in. The things to be gathered from that are the following - for those who can't remember that far back.

1) He wanted to utilize our only low post offensive player only as a rebounder and pick setter. Nate was quoted on numerous occasions as to saying he felt the offense should come from elsewhere as opposed to getting Oden involved every time down the court and seeing what he could do.

2) He wanted to start Steve Blake over Andre Miller, despite the fact that Andre Miller is a clearly superior player to Steve Blake in just about every facet of the game except for shooting. This was perplexing at the time and stalled chemistry development between Miller and Roy.

3) Count the number of times Oden(or Joel or Camby - aka rebounding shot blockers) is on the perimeter man'd up on some guard at the 3 point line. This happens to the Blazers more than any team I've ever watched in my life, it is clearly something systemic because I'm sorry there's just no freaking way the players are "miscommunicating" every time down the court on every pick.

4) The lack of ball movement any time this team doesn't have Dre running the show, and in general our team's lack of off ball movement is staggering when compared to say, Utah, or HOU. This is noticable because most other teams generate some fouls with their offball movement creating FGA and foul situations going towards the hoop for players who can't get open on their own(ie Martell, Rudy) and we almost NEVER do something similar. When we were ineffective tonight it was largely during stretches where there was little movement offensively.

In short, I don't think this team can win a title with Nate as coach. I believe he's misutilized numerous pieces of personnel causing unneeded strife and damaged the effectiveness of several players by trying to make them into something they're not(Sergio, Rudy, Martell, Oden[yes, he needs touches to be effective]). Nate doesn't look for reasons to put players on the court, he looks for a reason to take them off the court. This is ok with vets, but we have 3 real vets on this roster - the rest are still pretty much playoff neophytes(12 games or less for most of the roster) and doing this tends to damage the confidence of all but the strongest personalities.

Nate does some things well, and I don't want him gone lightly. However I believe this team is now at the point where they've gone as far as he can take them, and that we need someone in here who will put in an offensive system utilize the very talented offensive pieces we have in a manner which showcases players other than Roy. This isn't to say Roy will be an afterthought, but that I doubt we'd be going to situations where 2 games after coming back from surgery we would bench our primary PG in favor of playing a slow Roy as primary ball handler for stretches. We need a coach in here who isn't Roy's (insert slang for female dog) here who will actually force him to expand his game and take advantage of things like setting picks for players other than Roy, and forcing Roy to actually pass the ball to the guy who sets the pick and rolls to the bucket(a confluence of events that does not happen ever in Nate Ball).

In other words, we need a coach who has an offensive SYSTEM as opposed to our iso oriented Roy-centric plan.

We also need a coach who will make sure when he's healthy that we feed the ball to our big man instead of pretending he's only there to block shots and hit the glass.

In particular, I think that while Nate does a good job of getting his team to play hard most nights but that his schemes offensively and defensively leave a lot to be desired.

[Blazinaway]

Here's my 2 cents and it involves PA, I think he's going to clean house like he did with the Seahawks. I don't think he likes what he sees and with his illness my guess is there is more of a sense of urgency and willing to change things more quickly than before. Just my opinion.

[mojomarc]

Okay the caps just make your points look worse..but anyway.

I disagree. I find myself more convinced by all-caps arguments

It's been a terrible progression of luck more than anything, KP didn't take a bat to Oden's knees. He took a team noone cared about and made them relative, and same to Nate. But one consistent thing about that, when something becomes successful..the people who got it there are usually the first to go.

I think you meant he made the team relevant. And it isn't necessarily the case that the guys who got you there are the first to be fired. It's more that in this case Nate was chosen because he was a big name coach, it thumbed a nose at Seattle (which I'm sure gave PA a big smile at the time), and they knew that Nate's reputation was such that it would immediately swing media opinion in Portland's favor. That he was kept as long as he has been seems mostly a matter of him having met what to my mind were fairly easy expectations, rather than him exceeding any expectations.

I want a change in personnel, our coach and general manager and solid and don't hold us back. If you want to talk about our lack of talent, I can do that.

I will disagree until my dying breath on the question of Nate holding us back. The fact that it took him over four seasons with most of the same core to actually get the team running a fast break should be a massive embarrassment. That the team can take a dynamic player like Rudy Fernandez and literally having him stand still flapping his arms at the three point line the vast majority of the time is utterly ridiculous. And when, praytell, have you ever seen a team have so many "emergencies" on a defensive switch?

In general, a lot of pro-Nate folks tend to want to say "well, we got a good number of wins, so Nate must be a good coach." That's correlation, but it doesn't show causation. When you instead focus on the gameplans they used to get those wins, you quickly realize that with equally matched teams in terms of talent (i.e. the playoffs), Portland was going to be overmatched from a coaching standpoint. It happened badly last year, and this year you can argue Roy being injured was a factor (it was) but that still doesn't excuse getting absolutely blown out in three games. A good gameplan with the rest of the talent that Phoenix has and I could see excusing ten point loses, but we were down by 30 it seemed in most of those games, and that's just not acceptable even if Roy were out or on one leg.

[TBpup]

If Nate goes, you ALL better pray we can find and replace him with a coach who's at least as good, if not better than him. And that's not as easy as so many people here think. If we have to hire a rookie coach like the Pistons or Bulls have had to do, you will all be crying for the days of the McMillan.........

Doubtful anyone even knew who Scott Brooks was before this year and now he is Coach of the Year. He took a last place team to 50 wins and moved them into a top-5 defensive team. They have also done way better than most thought they would do in the playoffs winning two games when most prognosticators had a sweep or maybe a 5 game series.

They have so many 20-22 year olds on that team it makes the Blazers look like an AARP squad.

[Blazinaway]

If Nate goes, you ALL better pray we can find and replace him with a coach who's at least as good, if not better than him. And that's not as easy as so many people here think. If we have to hire a rookie coach like the Pistons or Bulls have had to do, you will all be crying for the days of the McMillan.........

Doubtful anyone even knew who Scott Brooks was before this year and now he is Coach of the Year. He took a last place team to 50 wins and moved them into a top-5 defensive team. They have also done way better than most thought they would do in the playoffs winning two games when most prognosticators had a sweep or maybe a 5 game series.

They have so many 20-22 year olds on that team it makes the Blazers look like an AARP squad.

and look at the year a recycled Scott Skiles is having with the Bucks, sometimes a change of venue for a coach with different players can work out well.

[d-train]

The Blazers are a 50-win one-and-done team until they do something to improve their roster. Contending teams have 2 or more players the caliber of Roy and multiple nightly matchup advantages they can exploit to initiate offense against a set defense. Paul Allen needs to evaluate his organization and decide if he has the people that can develop and execute a plan to get the players the team needs to succeed. The plan over the past 3 years has failed to improve the team.

[d-train]

If Nate goes, you ALL better pray we can find and replace him with a coach who's at least as good, if not better than him. And that's not as easy as so many people here think. If we have to hire a rookie coach like the Pistons or Bulls have had to do, you will all be crying for the days of the McMillan.........

Doubtful anyone even knew who Scott Brooks was before this year and now he is Coach of the Year. He took a last place team to 50 wins and moved them into a top-5 defensive team. They have also done way better than most thought they would do in the playoffs winning two games when most prognosticators had a sweep or maybe a 5 game series.

They have so many 20-22 year olds on that team it makes the Blazers look like an AARP squad.

Sounds like the Sonics finally found a coach as good as Nate. So far the Sonics have an improving roster of players. They will be fine as long as their roster continues to improve instead of stagnating for 3 years.

[sisibilio]

You guys are making Portland fans look like poop flinging monkeys. How the hell can anyone want Nate fired after taking a team that won 54 games last year, and lost 310 games to injuries and steered us to 50 wins (and would have been 51 if we didn't sit everyone for the GS game after clinching the 6 seed? Nobody does that. Do you honestly believe that our team is so absurdly stacked with talent that even with all those injuries we should be cruising to the finals?

Let me ask you this. Can you look into the future and seeing the Blazers competing for the NBA title under Nate?

Think about it.

Yes I can.

Well, some of us don't, thus the discrepancy.

The Blazers are a 50-win one-and-done team until they do something to improve their roster. Contending teams have 2 or more players the caliber of Roy and multiple nightly matchup advantages they can exploit to initiate offense against a set defense. Paul Allen needs to evaluate his organization and decide if he has the people that can develop and execute a plan to get the players the team needs to succeed. The plan over the past 3 years has failed to improve the team.

Nobody is arguing that, with the current roster you couldn't ask for any better result that what the team has gotten. To be able to compete with the top teams we'll need a healthy Oden or a serious makeup of the team.

[Jsun947]

Nate's schemes and lack of adjustments is why he needs to go.

On defense he allows the same open looks for a team on a regular basis.
He switches every pick creating mismatches and foul trouble.
He doesn't pressure the ball.... Almost ever
he runs traps and doubles at players that have no business being doubled (like dragic)
we allow a high percentage of shots in the paint even with oden, przybilla, camby, and batum on the floor.

Offense consist of iso and fake pics...
It relies on one player breaking down the defense which is easily broken by a double team trap.
He is unable to create fast break points with a plethora of young athletic players and 3 of the top rebounding centers in the NBA.
There's more movement in a cripples legs than we get off the ball.

He fails to teach/enforce little things that lead to wins such as physical play, how to pass out of a double, boxing out etc.

In terms of pure coaching strategy what is he doing right??? Any examples?

[d-train]

The Blazers are a 50-win one-and-done team until they do something to improve their roster. Contending teams have 2 or more players the caliber of Roy and multiple nightly matchup advantages they can exploit to initiate offense against a set defense. Paul Allen needs to evaluate his organization and decide if he has the people that can develop and execute a plan to get the players the team needs to succeed. The plan over the past 3 years has failed to improve the team.

Nobody is arguing that, with the current roster you couldn't ask for any better result that what the team has gotten. To be able to compete with the top teams we'll need a healthy Oden or a serious makeup of the team.

The Blazers need more than a healthy Oden to be contenders. What is a healthy Oden anyway? This franchise is doomed if its plan is to wait another year or 3 years to see if Oden can play in the NBA.

[DusterBuster]

If there was a coach who I think could do a better job, I'd say kick Nate's ass to the curb and the get the guy. I'm just not seeing who/where this mystery coach is.

For that matter, that's my opinion on any of the people within the Blazers organization, save for maybe one or two players. If there's another GM who can be as good or better than KP, then thanks for coming Kevin, but get the fudge out! If there's a PF who is more consistent and a true All Star available, then pack your fudging bags and get the fudge out of Portland LaMarcus. The NBA is a "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" league. The guys we have in here have done a decent job, but they've all been far from perfect. So if you can get a upgrade, you do it. But the Blazers can't afford to go backwards. Idea's like firing McMillan for just ANY new coach is going backwards.

[rasta_marley]

I still believe in KP most of this isn't his fault, he made the right choice in drafting Oden, if Oden can just stay healthy we WILL see that... sigh I'm starting to sound like a broken record.. as for Rudy well we all thought he'd be something much more then... horrible. I won't dignify your other remarks with comments.

[Myth]

I tend to drift back and forth between keep both and fire McMillan. Today, I am in a fire McMillan mood, but it really just depends on who we get in return. McMillan strikes me as a good motivator to get his players to win games, but I don't think he is a good enough X's and O's coach to beat good teams in a 7 game series when adjustments are needed day to day and minute to minute.