Sunday, 5 December 2010

A Note to Nate: We Suck

Jubilation.  Despair.  Thank God that we have the Ducks right now otherwise I would probably be an inconsolable mess given the state of the Blazers.  Dwight Jaynes wrote this article about how he thinks that the Blazers' players are trying to get Nate fired.  I agree with him that Nate's seat has probably burned him a few times, but I disagree with Jaynes.  I think there is a huge difference between actively trying to get your coach fired by playing poorly and, as Nate said, just not responding effectively at this point.

Call me naive, ignorant, too trusting.  Call me whatever you want but I just highly doubt that the Blazers got together and said "Hey guys, let's go out there and play a horrendous excuse for a basketball game and that way we won't have to deal Coach anymore."  I also highly doubt if they did, that those would've been their words.  But I digress.

Something is definitely up with this Blazers team, but I don't think they are actively trying to get Nate fired.  I've always been a pretty big Nate supporter myself, but even now I am having my doubts.  Our offensive efficiency has plummeted from the past two years and our already anemic defensive efficiency doesn't seem to be getting any stronger.

Now, of course, the reasons to this are well documented.  Without BRoy's explosive drives defenses don't have to collapse on the middle.  He's settling for jumpers.  This causes the other players to stand around and chuck up bricks too because our whole offense was designed around a healthy Roy who could create off the dribble.  And it was designed for a team of shooters.  Hey L.A., can we have Steve Blake back please? 

Clearly a tactical change is needed.  Our offense sucks now.  Plain and simple.  So what does Nate do?  Stick's to the same bull-shit offense that has us sitting 19th in the league in offensive efficiency.  Memo to Nate: WE DON'T HAVE THE SAME PERSONNEL THAT WE DID THE PAST TWO YEARS.  Every time I watch Aldridge throw up a fade-away 20 footer or see Dre bullet a three as the shot clock expires, I have to prevent myself from grabbing the nearest sharp object and gouging my eyes out.  How can he not see that we need a change in style here?

I am sick of watching us go to Aldridge on 5 straight possessions to start out a game.  I'm tired of Rudy running around like an idiot for 20 seconds around screens before catching the ball in the corner and jacking up a contested three.  I scream at the game recaps (stupid time difference) when I read about Batum getting 15 minutes where he gets pulled the second he screws up

I realize that he did an incredible job last year guiding this team to 50 wins.  That's great and wonderful, but that was last year.  This is a new year and essentially a new team.  Good coaches adjust their gameplans.  Nate is sticking to the same one game in and game out.  I don't care if we decide to go SSOL, but right now we are trying to be the slow it down, grind it out Spurs and doing a piss-poor imitation of them.

So no, I don't think that the Blazers are trying to get Nate fired.  But you can definitely tell that they aren't responding to him like they have in years past.  I'm not advocating firing Nate, but I hope that the Blazers are keeping an eye open for suitable replacements.

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