Portland Trail Blazers: Nate McMillan, Motivation, and Making the Playoffs

In my never ending search to make our Web site better for our readers and more intellectually diverse, we have added someone you may or may not already know: Sophia Brugato, aka BlazerFan1, aka Sophia.

She will be guest posting for Bust a Bucket going forward. Her passion for the Blazers, unique opinion on sports and overall style as a writer is perfect for us and I am happy to have her on board. To kick things off, she's got a little gripe with coach Nate, here's her first piece as a member of Bust a Bucket:

After the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the ninth consecutive time at the Rose Garden Friday night, coach Nate McMillan addressed the media in his usual solemn and professional style.

He reiterated the need to play hard, switch up his defense and continue passing the ball. He praised the efforts of improbable role players such as Dante Cunningham and Jerryd Bayless. Although his postgame comments seemed fairly run of the mill for McMillian, they were anything but when he said:

"We have a rough schedule ahead...It's my job to motivate these guys"

After a tumultuous season that has seen both of his centers go down, several starters out for considerable amounts of time and lacking play from more than one contract player, McMillan's comment is a stark reminder of what exactly it will take from him for his team to make the playoffs.

In objective terms, after 29 games, the Blazers are 23-16. At this exact point last season, the Blazers had this same record and ended the season the fourth seed and home court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

One could argue the fact that the Blazers have maintained this level of winning without, at times, seven rotation players, is due to the steady leadership from McMillan and his coaching staff. However, many key issues have arisen during the last two months, which directly call into question McMillian's continued ability to motivate and coach this team.

Jerryd Bayless

The bandwagon was empty last season. People thought Bayless wouldn't help this team; he wasn't a passer or a shooter. His drives to the basket redundantly because of All-Star Brandon Roy. Fast-forward to this season and see Bayless' bandwagon sag under the weight of thousands of new fans.

After two years on the bench, Bayless has proven himself to be very effective in a number of situations, especially when given more consistent and meaningful minutes.

I refuse to accept that Bayless had some unexpected and unpredictable development that suddenly convinced McMillan to play him. I have no doubt that if more players were healthy, Bayless would be among those getting the least minutes. Even with a decidedly less effective Steve Blake, Bayless was not seeing considerable burn until the team simply needed his body on the floor.

Whether McMillian is able to effectively manage Bayless' playing time and the point guard position is going to be a major factor to the coach's success this season. Bayless' incredible play raises questions about McMillan's personnel management and willingness to reward sheer talent, if not an outright indictment of coaching ability.

Offense

If the Blazers want to continue winning, several things have to happen: Get players healthy, utilize active players to their highest potential and institute a more diverse offense.

To the first point, there is nothing McMillan can do but wait. I am in the "don't rush players back" camp, so it should go without saying that he needs to encourage injured players to take their time to recover. It then goes without saying that he must develop a more diverse offense.

After both centers went down, the Blazers suddenly became strapped for big men. McMillian had already tried the controversial "three guard lineup," so all signs pointed to the team playing a more small-ball style. The offense could potentially become the fun, up-tempo, get out on the break, run and gun offense with guys like Bayless, Dante Cunningham and LaMarcus Aldridge.

However, as of now, the pace has not sped up. McMillan is still relying on his All-Star (understandably so), high pick and rolls or pick and pops and the drive and kick-out plays that requires dagger outside shooting in order to be effective.

This leads to stagnant offensive sets that deflate the team's enthusiasm if the jumpers aren't falling and decreased efficiency, as the team scores much less when using more of the shot clock.

Furthermore, it is increasingly evident that this style is depressing the skills of several important team members. Although Roy may get his shots (pure shooters do that), Aldridge has seen a drop in offensive rebounds and blocks. Andre Miller is forced to play off the ball too much, suppressing his unique skill set; and guys like  Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph are required to shoot too much from too far away from the basket.

Without the abundance of outside shooting the Blazers enjoyed last season, spreading the floor on offense is more difficult to substantiate. I think McMillan has to loosen the reigns a bit and let his guys play, even if it means they make mistakes.

As of now, the Blazers are still one of the slowest teams in the NBA. It is becoming more apparent that this style of offense is no longer as effective. Teams are defending the Blazers better this season, and they are now barely above the league average in field goal percentage. Par for the course maybe, but not quite good enough if the Blazers want to win enough to get into the playoffs this season.

Conflict Management

Last week, McMillian allowed perhaps a small tiff between himself and Miller to be seen by the entire media. Whether the issue was serious or not, the fact that McMillian allowed it to happen when everyone who matters was there to watch (albeit through a small glass window, I'm sure) is concerning.

No doubt, McMillan was just caught up in the moment, but as the leader and control-master he is purported to be, allowing something "small" to blow up is cause for concern.

Even though the "argument," "cursing match," "blow up," or whatever it has been called is done, with McMillian saying he and the team have put it behind them, I think it's important to note that player dissension can snowball and fast. I have no idea how to fix communication problems, but I am pretty sure screaming matches during practice are at the bottom of the list.

Going forward, McMillan may turn out to be the coach that leads this team to a championship, although I believe this to be highly unlikely. If the Blazers make the playoffs this season, I will be surprised. If they make it out of the first round (probably means beating the Lakers in seven), I would cry tears of joy.

Injuries, illnesses and front-office decisions aside, McMillan will have to make difficult adjustments to keep the Blazers afloat the remainder of the season.