Nate McMillan Fired: Why Trail Blazers Won't Find Better Coach on Open Market

The Portland Trail Blazers fired head coach Nate McMillan on Thursday, and while that may have seemed like a good decision given the team’s recent slide, they will not be able to find a better coach on the open market.

After starting out the season red-hot, the Portland Trail Blazers are now below .500 and outside-looking-in in regards to the current Western Conference playoff picture. This slide was surprising, especially for a team this talented.

Jamal Crawford, Raymond Felton, Gerald Wallace and LaMarcus Aldridge are all very talented players, but they just couldn’t mesh very well together. Felton and Crawford even reportedly led a coup against McMillan, which lent credence to rumors that one or both of them would be traded.

In the end, both players got to keep their current jobs, while McMillan was shown the door. I think even Portland management would agree that this season’s failure was not McMillan’s fault.

The 47-year-old coach had done a bang up job for a team that seemed to be banged up with injuries every single season. From the ongoing issues for Greg Oden to the sudden retirement of Brandon Roy, McMillan handled things like a professional and always did his best in spite of mounting odds against him.

Now, Portland will be tasked with finding a new coach by the time next season starts. While the smartest thing to do would probably be to just give the job to current interim head coach Kaleb Canales. However, judging from the Blazers’ moves over the past few seasons, it seems unlikely that the smartest thing to do will be what they do.

This roster has been dysfunctional all season long. While two pieces of that dysfunction are gone in Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace, Felton and Crawford remain, both of whom were brought in within the last year to help the Blazers win.

The coach for next season won’t have to worry about Crawford, who will probably opt out and test the free agency waters again like last season. Felton will probably be gone in the same way.

However, the dysfunction isn’t limited to the players. Some of the blame for it must be placed on those bringing in all of these pieces without giving any kind of thought to how they will all fit together.

Portland’s management has not done a good job with making right personnel moves, and the McMillan firing is another example of that. The only one I’ll give them a pass on is Greg Oden, which was clearly no one’s fault.

What coach is going to want to come into this place where everything went haywire so quickly? The only candidate on the open market that I can think of right now is Mike D’Antoni.

Felton played at an All-Star level in D’Antoni’s system in New York, and that was the only time he’s ever approached that level. Aldridge could also benefit from that system in the pick and roll game.

However, is D’Antoni really a better coach than McMillan, who made this team a winner even in years when it was crippled by injuries? After his first two seasons, McMillan coached his Trailblazers to 41 wins or more every single season. They have made the playoffs three years in a row and won their division in 2008-09.

D’Antoni might be able to replicate such numbers with his up-tempo offense, but there’s no way he would be able to do any better as far as winning in the postseason. He isn’t the guy for that because he wouldn’t know defense if it came up and bit him square in the face.

Other than that, who else is on the market? Flip Saunders is, but it’s pretty obvious from his last few coaching stops that he’s no better than McMillan. Phil Jackson could end up in New York, but there’s no way he would come to Portland.

I understand the firing of McMillan, I really do. Someone had to go, something had to change. The team is blowing things up and hoping to come out better on the other side. I get it.

But McMillan was a good coach, and the Blazers probably won’t find a better one anytime soon.