| McMillan Looks To Bring Change Authored by Billy Ray - September 13, 2005 - 4:20 pm
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The one thing that the Blazers never had during the end of Mike Dunleavy’s era and the entire Mo Cheeks era was stability. The old mantra of “letting the inmates run the asylum” could not have rung truer on Blazer-land.
When Mo Cheeks entered his lame-duck season has Blazers head coach, many did not wonder if the ax would fall, but when. When the Blazers announced the firing of Mo Cheeks and the hiring of interim head coach Kevin Pritchard the move was met with much confusion.
Why would the Blazers elevate someone that has no head coaching experience? Why would the Blazers elevate a suit? Why would the Blazers not choose someone off of the coaching staff?
Things got much blurrier before they got clearer for the Blazers and their coaching carousel. Marc Iavaroni interviewed very well while Dwayne Casey committed to Minnesota. Add in the surprise firing of Terry Porter in Milwaukee the coaching change was looking even more muddled for Portland.
All the while the Blazers were waiting for another candidate to come available. The Blazers were letting candidates slip away just for the chance to interview a huge long shot—Nate McMillan.
The rest was history for the Blazers. The team hired McMillan, stealing him away from the I-5 and Northwest division rival Seattle Supersonics. McMillan received a 6 year contract—just the first of many new changes the Blazer franchises should expect under the new head coach.
McMillan is well known to be one of the few coaches that can be classified as a players coach while also being a disciplinarian. He knows the game inside and out, and also understands what it is like to be in the players shoes.
McMillan immediately instituted a call-back system with the team—one that he had established during his time in Seattle—that requires players to return calls within 24 hours or face a fine. Furthermore, veterans are expected to check in with the coach every week while rookies are required to check in every couple of days.
Furthermore McMillan is moving to try to convince players to live in the Portland area. Citing that Portland should not simply be a place to play 9 months out of the year, but rather be a place to establish yourself and help bring the Blazers back into the good graces of the community.
While McMillan has not gotten the chance to influence the team on the court yet, expect a much different team than Blazer teams of the last few seasons.
For one, McMillan is inheriting a roster that is the youngest in the NBA with an average age of 23.5 years. While the Blazers understand that inexperience has its costs—mainly in the win column—Nate McMillan will not stand idly by and allow the team to mount losses.
McMillan coaches with the same fire that lead him to become one of the better defenders in the NBA during his playing tenure. As a coach that fire helped him lead the Sonics to a surprising 52-30 record last season which eventually ended in the second round against the NBA champion Spurs in six games.
Despite the fact that McMillan did not have a roster full of superstars, he was able to bring the Sonics together and possibly gave the Spurs their hardest test of last seasons playoffs.
The Blazers desperately needed a change, and that change needed to start with a new attitude. While the players have changed the Blazers have now brought the transformation to another level by hiring McMillan. McMillan will look to instill a new attitude—one that Blazer fans, sponsors, and management has craved for the last few years, while bringing the Blazers closer to their ultimate goal of challenging for an NBA championship.
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