Earlier in the season I wrote that Portland Trail Blazers' head coach Nate McMillan should be the coach of the year. That was back on December 24th. In ESPN's most recent NBA Awards Watch, the Portland head coach is ranked #2 on their list for the potential NBA coach of the year award.
McMillan has led Portland to a 32-26 record, despite a number of difficult injuries.
Portland currently sits in the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They lost Nicolas Batum for the first half of the year. They lost former number one overall pick Greg Oden for the year. They lost backup center Joel Przybilla for the year. Brandon Roy has missed nearly a fourth of this season. Travis Outlaw missed most of the year before being traded one week ago. Heck, even Nate McMillan missed 4 games with an Achilles injury.
For a long stretch of games in late January and early February, Portland's lineup consisted of Andre Miller, Steve Blake, Martell Webster, LaMarcus Aldridge and Juwan Howard. Plus Rudy Fernandez, Jerryd Bayless, Dante Cunninghman and Jeff Pendergraph all played big minutes off the bench in aiding the injured rotation... Hardly a rotation that should have been winning games.
But they did.
And they've remained in playoff contention, and have now been joined by a healthier Brandon Roy and a proven veteran presence down low with Marcus Camby.
Many fans have grown irate with the slow, boring offense Nate McMillan runs, but the results speak for themselves. The Blazers are still in the playoff picture, and I wrote yesterday that there's 5 good reasons why the league should watch out for the Trail Blazers over the final stretch of this season.
Head Coach Nate McMillan may not be the most well-liked man in Portland, but ESPN is certainly correct in putting him on their watch list for the coach of the year award.
Here's what ESPN had to say about McMillan:
"Nate McMillan, Blazers: Portland is in a rut, but it should be expected. All of the injuries the Blazers have had this season were bound to catch up to them. They need Brandon Roy to get completely healthy in a hurry."
** To join the Portland Trail Blazers Examiner Facebook Page, and get updates delivered straight to your news feed, click here.
Comments