Oregon Sports Live

It’s no secret, the Blazers have struggled to find their identity and style of play while coping with the loss of so many integral players on their roster. Their last two losses came in heart-wrenching fashion, revealing a multitude of weakness including a lack of rhythm and purpose offensively in crunch time. Tonight against the Sacramento Kings, the Blazers looked like a team that was beginning to feel comfortable in their new skin and were able to come away with a 95-88 win.

While the Kings aren’t a top-tier opponent, the Blazers can’t complain about where they get their wins. That, and the Kings are better than they’re given credit for. They have a Rookie-of-the-Year candidate in Tyreke Evans, and talented (and competitive) players in Jason Thompson, Beno Udrih and Andres Nocioni, among others. These guys are no pushovers. What I liked most about the Blazers’ performance tonight was that each player filled their role effectively. Brandon Roy handled much of the offensive playmaking responsibilities, and had an efficient 25 points and 10 assists. Roy also looked assertive on offense, taking what the defense was giving him without overthinking his options. He also worked the pick-and-roll beautifully with LaMarcus Aldridge, who battled through an ankle injury to have another solid game with 25 points and 9 rebounds. When the Blazers can get this type of performance out of their stars, they will always be in a position to be successful.

But it wasn’t just the stars who were on point tonight. Joel Przybilla manned the glass, Martell Webster was an active contributor (and threw down another monster baseline dunk tonight), Juwan Howard and Dante Cunningham provided valuable spot minutes off the bench, and Steve Blake decided to dust off his long-lost shot in the fourth quarter when the Blazers needed it the most.

But the most notable contributor from the role players tonight was Jerryd Bayless. Amidst trade murmurs and speculation, Bayless’ aggressive brand of basketball elevated the Blazers in the fourth quarter and put them over the top. Especially as the game’s tempo began to escalate, it was Bayless who

was able to put the pressure on Sacramento by attacking the defense and taking it hard to the rack. Interestingly, Andre Miller (even more subject to trade rumors right now) started the game but was ice-cold from the floor and never got into sync during the game. While Miller logged the most minutes of the three point-guards, it was Blake and Bayless who took over during the final stretch. Clearly the Blazers have yet to establish a comfortable rotation in the backcourt, and Bayless’ recent emergence makes the distribution of playing time even more difficult. The Blazers will have to keep tinkering until they find a combination that truly clicks. Otherwise, a trade certainly wouldn’t be out of the question.

This game was extremely important for the Blazers to win. They are depleted, yes, but if they hope to make it to the playoffs this year these types of games are must-wins. They are also heading into a very difficult stretch, and need to build up as much momentum as possible. After they play Phoenix at home on Thursday, the Blazers will head out on a treacherous road trip where they will make stops in Orlando, Miami, Dallas and San Antonio…only to come home to have division-rival Denver waiting for them. Tonight’s win helps bolster their confidence and should help to establish a productive rhythm within the group.

To wrap up our coverage, we’d like to present two exclusive interviews. OSL’s Mike Whitman discussed the team’s immediate future with shooting coach John Townsend and assistant coach Joe Prunty.

John Townsend -

OSL: There are only a few teams in the league who employ a shooting-specific coach. Talk about how your role has expanded with this year’s team.

JT: I don’t know if it’s expanded so much as it is me being more hands on. You know, my first year year with the team, I went with Taurean Green and Josh McRoberts to the D-league and spent some time with them…especially Josh who was probably one of my main assignments. Compared to now, you know, last season, I traveled quite a bit with the team. I was on every trip except for one, where I had an intestinal virus, and they wouldn’t let me fly. So it wasn’t like the team wanted me to stay back. So I would say it’s just more hands on now. I mean, my first year, I would still get all the players who needed some work, needed some reps, or needed a little tweak, and I’ve done that last season as well. So it’s probably just a little more hands on, where I can get some reps with the guys before games or on days off.

OSL: You say “the guys.” I’ve heard you’ve been working a lot with Martell during his downtime as he recovers from his injury. Is that correct?

JT: I haven’t spent that much time with Martell. Martell is a gym rat as it is. He’s in the gym a lot. If I’m there, and he has any questions, obviously I’m available. The way I coach, it’s more like [I'll say], “Hey, Martell, everything looks great, and these are the two things that you’re doing really well. I don’t know if he’s lost weight, but he’s really lean. He’s light on his feet. He’s jumping well on his shot. He basically has his shot back from what it was this time last year.

OSL: Somebody else who has slimmed down is Brandon Roy. A concern could be that him being lighter could hurt him going to the hole and banging bodies. Do you think him being lighter will help his jump shot?

JT: Yeah, I think it’ll definitely help his jump shot. I think for him, just watching him shoot…he had a repetition this fall where I think he had 16 in a row…four in a row from four different spots. It’s just a matter of him getting his timing back and jumping. I mean, he shoots better with a hand in his face, because you jump up, and you don’t think about it. You just shoot it. Compared to if he’s left open, he just doesn’t have that timing yet where he just jumps up and lets it fly. But he’s been shooting the ball really well. I think lighter for him all around is going to be better, and even on his jump shot.

OSL: Has anybody else taken a big stride so far, or is there anything that’s jumped out at you as a coach that’s a big improvement for somebody?

JT: I think Steve Blake has maintained his consistency. He’s an unbelievably smart worker, and you could translate that as being a hard worker. But he knows what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it. Whether or not somebody else is doing something different, well, that’s somebody else. That’s not Steve Blake. He’s very, very smart. He’s very consistent at what he does. So I would say it’s very impressive considering he shot basically 43 percent – a career year from three – with a major injury to that shooting shoulder. And coming of the surgery, I think he’s maintained consistency.

I think Jerryd Bayless is shooting the ball a lot better. He was working with [former Phoenix Suns head coach] Frank Johnson. Frank got him to do some of the things I couldn’t get him to do in regard to jumping, which transferred into a higher lift and a better, more consistent jump shot. So, he shot the ball really well in some of the scrimmages that we saw this fall.

I think Travis and Martell have both shot the ball really well. So, we’ll see.

Joe Prunty -

OSL: I’ve heard this year that the Trail Blazers are going to try to play faster and get more fast-break buckets. The last couple of years, the Blazers have been one of the slower-paced teams in the league. Is there any truth to that?

JP: Well, that’s the funny thing. I think a lot of teams around the league always say, “Oh yeah, we’re going to run, or we’re going to do this or that.” What you end up doing is what fits best with winning games with your personnel. I think there might be a few more opportunities to run [for us]. We did improve last year from the previous year.

To backtrack a little, when I was [an assistant coach] in San Antonio, we were known as a slow-down [style team]. And the fact of the matter was, it wasn’t that we didn’t run, we just didn’t run like Phoenix did. So, we were always willing to look for a great way to get an easy basket. So if there was an opportunity to run, then we would do it. But we weren’t going to do it at the expense of throwing the ball all over the gym. And I think it’s very similar here. We’d love to run if that’s going to produce an easy basket. But if it’s not, then we’re not going to do it for the sake of just getting a shot up in five to 10 seconds if we can get a better shot in 15 seconds. If there are opportunities, we’ll take them, but not at the expense of turning the ball over.

OSL: Do you think that running might be more of a focus due to the acquisition of Andre Miller?

JP: Well, that’s what we’re going to find out. Does he help our guys…throwing the ball ahead? And Steve does a very good job with that. Do our guys get out and run the wings better? We did a really good job at the end of last year running lanes, LaMarcus in particular on what we call a rim run, and running the floor hard. And so there’s a lot of components to doing it, and you never want to put it on just one person. We think he can help, because he gets the ball up, and he does make other people better, but it requires the wings running, and it requires the bigs running and having good floor balance.

OSL: That was one of the things last year that really jumped out at me was LaMarcus making that rim run right down the center of the floor at sort of a strange time where defenses weren’t really expecting. You’ve got your wings running full-blast and the five trailing the ball, and then LaMarcus just in front of the ball scoring easy buckets. What can we expect from LaMarcus’ game this year? Has he put on any muscle? Are we going to see anything different out of him?

JP: You know, I haven’t seen him recently, but I will soon with camp starting [Monday, Sept. 28]. One thing, and this is important for all our guys, you can’t rest on anything that you’ve done in this league. Whether it’s winning 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 games. You know, the Lakers are the defending champions this year. They’re not resting on being the defending champions. Every team wants to go out and get it done this year. So it’s not just LaMarcus. It’s everybody. We want to take another step. Improve at least one facet of your game, and maintain all the other ones. Whether it’s being a better defender and still shooting 40 percent from the three, or getting 10 rebounds instead of 7 and blocking a few more shots. If we can increase it and improve it, we want to do that. And that’s everybody, not just one guy.

OSL: Brandon is coming in much lighter this year, right around 203 lbs. I also heard from shooting coach John Townsend that Martell is a little bit lighter. He thinks that’s going to help them with their outside game as far as jump shooting, getting more lift, things like that. Do you think that will hurt them driving in the lane, Brandon especially having less meat on his bones?

JP: Obviously in this league, being in great condition is of paramount importance. You can never underestimate that. Playing the game the right way, sharing the ball, playing good defense requires you to be in excellent physical condition. One of the things that great players do is they adjust their games as need be to improve it. So Brandon isn’t going to do something that’s going to be a detriment to one area of his game. If he’s lighter or heavier, then he’s going to do things a little bit differently based on that.

A guy like Tim Duncan, for example, has never been a tremendous athlete. But if something is bothering him, then he doesn’t go to that as much, or he’ll find a different counter to it. So I use a guy like him because he’s been an MVP, because he’s won championships. Well, that’s what we’re trying to get to with our guys. And so that’s something for a guy like Brandon to do. How can I improve in one phase of my game without being a detriment to another part. So, I don’t think it’s going to hurt him in the post or something like that. And I think he’ll figure those things out, because he’s that smart, and he’s that talented.

But I also think a guy like Martell is going to have to figure his niche out. He only played five minutes last year. And I know for me that I don’t want to put too much pressure on him to begin the season. You can’t make up for one year in one game. It’s going to take time to get back into the rhythm, feel comfortable, get re-acclimated with the system. Don’t put any pressure [on yourself] other than getting better everyday. And I think that if we do that as a team, that will take care of a lot of that stuff. If we just get better as individuals and as a team, all these other things, whether it’s weight or conditioning, they will take care of themselves.

Just an FYI that the players portion of media day is Monday.  We’ll be in attendance as well.  Feel free to chime in with suggestions for questions or something you’d like to know from the Blazers squad.   Tune in to OSL for more Blazers content, podcasts, and more exclusive content.

Also check out our twitter feed for more insight.

It’s hard to believe, but the NBA season is just over a month away.  The Trail Blazers coaching staff and Kevin Pritchard catered to a dozen or so beautiful media types for a couple hours on Wednesday.  OSLers Mike Whitman and Andrew Theen were part of that crowd.  Here are some takeaway thoughts from KP and Coach Nate McMillan’s interrogations:

Kevin Pritchard Speaking to the Masses

Kevin Pritchard:

- KP made the point of saying that every year and each team has a new identity.  The identity of this year’s Trail Blazers is still under construction.  Pritchard did say, “we’re going to compete like crazy.”

- He said the goals this year are higher: win the division outright, and win a playoff series.  “The crowd in this building gives us a huge advantage.”

- Pritchard talked about losing in Houston last year and looking at his star players as they left the court: “I can tell you that they felt incomplete.  And that gives me hope.”

- “We’re going to do some damage.  We’re not afraid to say that.”

- Nate “is as good as they are” regarding managing rosters and lineups.  Pritchard says, “that’s how you win championships.

- Pritchard said the team is loaded with “creators” and he included Rudy Fernandez in that category.  Rudy didn’t show a lot of off the dribble last year, but he sure did include his teammates in the action.  That is a form of creation in and of itself.

- Pritchard’s team motto for the season could make an interesting T-shirt idea:  “Hard, Fast, Together”

- KP tried to lift the load off of Oden’s shoulders.  “Don’t point a finger at one player.  When he plays, we’re a better team.”  He cited statistics as proving that.

- Andre Miller is “The Director” and he “doesn’t take plays off.”  Pritchard says Miller will help the younger players develop quicker because he makes everyone around him a better player.

Nate McMillan Says He's Ready For The Season Opener Right Now

Nate  McMillan:

- McMillan seemed excited to talk about Andre Miller, who he classified as  “a guy who can make some decisions.”  He’s adding the decision-maker to Pritchard’s “director” nickname.

- He said that the goals of the last four years have been met, transitioning from a team that no one respected to a team that wins games.

- “We want to win our division. That’s a goal, to win a playoff series.”

- McMillan said this year’s team has the most depth of any squad he’s coached. “I’ve got to get guys to play at their highest level. I think we had the depth at the start of the season, and then Martell went down and we lost that depth.”

- He said adding Miller and Howard is huge for the veteran experience factor.

- Nate danced around the question of whether the Blazers had a roster logjam, but said he felt the depth was a good thing. When pressed for a number, he said you start with 10 guys, but he felt comfortable playing any of the 12 guys on the bench.

- “I think we’ve positioned ourselves to compete in the West. Our goal is to win big in the playoffs, and the ultimate goal is a championship.”

- When asked if this was the first year that the Blazers had no excuses, Nate said that they’ve never made excuses.

- On Greg Oden: “He understands that we need him this year.”

- “If we all show improvement, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

- McMillan admitted that a lot of things “went right for us” last year.  We’ve got to show it and still must do it.”

- “We need to get better” on the defensive end and we know that.”

Interviews and analysis with Monty Williams, John Townsend, Maurice Lucas, and Joe Prunty still to come…