Coach Monty on Courtside
posted: 8/14/2006 at 10:54 PM
You have to respect a guy for taking time out from an extremely-rare family vacation to join a couple of yayhoos on a radio show in the month of August talking about the NBA. I didn't even feel that good about calling Trail Blazers assistant coach Monty Williams and asking him to join us on
Courtside Monday Night, presented by L.A. Weight Loss. Obviously it didn't bother me that much, because he was on the show last night. By the way, did I spell yayhoos correctly? That's the beautiful thing about a blog, you can just make up words and spellings. My Journalism professors are somewhere shaking their heads right now. Yes, of course, they read this blog, so don't even say it.
Anyway, Monty was with his family in Central Oregon, but joined us on the show to discuss a number of things. He and Dean Demopolous coached the Blazers summer league team in Las Vegas and I've been meaning to get him on for a while to discuss that, and other topics. Rice wanted to ask Williams about his days in San Antonio, and wanted to learn how the Spurs handled having several very capable centers on the roster. The Trail Blazers are facing that situation now, of course, and Monty gave a good answer. To hear the entire interview with Williams,
click here.
We also talked to Williams about the summer-league experience and talked about the leadership qualities of Brandon Roy. He certainly looked like he was ready to take over an NBA team during the summer league, but Monty reminded us that "everything looks easier during the summer." Tempering expecations is what people like Monty have to do right now. He did talk about Roy's control over the game, and how he makes everything look so easy.
Now that all the summer league's are over, this rookie crop is being evaluated across the country. It has been for some time, but here's the latest.
Click here to read an article written by Brad Friedman for nba.com. He ranked Minnesota's Randy Foye slightly ahead of Roy, but for reasons we've talked about repeatedly, for this team at least, Roy was the right choice. He still said some very nice things about Brandon, and I hope to get Roy on the radio show next week. No promises, but that's the plan.
Speaking of vacations, August is the one time of the year coaches can get out and take a little break. Williams explained (while on the phone during his vacation) that he has a tough time every really disconnecting. This is especially true for head coach Nate McMillan this summer. He's spending his August in the Far East with Team USA. Here's the
latest photo of the U.S. coaching staff, while in China. Coach Nate looks pretty serious and very intimidating. They don't call him "Sarge" for nothing. I think he should come to the first day of training camp in that outfit. It would certainly set the tone for the season.
Also joining us on the radio program was player development coach Bill Bayno. We've talked a lot about his efforts this summer and we had the chance to let him talk in detail about the individual player workouts. We discussed the unique duties of a player development coach, and how it takes a very special person to succeed in that position. Bayno is one of the best in the business, and after getting to know him, and his philosophy, I've become a big supporter. That's why I wrote
the article on him and have tried to get his story and his role on this team out to you. To listen to the interview with Bayno,
click here.
As always, thanks for all your comments. I don't get the chance to respond to them all, but I do read them all. It's great that we've had so much to talk about this summer. It's kept me up very late on a lot of occasions lately, recapping it all.
RSS FEED
First comment, WOOT yea... about that picture...coach k is looking way too happy to be wearing a uniform, then agian, can you blame the fellow, he's leading a team thats slaughtering their oppenents with ease and confidence, as a team. good to see nate there helping out w/ USA! GO BLAZERS, GO USA!
Two good interviews and a great article on Bill Bayno. Thank you. Mike you bring us perspective usually unavailable from other media outlets. Somehow you don't come across as a
"homer" but as a thoughful observer who has inside knowledge of the team and the league. We fans and the Blazer organization are very fortunate. (You can send the check anytime this week).
Hey Mike, I always look forward to your blog and you never disappoint. Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work. You are doing an outstanding job. GO BLAZERS!!
Zach is sick? How sick? And with what? How long will he be down?
The Team USA coaching staff should have been issued boots along with their Battle Dress Uniforms. Even when I was in the Army, I thought BDUs looked silly with running shoes, lol.
And t dawger89, what the heck is
"WOOT?"
Good show, Mike. I was also curious about Zach's health and t dawger89's "WOOT". However, my main contribution today is to give feedback on your new colors for the links in the blog. Personally, i like this blog showing just black, white, and red. Blazer colors only. I can't imagine someone being unable to figure out what is a link because the word wasn't yellow.
This is serious stuff, Mike. Expect a rigorous campaign to bring back the all blazer visual blog. We'll let you slide with gray for small background and lettering, but yellow, and light blue just won't do.
MrBlazer,
I knew the new color campaign would fail. Thanks for calling me out on it. I deserve it. It was after midnight last night and I was messing around with the system, trying to find away to set the links apart so people could see them. The yellow and light blue were bad choices. I'm more manly than that and should know better. I was trying to "dumb down" the system so that Rice would know where to find things.
Lee D,
Your compliments have me ready to go ask for a raise. I know I'd receive a Przybilla-like rejection into the fifth row. If I ever decide to go with an agent, I'll give you a buzz. The MVP trophy is yours, at least today.
Hyper bully,
I agree. The French suggested wearing running shoes with the BDUs. And, I'll check on Zach's illness. Nothing serious I'm sure.
Thanks guys,
MB
hey mike wud up playa! Hey man always look forward to your pieces man!! Hey any way we can get more video scripts of offseason workouts? It would be tight to keep up with the players to see what their doing to get better! Thanx man, later!!
Post a Comment
<< Home