McMillan: "We've got a lot to do."
posted: 10/6/2006 at 10:18 PM
Just in case you thought perhaps the man they call "Sarge" was going soft on us, Friday afternoon, following the morning session, Nate McMillan and his staff watched video tape of the early practice. You didn't think they took a few hours off did you? Between practices, they normally watch tape of the early workout and critique absolutely everything. During a workout it's tough to see exactly what each player is doing, and how the team is progressing and applying the coaching. After watching Friday's tape, McMillan came away convinced that, while things have gone well, they're not doing much back slapping just yet.
"I've loved the intensity and the focus," McMillan told me late Friday night. "But, I see things on tape that we still have to work on. We've got a lot to do. Training camp in this league is short, and it's tough to pack everything into these practices."
McMillan's smile has come easier this week, and everyone has noticed that, but he's still as demanding as ever, and is very quick to call out anything he sees that is short of his expectations.
"The atmosphere has been tremendous, and I've really enjoyed that," McMillan said. "I just don't want to get too caught up in that and lose focus on what we're really after. I am after perfection and our players understand that. This is certainly a work in progress." In other words, he's happy, but far from satisfied.
Friday's morning practice was once again an intense, physically-punishing workout. That means the team was hard at work on learning the defensive schemes, and that included detailed work on switching, defensive spacing, and trapping. As I mentioned yesterday, McMillan is handling most of the defensive coaching, while Dean Demopoulos and Monty Williams are concentrating on the offense.
The coaches continue to not only work the team on defense, but also continue to add plays to the offense. McMillan has put in some brand new plays, and that means a lot of diagraming, and a lot of drills run at walk-through speed. Nate continues to preach shot selection, and making the right pass.
Referees were hired once again, and called some five-on-five full-speed scrimmage situations toward the end of the morning workout. This is an intense period of the practice, and, as always, they keep score on the board. The losing team always has to run extra lines.
Speaking of today's scrimmage, Travis Outlaw had two of the more impressive dunks I've ever seen him execute. That's saying a lot. Our photographer, Jeff Curtin, put one of them at the end of my interview with Joel Przybilla today.
Click here to be taken to the "Training Camp Central" page, and then click on Joel's picture. At the end of my interview with Joel, Jeff snuck the Travis dunk into the footage. It's worth a look.
At the end of the morning practice, the team worked on shooting. Nate split the squad into balanced, three-man teams. It was timed, and the team with the most makes won. By my unofficial count, the team of Martell Webster, Jarrett Jack, and Joel Przybilla, had the most wins. Less running for them. Jarrett continues to shoot the ball extremely well, especially from long range.
The night practice was much shorter than the morning workout. The team basically went over some late-game strategy. They talked about inbounding the ball against pressure defense, and went over time out management. Nate wanted to make sure the players understand the rule changes, regarding time outs.
Teams still get six full time outs and two :20s per game. But, in an effort to reduce the amount of time it takes at the end of games, the NBA has changed things a bit. Inside the last two minutes of each game, teams will only be allowed one full time out. If you, for instance, have two or more full time outs remaining, you'll lose them, and will only get one. One of the extra full time outs can be turned into a :20. So, it's possible teams will still have three time outs left in the last two minutes, but if that's the case, only one will be a full, and you could possibly have two :20-second time outs, if you haven't used one during the second half. In most cases, I think, we'll see each team with a full and a :20 in the final two minutes. That will really speed up the final two minutes, that can sometimes really drag on and on.
Not only will this rule change speed up the end of games, but it puts a premium on time out management, obviously. Teams will most likely avoid using :20 second time outs in the second halves of games, until the final two minutes. Might as well use a full if you're going to lose the extras anyway. It'll be interesting to see how this works. Just wanted to make sure you were up on the new rule.
The Trail Blazers will practice on Saturday, and will do a little watching of video tape as well. The video sessions will begin at 8am, and then they'll have the usual practice at 10am. Yes, I'll be there. I hope you've enjoyed the coverage this week. Judging by the number of hits on this website during training camp, there are many Blazer fans hungry for news, and excited about the start of the season. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard on this stuff- my broadcast partners, Mike Rice, Brian Wheeler, and Antonio Harvey. Also, Jeff Curtin, Ron Quant, Art Sasse, Jim Taylor, Dan Harbison, and Caitlin Volkman.
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Hey Mike. Thanks a million for all of the updates! I get up every morning excited to see what went on during that day's practice. Sometimes I'll check the site hourly to see if there's any new information. I don't know about anyone else, but when I click to see Joel's interview, it directs me to the Jarrett Jack interview... Looks like all of the interviews are messed up for me.
Hey, Mike..
I don't post in here much, but I read your blog every day. As I mention all over the place, as far as I'm concerned, this is the most comprehensive up-to-date resource to acquire anything Blazer-related. Keep up the great work! I imagine as training camp begins to wind down, so will be the amount blog entries on your part.
I find it somewhat intruiging that Travis is seemingly being "developed" as a PF. I've never thought of him as having the physical framework to handle that position. I suppose, though, that Phoenix is setting the tone/pace as a smaller, quicker team and that other (Western) teams are working towards comepeting with that style at times?
Converesly, for the most part, it appears that we'll have a big, banging, slow(?) front line which makes me all the more curious regarding the Outlaw "experiment".
Cheers
This is sort of off topic, but I was wondering if the Portland and Seattle game on the 11th is going to be televised or be on the radio? I think we're going to surprise many people this year with our team. Hopefully shut up all of the doubters that say Portland will finish last again this season.
That was an impressive dunk by Travis. I really hope he doesn't only do that in practice, and can start doing that during games.
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