Is Nate McMillan Being Overlooked for NBA Coach of the Year?

I’m not a big fan of the NBA, but many of you guys are, so I thought I would pass this along:

The Case: Nate McMillan for Coach of the Year

ome mysteries do exist, such as why Nate McMillan is seemingly persona non grata when it comes to Coach Of The Year discussions. You hear and read names like Mike Brown of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Stan Van Gundy of the Orlando Magic and Rick Adelman of the Houston Rockets as the frontrunners for COY, but Nate McMillan? Nary a mention to be found outside of the Portland media.

People expected the Trail Blazers to be good, but this good? Most assumed they would have to fight tooth and nail to secure a playoff spot, which was a perfectly reasonable assumption to make. Young team, few veteran leaders, concerns about potential injuries, tough division, tougher conference. All true statements about the Blazers. But here we are on the last day of the season and Portland has a legitimate shot at home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Western Conference playoffs. Anyone see that coming?

But you look around the Coach Of The Year discussion, and it doesnâ€™t seem like Nate McMillan is getting his share of the credit for that improvement. If the Trail Blazers win tonight (knock on wood), theyâ€™ll have a regular season record of 54-28.

A Raleigh native and Enloe High School grad, McMillan helped lead the Wolfpack to a first place tie in the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season in 1985, and the Elite Eight in both the 1985 and 1986 NCAA Championship Tournaments, and is perhaps the most successful (so far) coach in the Jim Valvano coaching tree.

52 Responses to Is Nate McMillan Being Overlooked for NBA Coach of the Year?

Wulfpack 04/19/2009 at 8:40 AM #

^Because it is a reflection on the guy who hired him. If Sid knew of his misconduct, and did no agree to his dismissal, there’s an issue.
redfred2 04/19/2009 at 1:35 PM #

Noah, sorry to say that I’ve heard three different versions of the QJ story, all had very different timelines, and none of them had very much in common at all. The thing that got me though is that the one source/person that I thought would be all over Sidney Lowe for this sort of thing, and who is also the closest to the situation by far, that person was not laying anymore blame on Sidney Lowe other than the fact that Lowe made a bad judgement in the hiring process, and that Lowe acted in defense of his employee, BEFORE he, or anyone at NCSU for that matter, had all of the facts.

Anyway, the stories I heard went from a person being given responsibilities, and never following through, to a complicated tale that I couldn’t make much sense of…???

Either way. I’d love to know the real truth though, if not the details, at least how you and others believe that it implicates Sidney Lowe directly, say versus, reflecting poorly his on earlier judgement involving hiring another NC State alum? Seriously, I don’t have enough info to make a call on this thing.