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

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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

nateome 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 doesn’t seem like Nate McMillan is getting his share of the credit for that improvement. If the Trail Blazers win tonight (knock on wood), they’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.

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

  1. wufpup76 04/17/2009 at 2:38 PM #

    “He does mention NC State – funny thing is, one of the reporters there actually asks him to restate this (”N. C. State, John”), as if he couldn’t actually beleive it. “Yeah, NC State” is Wall’s reply – the drama continues…”

    ^I thought we were off his short list. Interesting … (this thread had already taken a pretty big detour 🙂 )

  2. Wolf Dog 04/17/2009 at 3:23 PM #

    Off topic football news.

    Chalk up another recruiting class blunder for the Chief. UNX friend told me UNX helping V. Davis In state WR recruit find a prep school, he is not going to qualify. Now the chief just needs 4 more recruits to get arrested or not qualify to get the rest of his class admitted.

    Our classes looking better and better all the time compared to UNX.

  3. bradleyb123 04/17/2009 at 3:29 PM #

    I absolutely would not change a thing about our football program. I’d like a better seat location for my LTR’s, but that’s about all I’d change. TOB is the best thing to happen to NC State athletics, probably since V winning the national championship in 1983.

  4. GAWolf 04/17/2009 at 4:02 PM #

    Angels and Demons is a much better read than Da Vinci Code. Both are “beach books.” But they are page-turning-fiction, without a doubt. I don’t read fiction books hardly ever, but I read those due to the popular demand. The mere suggestion of all the intertwined conspiracies through large gaps of history provides a very intriguing story.

    If “Waiting for Godot” is anything like “Waiting for Guffman”, count me in.

  5. Noah 04/17/2009 at 4:06 PM #

    It’s nothing like Waiting for Guffman…except that LIKE Guffman, Godot never shows up.

    Two dudes sitting by a wall talking. That’s it.

  6. choppack1 04/17/2009 at 4:07 PM #

    bradleyb – Let’s not light our cigars just yet.

    Trust me, I couldn’t be more thrilled w/ TOB either.

    However, I recall a time not too long ago, where a wolfpacker who posted on this board said, “Oh, these are great times to be a Wolfpacker my friends” on another board. And indeed, when he said it, he was right as rain. All indications were looking upwards.

    Our coaches at the time: MOC and Herb.

    Here’s what I’ve learned in the last 10+ years of the internet and NC statefandom.

    *Things are never as good as they seem.
    *Things are as bad as they seem, if not worse.
    *Don’t let a person or a group of people’s irrational rantings influence how you view an issue (one way or the other.)

  7. Texpack 04/17/2009 at 4:32 PM #

    Portland has home court vs. my Rockets in the first round. Adelman hasn’t received any mention that I’ve seen for COY. The winner will come from the East. People talk about She-Mac getting injured like it made Adelman’s job tougher. Nothing could be further from the truth. That injury rid the Rockets of the most over rated player in the Western Conference as well as his crappy attitude.

  8. JEOH2 04/17/2009 at 5:07 PM #

    “Waiting for Godot” is genius because its an abstract commentary on the insanity and monotony of everyday normal life. The insanity of waiting for salvation…and the continuous, routine journey we take as salvation never comes…

    Perfect read for a Wolfpack fan!

  9. Gowolves 04/17/2009 at 7:08 PM #

    So on a brighter note. Hijacking this thread since it is not productive anymore. What do you expect to see tomorrow at the spring game? I would assume the defense will be ahead of the offense. Typically it is. Should there be any concern in the offensive line? I thought it would be a strength going into the fall. Is that the reason for the poor rushing average? Thoughts comments. I am excited as hell to get out there tomorrow. The weather will be great unlike last year!

  10. redfred2 04/17/2009 at 7:16 PM #

    ^I can’t get there for the spring game, but I want to hear about the OL most of all.

  11. highstick 04/17/2009 at 8:20 PM #

    Off topic, but I’m sending this to Cowdog….I ran across a site in the DH Hill Library that has a huge collection of photographs, some sports related, but a lot have 4H clubs and things that don’t interest me. Anyway, when I went to the site tonight, they had separated the topics so that you don’t have to look at all of them in sequence.

    Lots of old pictures of Wolfpack athletics. I’m sure any of you who have any appreciation of State history will appreciate them.

    It’s even got pictures of my former BBall roomie! My only question would be did a year in Nam with the Rangers “straighten him out or screw him up”?

    http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/digital/subject.html

  12. redfred2 04/17/2009 at 8:26 PM #

    Back to the original topic of the thread, this situation reminds me of Nate McMillian’s days as a player. By that I mean, back when he was always doing what he was supposed to be doing, when he was thinking ahead and almost always making the right decisions in order to make game changing plays on the court. But always doing it very quietly, without drawing too much attention to himself.

    He was a great kid, and one of my all-time favorites at NC State.

  13. LRM 04/17/2009 at 9:11 PM #

    What exactly is this “NBA” y’all speak of? Is it like Twitter or something?

  14. highstick 04/17/2009 at 10:18 PM #

    Canes win! Canes win! Canes win!!

  15. Noah 04/18/2009 at 7:46 AM #

    What exactly is this “NBA” y’all speak of? Is it like Twitter or something?

    It’s far sillier.

  16. BSIE80 04/18/2009 at 8:02 AM #

    Agree redfred.
    Nate is just a class act, good guy, and doing his job nicely.
    He will get more recognition in time.
    He certainly has a core of good players at Portland.
    I would suspect that they will continue to make the playoffs for years to come. Hopefully, they can break through and win a championship in the next 2-3 yrs.

  17. 61Packer 04/18/2009 at 9:49 AM #

    I’m sure it’s probably well-documented, but why isn’t Nate’s son Jemelle at NCSU? Had HWSNBN used young McMillan a little more down the stretch, ASU might have done better at season’s end. I was impressed with McMillan’s play when we was allowed into the game.

  18. redfred2 04/18/2009 at 11:20 AM #

    61packer, my understanding is that Jamelle McMillian had attended BB camp at NC State, while Sendek was coaching in Raleigh of course, and that he decided then that he wanted to play for Coach Sendek while in a very structured enviroment and within a system like which Sendek was running at the time here at NCSU. I didn’t particularly like it when Jamelle made his decision to go to ASU, but you’ve got to give Herb credit for that.

    Plus, remembering that all of the players that were recruited in that time period, were recruited to FIT, like a part on a machine, instead of being recruited TO PLAY BB FOR NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY. Those kinds of ‘silly intangibles’ didn’t even factor into the equation back then.

    Just to add, I’m sure that The Pied Piper could tack on yet another unsubstaintiated, personal opinion right now, regarding Coach Lowe, and lots of his sheep on this site would be blaming Coach Lowe specifically, for being the SINGLE reason why Jamelle McMillian isn’t currently attending NC State. It’s sad, but it has become just that easy around here.

  19. MrPlywood 04/18/2009 at 3:43 PM #

    Vinny got a nice win today too…

  20. redfred2 04/18/2009 at 4:01 PM #

    MrPlywood, if I’m remembering correctly, didn’t Jim Valvano coach BB, specifically, at NC State? I mean, I know the guy was a total embarrassment to The University according to some folks around here, but is it not strange that so many of those players are still very much involved in something that they loved when they were kids, and making a very comfortable living in something that Jim Valvano guided them in back when he was around?

    I guess in this day and age when there are so many “grown-ups” out there, who openly encourage young kids/BB players to leave college and take the money as quickly as they can possibly get their hands on it, it does seem kind of corny to express admiration for a Coach/human being who definitely made such a WORTHWHILE and LASTING impression on those who were once under his wing.

  21. redfred2 04/18/2009 at 8:42 PM #

    SFN, I know you guys deleted my earlier comments, I’m glad, and I do apologize for that outburst. I just hope that whoever read those comments, took some serious consideration as to what I have been trying to say for a very looong time around here. Sorry that it deteriorated to that point.

    Anyway, thanks for taking the time, doing what you did, and doing it fairly and evenhandedly across the board in this particular incidence.

  22. Noah 04/18/2009 at 10:11 PM #

    Redfred and Wolf Dog — what do you guys think about what Quinton Jackson did?

    You guys are comfortable with that?

  23. Greywolf 04/18/2009 at 11:52 PM #

    Noah
    April 18th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
    “Redfred and Wolf Dog — what do you guys think about what Quinton Jackson did?”
    `
    Noah, I’m clueless as to what QJ did. And I expect it is not appropriate to say so here or you would have done it. Is there any way to give the poor, ininformed common folk such as myself, a clue?
    `
    Even more intriguing is how is it that Lowe is indicted in this mess? If it’s because he didn’t fire QJ fast enough, I can live with that.
    `
    The whole thing with QJ thoroughly pisses me off. We don’t need slim balls in our athletics.

  24. Greywolf 04/18/2009 at 11:58 PM #

    “Just to add, I’m sure that The Pied Piper could tack on yet another unsubstaintiated, personal opinion right now, regarding Coach Lowe, and lots of his sheep on this site would be blaming Coach Lowe specifically, for being the SINGLE reason why Jamelle McMillian isn’t currently attending NC State.”
    `
    redfred, I don’t know what the Pie-eyed Piper would say. I heard a rumor that Sid had a conversation with Jamelle and gave him his most informed opinion that he would be a better fit going to play with Herb at ASU. I hardly consider this blame. When I heard or read it, my thought was “Good for Sid. Doing what’s best for the son of another former Wolfpack BB player.”

  25. jbpackfan 04/19/2009 at 6:57 AM #

    QJ was fired. Unless Sid had some involvement in whatever QJ did, I don’t see why it is still an issue.

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