tlongII
10-23-2009, 12:05 PM
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/10/behind_the_blazers_locker_room_19.html
Probably never before has the upscale restaurant inside the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver had a lunch guest dine in shorts, shower sandals and a sweaty t-shirt, but that was the scene Thursday when Brandon Roy plopped down and ordered spaghetti with meatballs.
He had just arrived from the Trail Blazers' morning shootaround, and with his appetite grumbling as loud as the Lil’ Boosie playing in his headphones, Roy decided it was time to pull a veteran move.
While most players get off the team bus and return to their room to order room service, Roy heads straight to the hotel restaurant. With 15 room service orders coming into the kitchen all at once, the wait can be intolerable.
"They always say they are doing their best and it will be up as soon as possible,'' Roy says of room service. "But I've found this is way quicker.''
His lunch strategy wasn't the only veteran move on Roy's mind Thursday.
He knew in the coming days he needed to talk to the team. Players only. He didn’t know when, or where, or exactly what he would say, but he knew he needed to stand before them.
Entering his fourth season, the Blazers star has found himself spending more time than ever thinking about this Blazers team. In particular, time thinking about how he can make the greatest impact as both the leader on and off the court.
Even though he had struggled throughout the preseason, his shot terribly off and his pacing out of sync with the rest of the team, Roy wasn’t worried about his play. Consciously, he had been saving his body from the inevitable bumps and bruises that come with his trademark drives to the rim.
What did worry him was how the Blazers deep and talented roster was going to mesh.
He figured the opening night starting lineup would be Steve Blake at point guard, himself at shooting guard, Nicolas Batum at small forward, LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward and Greg Oden at center.
That left a second unit of Andre Miller at point guard, Rudy Fernandez at shooting guard, Martell Webster at small forward, Travis Outlaw at power forward and Joel Przybilla at center.
“I’ve sat back and thought about this, and talked about this with my friends,’’ Roy said. “Everyone thinks the sacrifice is going to have to come from me and LaMarcus. And yeah, it is.
“But an even bigger sacrifice is going to have to come from Andre and Joel,’’ Roy said. “Say Joel comes off the bench. Does he relax and say this is Greg’s team, that Greg is the future, just go ahead Greg? Or does he say I’m gonna push myself everyday to make sure Greg is great and to make sure that when I come in the game I’m even better?
“And does Andre say OK, I will come off the bench and make sure this is the best second lineup in the NBA? Or is he going to say, Steve is starting, I’m going to relax?’’
In an indirect way, Roy had just identified what this Blazers season boils down to: Can everyone accept and embrace the roles doled out by coach Nate McMillan?
It is a simple concept, of course, unless you are the player having to swallow pride or sacrifice playing time and shot attempts in a contract year.
The more Roy thinks about the lineups, the more he insists it could all work out. He remembers watching the Boston Celtics during their title run two seasons ago, how their second unit, led by James Posey and Leon Powe, came in and changed the course of games.
He remembers how the Lakers’ Lamar Odom played so hard last year coming off the bench, becoming one of the key elements to the team’s championship.
I told him I thought his vision of the two lineups made sense. I thought there was a certain beauty in the second unit, one that can play fast and free, and allow Miller to really put his stamp on this team. It just seemed to fit.
“But it only fits if they want it to fit,’’ Roy said. “They can make it a great second lineup. If that's the bench lineup, they can make it great. Andre has to make that sacrifice and say, ‘I'm going to make this my lineup. We're going to be ready every time. I don't care if the starters come out and get behind by 20, we're going to come out and put our mark on the game.’’’
I asked why he didn’t just tell that to his teammates.
And that’s when the next veteran move of Roy was revealed. He was already two steps ahead.
“We will meet as a team before the season starts – players only – and we will talk and I will express how I feel,’’ Roy said. “We have to have that mindset if we are going to be considered an elite team. And that’s something I have to express to the team. Because man, if we can do that … we will be a tough team. A really good team.
“But it has to be said.’’
A different night in Vancouver
For the most part, it had been an awkward preseason for the Blazers.
In the first seven games, they never really clicked and never looked comfortable. With the exception of a fourth-quarter flurry from Oden and Roy against Denver, there had been a general malaise and haze about their play.
For the players and coaches, the most frustrating aspect of it all was that behind the closed doors of practice, the team felt it was playing at a very high level. Practices had been intense and productive, with great competition.
After Tuesday’s home loss to Utah, when the team literally tripped over itself at times, I was dumbfounded how a team so talented could look so out of sorts.
Two players steadfastly steered me away from a gloom-and-doom angle: Steve Blake and Martell Webster.
After seven games, it was surely time to be concerned, I reasoned with Webster.
“J, I just don’t feel that,’’ Webster insisted after the Utah game. “I don’t feel that at all. Honestly, I’m very confident. Yes, what happened tonight was devastating, and the reason I say that is because we worked so hard in practice, yet we reached the complete opposite result. To see that happen, it hurts to watch.’’
Blake too poured water on any imagined fires.
“There’s no question it hasn’t gone as well as everyone would have hoped,’’ Blake said. “But we have time. That’s why they have a preseason, why they have practices, so you can figure out what’s wrong and fix it.’’
Even Roy, who spends so much time analyzing and critiquing the team’s play, was at a loss to explain the play.
“We’d be lying if we said we have looked good,’’ Roy said. “But that’s the thing I’m confused about. Our practices have been good. We’ve gone hard. Every practice is like ‘Boom! Boom! Boom! We’re getting stuff done and looking good. Then we come out and play like crud against Utah.’’
But something would change Thursday night in Vancouver.
I knew it would be a different night when McMillan cut off our pregame interview early.
“I have to go,’’ the coach said. “I need to talk to a couple of players.’’
A wink and a smile: The starting 5 revealed
As he does before most games, McMillan on Thursday fixed himself a hot drink. At home, it’s usually tea with lemons. On the road, it’s usually coffee. Holding a styrofoam cup in his hands, while sitting on a bench that serve as his office, McMillan summons video coordinator Tim Grass.
“Get me Przybilla,’’ he tells Grass.
The locker room resembles a ghost town, the majority of the players either on the court shooting or attending a chapel session in the arena. Rookie Dante Cunningham is spread eagle on the floor stretching and Nicolas Batum is in front of his locker, rubbing his sore thigh.
Grass finds Przybilla in the bathroom and lets him know coach has called for him.
It’s 45 minutes before game time and Przybilla finds out his role for the start of the season.
McMillan tells him he will begin the season coming off the bench.
“I figured it,’’ Przybilla said later. “And I told him, Greg has had a great preseason and that Greg deserves to start. Do I want to start? Yeah. I wanted to start last year too, and I just kept playing hard and relished the role off the bench and by the end of the year things changed.
“Hopefully Greg has a great year, and if I have to come off the bench the whole year then I have to take advantage of it. The thing is, I don’t think there are many backup centers in the league who are better than me. So I think I can thrive off this role.’’
There’s not much these days that can put Przybilla in a bad mood. He and his wife, Noelle, are expecting their second child in the first week of May.
Przybilla, who often brings his three-year-old son Anthony into the locker room after home games, is crazy about kids.
“I love my son so much I want another one,’’ Przybilla said. “It’s a blessing, man. I’ve never had so much fun in my life.’’
McMillan on Thursday sends out a starting unit of Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Oden – the exact lineup that earlier in the day Roy said he figured would be the team’s opening night lineup.
Immediately, the Blazers click.
Roy finally looks like an All-Star, scoring 17 points in the first quarter. He hits 5-of-6 shots, including all three of his three-point attempts, and he gets to the free throw line four times, making all four. He also dishes three assists, one of them to Oden for a dunk.
Playing in front of a sellout crowd of 19,699 that is rooting heavily for favorite son Steve Nash, the Blazers race to a 36-25 lead after one quarter. The Suns are playing for real, beginning the game with what will be their opening night starting lineup _ Nash, Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Amar’e Stoudemire and Channing Frye.
After the game, McMillan is as pleased as he has been all preseason.
“That first group established how we want to play,’’ McMillan said. “This (Phoenix) team the last time we played had 30 fast break points and tonight by our count, they had 10. So better job of executing the game plan and defending. And offensively we had good movement.’’
So did that mean Thursday’s starting lineup of Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Oden would open the season against Houston?
McMillan smiled and his eyes danced. It was the type of smile, the type of look, that after five years of covering him I understand means “yes”, but he wasn’t going to go on record and say it.
“You write what you think,’’ he said, finally breaking into a laugh. “I’ll let you know in a couple of days.’’
After the game, Roy emphatically said that would be the lineup.
More important, though, was how the team played.
“It was a much needed first quarter of basketball,’’ Roy said. “We played hard. We got back to what we did last year. After we talked today, I was thinking … it was like we have been trying to find an easy way to be good again. It was like we forgot that last year wasn’t easy. And that includes me. But that’s why I made it a point tonight that we gotta come out and go hard. I kept saying, ‘We gotta go hard.’’’
There seemed to be a collective exhale in the locker room. Everyone was glad the preseason was over, but even more so, everyone was relieved the team finally had some carryover from practice to a game.
“We just needed one good quarter, one good half of basketball,’’ Przybilla said. “Now we can get it rolling. I think we have it now, and hopefully it will carry over to Tuesday.’’
Without question, there was a feeling of progress Thursday. Maybe it was because the preseason was finally over. Maybe it was because the lineups had finally been set. Or maybe it was because the team finally played well.
This was far from a playful or light locker room in the past, however. This team seems more businesslike. Older. Or maybe there were some hurt feelings because of the clear definition of roles.
I never did get to speak with Miller after Thursday’s game, he left by the time I was done talking to Roy and Przybilla. But as I talked with Przybilla, the center nodded over toward Miller.
Przybilla has been a staunch supporter of Miller, and earlier in training camp he chastised me for printing that Miller failed his conditioning test. Przybilla felt Andre was being unfairly labeled. As we talked Thursday, Przybilla wanted to make sure everyone knew that he felt Miller would handle playing on the second unit just fine.
“Andre wants to win. He has the same mentality I do,’’ Przybilla said. “He understands what Coach wants and what the team needs from him to win. Seriously. I have never heard him say one negative thing, ever. It’s like Nate I and were saying the other day: We put him in for Sergio, and we got Juwan for Channing, and we got Martell back from injury. There’s no way we shouldn’t be better.’’
Probably never before has the upscale restaurant inside the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver had a lunch guest dine in shorts, shower sandals and a sweaty t-shirt, but that was the scene Thursday when Brandon Roy plopped down and ordered spaghetti with meatballs.
He had just arrived from the Trail Blazers' morning shootaround, and with his appetite grumbling as loud as the Lil’ Boosie playing in his headphones, Roy decided it was time to pull a veteran move.
While most players get off the team bus and return to their room to order room service, Roy heads straight to the hotel restaurant. With 15 room service orders coming into the kitchen all at once, the wait can be intolerable.
"They always say they are doing their best and it will be up as soon as possible,'' Roy says of room service. "But I've found this is way quicker.''
His lunch strategy wasn't the only veteran move on Roy's mind Thursday.
He knew in the coming days he needed to talk to the team. Players only. He didn’t know when, or where, or exactly what he would say, but he knew he needed to stand before them.
Entering his fourth season, the Blazers star has found himself spending more time than ever thinking about this Blazers team. In particular, time thinking about how he can make the greatest impact as both the leader on and off the court.
Even though he had struggled throughout the preseason, his shot terribly off and his pacing out of sync with the rest of the team, Roy wasn’t worried about his play. Consciously, he had been saving his body from the inevitable bumps and bruises that come with his trademark drives to the rim.
What did worry him was how the Blazers deep and talented roster was going to mesh.
He figured the opening night starting lineup would be Steve Blake at point guard, himself at shooting guard, Nicolas Batum at small forward, LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward and Greg Oden at center.
That left a second unit of Andre Miller at point guard, Rudy Fernandez at shooting guard, Martell Webster at small forward, Travis Outlaw at power forward and Joel Przybilla at center.
“I’ve sat back and thought about this, and talked about this with my friends,’’ Roy said. “Everyone thinks the sacrifice is going to have to come from me and LaMarcus. And yeah, it is.
“But an even bigger sacrifice is going to have to come from Andre and Joel,’’ Roy said. “Say Joel comes off the bench. Does he relax and say this is Greg’s team, that Greg is the future, just go ahead Greg? Or does he say I’m gonna push myself everyday to make sure Greg is great and to make sure that when I come in the game I’m even better?
“And does Andre say OK, I will come off the bench and make sure this is the best second lineup in the NBA? Or is he going to say, Steve is starting, I’m going to relax?’’
In an indirect way, Roy had just identified what this Blazers season boils down to: Can everyone accept and embrace the roles doled out by coach Nate McMillan?
It is a simple concept, of course, unless you are the player having to swallow pride or sacrifice playing time and shot attempts in a contract year.
The more Roy thinks about the lineups, the more he insists it could all work out. He remembers watching the Boston Celtics during their title run two seasons ago, how their second unit, led by James Posey and Leon Powe, came in and changed the course of games.
He remembers how the Lakers’ Lamar Odom played so hard last year coming off the bench, becoming one of the key elements to the team’s championship.
I told him I thought his vision of the two lineups made sense. I thought there was a certain beauty in the second unit, one that can play fast and free, and allow Miller to really put his stamp on this team. It just seemed to fit.
“But it only fits if they want it to fit,’’ Roy said. “They can make it a great second lineup. If that's the bench lineup, they can make it great. Andre has to make that sacrifice and say, ‘I'm going to make this my lineup. We're going to be ready every time. I don't care if the starters come out and get behind by 20, we're going to come out and put our mark on the game.’’’
I asked why he didn’t just tell that to his teammates.
And that’s when the next veteran move of Roy was revealed. He was already two steps ahead.
“We will meet as a team before the season starts – players only – and we will talk and I will express how I feel,’’ Roy said. “We have to have that mindset if we are going to be considered an elite team. And that’s something I have to express to the team. Because man, if we can do that … we will be a tough team. A really good team.
“But it has to be said.’’
A different night in Vancouver
For the most part, it had been an awkward preseason for the Blazers.
In the first seven games, they never really clicked and never looked comfortable. With the exception of a fourth-quarter flurry from Oden and Roy against Denver, there had been a general malaise and haze about their play.
For the players and coaches, the most frustrating aspect of it all was that behind the closed doors of practice, the team felt it was playing at a very high level. Practices had been intense and productive, with great competition.
After Tuesday’s home loss to Utah, when the team literally tripped over itself at times, I was dumbfounded how a team so talented could look so out of sorts.
Two players steadfastly steered me away from a gloom-and-doom angle: Steve Blake and Martell Webster.
After seven games, it was surely time to be concerned, I reasoned with Webster.
“J, I just don’t feel that,’’ Webster insisted after the Utah game. “I don’t feel that at all. Honestly, I’m very confident. Yes, what happened tonight was devastating, and the reason I say that is because we worked so hard in practice, yet we reached the complete opposite result. To see that happen, it hurts to watch.’’
Blake too poured water on any imagined fires.
“There’s no question it hasn’t gone as well as everyone would have hoped,’’ Blake said. “But we have time. That’s why they have a preseason, why they have practices, so you can figure out what’s wrong and fix it.’’
Even Roy, who spends so much time analyzing and critiquing the team’s play, was at a loss to explain the play.
“We’d be lying if we said we have looked good,’’ Roy said. “But that’s the thing I’m confused about. Our practices have been good. We’ve gone hard. Every practice is like ‘Boom! Boom! Boom! We’re getting stuff done and looking good. Then we come out and play like crud against Utah.’’
But something would change Thursday night in Vancouver.
I knew it would be a different night when McMillan cut off our pregame interview early.
“I have to go,’’ the coach said. “I need to talk to a couple of players.’’
A wink and a smile: The starting 5 revealed
As he does before most games, McMillan on Thursday fixed himself a hot drink. At home, it’s usually tea with lemons. On the road, it’s usually coffee. Holding a styrofoam cup in his hands, while sitting on a bench that serve as his office, McMillan summons video coordinator Tim Grass.
“Get me Przybilla,’’ he tells Grass.
The locker room resembles a ghost town, the majority of the players either on the court shooting or attending a chapel session in the arena. Rookie Dante Cunningham is spread eagle on the floor stretching and Nicolas Batum is in front of his locker, rubbing his sore thigh.
Grass finds Przybilla in the bathroom and lets him know coach has called for him.
It’s 45 minutes before game time and Przybilla finds out his role for the start of the season.
McMillan tells him he will begin the season coming off the bench.
“I figured it,’’ Przybilla said later. “And I told him, Greg has had a great preseason and that Greg deserves to start. Do I want to start? Yeah. I wanted to start last year too, and I just kept playing hard and relished the role off the bench and by the end of the year things changed.
“Hopefully Greg has a great year, and if I have to come off the bench the whole year then I have to take advantage of it. The thing is, I don’t think there are many backup centers in the league who are better than me. So I think I can thrive off this role.’’
There’s not much these days that can put Przybilla in a bad mood. He and his wife, Noelle, are expecting their second child in the first week of May.
Przybilla, who often brings his three-year-old son Anthony into the locker room after home games, is crazy about kids.
“I love my son so much I want another one,’’ Przybilla said. “It’s a blessing, man. I’ve never had so much fun in my life.’’
McMillan on Thursday sends out a starting unit of Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Oden – the exact lineup that earlier in the day Roy said he figured would be the team’s opening night lineup.
Immediately, the Blazers click.
Roy finally looks like an All-Star, scoring 17 points in the first quarter. He hits 5-of-6 shots, including all three of his three-point attempts, and he gets to the free throw line four times, making all four. He also dishes three assists, one of them to Oden for a dunk.
Playing in front of a sellout crowd of 19,699 that is rooting heavily for favorite son Steve Nash, the Blazers race to a 36-25 lead after one quarter. The Suns are playing for real, beginning the game with what will be their opening night starting lineup _ Nash, Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Amar’e Stoudemire and Channing Frye.
After the game, McMillan is as pleased as he has been all preseason.
“That first group established how we want to play,’’ McMillan said. “This (Phoenix) team the last time we played had 30 fast break points and tonight by our count, they had 10. So better job of executing the game plan and defending. And offensively we had good movement.’’
So did that mean Thursday’s starting lineup of Blake, Roy, Batum, Aldridge and Oden would open the season against Houston?
McMillan smiled and his eyes danced. It was the type of smile, the type of look, that after five years of covering him I understand means “yes”, but he wasn’t going to go on record and say it.
“You write what you think,’’ he said, finally breaking into a laugh. “I’ll let you know in a couple of days.’’
After the game, Roy emphatically said that would be the lineup.
More important, though, was how the team played.
“It was a much needed first quarter of basketball,’’ Roy said. “We played hard. We got back to what we did last year. After we talked today, I was thinking … it was like we have been trying to find an easy way to be good again. It was like we forgot that last year wasn’t easy. And that includes me. But that’s why I made it a point tonight that we gotta come out and go hard. I kept saying, ‘We gotta go hard.’’’
There seemed to be a collective exhale in the locker room. Everyone was glad the preseason was over, but even more so, everyone was relieved the team finally had some carryover from practice to a game.
“We just needed one good quarter, one good half of basketball,’’ Przybilla said. “Now we can get it rolling. I think we have it now, and hopefully it will carry over to Tuesday.’’
Without question, there was a feeling of progress Thursday. Maybe it was because the preseason was finally over. Maybe it was because the lineups had finally been set. Or maybe it was because the team finally played well.
This was far from a playful or light locker room in the past, however. This team seems more businesslike. Older. Or maybe there were some hurt feelings because of the clear definition of roles.
I never did get to speak with Miller after Thursday’s game, he left by the time I was done talking to Roy and Przybilla. But as I talked with Przybilla, the center nodded over toward Miller.
Przybilla has been a staunch supporter of Miller, and earlier in training camp he chastised me for printing that Miller failed his conditioning test. Przybilla felt Andre was being unfairly labeled. As we talked Thursday, Przybilla wanted to make sure everyone knew that he felt Miller would handle playing on the second unit just fine.
“Andre wants to win. He has the same mentality I do,’’ Przybilla said. “He understands what Coach wants and what the team needs from him to win. Seriously. I have never heard him say one negative thing, ever. It’s like Nate I and were saying the other day: We put him in for Sergio, and we got Juwan for Channing, and we got Martell back from injury. There’s no way we shouldn’t be better.’’