Nate McMillan not the defensive coach he’s cracked up to be
By Dan Feldman
"To see how much a difference pace can make, here’s how McMillan’s teams ranked in points allowed per game/points allowed per possession:2000-01 SuperSonics: 24th/24th*2001-02 SuperSonics: 12th/17th2002-03 SuperSonics: 6th/17th2003-04 SuperSonics: 24th/27th2004-05 SuperSonics: 13th/27th2005-06 Trail Blazers: 18th/28th2006-07 Trail Blazers: 14th/26th2007-08 Trail Blazers: 8th/17th2008-09 Trail Blazers: 4th/13th2009-10 Trail Blazers: 3rd/15th2010-11 Trail Blazers: 7th/14th2011-12 Trail Blazers: 18th/23rd**"
"And his teams usually perform well offensively. After all, if his defenses do poorly, there has to be some reason his teams win more often than not.There’s plenty of variation in rankings for McMillan’s teams offensively (using points scored per possession) — 10th, 5th, 19th, 3rd, 2nd, 30th, 20th, 14th, 1st, 7th, 10th, 11th — but they certainly skew to the positive."