I was really not sure what Nate McMillan meant with his post-game remarks last night. But it sure sounded as if the coach was calling out his two stars. Kerry Eggers seemed to think so, too. And he put it all into context with a Brandon Roy quote I haven’t seen anywhere else that seemed to say, “right back at you” to the coach:

McMillan seemed to single out Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge in his postgame remarks to the media.

“Brandon and LaMarcus are our captains,” McMillan said. “They’re the guys we feed off of. They’re the guys who can do a lot encouraging and support. We need that. We’re going to play off of them.

“In a game like that, we need somebody to gather the troops and we ride them. It’s not calling them out – (but) those are our go-to guys, the guys who make it happen.”

Sure sounded like a coach calling out his stars.

Roy was only 9 of 22 shooting but had a near triple-double with a game-high 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Aldridge made 7 of 16 shots and finished with 16 points and five boards.

“We’re still trying to find a rhythm,” Roy said. “We have a number of guys who can play, and we’re still trying to figure it out how to (spread) it around.

“I don’t think it’s energy. I think it’s guys confused on what exactly who we’re going to, and are we going to go inside out or outside in, or are we going to pick-and-roll. Because of that, we go through stretches where we look like we can’t score.”

That would seem like a star player calling out the coach.

To me, last night was one more example of this team not really having enough structure at either end of the floor. That’s why there’s confusion.

There’s too much one-on-one on offense and that eventually catches up to you when the other team has some energy and is willing to help each other out.

Then, on defense, the Blazers don’t help at all. They expect Greg Oden or Joel Przybilla to mop up whatever messes they create on the perimeter and it’s too much for them to handle. Good teams involve everyone in the help defense, not just the centers.

The other thing that happened to the Blazer defense last night was that percentages really caught up with them. They’ve been playing bad teams, especially some poor offensive teams, lately and have been allowing a lot of open shots. But the teams missed those shots. And on those nights, you look like a pretty good defensive team on the stat sheet.

But does anyone really think this is the best defensive team in the league? Portland allows too many open jumpers, too much penetration and a lot of layups.

Meanwhile, the Blazers get outscored every night on fast-break points and in the paint. That’s going to make it, in the long run, difficult to ever improve much.

All is not right with the Portland Trail Blazers. You can talk about it being early in the season all you want, but there are some problems to be dealt with and it’s better to do that sooner than later.

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I’ve stayed away from talking about The Schonz’s radio appearance Wednesday night because I didn’t hear it. I was at the game and forgot to bring a radio with me. I did hear from a lot of people who were impressed by how well he did after the long layoff.

I also heard, of course, that Brian Wheeler allowed Bill to do the whole second half and I have to tell you, in my opinion “Wheels” is one of the most generous, kind and talented people I’ve ever come across in this business. Bill’s microphone is in great hands these days. Wheeler is a real pro, folks.

I’m going to link you to Steve Brandon’s review of Schonely’s performance because it’s not only the only one I’ve seen but Brandon — who once covered the Trail Blazers — is now the sports editor of the Portland Tribune and doesn’t get a chance to write much anymore. But as you will see, he still can, that’s for sure.

If you are a fan of broadcasting in general, or a fan of The Schonz (and who isn’t?) or of Wheels, you must read this piece. It’s great Bill had a chance to show a new generation of fans what this whole “Rip City” thing was all about.

Way to go, pal.

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Big “scoop” yesterday on Oregonlive.com. It seems Greg Oden worked out a while back with Brian Grant, who flew back to Ohio State to spend a few days with him. It got picked up all over the place and people were actually asking me, “Did you hear about Brian Grant working out with Oden?”

Yeah. And you would have, too, if you’d been paying attention. Kerry Eggers had it in the Portland Tribune on July 2, which of course was a more than three weeks ago. That inspired me to this blog post on July 3, referring to Eggers’ column.

But I guess it’s not official until The Oregonian writes it. Which means maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll read about how Oden did yesterday at the U.S. National team mini-camp.

UPDATE: A minor point, I admit. But the whole premise of this story on Oregonlive.com headlined “Nate McMillan wants more gold” is the first few words, which say, “Nate McMillan wants to add to his gold medal count.” You know, by coaching, again on the national team staff. I bet he does want to add to his medal count. I’d like to add to mine, too. Right now, me and Nate have the same amount of gold medals — zero. I thought everyone knew coaches don’t get medals. Never have.

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If you’re a Trail Blazer fan, you may not have seen this column by Kerry Eggers in the Portland Tribune, because it’s largely about baseball old-timers in Portland last weekend.

But there’s a mention near the end about Brandon Roy signing autographs recently for a fee:

And there they were afterward, signing autographs – for free, mind you – for hundreds who snaked around the PGE Park outfield. When you consider Brandon Roy pulled in $49 per signature at a recent signing in Mill Creek, Wash., it was a display of sanity and at least a modicum of good taste.

Man, I totally understand old retired players looking for a little scratch to help them in retirement making a few bucks at card shows. But an active player in the process of negotiating a contract that’s going to bring him tens of millions of dollars charging for autographs?

Sorry, that just doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe it was to raise money for charity. If so, I guess that’s fine — but even then I think I’d advise a player to just sign the autographs for free, have someone keep track of how many he signs and then just have the player write a check that would balance out to 50 bucks per signature. For a millionaire, not a big deal.

UPDATE: Here is an ad for Roy’s 90-minute appearance, with no mention at all of charity.

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Honestly, I think Kerry Eggers scooped everyone with the most important Blazer story of the summer yesterday. And in all the fuss over Hedo Turkoglu it was sort of lost in the shuffle.

He has details of Greg Oden’s summer workouts and reveals that Oden is pretty much assistant coach Bill Bayno’s private summer project. And more important, he says that Oden is working very hard:

“I give Greg an A-plus,” Bayno says. “His effort has been fantastic. I’ve been pushing him hard. He has accepted it. He has worked with very little rest, but he doesn’t ask for a lot of rest.

“Today we went for an hour and 20 minutes straight. That’s a killer for one guy to go that long at the pace we’re going. We had two water breaks and shot free throws in between, but he’s been working really hard.”

Bayno says the workouts have been divided about equally between defense and offense.

“On defense, we’ve worked on lateral quickness, where he has to read and react and block shots,” the Portland assistant says. “Greg has surprised me how quick he is laterally. This is the first time I’ve put him through a lot of this stuff.

“Offensively, we’ve worked on counter moves, (such as) his go-to jump hook over the left shoulder. We’ve tried to get him as many repetitions as we can, and we’re adding counter moves, (such as) the spin back to the left hand. Also, an up-and-under move, where you’re trying to get (a defender) to go for the shot fake, and then use a step-through move back to his left hand.”

And this, too, from Bayno, considered one of the best developmental coaches in basketball:

“We’re working Monday through Thursday weekly, and Greg is also scrimmaging at night (at Ohio State),” Bayno says. “He also lifts weights. Bobby (Medina) got with the Ohio State strength coach and gave him a program. Greg’s weight looks good, and his body looks good. He is so respectful, such a good kid, does anything we ask – he has been a joy to work with.”

The other piece of this is that ex-Blazer Brian Grant is back in Ohio working with Oden, too:

“With footwork, it’s mostly balance. Big guys get in trouble when they get their feet too close together. It’s about being able to take hits and finish and make shots. Having Brian’s 260-pound body on Greg has really helped with that.”

The goal is not for the 21-year-old Oden, who weighed about 280 at the end of last season, to lose weight.

“He’s in good shape,” Bayno says. “It’s really about not adding a whole lot of weight. He is taking a nutrition class this summer at Ohio State, which will be good for him. To have a big guy like Greg at his age focusing on nutrition is important for longevity in the league.”

Of course, there’s more to the story and I suggest you read it. Oden’s development is still the critical piece to Portland’s NBA ascension.

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