Sergio and LaMarcus cheated out of Rookie Challenge?

As you must know by now, Brandon Roy was the only Trail Blazer rookie named to the Rookie-Sophomore game at this year’s All-Star weekend. This means that our other rookies were left off: Sergio Rodriguez and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Of course, the Trail Blazers organization, Nate McMillan, and many fans are up in arms that the Blazers only got one player into that game. They claim that it’s because our team gets no love and no respect. While this may be true, it is not the reason these rookies were overlooked.

This one is easy: the reason Sergio and LaMarcus didn’t make the team is because Nate McMillan never played them! Look at minutes played through February; the rookies that beat out our players played significantly more minutes.

At the point guard position: Sergio Rodriguez played only 477 minutes, while Jordan Farmar played 725 minutes and Marcus Williams played 923 minutes.

At forward: LaMarcus Aldridge played only 673 total minutes, while Paul Milsap played 738 mins, Andrea Bargnani played 989 minutes, and Adam Morisson played a whopping 1435 minutes.

I will state that our rookies probably have more talent than those others. But honestly, no coach is going to vote for someone they never gotten to see play. Sergio and LaMarcus played good minutes when they got them, but once again, you have to blame Nate for keeping their playing time to a bare minimum.

Please enjoy these quotes from Nate McMillan on this subject of Sergio and LaMarcus not making it into the Rookie game. They are especially funny because Nate McMillan is the main (sole) reason they didn’t make it!

--"I personally think that we got cheated cause we got 2, we got a couple guys that should have been considered… LaMarcus (and) Sergio"
--"I felt like we should have had maybe one more guy on that team, you look at minutes and possibly stats. "
--"Number two pick in the draft is normally there, because he’s the number two pick in the draft."