Nate McMillan is hard at work in preparation for the 2003-04 season, but he found time to talk to the media (and take pictures at media day). Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

Question: Give us a brief recap of your camp so far and a look towards the regular season.
Nate McMillan: Good morning to you all. I think we’ve had a very good training camp. This is the first time in 13 years that we’ve started a training camp without Gary Payton, and I feel like we’ve had a solid training camp. We are in a transition period with our organization, with our team, where we have traded away one of probably the best players to play in the Green and Gold. We’ve brought in Ray Allen, a young, talented guy we feel is just beginning to go into his prime, so this is my first training camp with Ray. Rashard Lewis is coming off a very good year last year and we expect him to have another solid season. But we are a team in a transition period here, where we are changing the direction of the organization. And it is somewhat of a new beginning for an organization and we’re trying to do this when the West is probably the best it’s ever been. Look at the Western Conference and the number of teams that are capable of winning the championship and the improvement that a lot of these teams have made over the last two years. I know in my 17 years of being involved in the NBA that the West it’s the strongest it has ever been. So, it’s a tough time to be transforming your team, but we are looking forward to the season.

Q: In your years as a player and now as a coach, what do you see as some of the most significant changes for a coach that’s so much different than when you first started or even when you were playing a few years ago?
McMillan: Well, I think one of the changes has just been the age of our league now. This is a very young league. I talked to my coaching staff and to the organization about our team being very young, but if you look throughout the league, the league is just a very young league, whereas when I came into the league, you had veterans who had been around for 10 or 12 years. Now we have a lot of high school players joining our league. Very seldom do we see kids who’ve stayed in school four years like Nick Collison, who we drafted this year. You’re basically developing these players. They don’t spend a lot of time in college being developed. They spend one or two years and they’re coming from high school and there is a lot they have to learn. So, if you are lucky enough to get a Yao Ming or a player like that coming out of school in the draft who has some experience and his skill level is pretty high, then you are ready for it. But for the most part it takes time to develop these players because they are very young coming into the league.

Q: What about preparation? Does technology help you guys with scouting and even on the plane and in hotels and all that? Does that help you guys a little bit?
McMillan: It really has changed. When I came into the league we flew commercial and you had to take the first flight out. That was required by the NBA and at that time only one or two teams were flying charter flights. Now I think every team in the league flies charter. In addition to that you have DirectTV. And not only do we have scouts out in the field that can watch teams play, but our coaches can watch just about every game that’s being played on a nightly basis now. The fact that we now have computer systems that we can upgrade the video from VHS to DVD is amazing. We are working on a DVD system now that two or three years ago I don’t think a lot of teams had, but a lot of teams are going to computer systems where they can log in and email information anytime they need to.

Q: Is there a lot of pressure with the World Wide Web and the fans, the expectations, talk shows and the salaries that the players make and some of the salaries that the coaches make too?
McMillan: No question, no question. With our economy and the country in the situation that is and to see professional athletes make the type of money that they make, people just can’t, they don’t comprehend that. They don’t understand how a person can dribble a basketball and make the amount of money that they do or run a football or hit a baseball and they are sitting down here with their families and they can’t find jobs and they are being laid off. They see some of the attitudes and some of the things that happen in professional sports and it’s difficult for them to understand that and I think professional sports has lost their fan base. I would almost say professional sports is somewhat like the stock market. Eventually it’s going to correct itself and I don’t think that the professional teams will be able to continue to pay the salaries that they have been in the last few years to the players. Fans support winners and when you have a winning organization they will come out and support you, but if you are a team that is average, depending on the price of that ticket, will be the decision on whether the fans come and watch you play.

Q: As far as Nick Collison, how has his adjustment been to the NBA? And how does he look?
McMillan: Well Nick did well in summer league for us. He had the opportunity to play on our Los Angeles summer league team and played well. We saw a lot of potential there, and we basically made some moves to allow him an opportunity to play this year. We felt we needed to give our young guys, Nick, Luke Ridnour, Vladimir Radmanovic and Reggie Evans, opportunities to play this year. We made a decision to not go out and really look for a lot of big guys because we felt like those guys needed time on the floor, then unfortunately Nick had the shoulder injury and he is out for the season. Up to that point he looked good and I think he is a guy that really benefited from playing four years in school.