6:36pm: Haynes reports that Felton is now claiming his comments were taken out of context, and that he has met with McMillan privately and supports the team's direction.
5:24pm: Raymond Felton is struggling in his first season with the Trail Blazers, and in an interview he gave to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com, he seemed to place the blame on Blazers coach Nate McMillan:
“I know I'm struggling, but it's hard to perform the way you know how when you know they don't have confidence in you,” Felton told CSNNW.com. “Never in my days playing basketball, have I felt like a coach wasn't confident in my abilities. It's hard to play knowing that.
"Coming in and out of games is throwing my rhythm off, but it's something that I'll get through."
Felton is in the final season of a two-year, $15.8MM contract he signed with the Knicks before the 2010/11 season. He was traded to the Nuggets in the Carmelo Anthony deal last season and then to Portland in a draft-day deal in 2011 that sent Andre Miller to Denver. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
This developing rift between Felton and McMillan, along with the Blazers' struggles in the first half of the season, make them a team that could be in the market for a point guard as next month's trading deadline approaches. A rental of Steve Nash or a trade for Rajon Rondo seems like a long-shot for Portland, but they could target a lower-level stopgap solution to make a playoff run before entering the offseason with a significant amount of cap room.
Bring back Andre Miller please