Nate McMillan sat in his office and leaned back in his chair with a puzzled look on his face when the question came his way.

It was an hour before the Portland Trail Blazers ran their win-streak to 10-games against the Denver Nuggets, the longest in the NBA and matching the sixth longest streak in franchise history.

"Coach, what do you think when you hear fans chanting 'M-V-P' for Brandon Roy?"

It was a simple question. So why did McMillan look as if someone had just told him Portland's reigning NBA Rookie of the Year and recent back-to-back Western Conference Player of the Week had turned water into wine?

"MVP?" McMillan said. "I didn't hear that."

Apparently the 16,066 who packed the Rose Garden last week with the Toronto Raptors in town should have spoken up a bit. Actually, it's not that at all. McMillan doesn't need to hear what his eyes have already confirmed. Roy doesn't need to walk on water to convince his head coach what he is able to do between the lines.

"With Brandon these few games, it shows what's he's capable of doing and what we need him to do. We're going to need him to play like this the rest of his career."

All Roy has done, now that Portland has run their current win-streak to 11 with a Christmas Day victory over the Seattle SuperSonics, has averaged 23 points per game during the Blazers winning ways.  He's essentially placed the Blazers on his back and assured Portland their first winning month
(11-1) since November 2004.

He's also given the city of Portland a chance to forget their recent past while embracing the Blazers' bright future. That alone is deserving of a trophy.

But Roy has also paid the price that has come with prosperity.

While the Blazers and Raptors squared off last week, Roy battled a touch of the flu and didn't know if he would play the rest of the game. McMillan admits now he didn't know how sick his second-year guard was. All he knew was the Blazers' team doctor took Roy's blood pressure at halftime and tried to convince Roy not to head back out on the court.

Brandon told the doc he had to go.

"The doctor just came in here and told me he didn't know how the guy finished the game. Seriously. He couldn't believe what (Roy) did in the fourth quarter after seeing that guy at halftime," McMillan explained.

"Those are things that you learn about your players."

Roy finished with 25 points against Toronto and showed a true leader never forgets the men following him. For McMillan, Roy is basically doing what is expected of him.

"This is what those All-Stars and MVP's are doing. They are pretty much carrying a large load, as far as putting their teams in positions to win games. When he plays like this, taking over games, we've got a shot. So you look at that and build off of it.

"But the MVP and All-Star, that's for the fans. We know what he's capable of doing. He doesn't need to talk about it. The thing is you have to show it. We can sit here and say he's an MVP or an All-Star but we have to show it on the floor."

It's easy to get caught up in the whole; "Roy for MVP" hype isn't it?

It's okay. You can confess.

Yet, perhaps we should steal a page from Nate McMillan's book and chalk it up to thirty days worth of pure astonishment at Roy's abilities. At this point of the season the discussion simply isn't realistic, but that doesn't take anything away fro the accomplishments. Instead, the reality is Roy will be heading to New Orleans to participate in this year's NBA Rookie-Sophomore game and perhaps even as a reserve for the Western Conference All-Stars.

As for being voted the NBA's MVP, it's going to take more than one month of basketball to take that trophy home.