How can Billups have such a short leash for Shaedon and Scoot, but then play Jerami Grant for the most minutes on the team? This is simply unacceptable. He is one of the worst scorers on the team right now. Based on things like Winshares he's not one of our top 5 best players . He's the 10th best according to TS% The starting lineup right now should be Scoot Simons Tou Deni Ayton Here's our 5 man rotations by +PTS Here's what it looks like when you filter by minutes played together. Look at the 2nd and 3rd combos. If you take Grant out, that same lineup goes from -34.9 points to a +4.9 points. Here is the On/Off https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2025/on-off/ Our team Opponent Here is overall
Cronin makes less sense. Grant should not still be on this team. Nor Simons. The objective should be never been to win a few more games just by riding vets that aren’t part of the big picture. But I’ve been saying this ad naseum since before the year started
Grant certainly looked shitty down the stretch last night, but in general the team's win streak has coincided with Grant being inserted into the starting lineup and Shaedon being consigned to the bench. Shaedon certainly needs somebody constantly on his case, as he plays sloppily and his defense is still atrocious. I don't think he should be rewarded by getting starters' minutes just in the hope he develops. He strikes me as a player that needs a short leash because he is too used to coasting. Compare the +/- over the past ten games: Scoot has the right to complain a little (although Anfernee's the closest thing we currently have to somebody who could go off at any moment, and is the person the opposing defenses gang up on) but not Shaedon:
Honestly, the only reason to be pissed at Chauncey lately is that we're winning too much. But I wouldn't trust a coach that was on board with tanking.
Notice that they include two of the vets most people are bitching the loudest about. And you're assuming that Scoot and Simons would work well together - maybe both does best when he is the sole point? That's certainly been the problem with Anfernee over the years - he's just not as effective off the ball.
That's such a weird accusation. Is he wearing a shirt that says "get me the fuck out of here"? Otherwise, if his "audition" includes coaching his current team really well, then what's the fucking problem?
Because it’s at the expense of the future of the team. Let’s use these vets as bandaid’s to eke out a few more wins, to not only not make the playoffs, but make our draft pick even shittier. Oh joy! The team never extended him. It’s obvious he won’t be here past the conclusion of his contract. So obviously he doesn’t want his reputation to be as a garbage coach. So we live with the Grant/Simons chuckfest show only to have the future hampered. Not too difficult a concept, really.
Look. There's a whole lot of questionable assumptions built into what you're saying. 1. Our current young players are "the future of the team". (Maybe. Maybe not. At the beginning of the season I would've said Shae, sure, Scoot, I doubt it. Now they've flipped.) 2. That just playing them as much as possible is good for them and us. Billups doesn't think so and I think he has good reasons. Maybe make young players earn it by playing the right way? Maybe make young players respect vets that know little tricks even if they don't have the same raw talent. This is not a new tactic by coaches, and for a good reason. 3. That we need to lose as much as possible to get as high a draft pick as possible, and this coincides with playing the young guys so it's a virtuous circle. If there was no lottery, sure. But there is, and it's usually NOT won by the worst team. And furthermore, sometimes winning the lottery fucks you over. Like, I don't know, getting the #1 and Oden, when if you'd stayed where you were you might very well have taken Joakim Noah. 4. That a coach should actually covertly not try to win because that will be good for the franchise. No, a coach should never not go all out to win. If you don't want your coach to win, you trade away his good players. That's the GM's fucking job.
An NBA player should never go out there and phone it in, tanking or no tanking. Players don’t miss shots intentionally either. Billups is playing the hand Joe dealt him. The vets either get shut down, which nobody likes, or traded
I've got to assume Joe was hookwinked by Dame potentially staying when his buddy was reupped in signing the initial deal because that was the only thing that made sense in real time. That was the FU flaming bag of poop Lillard left on the doorstep he exited the franchise. Once that deal was offered & signed though, it's been the longest of longshots that anyone would trade for him. As y'all may have noticed he's only a good player at best, yet he's paid like a regular All NBA player with a contract escalating into his mid-30s. Especially now with the new CBA, anyone thinking he should be moved is wishful thinking at best. Be realistic, anyone trading for him for anything that also isn't a salary cap anchor at the bottom of the NBA seas is going to have to explain why in the hell they'd do that STOMP
