Benching Scoot and Sharpe just as their confidence was growing is criminal His benching of Sharpe because of defense, but leaving Ant alone is hypocrisy The young players aren’t developing I have never wanted a coach gone more, than him
Agree, it’s so frustrating. He’s chasing occasional wins and bringing all of our lotto picks off the bench when they should be getting a ton of in game experience and confidence. Our young talent don’t get the chance to develop, our record keeps us out of the top of the lottery in a great draft class, and Billups isn’t consistent with his coaching (see benching Sharpe for defense while starting Ant and Ayton). Ugh.
Is Chauncey Billups trying to win games by putting the rotation in that he thinks is most effective right now? Is Chauncey Billups trying to make a point to get the franchise’s two most important young players to up their defensive games? Is Chauncey Billups doing the bidding of Joe Cronin to showcase vets in order to generate more trade value? Is Chauncey Billups just a crappy coach? Pick whichever one makes you happy.
IMO, there's a difference between "benching players" and "bringing them in off the bench". Both are playing. Scoot had been playing well up until last night's foul-fest. As for Sharpe vs Ant, I see it as Chauncey basically saying that whether or not Sharpe learns to pay defense actually has an impact on the franchise, whereas Ant is leaving (hopefully sooner rather than later), so his defensive performance is irrelevant. Also, I'd be willing to bet that Chauncey has a directive from Cronin that Ant/Grant/Ayton must start when healthy until they get traded. Hopefully, Shae will have his starting spot back in 2 weeks.
The thing is our vets arent going anywhere. The second apron combined with the relatively bad contracts of JG, AS, and DA makes them very very unattractive for GMs. Everyone knows DA has a shitty attitude, Grant cant rebound, and Ant doesnt play defense and would have to come off the bench for 25m a year. Next years starting 5 are DA, Ant, Grant, Tou, and Deni.
Shouldn't be a separate thread. Nothing new here. Us positive posters weary of the complainers. Ayton doesn't have a bad attitude. He just doesn't attack the basket. Probably got fouls when he was new in the league, and no coach taught him how to get in there without fouling.
And Billups is the best defensive head coach we've ever had. He has the players overachieving above their talent levels. They outhustle other teams. I don't know whether we can re-sign him without a huge raise.
All for the purpose of not having a good draft pick in a loaded draft! Yay! Bill Fitch wouldn’t even fuck up this bad.
No, not even close. But, by no means is he the savior, either. Holding players accountable isn't "ruining." Preference given to vets is standard practice, whether any of us like it or not.
I agree with you on the distinction between benching a player vs bringing them off the bench. The latter is clearly the correct way to view Scoot and Sharpe. Your point on Ant vs Sharpe’s defensive issues may be correct, but I think the comparison is entirely wrong to begin with. It’s not a case where Sharpe would bump Ant in the rotation since he’s not a PG. Team defense is light years better with a starting lineup of Ant, Camara, Deni, Grant and Rob than it would be if you put Sharpe in and bumped Camara (or either Grant or Deni) to the bench. The current starters can more than cover for Ant’s shortcomings on defense.
Billups is a lameduck coach. He has his problems. He's not the one to blame here for the messed up rotations. Point your finger at our dumbass GM who has no idea wtf he's doing. I have been screaming about our contradicting moves and lack of direction for years. This is not exactly new.
If Shaedon and Scoot "lose confidence" by being benched, then they never were going to be stars in the first place.
entering this season, Billups had 4 years of coaching experience on any level, at any coaching position. 3 of those years ave been as Portland's head coach. He was Neil Olshey's last significant decision, and it has worked out like so many of Olshey's decisions worked out: weak, unimpressive, and lasting too long but he's a minor player in Portland's alleged "ruining". The architects of that are the clown car quartet of Jody, Bert, Neil, & Joe
I still put the GM as the problem, he should be a man of action and traded the vets over the summer, maybe not all, but at least clear some room for the young guys. I can only go by the rumors that have been posted and talked about here and I get the feeling he is being too greedy, which could also be the Vulcans doing. So I would also include them as well. It all starts at the top and they should pick a direction. Stop this 2 timeline fence straddling bullshit.
