Is Chauncey a good coach?

[Predator]

I'd just like to hear from all those people who railed constantly against Stotts for his stupid coaching, and who said that Chauncey couldn't help but be a great improvement. Are you happy? Is this the improvement you wanted?

I will say this: so far we've been a good home team. If that stays true, that's definitely something.

Actually, yes.

This is exactly what I wanted, minus Dame having the worst start of his career. If not for that (and I struggle to believe it’s the fault of Chauncey, I’m sure Wiz can pull the numbers up of shot quality or some shit to prove me wrong) we would actually be sitting pretty decently. Even then, I said I wouldn’t expect much this year.

In order for us to get better, we had to get worse first. (Breaking old habits and starting from scratch, if you will.)

Invariably, this is going to lead to less initial success. Billups with his quote last night showed exactly why he’s a massively superior coach to Stotts - he’s willing to change his rotation because something clearly isn’t working. Sounds like accountability to me.

And I’ll say it again…
Olshey should be fired solely for keeping Stotts for 9 years. He built and instilled such poor basketball habits in some players that it’s essentially part of who they are. Billups could’ve potentially changed CJ as a player 6 years ago and built different tendencies by holding him accountable. Now, not so much.

Also, I posted elsewhere Stotts record last year with Dame shooting like he currently is.

We would be 2-12 with Stotts right now. 3-11 at best.

 

[1 Eye Jack]

How do people still think this is possible?

agree but since he hasn’t been traded yet I won’t write it off as possibility. I think Ben is traded after the December 15th deadline

 

[wizenheimer]

This is exactly what I wanted, minus Dame having the worst start of his career. If not for that (and I struggle to believe it’s the fault of Chauncey, I’m sure Wiz can pull the numbers up of shot quality or some shit to prove me wrong) we would actually be sitting pretty decently. Even then, I said I wouldn’t expect much this year.t.

no

I think Dame's struggles are a confluence of negative factors: ) the Olympics and the shortest off-season of his career; ) abdominal injury; ) new coach; ) playing Dame off the ball more in a new offense; ) new basketball; ) new foul rules

I think this all worked against Dame and got him thinking too much instead of just playing. Only a small part of that is Billups. I never believed there was good reason to play Dame off the ball more. Taking the ball out of Dame's hands is the goal of every opponent. The offense played into that. And Portland does not have a Draymond Green that can consistently find Dame with the ball. That probably has made it harder for Dame to develop any rhythm, but it's not enough to slam Billups for

Billups had less than a year of coaching experience, at any level, when he was hired as HC. He's 14 games into his career and it may be he needs 140 games to get a good handle on what he needs to do as HC. There was never going to be any magic beans in moving from Stotts to Billups

 

[tester551]

Billups had less than a year of coaching experience, at any level, when he was hired as HC. He's 14 games into his career and it may be he needs 140 games to get a good handle on what he needs to do as HC. There was never going to be any magic beans in moving from Stotts to Billups

Agreed. I think Billups will eventually figure it out.

I really wish he would've packed his bench with more NBA experience. Brooks is OK, but I don't see him as an upper level NBA coach. In many respects - it's the Blind leading the Blind.

Billups is/was a good choice for HC. There is just going to be a lot of painful learning experiences before we can start reaping the rewards with him.

 

[Buffalo Custard]

A bit of a reality check.

Billups has installed new schemes, but it isn't like he handed a 1st grader an abacus and told them to calculate Pi to 100 digits. Can you name anything he is doing that an NBA level player hasn't seen before?

Contrary to what has been said, I don't believe the players are buying in. How much of that is on Billups and his lack of experience and how much is on the players has yet to be determined.

 

[sheed30]

Too small of a sample size to judge Billups.

The team does seem to play better D at times, other times it’s the lack of effort which comes down to the players. Dame playing like shit isn’t helping things either.

Soon I think it will be time to start Little at the 3, Nance at the 4. Bring Covington and Powell off the bench. Little and Nance can bring the energy and hustle from the start, Covington is basically nonexistent in there at times and Powell will be a nice punch off the bench like he was with the Raptors.

 

[Predator]

A bit of a reality check.

Billups has installed new schemes, but it isn't like he handed a 1st grader an abacus and told them to calculate Pi to 100 digits. Can you name anything he is doing that an NBA level player hasn't seen before?

Contrary to what has been said, I don't believe the players are buying in. How much of that is on Billups and his lack of experience and how much is on the players has yet to be determined.

No, he probably isn't doing anything differently than an NBA player has seen before.

However, what is different is instead of Stotts throwing his hands up and saying, 'well, we'll go back to what we know' (we know what that gets us) and essentially bailing the players out, Billups is saying, nahhhhh nah nahhhh, this is what we're doing because this is what it takes to win. and if we get exposed for doing it, so be it guys, it'll be on you - and ultimately their accountability will be in their next contracts when they become known as a defensive liability as well as on tape in practice -- or not. and, instead of treading water, we'll either go down with the ship (and get a decent draft pick), get our shit together, or hopefully a mix of a&B and realize that the roster needs work WHILE building a culture of accountability WITH ability and willingness to run championship schemes.

either way if we ball out or flame out, i like it.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

either way if we ball out or flame out, i like it.

You love the home games for one reason and the away games for the other. Nice for you!

 

[Shaboid]

I wonder how different the road routine is between Stotts and Billups. How have things changed since he started? If only we had someone around here that travels with the team.

 

[GDiama]

Interesting. Ball movement?

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Interesting. Ball movement?

This might correlate directly to how often he gets passed to?

 

[Orion Bailey]

Interesting. Ball movement?

This might correlate directly to how often he gets passed to?

i was gonna say. How often is powell in the facilitator position? He is often getting kickouts for threes or driving to the hole.
He has a good knack for rotating to the open spot so he is then open getting passed to. Not the one trapped needing to pass.

 

[GDiama]

i was gonna say. How often is powell in the facilitator position? He is often getting kickouts for threes or driving to the hole.
He has a good knack for rotating to the open spot so he is then open getting passed to. Not the one trapped needing to pass.

Yeah he doesn't take a lot of shots so he is not a black hole. He just doesn't get many passes in first place.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Bump.

It just got dispiriting watching the game last night as the Jazz toyed with us, moving the ball until they got a WIDE open three, while our guys exhausted themselves like headless chickens. Then Dame tries to take over and just runs around exhausting shot clock without ever getting a clean look.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Interesting. Ball movement?

When is he likely to get the ball? Not sure, but it seems when he is open for a three or at least open enough so that he can drive past the guy jumping at him, So I think he usually has a good scoring opportunity when he has the ball. Maybe if CJ was gone he would be used differently?

 

[Minstrel]

Maybe, maybe not. Chances (Chaunces) are that he's in the vast middle tier of coaches that comprise 90% of NBA coaches. But it's impossible to suss out whether he's a good coach with a roster like this that just cries out for triage decisions constantly. It's hard to know if someone is good at construction if all they have to work with to join stones together is glue and Scotch tape. All you can tell is "genius" (somehow still makes it work) or "not genius" (predictably can't make it work).

Billups isn't a genius, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be a decent coach in the right environment.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

if all they have to work with to join stones together is glue and Stotts tape.

FTFY

 

[riverman]

I like that Chauncey isn't pretending to be something he's not...I think he questions his own coaching after every loss and tries to correct it....he wouldn't have this pressure on a lottery team but watching our offense slide down a hill has to be bothering him and there's no consistency on defense...I like Chauncey but try and remind myself he's a rookie thrown in the fire this season.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Would this be a fair assessment:
Stotts looked at our roster, asked "how can I maximize what I know they're already good at and minimize the harm of their flaws?"
Chauncey says, "I know the right way to play and I will make them play it, thereby making them better players"?

The latter approach is ideal (a) if you're a college coach, or are coaching a very young roster, or (b) if you're a hall-of-fame coach being brought in to institute a system that you've shown to be amazing (e.g. Phil Jackson with the Lakers). Where it rankles is if you've never fucking coached before, and you're telling a bunch of pros (like RoCo) who've had success at various stops around the league "you're doing it all wrong, do it this way."

 

[Minstrel]

I'm also a little baffled that Billups has already taken the step of trashing his team in public. That's usually a desperation step, taken by a coach who sees the end nearing, not by a first year coach who presumably still has some leash. I could see him being harsh with guys behind closed doors, but questioning their heart and desire to reporters seems like saying either "I've lost this team" or "I don't care if I lose this team."

It's "fine" (not particularly reasonable, IMO, but fairly common) for fans to do it, but a head coach generally looks to maintain relationships with the adults he's coaching.

Maybe Billups will prove to be an inspirational genius, or maybe he'll be a PJ Carlisimo/John Callipari trainwreck. I guess we'll see how it goes.

 

[illmatic99]

I'm also a little baffled that Billups has already taken the step of trashing his team in public. That's usually a desperation step, taken by a coach who sees the end nearing, not by a first year coach who presumably still has some leash. I could see him being harsh with guys behind closed doors, but questioning their heart and desire to reporters seems like saying either "I've lost this team" or "I don't care if I lose this team."

It's "fine" (not particularly reasonable, IMO, but fairly common) for fans to do it, but a head coach generally looks to maintain relationships with the adults he's coaching.

Maybe Billups will prove to be an inspirational genius, or maybe he'll be a PJ Carlisimo/John Callipari trainwreck. I guess we'll see how it goes.

i don't think it's some elaborate ruse to try to deflect blame. i think chauncey is just being who he is and doesn't know any better.

 

[B-Roy]

I'm also a little baffled that Billups has already taken the step of trashing his team in public. That's usually a desperation step, taken by a coach who sees the end nearing, not by a first year coach who presumably still has some leash. I could see him being harsh with guys behind closed doors, but questioning their heart and desire to reporters seems like saying either "I've lost this team" or "I don't care if I lose this team."

It's "fine" (not particularly reasonable, IMO, but fairly common) for fans to do it, but a head coach generally looks to maintain relationships with the adults he's coaching.

Maybe Billups will prove to be an inspirational genius, or maybe he'll be a PJ Carlisimo/John Callipari trainwreck. I guess we'll see how it goes.

While I agree with this to an extend, there are plenty of coaches around the league that do exactly what you mentioned (trashing the team in public) as a means to motivate the team. Popovich does it (although rarely), but I understand there is some leeway due to the nature of his tenure and his history as a coach. Michael Malone also does it, and does it quite regularly. Just saying it's a different type of coaching from what we're used to with Stotts. And it may work less well with some players than others.

 

[Minstrel]

i don't think it's some elaborate ruse to try to deflect blame. i think chauncey is just being who he is and doesn't know any better.

I wasn't saying it was a ruse to deflect blame. It just seems like a very strange, and bad, idea.

 

[Minstrel]

Michael Malone also does it, and does it quite regularly.

I didn't realize Malone does it a lot. I know some extremely established coaches do it in certain spots (Popovich/Thibodeau), but Popovich is one of the several greatest coaches ever and Thibs seems to lose his team every few years. And I doubt any of them (maybe Malone did? No idea) did it a couple months into their first job.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

While I agree with this to an extend, there are plenty of coaches around the league that do exactly what you mentioned (trashing the team in public) as a means to motivate the team. Popovich does it (although rarely), but I understand there is some leeway due to the nature of his tenure and his history as a coach. Michael Malone also does it, and does it quite regularly. Just saying it's a different type of coaching from what we're used to with Stotts. And it may work less well with some players than others.

Popovich also criticizes himself, and also stands up for his players a lot. Has Chauncey said anything to the effect of "I'm not doing my job or the team would be better"?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I didn't realize Malone does it a lot. I know some extremely established coaches do it in certain spots (Popovich/Thibodeau), but Popovich is one of the several greatest coaches ever and Thibs seems to lose his team every few years. And I doubt any of them (maybe Malone did? No idea) did it a couple months into their first job.

Maybe Malone can get away with it because his star player is Serbian, and those guys are used to their coaches treating them like something you'd scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

 

[riverman]

Popovich also criticizes himself, and also stands up for his players a lot. Has Chauncey said anything to the effect of "I'm not doing my job or the team would be better"?

yes...Chauncey on a couple of occassions has said he needs to be better and is still learning how to coach...it's what I love about the guy...he doesn't pretend to know it all.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

It also doesn't help your (i.e., Chauncey's) case if his defensive scheme is openly questioned by commentators who know what they're talking about. Again, if you're a college coach and you can spin this into "you've got to learn how to do this one thing right before we can learn these other things" then you can defend doing X more than any other coach in the league. Chauncey not so much.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

yes...Chauncey on a couple of occassions has said he needs to be better and is still learning how to coach...it's what I love about the guy...he doesn't pretend to know it all.

I don't mind him pretending but he needs to pretend more convincingly, that's for fucking sure.

 

[riverman]

I don't mind him pretending but he needs to pretend more convincingly, that's for fucking sure.

He's in a tough spot right now...the front office that hired him is gone...his best players are banged up and he's got some tough choices to make concerning effort by starting players...Scott Brooks is no rookie so he does have experience on the bench to help him along. A new GM is going to be a quick transition for him and his staff...things have gotten shakey in Portland and he's just trying to coach the team. I thought this would be seamless but it's a work in progress...