Is Chauncey a good coach?

[Minstrel]

Why would I ever choose to insult you, Minstrel? I'm saying you defending Stotts, like "kids, leave this poor man alone".
Nothing will happen to him from few words on forum. And he seem like a really nice and smart guy as well.

I'm not defending Stotts--I thought he was a mediocre coach and I was fine with his firing. I'm saying you can't keep pretending further failures remain Stotts' fault. Billups has to be responsible for his coaching tenure.

 

[wizenheimer]

I'm not defending Stotts--I thought he was a mediocre coach and I was fine with his firing. I'm saying you can't keep pretending further failures remain Stotts' fault. Billups has to be responsible for his coaching tenure.

exactly. Already the litany of excuses for obvious faults this season are piling up. Fingers pointing everywhere but at Billups it seems

I mean, just about everybody who was a fan of the hiring of Billups spent all summer explaining how much better this roster was defensively than last season and how easy it was for Billups to make improvements on defense. Just simple schematic adjustments...just wait! Well, so far, the defense is worse...and whose fault is that? Stotts of course because he has some negative metaphysical influence on the future....er, present. Stotts is still there on the bench in ghost form launching torpedoes into the Billups hull. Stotts also has 28 ghost fingers plugging the ears of the Blazer players from hearing the Billups message

sometimes jamming square pegs into round holes isn't a good idea

 

[royo]

I'm not defending Stotts--I thought he was a mediocre coach and I was fine with his firing. I'm saying you can't keep pretending further failures remain Stotts' fault. Billups has to be responsible for his coaching tenure.

Yes, agreed. After some time with a team he should know where he thinks he needs GM's help and GM should help him. After all Blazers didn't hired him to check his skills. They hired him to coach the team to level up.

And I still think Stotts is responsible for shaping players.
Who shaped CJ hero vision? I mean, seriously. In any trade people do things different ways and it is not easy to fix a worker after ten years.
CJ is not stupid, but I imagine it is much easier to do what you good at and it is crazy to think you can change overnight.

Letting Stotts eating popcorn watching something he prepared for a decade is comical. It is the first time his kids went up to work for another coach... and guess what? They don't like it.
It is still extremely early. Team is in mess for some reason. Some say 9 years made this mess and some, that two months of Billup's coaching is responsible for it.

If you try to apply some logic on it, you know, for me it is not pointing on Billups. Problem with this team is old as dirt. I could only put it on Billups, when I see some news about Blazers. But lack of effort on the court? Is it something new for anyone here?

 

[Hoopguru]

Blazers star Damian Lillard fires back at reporting of tension between players and Chauncey Billups: ‘These (expletive) love drama’

 

[wizenheimer]

Blazers star Damian Lillard fires back at reporting of tension between players and Chauncey Billups: ‘These (expletive) love drama’

that's Dame firing aggressive shots at Shams Charnia and Sam Amick

 

[illmatic99]

that's Dame firing aggressive shots at Shams Charnia and Sam Amick

that arm of the athletic is a subsidary for Klutch as is, so maybe he's justified.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I don't know whether or not Chauncey is a good coach (although I have my suspicions) but I'm pretty damn sure he'd be a bad coach for somebody like Ben Simmons...

 

[B-Roy]

Even Zach Lowe is questioning why poor Nurk is blitzing every pick and roll.

 

[JDC]

Even Zach Lowe is questioning why poor Nurk is blitzing every pick and roll.

It's just odd to me

• Nurk is still better around the rim
• All our guards are pretty awful low man options on the weakside and that's killer if the ball gets middle
• Cov and Nance both have looked creaky on long closes changing direction
• Blitz was supposed to protect Dame/Ant/Cj's inability to get through a screen, but instead we are just shifting that pressure onto their ability to be team defenders
• On ball /point of screen issues still showing up on rejects (which we are getting killed by). In a drop you can get away with that, but with big hugged up waiting to hedge out, that help now has to come from the corner which is extremely tough to do in an emergency help situation. *Our 5's being hugged up is an issue even in non ball screen situations

Fine with blitz as a change-up and was all for being more flexible defensively, but this is not it and I will continue to die on the hill that drop on it's own was way down the list of issues with our defense last year.

Personnel, discipline, communication, buy-in from Dame /Nurk/ CJ were all much higher on the list, and we are seeing that play out. The scheme is radically different, but the results have been the same and I'd argue considerably worse considering improvements to personnel and what the numbers look like compared to the rest of league vs last year.

 

[B-Roy]

It's just odd to me

• Nurk is still better around the rim
• All our guards are pretty awful low man options on the weakside and that's killer if the ball gets middle
• Cov and Nance both have looked creaky on long closes changing direction
• Blitz was supposed to protect Dame/Ant/Cj's inability to get through a screen, but instead we are just shifting that pressure onto their ability to be team defenders
• On ball /point of screen issues still showing up on rejects (which we are getting killed by). In a drop you can get away with that, but with big hugged up waiting to hedge out, that help now has to come from the corner which is extremely tough to do in an emergency help situation. *Our 5's being hugged up is an issue even in non ball screen situations

Fine with blitz as a change-up and was all for being more flexible defensively, but this is not it and I will continue to die on the hill that drop on it's own was way down the list of issues with our defense last year.

Personnel, discipline, communication, buy-in from Dame /Nurk/ CJ were all much higher on the list, and we are seeing that play out. The scheme is radically different, but the results have been the same and I'd argue considerably worse considering improvements to personnel and what the numbers look like compared to the rest of league vs last year.

Also, consequently, Nurk has looked like a worse rim protector, partially because he's always out on the perimeter, and partially because when he's at the rim it's usually because he was running and trying to get back into the play and not in actual position to contest a shot properly.

His fouls are down because of it though, so *shrug*.

When we implemented the blitz, I thought it would be for a change of pace. Some players you just can't drop on, like Curry. But why are we blitzing Dejounte Murray and Marcus Smart? Are we really worried about these guys shooting pull up jumpers? Makes no fucking sense to me.

 

[wizenheimer]

Also, consequently, Nurk has looked like a worse rim protector, partially because he's always out on the perimeter, and partially because when he's at the rim it's usually because he was running and trying to get back into the play and not in actual position to contest a shot properly.

His fouls are down because of it though, so *shrug*.

When we implemented the blitz, I thought it would be for a change of pace. Some players you just can't drop on, like Curry. But why are we blitzing Dejounte Murray and Marcus Smart? Are we really worried about these guys shooting pull up jumpers? Makes no fucking sense to me.

weird thing is he has by far the best defensive rebounding numbers of his career this season. So he has to be spending a lot of time close to the rim

 

[B-Roy]

weird thing is he has by far the best defensive rebounding numbers of his career this season. So he has to be spending a lot of time close to the rim

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6/

Contesting 5.4 per game compared to 6.4 last year. But the main difference is he's allowing 4% HIGHER shooting at the rim this year whereas it was -9% last year. So a 13% YoY difference. I'm not quite sure how to explain that besides him being in worse position to defend a shot (pretty sure these stats just take the vicinity of the player into account) or him suddenly turning into Enes Kanter at the rim. Or it could be laziness in his contests. I don't know.

 

[JDC]

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6/

Contesting 5.4 per game compared to 6.4 last year. But the main difference is he's allowing 4% HIGHER shooting at the rim this year whereas it was -9% last year. So a 13% YoY difference. I'm not quite sure how to explain that besides him being in worse position to defend a shot (pretty sure these stats just take the vicinity of the player into account) or him suddenly turning into Enes Kanter at the rim. Or it could be laziness in his contests. I don't know.

I think you hit on one of the reasons with the energy he's using to hedge and recover.

Also, the shots he's contesting are just simply happening in tougher situations. Most now are coming when he's behind the play recovering after a guard has rejected a screen or someone has gotten beat on a closeout on the weakside.

 

[B-Roy]

I think you hit on one of the reasons with the energy he's using to hedge and recover.

Also, the shots he's defending at the rim are just simply happening in tougher situations. Most now are coming when he's behind the play recovering after a guard has rejected a screen or someone has gotten beat on a closeout on the weakside.

Yep, this is what I'm seeing. But of course my eyes see anecdotal evidence and I don't have data to back it up. In the past, he could be planted at the rim ready to contest someone running downhill. Consequently he would foul them more as well. Now he's chasing a ball hander or coming over on the weakside and he could go for a half ass contest or try for a full contest and probably end up with a foul. Either way, it just makes no sense to me some of the guys we are blitzing.

 

[JDC]

Yep, this is what I'm seeing. But of course my eyes see anecdotal evidence and I don't have data to back it up. In the past, he could be planted at the rim ready to contest someone running downhill. Consequently he would foul them more as well. Now he's chasing a ball hander or coming over on the weakside and he could go for a half ass contest or try for a full contest and probably end up with a foul.

Nope, you're spot on.

And to the defensive rebounding point made earlier in the thread, that has been one of the positive trade-offs with the blitz. Was worried about it initially, but Nurk has done a great job recovering and boxing out. Easier situation to defensive rebound in then when he's in that two-on-one in a drop if the guard doesn't handle the screen well.

 

[JDC]

At the end of the day the pick and roll is tough to guard whatever scheme you're in.

When you don't execute a blitz properly you're giving up a dunk or a wide open three. In a drop it could still sometimes be a dunk or offensive rebound, but more often or not it's an off the dribble jumper or contested layup.

You're willing to live with that trade off with most guys.

 

[B-Roy]

Nope, you're spot on.

And to the defensive rebounding point made earlier in the thread, that has been one of the positive trade-offs with the blitz. Was worried about it initially, but Nurk has done a great job recovering and boxing out. Easier situation to defensive rebound in then when he's in that two-on-one in a drop if the guard doesn't handle the screen well.

Good point, being worse at contesting the shot means he's actually in better position to rebound the misses. When he's in good contesting position it's usually the other guys that have to rebound since Nurk is jumping and doing the contest.

 

[Minstrel]

JDC hit on the key issue, IMO--drop coverage can theoretically be executed by the personnel the Blazers have on hand to try and force long or mid-range pull-ups. Are open mid-range or even long pull-ups ideal? No, but when you're forced to give up something (and with this defensive personnel, you are very much forced to give up something), that's the best shot diet you can force on the opposing offense.

Of course, that required Lillard and McCollum to fight over screens and chase, preventing the open three and pushing the ball-handler off the three-point line and into the zone between the line and the drop defender. Instead, Lillard and McCollum die on screens constantly.

It's similar to zone defense in football--when it's executed poorly, all fans see is open receivers making catches with no defender nearby and they wonder if the defensive coordinator even knows the rules of football. But properly executed, it doesn't require a Deion Sanders type of coverage talent and it can force offenses into the types of passes that they don't necessarily want.

I think Stotts made a perfectly rational defensive decision based on who he had available. But ultimately, there's no scheme that papers over defenders who simply can't execute anything well.

 

[Hold Dame’s Jockstrap]

we can't even compare him to Stotts and it wouldn't even be the right time to compare him to Stotts sense the previous coach had nine years to implement his ideals and this coach has had two months.

Wow it’s almost like you shouldn’t replace your veteran coach with 9 years or experience with the roster with a rookie coach with 0 experience with any roster.

 

[blazerkor]

Wow it’s almost like you shouldn’t replace your veteran coach with 9 years or experience with the roster with a rookie coach with 0 experience with any roster.

Yeah we should just roll with a coach that can't win a game outside of the second round until the dude drops dead. That makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. Stotts was mediocre and he needed to go. If you want to argue that the team should have hired a veteran head coach, then I can't really argue with that but keeping Stotts was not only the wrong move to make this last off season but it had been the wrong move that we made for a few seasons prior.

 

[Hold Dame’s Jockstrap]

Yeah we should just roll with a coach that can't win a game outside of the second round until the dude drops dead. That makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. Stotts was mediocre and he needed to go. If you want to argue that the team should have hired a veteran head coach, then I can't really argue with that but keeping Stotts was not only the wrong move to make this last off season but it had been the wrong move that we made for a few seasons prior.

you must be new here.

Stotts took the blazers farther in the playoffs than they had been in 20 years, after Aldridge abandoned the team and he built a roster from scratch.

he had this mediocre roster set for a deep playoff runs again the next 2 years but the seasons were ruined by major injuries to Nurk, CJ, and others - not to mention covid.

Billups is an alleged rapist / nobody who has never even coached a little league team.

We lost last season because Lillard played like an entitled bum playing hero ball, hucking up 40 ft 3s and never involving Nurk or CJ, and he didn’t play any defense whatsoever. It’s not the coach’s fault when your star player plays like entitled garbage.

 

[PDXFonz]

This season will give us much more information than last season.

It will be interesting to see how we play with our roster. If coach has a style in mind and felt players didn’t fit to that, then we should wait and see about that.

Coaches need time to develop too.
He’s not Steve Kerr… whom is actually one of the best coaches of all time IMO. He knows the game well, definite champion and proof it wasn’t just Jordan; that team was stacked.

 

[riverman]

Chauncey will be a great coach...we got rid of the guys who he couldn't really coach and brought in dogs he can. Roco and CJ weren't Chauncey type players in my view. Hart and Winslow are..

 

[SharpeScooterShooter]

Chauncey will be a great coach...we got rid of the guys who he couldn't really coach and brought in dogs he can. Roco and CJ weren't Chauncey type players in my view. Hart and Winslow are..

I couldn't agree with this more.
A sergeants’ abilities will only be as good as his soldiers are loyal. I fully believe roco, powell and CJ balked at the changes Chauncey wanted to instill. When three of your five starters don't buy into the program, how good can the coach actually be?

 

[JDC]

Really like the adjustments I'm seeing from Chauncey defensively in pick and roll. This is what I was hoping to see last year.

Nurk more at the level of the screen and dropping rather than getting out on the floor in that hedge. If he is hedging it's more of a flat hedge which is a harder coverage for guards to split or turn the corner on.

Allows the backside defenders to play more in the gaps and not have to completely sell out to stop the paint. Passing reads for the ball handlers aren't nearly as predictable. Makes the x outs in the weakside easier to execute with closeouts being shorter.

Still would like to see a better game plan for when we switch with Nurk. Not seeing many attempts to switch out of those mismatches with our guards or front and give backside help. Too many times the guard is just on the big's back on an island. Boys need to watch some heat film to see how to execute a switch to a front with help coming from the baseline.

 

[BassPlaya]

I like his demeanor on the sideline. He exudes confidence in this years line-up, and he displays accountability, in a quiet, yet unmistakable manner. I'm glad he was able to survive the front office and roster make over, and begin to display his coaching ability with players who are buying in. I'm seeing energy, excitement, and the determination to overcome. Honestly, I haven't felt like this as a Blazer fan in some time.

I like how he gives young players chances, and expects them to contribute just like the guys who are sitting down. This is a team. That's coaching.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

I like his demeanor on the sideline. He exudes confidence in this years line-up, and he displays accountability, in a quiet, yet unmistakable manner. I'm glad he was able to survive the front office and roster make over, and begin to display his coaching ability with players who are buying in. I'm seeing energy, excitement, and the determination to overcome. Honestly, I haven't felt like this as a Blazer fan in some time.

I like how he gives young players chances, and expects them to contribute just like the guys who are sitting down. This is a team. That's coaching.

That Olshey “Take a drink of water” press conference was cringe worthy.

 

[wizenheimer]

That Olshey “Take a drink of water” press conference was cringe worthy.

about 7 years of Olshey's tenure as GM were cringe-worthy. Look at what Cronin has been able to do in 8 months

 

[Labinot41]

remember the days when Olshey put a roster that had Hezonja and Tolliver as our starting wings lmao

 

[Tince]

exactly. Already the litany of excuses for obvious faults this season are piling up. Fingers pointing everywhere but at Billups it seems

I mean, just about everybody who was a fan of the hiring of Billups spent all summer explaining how much better this roster was defensively than last season and how easy it was for Billups to make improvements on defense. Just simple schematic adjustments...just wait! Well, so far, the defense is worse...and whose fault is that? Stotts of course because he has some negative metaphysical influence on the future....er, present. Stotts is still there on the bench in ghost form launching torpedoes into the Billups hull. Stotts also has 28 ghost fingers plugging the ears of the Blazer players from hearing the Billups message

sometimes jamming square pegs into round holes isn't a good idea

We're a couple years away from a lot of things that aren't Billups fault, being put on him. That's just how a lot of casuals are on message boards. I prefer this honeymoon phase to what's coming.