What is your mindset this season?

[KingSpeed]

He’s been in Portland two years and you’re still not sure if he can coach? I think you’ve answered your own question.

He didn’t ask a question.

 

[riverman]

The team hasn't clicked into an identity yet but last night gave me some hope. The Blazers need to sell me on a team to really cheer for and I'm not invested yet but if they gel over 25 games, I'll probably get back to my die hard fandom. Right now I'm cautiously optimistic. Theye gave up 138 pts in a loss in their best game so far.

 

[BlazerWookee]

I'm rooting for the Blazers to land a better barber.

 

[Bingo Bango]

He didn’t ask a question.

The question was implied: Can Billups actually coach? He’s hoping the answer is yes.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

The question was implied: Can Billups actually coach? He’s hoping the answer is yes.

I think we're all hoping that. But like you, I think most of us believe that to be unlikely.

 

[Natebishop3]

Some of the people in the game threads seem to equate being frustrated with certain things that the team is doing with being unhappy that the team is bad.

That's not the case.

I don't care that much if we lose. It's not about wins or losses. I want to see some semblance of an offense. Ball movement. Player movement. I'm not seeing that yet, and I don't understand why they sat our veterans during the preseason. That's when we SHOULD have been working out the kinks. I don't expect perfection. I just want to see effort. I cannot stand watching Simons dribble the air out of the ball and wait for a pick while the other three players stand like statues around the three point line. It's fucking awful. We had a full training camp. We had preseason. We had 10 days between the preseason and today. They should at least understand how to get set up in an offense. It can't possibly be that hard. I don't expect us to be good on defense. I expect turnovers. I expect missed shots. I expect miscommunications. I just want to see effort and growth.

I also don't understand drafting a point guard with the third pick and then having him play shooting guard. Billups has him running down the court and posting up on the three point line. He's not a shooter. He needs the ball in his hands. It's asinine. I want to see Scoot play point guard. I want to see Shae play shooting guard. I want to see Ayton get touches in a good position to score. Billups has shown zero capability to draw up X's and O's as far as I can tell.

 

[illmatic99]

The question was implied: Can Billups actually coach? He’s hoping the answer is yes.

I see this mentioned as nauseum. I too feel it a bit.

But what tangibly are you hoping to glean from him this season? This team might have the worst point differential in the league this yr. With a roster so young, even if Chauncey is a terrific teacher, it might not actually manifest into anything meaningful on the court.

 

[illmatic99]

- A pecking order. Our young guys should all get plenty of minutes to either sink or swim. We should have more clarity if guys will either become bench players or future stars who will be part of the core moving forward.

- building habits that prioritizes winning. The famed accountability that Chauncey talks about but never actually enforces needs to be at the forefront.

- culture. The last two years have been disastrous from this standpoint. We lost all the guys who made this a stong point for almost a decade. Do we have any players that can lead and be professional?

Now for player stuff:
- Ant to get to the line more. His defense does seem improved a bit.
- Scoot needs to get a legit shot at ROY. Whether that's minutes or role, him winning that award or at least getting close makes our moves the past two yrs forgiveable.
- Shaedon improves on his handle and playmaking.
- Ayton gets out of his funk and starts to hoop.
- Do we have something in Toumani?
- draft picks for Grant/Thybulle/Brogdon

 

[Natebishop3]

- A pecking order. Our young guys should all get plenty of minutes to either sink or swim. We should have more clarity if guys will either become bench players or future stars who will be part of the core moving forward.

- building habits that prioritizes winning. The famed accountability that Chauncey talks about but never actually enforces needs to be at the forefront.

- culture. The last two years have been disastrous from this standpoint. We lost all the guys who made this a stong point for almost a decade. Do we have any players that can lead and be professional?

Now for player stuff:
- Ant to get to the line more. His defense does seem improved a bit.
- Scoot needs to get a legit shot at ROY. Whether that's minutes or role, him winning that award or at least getting close makes our moves the past two yrs forgiveable.
- Shaedon improves on his handle and playmaking.
- Ayton gets out of his funk and starts to hoop.
- Do we have something in Toumani?
- draft picks for Grant/Thybulle/Brogdon

This team is sorely missing a pecking order. You can just tell that nobody knows who is The Man and it’s a problem.

 

[illmatic99]

This team is sorely missing a pecking order. You can just tell that nobody knows who is The Man and it’s a problem.

It takes years to identify. Hopefully the usage fed down their throats this year will elucidate that quicker for us.

 

[Natebishop3]

It takes years to identify. Hopefully the usage fed down their throats this year will elucidate that quicker for us.

I was hoping someone would snatch it.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Several times a year, my mind returns to the 2005-06 roster. We won 32 games that season. All we needed to do was to keep that team together - we had THREE future all-stars on that team: Roy, Aldridge, ZBo (and this is ignoring the Oden what-ifs).
Of course, ZBo was an immature jerk, and Aldridge was a little bitch that didn't want to play C, and Roy would be limited by injuries.

With the right coaching, Scoot, Sharpe, and Ayton will all be stars (not necessarily all-stars since it's tough to have more than 1 on a team, and that's not counting Ant!). We don't need to tank. Normally, "letting the cake bake" is dumb. For this team, it's not.

 

[Natebishop3]

Revisiting this thread.... I don't understand why people are so frustrated and angry about so many things with a team that's rebuilding/assessing.

 

[julius]

Revisiting this thread.... I don't understand why people are so frustrated and angry about so many things with a team that's rebuilding/assessing.

I only care about 2 to maybe 3 things.

How Scoot and Shaedon do

How Tou does

What they get for Grant and Brogdon (I've noticed he doesn't seem like the same player once he came back from injury).

Don't care much about wins as I do coaching (not sure how I feel about his coaching this year...they were doing a lot better when Simons was out imho).

It's another lost year, but at least they're not wasting another year of someone's prime.

Scoot has been exciting and a disappointment at the same time. Shaedon too (tho I suspect his recent struggles were more injury related than anything else).

Grant, Simons and Malcolm just don't seem to fit long term (Grant and Malcolm more than Simons).

DeAndre is what he is. A massively overpaid 15-10 guy who becomes invisible at times. Sometimes his own doing, sometimes the (non existent) "flow" of the offense.

Honestly, Tou, Shaedon and Scoot are the only things keeping my interest this year, and its waning.

 

[Whyachi]

Revisiting this thread.... I don't understand why people are so frustrated and angry about so many things with a team that's rebuilding/assessing.

because fans have emotions, we're not robots. If fans want to read & hear 500 word memos about the wonderful amazing Blazers, there's PLENTY of that material being produced by this Front Office.

We live in a society called freedom of speech. If Blazer fans want to show the negative side of losing basketball, there's going to be feelings that don't match the happy PR narratives.

 

[Natebishop3]

We live in a society called freedom of speech.

There was a lot to unpack in your comment but this one stood out. We do not. Legally our government can’t throw you in jail for thinking or saying things, but there are consequences for saying things in our society. Cancel culture is a thing. Our society loves to hold people accountable for what they say publicly.

 

[Whyachi]

There was a lot to unpack in your comment but this one stood out. We do not. Legally our government can’t throw you in jail for thinking or saying things, but there are consequences for saying things in our society. Cancel culture is a thing. Our society loves to hold people accountable for what they say publicly.

We're Blazer fans, that's all, nothing more. Most all of us follow this team as a hobby, it's not how we put bread on the table. After an ugly loss to a terrible team, our comments shouldn't be compared to a government coup trying to overthrow a dictator.