What it will take to get Stotts fired?

[Propagandist]

Playing Dame and Co. when we are down 40, opening the door for an injury, seems to embody the lack of forethought that might get a coach fired. But change is hard to come by here in Portland...

 

[brooklynballer]

I don't know what's lower, the president's IQ or Terry Stotts' playoff winning percentage.

Tough one! I’ll add a third group to the mix - the Terry Stotts apologists on this forum.

 

[Tince]

I named two. Are you blind? Or do you have a reading comprehension issue? Or do you just choose to ignore parts of my post that don’t align with your narrative? Anyways, I’m done listening to your nonsensical drivel. You haven’t made one legitimate argument for why Stotts should keep his job or why he is even an average NBA coach, so make your case to someone who gives a shit.

I'm sorry, I didn't think your examples were significant improvement. Barton is probably the best example. I think Bazemore could be an example, though the sample size is pretty small. So a couple bench players went on to be slightly better bench players. Nurk has made a huge jump in Portland, a much bigger impact from Denver to Portland (bench player to Portland's 2nd best player) as opposed to Barton who is still a bench player for Denver.

Matthews and Batum basically got max deal after playing in our system. Nurk got a ton better. Aldridge went to a HOF coach and joined 3 HOF players, and couldn't even win a WCF game with the Spurs.

A horrible coach would have a long list of players who went elsewhere and improved dramatically. That is, if coaching mattered a lot, which of course, I don't think it does.

 

[Sheldon Shape]

Tough one! I’ll add a third group to the mix - the Terry Stotts apologists on this forum.

They are bigger fans of the coach than the team. They will sleep fine tonight.

 

[Chris Craig]

He needs to be fired now. Let one of the assistants finish the series

 

[Buffalo Custard]

He needs to be fired now. Let one of the assistants finish the series

Fired? If he allows Dame to play with a bum knee and down 3-1 he should be taken out of the bubble in handcuffs!

 

[brooklynballer]

I'm sorry, I didn't think your examples were significant improvement. Barton is probably the best example. I think Bazemore could be an example, though the sample size is pretty small. So a couple bench players went on to be slightly better bench players. Nurk has made a huge jump in Portland, a much bigger impact from Denver to Portland (bench player to Portland's 2nd best player) as opposed to Barton who is still a bench player for Denver.

Matthews and Batum basically got max deal after playing in our system. Nurk got a ton better. Aldridge went to a HOF coach and joined 3 HOF players, and couldn't even win a WCF game with the Spurs.

A horrible coach would have a long list of players who went elsewhere and improved dramatically. That is, if coaching mattered a lot, which of course, I don't think it does.

So a 45% jump in PER for Curry from one season to the next and an in-season jump of 100% for Barton is not significant?? By any measure those are statistically significant (I’ll run the t-test if you want evidence). I get it, it doesn’t fit your narrative so ignore the facts like your President does.

So which is it? Does coaching matter or doesn’t it? You seem to be waffling in your argument there. So, let’s go with your theory that coaching doesn’t matter - explain to me what happened with the GSW between the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. They went from a sixth place finish with a 51-31 record under Mark Jackson in 13/14 to a first place 67-15 record and an NBA championship under Steve Kerr in 14/15. Virtually the same roster in both seasons. But coaching doesn’t matter, right?

Another recent example is the Toronto Raptors. In 2017/18 under Dwayne Casey the team was eliminated in the conference semi-finals. They make a coaching change in the offseason and bring in Nick Nurse and, voila, they win a championship the next season. And before you say they had Kawhi, they don’t have Kawhi this year and they don’t have a top 30 player on the roster yet they just keep on winning. But, of course, coaching doesn’t matter and you need superstars to win, right?

And don’t worry, when I have time I will pull the stats on players who have played under Stotts to compare their performance before arriving in Portland, while in Portland, and after departing Portland. I don’t think the results will be favourable for your coach.

 

[Tince]

So which is it? Does coaching matter or doesn’t it?

If you've read the majority of my posts over the season you would know I think coaching in general is highly overrated and is just the low hanging fruit people use to get their anger out. I don't think firing Stotts and replacing him with Mark Jackson would make us the worst team in the league. I also don't think adding Pop would get us past the WCF like Stotts has done.

I've been on these boards long enough to see it blame every coach we've had since Mo Cheeks for our failure to win a championship. I promise you, the next coach we hire will get blasted on here as well.

 

[Tince]

]

And don’t worry, when I have time I will pull the stats on players who have played under Stotts to compare their performance before arriving in Portland, while in Portland, and after departing Portland. I don’t think the results will be favourable for your coach.

I look forward to this. I suspect the results will not show a massive improvement or regression, but maybe you'll be right and the majority of the players will have improved greatly and achieved great success after leaving Portland. Just curious how you're going to measure this?

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

Jason Kidd waiting in the wings...?

 

[TBpup]

Sadly, for very likely the 7th year in a row, we will lose 4 of our final 5 games to end the season. And if the season ends Wednesday, we will lose 4 in a row to end the season for the 4th year in a row.

No matter how this team has been built, and with Stotts as coach, we are just not competitive in the end.

It's tearing my heart out.

 

[illmatic99]

Jason Kidd waiting in the wings...?

gross

 

[Minstrel]

Stotts isn't a top-tier coach, nor is he garbage. He's one of the broad category of coaches that doesn't matter if the talent isn't sufficient. That's the vast majority of coaches.

The Blazers are a generally mediocre team. That's why they were the #8 seed. They're getting killed by the #1 seed, as expected. I'll believe that Stotts is the problem when he has a cast talented enough to hold back. Right now, the only star on the team is Lillard. McCollum is a good player who isn't an ideal fit and Nurkic is a good player who also isn't an ideal fit. Gary Trent Jr. may be a great piece in the future, but for now, the rest of the supporting cast is small potatoes.

The last time the Blazers had a really talented team was in 2014-15, when they had Lillard, Aldridge, Batum and pre-injury Matthews. And Stotts definitely didn't seem to be holding that team back. They wouldn't have gotten past the Warriors that year, but they had a shot to be the second or third best team in the NBA.

I'd be fine with replacing Stotts if a better coach is available. The idea that Stotts needs to replaced at all costs is silly to me.

 

[Tince]

So which is it? Does coaching matter or doesn’t it? You seem to be waffling in your argument there. So, let’s go with your theory that coaching doesn’t matter - explain to me what happened with the GSW between the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons. They went from a sixth place finish with a 51-31 record under Mark Jackson in 13/14 to a first place 67-15 record and an NBA championship under Steve Kerr in 14/15. Virtually the same roster in both seasons. But coaching doesn’t matter, right?

I think these are fantastic examples. If you have 30-40 coaching changes a decade, you would certainly expect there to be 3-4 examples of a large swing. You see these exact types of win changes at a 10% of so clip on teams that retain their coaches as well. Team records do change +/- 10 games with and without coaching changes. Stotts won 21 more games from his first season to his second season as head coach. Did he gain so much knowledge in that one off season to impact those wins?

 

[brooklynballer]

I've been on these boards long enough to see it blame every coach we've had since Mo Cheeks for our failure to win a championship. I promise you, the next coach we hire will get blasted on here as well.

Stotts has had eight seasons to get this team to the next level and has been blessed with some incredible talent during his tenure. Time to move on and see what a different head coach can do with this roster before completely wasting Lillard’s prime. I’ll happily eat crow if the ownership group does their due diligence and hire a good coach (Becky Hammon, Jay Wright, Ettore Messina to name a few) to replace Stotts and the performance of the team doesn’t improve. I highly doubt that will happen though.

 

[Tince]

Stotts isn't a top-tier coach, nor is he garbage. He's one of the broad category of coaches that doesn't matter if the talent isn't sufficient. That's the vast majority of coaches.

The Blazers are a generally mediocre team. That's why they were the #8 seed. They're getting killed by the #1 seed, as expected. I'll believe that Stotts is the problem when he has a cast talented enough to hold back. Right now, the only star on the team is Lillard. McCollum is a good player who isn't an ideal fit and Nurkic is a good player who also isn't an ideal fit. Gary Trent Jr. may be a great piece in the future, but for now, the rest of the supporting cast is small potatoes.

The last time the Blazers had a really talented team was in 2014-15, when they had Lillard, Aldridge, Batum and pre-injury Matthews. And Stotts definitely didn't seem to be holding that team back. They wouldn't have gotten past the Warriors that year, but they had a shot to be the second or third best team in the NBA.

I'd be fine with replacing Stotts if a better coach is available. The idea that Stotts needs to replaced at all costs is silly to me.

Yes, this... all of this. If a better coach is available, that we can obatain, let's do it! I would say that about any coach, player, GM, etc.

 

[Bruno_Sabino]

Thanks Stotts now Dame is broken

 

[Tince]

Stotts has had eight seasons to get this team to the next level and has been blessed with some incredible talent during his tenure. Time to move on and see what a different head coach can do with this roster before completing wasting Lillard’s prime. I’ll happily eat crow if the ownership group does their due diligence and hire a good coach (Becky Hammon, Jay Wright, Ettore Messina to name a few) to replace Stotts and the performance of the team doesn’t improve. I highly doubt that will happen though.

Hey man, if you want change for the sake of change in hopes we hit the coaching lottery, that's totally fair.

I agree that the odds of any of the candiates you listed with zero NBA head coaching experience getting the job is very low. Those would be high risk, high reward moves. Could turn us into the Kings or maybe get us over the top.

 

[OneSport3]

If you've read the majority of my posts over the season you would know I think coaching in general is highly overrated and is just the low hanging fruit people use to get their anger out. I don't think firing Stotts and replacing him with Mark Jackson would make us the worst team in the league. I also don't think adding Pop would get us past the WCF like Stotts has done.

I've been on these boards long enough to see it blame every coach we've had since Mo Cheeks for our failure to win a championship. I promise you, the next coach we hire will get blasted on here as well.

For a guy that has stated he is indifferent to the retention or termination of Stotts, you sure do spend a lot of time defending him and positing for his retention.

Also, if you do believe that coaching is highly overrated, why so much resistance to getting rid of an average-below average coach? Should be a non-issue.

 

[calvin natt]

Wish we could go back a couple months ago with our injuries and tell the board : the team will 1) make the playoffs 2) play the Lakers and lose 4-1 and see who is so Fucking livid at that. Now that it’s happening everyone SHOCKED and so upset.

 

[OneSport3]

Stotts isn't a top-tier coach, nor is he garbage. He's one of the broad category of coaches that doesn't matter if the talent isn't sufficient. That's the vast majority of coaches.

The Blazers are a generally mediocre team. That's why they were the #8 seed. They're getting killed by the #1 seed, as expected. I'll believe that Stotts is the problem when he has a cast talented enough to hold back. Right now, the only star on the team is Lillard. McCollum is a good player who isn't an ideal fit and Nurkic is a good player who also isn't an ideal fit. Gary Trent Jr. may be a great piece in the future, but for now, the rest of the supporting cast is small potatoes.

The last time the Blazers had a really talented team was in 2014-15, when they had Lillard, Aldridge, Batum and pre-injury Matthews. And Stotts definitely didn't seem to be holding that team back. They wouldn't have gotten past the Warriors that year, but they had a shot to be the second or third best team in the NBA.

I'd be fine with replacing Stotts if a better coach is available. The idea that Stotts needs to replaced at all costs is silly to me.

Stotts is an average-below average coach. There is a better coach than him out there. You do a coaching search and find him.

 

[Minstrel]

Wish we could go back a couple months ago with our injuries and tell the board : the team will 1) make the playoffs 2) play the Lakers and lose 4-1 and see who is so Fucking livid at that. Now that it’s happening everyone SHOCKED and so upset.

The way the team blasted through the bubble and won game 1 of the series pushed expectations way too high. I was somewhat guilty of that, too, though I realized it and readjusted my expectations.

 

[Tince]

Sadly, for very likely the 7th year in a row, we will lose 4 of our final 5 games to end the season. And if the season ends Wednesday, we will lose 4 in a row to end the season for the 4th year in a row.

No matter how this team has been built, and with Stotts as coach, we are just not competitive in the end.

It's tearing my heart out.

Would it have been more of a success if we lost to Denver in game 7 last year so we could say we won 2 of our last 5? Most teams that get eliminated in the playoffs lost either 3 or 4 of their last 5 games.

 

[BigGameDamian]

Stotts is an average-below average coach. There is a better coach than him out there. You do a coaching search and find him.

I remember hearing the same about Nate.

 

[Tince]

Stotts is an average-below average coach. There is a better coach than him out there. You do a coaching search and find him.

You're going to trust the guy who replaced Curry, Kanter, Harkless, Aminu, and Meyers with Whiteside, Bazemore, Mario, and Toliver to make that evaluation?

 

[brooklynballer]

The Blazers are a generally mediocre team. That's why they were the #8 seed. They're getting killed by the #1 seed, as expected. I'll believe that Stotts is the problem when he has a cast talented enough to hold back. Right now, the only star on the team is Lillard. McCollum is a good player who isn't an ideal fit and Nurkic is a good player who also isn't an ideal fit. Gary Trent Jr. may be a great piece in the future, but for now, the rest of the supporting cast is small potatoes.

And what talent does Nick Nurse have on the Raptors right now? He doesn’t have a top 30 player on his roster yet they’re winning at a higher clip this year than last year with Kawhi. I’d hazard to say Portland has more talent on their roster in their 1-7 than the Raptors do.

Why are they winning? (1) Great coaching; (2) The sum being greater than the parts; and, (3) Focus on team defense.

 

[TBpup]

Wish we could go back a couple months ago with our injuries and tell the board : the team will 1) make the playoffs 2) play the Lakers and lose 4-1 and see who is so Fucking livid at that. Now that it’s happening everyone SHOCKED and so upset.

• "They could be the best #8 seed every."
• "They aren't a typical #8 seed."
• "Blazers could upset the Lakers." (numerous media)

.....and yet we just allowed a franchise record amount of '3's to the worst 3-point shooting team in the bubble and in a game that was a must win, gave up a 15-0 run to start the game.

It's not just losing. It's getting swept by the Pelicans who have never won a playoff series with AD. It's deciding to leave Steph Curry wide open as an actual strategy. It's not being able to remotely solve a trap after 8 years.

 

[Tince]

I remember hearing the same about Nate.

And Cheeks (well maybe worse things were said about him), that Dunleavy can't get teams over the hump. PJ would provide the discipline that players coach Rick Adelman couldn't. The next coach is always going to be the one!

 

[PCmor7]

The way the team blasted through the bubble and won game 1 of the series pushed expectations way too high. I was somewhat guilty of that, too, though I realized it and readjusted my expectations.

We didn't really blast through the bubble. Pretty much every one of our games including the play-in game couple easily have gone the other way. In a number of those games, the opposing team was resting one or more of its top players.

 

[Minstrel]

Stotts is an average-below average coach. There is a better coach than him out there. You do a coaching search and find him.

If it were that simple, they would. Judging from coaching hires the NBA in general has made over my watching lifetime, I don't believe anyone has an ability to figure out who will be an impact coach ahead of time. Most of the notable ones came out of nowhere, for all the fanfare they got and for all the attention they got from other teams.

Impact coaches are exceptionally rare--getting one is like getting Tom Brady in the sixth round. The Patriots weren't brilliant, they were mostly lucky (with maybe slightly more vision than other teams). Were the Spurs brilliant in selecting a former CIA guy in Gregg Popovich to be their head coach? Were the Lakers brilliant in selecting a former announcer in Pat Riley? Were the Warriors brilliant in selecting a former announcer and GM in Steve Kerr? I doubt it--they deserve some credit, but they also got extremely lucky.