Portland Coach- And Then There Were Two

Interesting. Do you remember who said it?

 

Quick. And I don't remember him saying Bayno would be interested. Rather, he said Kaleb would select Bayno as his right hand man if he becomes head coach.

 

It certainly does seem like false economizing to save money on a coach when you just gave a young player like Batum a $45 million contract. Great, I get that the "players play", but Batum clearly hasn't reached his full potential, and probably never will without the right coach and the right system.

That's the one area where PA has never been willing to loosen the purse strings, make a big splash and hire a proven winner. Instead, we get guys like PJ Carlesimo and Mo Cheeks. Even Rick Adelman was an unknown when the Blazers hired him. And now, our top two choices come down to a guy with a 115 - 168 career record, who has never had a winning season and hasn't been a head coach in over 5 years and Skippy the video coordinator. If you were the richest owner in sports, would you be happy with these two options? I know I wouldn't be.

BNM

 

I don't believe that to be true. Whether you liked Nate at the time or not, when PA hired him he paid Nate a shit load of money. He was one of the highest paid coaches in the NBA. And at the time he was highly thought of as a coach.

he also tried to lure some of the top college coaches away as well by offering them a huge contract. Coack K was one I believe the year they hired Carlisimo.

 

Adelman terrorized the Chemeketa Community College circuit.

 

I remember Wesley saying before summer league that Canales didn't really change any offensive sets after McMillan was fired, during the season or for summer league. I really doubt he has the knowledge to do so. I don't think he's shown he has above average knowledge on the game of basketball, it's absolutely ridiculous that he could be our head coach next year, and even that he was the interim head coach. I doubt he'd even be a good high school coach.

 

What qualified Spoelstra to be Miami's head coach? What qualified Lawrence Frank. Mike Brown?

When you work as a video guy you're breaking down other teams offense. You eat, sleep and breathe game film. To suggest that Canales doesn't know the game of basketball is being a little disingenious.

 

This is really my biggest objection. It isn't so much Kaleb's lack of 'experience' per se, it's that his ONLY experience has been learning at Nate's knee. If that's all Canales knows, we'd be better off with McMillan. I don't want McMillan, period, so I sure as hell don't want McMillan Junior.

 

Exactly.

Wait....

 

Maybe he paid more attention to Monty?

 

Zags this isn't your strongest argument.

I'll tell you what qualified Mike Brown and Eric Spoelstra.... they had LeBron fucking James as their player. I would bet money that they could take someone out of the stands and have them coach the Heat ala the movie Eddie and the Heat would still be one of the best teams in the league.

 

I'll give you that Canales should know how to break down and analyze players' tendencies from game film. That should help him develop pre-game strategy. How does he handle time outs? McMillan just gave the ball to Brandon. In-game strategy and adjustments? McMillan sucked at it -- see every playoff series. Handling player egos, managing tiffs between players, hell managing period? We don't know. There's more to being the top guy than making highlight tapes. Does he know how to implement a different offense than Nate's? Does he want to? That's what I want to know.

 

At the end of the day, I don't know what Canales knows and what he wants to do. In the meantime, I'll be waiting on the nearest bridge.

 

I disagree. Managing huge ego's is a very difficult task.

I thought Spoelstra made good decisions during the playoffs. There's a reason why Pat Riley and Kupchak have faith in these young video guys.

 

What do we really have to lose by hiring Canales anyways? I consider it a 1, possibly to 2 year audition. Looking up and down this roster, playoffs look bleak. We have an eager, cheap, up and coming coach looking for his break who the young guys actually want to play hard for. Lets see if he can make fire out of rocks and sticks.

If it doesn't workout, or we decide we want a different coach to take us to the promise land. We throw big money at that guy in a couple years. Meanwhile, surround Canales with a great staff of assistants.

 

I totally think it's fine to hire him, I just have contempt for the process they used to come to this decision (assuming it comes to pass).

 

We stand to lose 1 - 2 years development of our very young roster. Canales has never played the game and never coached until this interim gig. What qualifies him to develop young talent? He's young and the guys like him? That seems to be his big selling point. It's not enough. We have too many young players that need a teacher, not a best buddy. He's going to have enough trouble learning how to do his own job.

Lottery/no lottery isn't the issue here. I want an experienced teacher that that has a proven record developing young talent. Yeah, he's old as dirt, but if we're going to lose anyway, I'd rather have Hubie Brown (or Larry Brown) teaching these young guys than Kaleb "Skippy" Canales.

BNM

 

The whole process reminds me of the Miss America pageant. We had our 12 semi-finalists, then our five finalists. Now we're down to the winner and first runner-up. But, unlike the real world, in this pageant, Miss Congeniality might actually win.

BNM

 

Offensive scheme will be a big part of what the next coach brings to the new look Ptd Trailblazers.

What exactly is Kaleb's offensive scheme and what is his experience in this offensive scheme?