We all know you know basketball. Playing Basketball, studying it obviously helps but experience also helps. In 5 years you’ll know more than you do today if you continue to work at it. I think it is a weak arguement for him to make that you’re young so you must be dumb. Honestly you could put 10 of the best coaches in the history of basketball in a room and probably get 10 different answers to how they’d “fix” the Blazers. Phil ran a much different system than Pop, Red ran a much different system than wooden, etc. I bet they would all take a step back and listen to what the other guys had to say though.
One thing roster wise Ive never quite understood in this “rebuild” is how little NO seems to have valued old dudes. I know Dame is the leader of the team, but bringing in a guy like VC or some other olderish guy to just teach guys things. Maybe I over-value that role, but Ive always seen that as a pretty important role.
I guess my overall point was that people see the game differently from the lowest levels to the highest levels. Now I think almost all coaches / players / etc, get to the point to where we know what good basketball looks like, but how they would implement it varies. Im not questioning if you know the game, I know you know basketball. Just like sometimes an NBA game or an NFL game you’ll see a qb throw the ball where he thinks his receiver will be and the receiver read it differently and broke the route. Both obviously know football they just saw it differently. I guess I just thought him saying your 22 so you dont know anything was a stupid response but your response about your rec league seemed weird to me. You have plenty of posts on here, your TBF videos plenty of places you can point to as proof you know the game.
This post is way too long so i suspect you won't read it. No my logic is- You have never even sniffed being in his position. He has more knowledge than you about not only this team but the intricacies of the people's lives he is coaching. I personally feel the two toughest jobs i have ever done are teaching and coaching. The way you want to understand it is your choice. If you want to put a spin on things that is your prerogative. Now i can also go into countless situational instances that would back up my opinion. Experience tends to do that to a person. But in the end you will only listen to what you believe as has been shown on this board countless times. You responded to my opinion originally with "I hate posts like this" You didn't even respond to the original statement and you didn't even give credit to the "I can understand that" portion of the statement. The original statement is about the quality of players this coach is dealing with. Here comes my OPINION part. I feel Stotts has done an admirable job with the talent he has to work with. I feel Stotts is human and has made a number of mistakes throughout his time here with the Blazers. I feel the problem sits more with Neil Olshey and the contractual issues this team has been dealing with. I feel Stotts would be in a much better position if he had a true Power Forward on this roster. I feel Stotts and the Blazer fan base in general took a huge hit when Aldridge left and they are still reeling from it. I feel if there was ever a time for a coaching replacement it should be sooner than later and a replacement interviews should include Ettore Messina as well as Mike Budenholzer. I also like Nick Nurse and Lloyd Pierce. Here is the Biggest one- I feel until this team gets the ownership issue out of the way no huge changes will be made. I also feel the meeting that took place last year between Lillard and ownership and the hints that HCP dropped were that Paul Allen indeed knew much earlier than was reported that he was sick again. I feel there is a fracture within the team right now and a number of players do not have the same personal fortitude about sticking it out here as Lillard does. Again- I have no idea the breadth of influences Terry Stotts is dealing with at this time. He may be preaching constantly about running the Pick n Roll out closer to mid court. He may be screaming in the locker room about the defensive problems. I'm pretty sure you don't know either.
Exactly what is Stotts supposed to do to "Hold Them Accountable". Is he supposed to dog them more in practice? Run a few extra sprints? Is he supposed to yell and scream at them? Is he supposed to do that in the Moda Center in front of fans so you know it is happening? Or is he supposed to do this behind closed doors? Are you simply looking for him to bench players? How long are those benching supposed to last? How do you think Professional NBA players should be treated? Maybe it should be belittling them in the video sessions? Please enlighten us?
If it were me--pull guys off the floor when they're clearly ignoring something that has allegedly been identified as a coaching mandate. For example, he's pulled Meyers out of a game for not shooting when he's supposed to. But has he ever pulled CJ for a few minutes for lazy defense? Sat ET down for shooting a three? Pull Aminu for losing track of guys on consecutive defensive possessions? Pulled Dame for slowly walking the ball up the court in situations where he could/should be pushing it? We're not a championship team. Clearly. There should be no fear over losing a couple games by benching players temporarily to drive home a point--especially a point he's repeatedly claimed he's making "behind the scenes". But I don't know if I've ever seen him do it to a starter.
There are players i would like to see off the court sometimes also. But remember he can't just pull them. He has to wait until there is a foul or time out. That effects game also. Dame walking up the court? Not sure you ever are gonna see him pull Damian Lillard but i guess it could happen. CJ is a scorer and not a defensive specialist. What he lacks on defense he tries to make up on offense. It's tough to watch sometimes. He benches Meyers and Nurk and Harkless. He has pulled Aminu but they have no replacement. Turner can be just bad at times. But again they don't have another player to fill that role? This is why i say this team lacks talent.
I've watched hours of Messinas clinics. That's my #1 option. I try to do my research before I talk and I study film and watch the game for the intricacies involved... if you dont see why it's annoying to me when people say "people just want to blame the coach, it's the easy thing", then you never will. I also hate the logic you use against having an issue with Stotts. I could use the same logic and say you dont know what Olshey has to deal with, you've never sniffed his position, and he has more knowledge than you. That's the most ridiculous argument in sports IMO. With that logic, no fan should ever criticize anything to do with the team ever.. it makes no sense.
Take a step back and think...do you really think a staff of NBA coaches “don’t know how to get the ball inside”? I’m not being condescending here I’m actually curious. Or that he is afraid of offending CJ? That Stotts and the staff would rather make CJ happy somehow by ignoring Nurk and do so at the expense of the team and winning? This all makes sense to you?
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...76ers-joel-embiid-play-friday-detroit-pistons Embiid getting a rest day.
The CJ theory doesn't explain why we don't post up when he isn't in the game or like last night when he didn't play.