How long of a leash should Chauncey have?

because of discretion or paranoia?

 

Chauncey in interviews sounds like a player when he talks not a coach. He doesn't come across as a leader, more like he's just one of the boys. It's all cliche nothing answers to questions.

For me it comes down to defense. The whole reason he was brought in was to improve the defense. That's what all the talk was about and it sounded great, but two years in and our defense is still garbage. To be fair he didn't have much to work with, but now he does. So IMO if we haven't at the very least moved up to middle-of-the-pack in terms of defensive rating by midseason then Chauncey need to go.

 

Agree.
Also to back that up a bit. Doesn't really help win games when they are mediocre at defense and even worse on offense. We all figured the team would score less but not sure he has implemented much on the way of offense that will keep them in close games.
Maybe they will be able to score this year as well? Not sure at this point?

 

??

 

There are plenty of shots if it's Scoot, Sharpe and Ayton plus role players like Toumani and player X at the forwards. Sharpe should eventually be the 1st option IMO, and/or the target out of the Scoot/Ayton P&R. It's Grant and especially Ant who are taking shots from Sharpe. I suspect that Cronin knows this and will act accordingly. Also, Ant is the last holdover from the Olshey era. I don't think we need to rush to trade him. The Trade Deadline, or even next off-season should be ideal to trade Ant. He will likely be averaging 22+PPG on good efficiency and we can trade him, OR we can even look for a coach and let him know Ant has to be the 6th man as a shoot first combo guard.

As to the OP's question, I think we should look to move on from Chauncey after this season, once we have his superior replacement ready to slot in.

 

I'm super curious now

 

I have an idea why.

 

Wow, is SportsTwo like the a SportsWikiLeaks? Spill it already!

 

I think they will let him have the entire season, and that's probably the right decision. I think Joe should have insisted that they hire a defensive specialist in the off season. Maybe somebody who is kind of a hardass. and/or who is experienced at using drills that actually require the players to think and use the skills that Billups is teaching in game type situations. Maybe accompanied with some kind of rewards/punishment system?
I think he now needs to improve the defense, especially the problem of not covering corner three shooters. Needs to show that he can motivate Simons to consistently play tough defense. Needs to show he can make good use of Ayton's offensive skills and integrate into a team concept. Needs to show steady progress in play of Sharpe and Scoot and to a lesser degree other young guys.

 

Whatever it is, it should be twice as long as Sly’s.

 

Well there’s a tournament to win this year that goes from November 3rd through December 9th.

 

If this team's first concern is winning and if management wants to see what Chauncey can get out of them then we'll be starting Brogdon, Ant, Matisse, Jerami and Ayton, with Scoot, Shae, Toumani and Time Lord off the bench being the regular rotation and other guys picking up minutes where they can.

I don't think that's what we'll see. If Scoot is starting day one it won't be because he gives us a better chance to win than Malcolm does in his place.

Right now I'm sure what Chauncey is concerned with is effort and how the guys that will be on this team when the dust settles are picking up what Chauncey is putting down. I think it will be two years before it would be wise to judge Chauncey on wins and losses.

 

I hear most are...

 

Judging the progression or improvement will have to be done without measuring those in terms of wins. Are individual players making progress and improving with the court time they are given or not? Are they gelling as a team on both the offensive and defensive ends regardless of win total?

It is very early with an extremely small sample size, but I'm seeing some of the same things that I saw with a more veteran team the last couple of years. So almost all of the players have changed, but the same things are happening. That seems more like coaching than personnel, even though it is so young.

 

I think it's much more nuanced than the new kids are screwing up the same way our old vets did. Chauncey has never had a full season where the team was trying to win. It's going to be really hard to judge this team at all this season. I think middle of next season you could look at a collective of players that Chauncey has coached and start to really be able to see something discernible.

I also think it's important to take it in the context of this article:
https://www.si.com/nba/2021/06/28/chauncey-billups-hire-trail-blazers-head-coach-five-year-contract

Chauncey's salary sounds like it's guaranteed through his fourth year here. So the soonest ownership would even want to get into firing him is the middle of next season. Ideally for ownership they would decide in the offseason of 2025 if they want to bring Chauncey back or move on from him so they don't have to pay two head coaches at the same time.

 

If they find the right coach they should hire them regardless of the time left on Chauncey's contract .

 

Billups was planted by the Clippers & Olshey to sabotage the Blazers?

 

Yes! If they can do a back-channel interview and know there is some great coach out there, dying to come to Portland, then pull the trigger.

Let's not fire Billups and hope we can find someone good to replace him.

 

Hire them into the staff like Chicago did with Phil Jackson and Tex Winters.