What will it take for Chauncey to get fired?

San Antonio has done what serious teams do.

 

It's not sarcasm, he's saying that you can have success without being thought a good coach, because (and this is his sincere point) the only thing that matters is the talent of the players. Which is bullshit, but if it were true that a shit coach could win with his own system, rather just be a caretaker running somebody else's, he might have a point.

 

I just hope that either in the next week or more likely at the trade deadline, that Joe for the first fucking time in his tenure, tries to build a cohesive roster. I'll just spam this one more time... Ant doesn't make sense with Scoot and Shaedon and Jerami doesn't make sense here at all.

 

100%
The only thing Ant and Grant can do is hurt our draft odds. Either we'll keep them and pretend they are injured to salvage our draft odds (which will just hurt their trade value more and we'll get less for them), or we'll play them to up their trade value in an attempt to get another 2nd rounder out of them or something and we'll win games we wouldn't and shouldn't otherwise, likely hurting our draft odds.

Or we'll actually say we're done rebuilding and try to win as much as possible. Which will almost certainly doom us to being (at best) almost as good as we were with Dame. Unless we get lucky and draft the next Clyde Drexler outside the top 10.

 

Nah he coached that team for the first 50 games I believe. I’m saying a coach doesn’t mean shit……he went to a Sac team that had no talent and it showed that. Bring last years COY to Portland this season and we still will win 19-20 games. Sorry it’s how I feel.

 

Billups hasn’t lost the locker room to this point. That alone tells me the players understand the situation, want to improve and win, and see a “good coach” in Billups. The young, next-up core gives plenty of hope and something Billups can work with — Clingan, Avdija, Sharpe, Scoot … and Walker, Camara, Rupert, Murray, Time Lord. But does he WANT TO if the tear-down part of the rebuild gets finished? Right now, winning “too much” is NOT an option.

The problem for Billups because of wanting to win BUT needing to tank are the best Trail Blazers players:

(1) Ayton likely won’t fit with Clingan. If Time Lord could stay healthy, I can see RW staying.
(2) Ant isn’t a floor general (if Scoot doesn’t work out) and doesn’t have a star at forward (or even a SG) who runs things who would let him be a scoring guard at PG (like Steve Kerr). Regardless, Ant doesn’t fit (size and D) with the more likely keepers in Scoot and Sharpe.
(3) Grant at AGE 30 and the longest contract. If he was 3-4 years younger? Keep him and have a frickin’ good 3 forward rotation. [BUT then how well will he age and if other contracts were gone …?]
(4) Thybulle isn’t a problem with age or his one end of the court impact or contract. BUT he chose to sign with Dallas, and right now I’d like to see him on a much better team. He won’t start ahead of Avdija or Sharpe or the STAR to arrive in ‘25. Trade.

Letting the contracts run out is not a risk I’d take. Try to get useful, young prospects who might pop AND draft capital even if not of lottery quality.

At this early into his career Billups has racked up a craptastic record. If he committed to finishing the rebuild and the time it will take to become a contender, then it could be a GREAT story.

But is he a good coach? I just don’t know.

 

Billups is fine. Still learning the ropes. Might as well learn with a team that isn’t supposed to win. When the team gets better Billups will look better.

 

I'm not sold on Billups at all. He's had 3 years to have an identity and he's still yet to put a stamp on the team, young or not. I miss Stotts more than ever. I think Chauncey is better suited in the front office than on the bench. This season is probably his last head coaching job anywhere.

 

I'm sorry it's how you feel, too. You should try THINKING instead.

 

Obviously there isn't just one quantity "coachiness" that good coaches have a lot of and bad coaches only a little. There are many dimensions. And Chauncey certainly has one of them: charisma. He exudes calm, and I'm pretty sure his team respects him (which is not nothing - you can be a genius Xs and Os guy and if nobody listens it's useless). But I have no confidence that he has an elite understanding of the game that he can translate to a well-oiled machine on the court. Don't forget that we are the only team in history to be blown out by 60+ TWICE IN ONE SEASON. I watched a Clippers team in the 90s that only just avoided the worst record in history and they never got close to that.

 

One of the “Coachiness” things a good coach needs is good players.

 

you need to be able to pace your best players without running them into the ground and ending the season with 3rd string rosters. Chauncey's endgame is not impressive playbook wise. He's too content with losing post game as well. Reminds me a lot of Mo Cheeks. I think Chauncey has improved but not much so far. A 3rd year coach shouldn't be still trying to figure out his team's identity regardless of the talent level.

 

Well? They are losing on purpose. That is the teams identity at this point. Call me when they decide to start playing to win again and I can get a better idea of what the coach is doing?

 

If they aren't playing to win then they need to move off of their middle-aged players and embrace the suck.

This is where I'm concerned. If we aren't going to try and have a good coach (or even hold the coach accountable) then why are we keeping players who can help us beat bad teams that won't be good players when we're competing for championships?

It reeks of trying to go two different directions and splitting the difference. That's a recipe for mediocrity for a long time unless lightning strikes and you get a Hall of famer outside the lottery.

 

Thunder is loud! Thunder can shake the ground we walk upon! Thunder is impressive!
But its lightning that does all the work!

 

I believe we lost two games by 60 because we rolled out junior college talent against NBA players.

 

And you think other teams haven't done the same and NOT lost by 60? Because I can assure you, even those "JC" talent players were better than what the Clippers rolled out.

 

Not sure what you’re asking FAMS.

 

Are you claiming we don’t lose by 60 twice with a different coach?

 

Absolutely.