After a strong preseason, what should the Blazer's goal be this year?

I honestly cannot say I have but then he has had nothing to work with and I’m not sure he expected to lose Dame?

 

which is kind of what I said....that being that he'll probably be out as Blazer head coach next summer and likely have to spend a lot of time as an assistant coach before he has a HC opportunity again

I mean, in his 3 seasons, Portland's offensive ranking:

27 - 18 - 29 (18th in Dame's last year)

and defensive ranking:

30 - 27 - 23

there's just no reason to believe in Chauncey with either an offense of a defense. And yes, I know you can point at the rosters again, but the reality is Billups hasn't established any aptitude for coaching on either end of the floor. That's not to say he doesn't have it, but he won't be a rookie HC again. He'll have a 4 year record of losing 2 out of every 3 games

 

A few in here have suggested he may move up into a GM type position. I don’t really know he’d be a great GM either? Assistant might be his true calling?

 

You think any decision makers will be looking at those rankings? Blazers roster has been a total joke. Billups has a lot of respect around the league. Steve Balmer was praising him at the Seattle game introductions.

The Suns wanted to hire Billups last summer but the Blazers blocked interviews.

Now I partially agree with some posts in that Billups hasn't really done anything to prove he's a great head coach, but he hasn't done anything bad as some first time head coaches do. So I could see another group wanting to see how he would do with playoff talent right away.

But its certainly possible he doesn't get that chance soon and needs to next be an assistant again or some other role. Maybe he goes back to Denver as an assistant, try to get a few more skills and listen for a better opportunity.

 

Fire Cronin and promote Billups to GM?

Although I'm not sure how much our GM even matters with Jody/Kolde/Vulcan.

 

what I was pointing at with those rankings, is that Billups has not established anything he does well. He has nothing to hang his hat on

now if you want to argue he's still as big a mystery as he was when he was hired because of Portland tanking, OK. But to still offer no real clues as to what level of coach he, what his strengths are, or not, after 246 games looks like a red flag to me

I didn't say he was a mediocre coach or worse; I just said he has done nothing to instill any confidence in coaching abilities

 

Play the guys we have and let them ball. See if the improved roster construction helps Grant and Ant play more team oriented ball. Lock down a top ten defense. See improvement in Sharpe, Scoot and Camara.

See how we look and after two months and make better long term decisions based on better info than we currently have.

 

I disagree, though many judgmental areas are inconclusive, I think its fair to say he is able to get the players to buy in and play hard for him night in and night out. That is alot right there. I think we will see he has elite defensive prowess as this season ticks on(as long as we stay healthy).

He can always hire the right assistant coaches to help him with the offensive X/O's.

 

Win games.

 

Face the music. They just got blown out at home by 35 to a GSW team that will be fighting for a playin. They need to hope they can unload Grant and Ant. Clear the decks of Williams, Thybulle and Ayton. Hope for a pick or two, take on expirings and hope for luck in the draft. Portland has few winnable games before January 1, maybe 5 to 7. Upwards of 17 in the back half of the season. They do not have to tank, they are just bad.

 

well, tonight shows what a strong preseason is worth

 

The Warriors were 6-0. Sure did.

 

The team will go nowhere until it has at least one ~superstar caliber player. No player on this team really is standing out and going places. No GM out there is drooling over any Blazer.

 

None.

 

I was not impressed with Demi at all in that game.

 

NAILED IT!

 

Turns out things are different when the other team tries too.

 

final meaningless preseason game for Clingan: 14 pts, 20 reb, 4 ast, 4 blk

first meaningful regular season game for Clingan: 2 pts, 2 reb, 0 ast, 1 blk

7'0 Ayton + 7'2 Clingan: 12 pts, 13 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk - 41M salary
6'9 Jackson-Davis + 6'9 Looney: 16 pts, 10 reb, 4 ast, 1 blk - 10M salary