Hmmm. Seems negotiations between D'Antoni and Houston for an extension have broken down. Despite recent success, the team wanted a performance based contract, rather than a blank check. I guess Houston doesn't see losing to the Warriors as inevitable and acceptable. Imagine that. Of course, you could also say D'Antoni just outed himself as lacking faith in the future of his team!
It seems crazy to say but it's true. I watched his post game press conference after game 7 against Nuggets and he was asked about not starting Aminu and Harkless and he just had the saddest look on his face. Like he was genuinely upset that he didn't start them. It was weird. Look it up. He really cares about the position of players and their feelings.
The dreaded vote of confidence. https://www.blazersedge.com/2020/2/25/21152843/trail-blazers-terry-stotts-safe-nba-coaching-hot-seat
We're going to look back when it's all said and done and say that this team wasted Dame's prime. They wasted it with shitty contracts, mediocre talent surrounding him, and an inferior coaching staff.
Attached to their players.... or coach? Hire a new coach —> new coach implements a new scheme (offence and defence) —> GM tries to bring in players who fit that scheme. It’s all Olshey’s fault!!!
I'm right there with you on shitty contracts and mediocre talent. I'd add badly fitting talent--CJ should've been traded years ago for a player who actually complemented our star player more. It's amazing to me that this bad fit has gone 7 years (so far). Anyone who wonders what life would've been like if Golden State never traded Monte Ellis can just re-watch the wasted years of Dame's prime. If you have Steph Curry, don't put a worse version of Steph Curry next to him. How Olshey has somehow not managed to notice the lesson of the most dominant back court of the 2010's is beyond me. I disagree on coaching, though. When we had a healthy Lillard/Matthews/Batum/LMA, nobody was calling for Stotts' head. That season and a half was really the only time where stars aligned with health and roster for this team.
If we're gonna keep bringing up precedence about players, we need to think about this from the coaching perspective as well. I've been calling this Monta-CJ thing a false equivalence. Monta killed the spacing for Steph, while CJ helps Dame in that regard. While CJ and Dame have not had the kind of synergy we all want, isn't there a part of you that wants to see what another coach can do with these guys? As I mentioned months ago in this same thread, Terry is currently the 4th longest tenured active coach in the league behind only Pop/Carlisle/Spo. All of them have championships. Does Terry warrant this kind of confidence given his paltry playoff record? Even without that, it's about the bigger picture for me. There is a reason why there's so much turnover among the coaching ranks. Voices fall on deaf ears and the game evolves faster than coaches are able to adapt. And one of Terry's biggest weaknesses is how glacially slow he makes changes to his rotations/strategy/etc. When a guy like Mike D'Antoni with all his playoff trips and adaptability and tact can't get a contract extension and is a lame duck coach this year in Houston, why did we feel the need to extend Terry after just one run to the conference finals in which we got thoroughly outclassed?
Ah Moses! The man who led his people around for 40 years until he found the one place in the middle east that didn't have vast oil reserves! Sounds about right.
CJ is a much better three point shooter than Ellis was, and frankly a better player. Ellis was a better passer and much better at drawing fouls though, so it's not like teams just ignored him on the offensive end. Both are 6'3 guys who are liabilities on defense, though, which is the bigger issue.
I think Portland is much more patient with both competent and incompetent coaches. Stotts is a competent, if not great, coach. But we spent a decade before him with McMillan and Cheeks--two guys who were clearly terrible coaches. I think there's a lot of organizational (and fan) memory of how awful that shit was, and we don't want to give up adequate and risk incompetence once again. Portland has not been an a-list destination for great free agents or great coaches. Better the "pretty good" instead of the the unknown. I'd rather see Portland do a roster overhaul before looking at coaching changes.
Among coaches today-- in a vacuum given the same roster-- where do you rank Terry? I think he's fairly average and we can find someone like him pretty easily. This season even, I'd probably put Nate ahead of him unfortunately.
