That was a totally made up number on my part. If you have better data, I'm open to see it. I said earlier I would take Steve Kerr and when people blamed him, I would continue the same stance that top end talent is a far greater influence than a coach. The data backs that up.
If both happened, we'd have a real chance. If only the coaching change happens, history says we will not be a title contending team.
I would ask, what data are you looking at? And, are you sure you're interpreting it correctly? I'm going to say it's 60/40. Like I said, I do think talent is the most important thing but your quality of coach can play those margins and elevate you (Spoelstra/Nurse) or play well below your personnel quality (Stotts/Brown). Yes, the Lakers would have won with mostly any coach last season but what about the Warriors without KD? I don't think necessarily.
I actually don't think we'd have a chance with only one happening. No matter which one. Both need to happen for the Blazers to have a serious shot at winning it all.
Alright fuck this. A half-strength Rockets squad is beating a healthy Blazer team by double digits at halftime. Bye bye Stotts. I'm done.
Want to write the feel good comedy of the summer with me about the ghost of a basketball coach who won't stop coaching a basketball team who is trying to move on and win without him?
Barely beating that group of also rans combined with Harden/Wood in OT didn't exactly quell the fire.
There are a few things that were positive last night. I actually think it was a good move to let Ant get some run and make a few shots. He wasn't playing poorly and is coming back off injury. I do understand Trent has been playing well also. But we are talking about 6 mins as opposed to 11 mins. Not a huge deal in my book. He (Stotts) had two rather lengthy discussions with Melo but he has not reduced his role yet? Stotts has always said he doesn't believe players should lose their position in the lineup due to injury but Collins still has a boot on. If he lost the boot today he would still be end of January (4 weeks) getting back. I just don't see Melo losing his role until Zach gets back full strength? Giles Giles Giles? He brings energy. Fouls way too much. Forgets where he is supposed to be and can't shoot. He does a good job around the rim though and gets points off dunks. Different style than Melo and Zach both. Defense is starting to work a bit better together. Jones and Roco are switching better and playing off each other better in the perimeter. Sure Harden scored on some amazing plays but they also forced him to pass a bunch including the last shot. I like the use of Nurk out top. He is passing better from there. But he needs to become a bit crisper. You can see the lazy pass coming a mile away. CJ is getting looks because they must cover Dame, They must cover Covington, They must respect Nurk and Jones is a threat to break to the basket at any time. This might become CJ's best year as a Blazer if this continues? You simply cannot cover Dame and CJ with two players and teams are going to try to stop Dame. Last time we watched this was when Oden was healthy with Roy and Aldridge with Channing Frye and Jeff Ayers (Pendergraph), Rudy Fernandez Nic Batum. It didn't last long but that team was deep. I know TLDR.. Anyway Stotts looks like he is trying some things and he does seem like he is at least pushing defense. Could more be done? Could different stuff be tried? The team will have some DNP coaches decision. Who will that be? It's going to happen every game. Deep teams sit decent players. That is why they are Deep Teams.
pistons beat a pacers team with miller, ron artest, jermaine oneal, fred jones, eddie jones, jamal tinsley and kenny anderson. then went on to beat the lakers 4-1 who had the following: Shaq Koby Gary payton Karl malone Rick fox Bryon russell Horace grant And more. and the pistons knocked off Iverson in an earlier round.
The Giles hype train was a little over done, and yest he fouls too much, but in the 15-20 minutes I'd like to see him get taking minutes from Kanter/Melo, that wouldn't be much of an issue. He certainly does bring energy, but also is a tremendous passer which would help players like DJJ, Hood, Covington, Trent, etc get easier looks and help the offense run so much more smoothly. The other option, is the Iso-centric Melo ignoring the planet while he gets his.
Nurk had a poor 3rd qtr IMO. As you said, he made some lazy passes. Also, Dame made a couple of bad passes to him. We were lucky CJ was on fire that quarter or we could have been down 20 to start the 4th. However, Nurk played well in the 4th and in OT. We desperately need him to play well, but I worry about running the offense through him on a consistent basis.
Add Brad Stevens to the list of the coaches who should be available according to the twitter experts. We're going to have a lot of great options to replace Stotts with. Sadly, the complaints about him are the same, so maybe we don't want him?
