Ok, we'll consider him a downgrade. I'll keep searching for someone else who will be available. Slim pickens.
Appears the the Heat have quit on Spoelstra after losing by 47 tonight, so maybe he'll be available. Granted it's tough to win starting Harkless and Meyers. Problem with him, he let the Bucks start the game on a 12-0 run before calling a timeout and later an 11-0 run before a timeout, which is a deal breaker for some. I'd take him though!
I'm fine with firing Stotts, if we're going to get a choice of Kerr, Stevens, Popovich, Spoelstra or Vogel. Hopefully, Rick Carlisle will also prove to be terrible by losing a few games and he gets his walking papers too. I've never been against firing Stotts--I've just been against firing him unless the team has a better option in mind. Firing him so fans can vent their spleens isn't a good enough reason, for me. I think Stotts is a mediocre coach, which ties him with about 80-90% of coaches in the league, the group that performs about as well as their talent would indicate. He's not in the bottom 5-10% of coaches that can tank real talent (let's say, a PJ Carlisimo sort) or in the top 5-10% of coaches that can get better results than the talent would explain (like a Popovich).
I just want a coach that isn't going to hand the ball to the players and tell them to go have fun. It's clear he has zero control over Dame/CJ/Melo etc.
Before we got Stotts I advocated for Budenholzer. I’ve always like Thibodeu, though he’s the type that actually holds players accountable. Stevens is probably my favorite coach in the league. Spoelstra is a great coach. But he took Miami to the finals last year. The new trend is hiring unheard of guys who started as video coordinators and worked their way up. Or former star PG’s.
Not really go look at the rosters since 2013 he had a number of teams with solid vets and all stars. He's a decent coach but hasn't gotten them over the hump like many coaches in the NBA are not able to do.
The guy named LeBron has held a lot of coaches out of the finals and he's got to the finals with some real marginal coaches himself.
It’s clear that you think this is true. I suspect reality is considerably different. Is Stotts going to give those guys minutes? Sure. Dame and CJ are the team’s stars so, of course, they get minutes. Olshey made certain commitments to Melo before the new contract was signed. Melo was told he’d come off the bench but still would play a significant role. Stotts was almost certainly consulted on that so he’s just living up to what was agreed upon. That’s smart on the team’s part. Screwing a sure-fire Hall of Fame player in his swan song season wouldn’t do anything to help the team in future player negotiations. That said, there are no doubt expectations on Melo as to what he does with his minutes. If he proves unable to meet his end of the bargain, things will change. The Blazers want to compete for a title and obligations to Melo do not outweigh that overall objective.
