Dude coached basically FOUR different incarnations of his team in his rookie year. He aint no rookie coach any more. I LOVE Chauncey Billups, and anyone who doesn't can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned.
I don't think there would be a significant difference from Portland's end. Tough to say about Boston in this scenario, but my stance has always been coaching doesn't make a HUGE difference. Now, Boston won in 7 games, so maybe one game is a huge difference. I'm not ready to give Billups a ton of credit for that 4 game winning streak like you either. Overall I've contended this has been a 1st round exit roster since LMA left. Anything more than that was exceeding expectations and missing the playoffs would be missing expectations. I DO NOT blame Billups for the team missing the playoffs, though the data would say this wasn't a playoff team when they shut Dame down (13-22 on Dec 31st).
I feel he was told to tank and make the best of it. I feel he never really coached in a pressure situation. I feel he never dealt with the big ego's that he will have to in the playoffs. I felt he was never in a position to have to sit a player that is making millions due to poor performance. IMO he is still a rookie coach.
Think Chauncy's fine (as a coach) but never thought Ime could be as good as he's turned out to be. Good for him! Jason Kidd also very good as a coach. Still glad we steered clear of him.
In many years, different forums and names.... This will be our first disagreement, my friend. Not sure I can agree with your prerequisites for what is no longer a "rookie" coach. Sitting a player to poor performance?? Really buddy?? This is Mr. Big Shot we're talking about. Been there done that (as a player, admittingly). I feel, most of your concerns here, have more than been offset with his previous experiences.
Of course they wouldn't. Why would they? They are in the finals. We are gonna see what we have in our coach. Why be surprised about a result you should have known anyway? It's common sense.
Common sense that fans love their coach? That hasn't always been the trend around here. Typically after year 2-3 the trend is actually the opposite. I'm surprised that people saw enough from Billups this year that they think he was the best choice of the 3. That's not to say he can't be a great coach either.
Here’s how I’d equate it: Just because Frank Vogel won a championship doesn’t mean I’d want him as our coach, including in his championship season. Also just because Steve Kerr had a terrible season (when the warriors got smacked with injuries) doesn’t mean he sucks as a coach. And I’m sure the Lakers were happy with Vogel as their coach when he was in the NBA finals. So of course the Celtics are happy with their coach. They made the NBA finals. As Blazer fans, most of realize the Celtics have a really, really good roster - and they probably benefited quite a bit from injuries to other teams - so it’s impossible to say “Ime is clearly a great coach and Billups is not” when the rosters weren’t even in the same universe. (just like the Vogel comparison above). I think a number of us even said Boston was the #1 job open last season due to that roster being loaded. If anything, I actually think Kidd proved he’s the best of the bunch so far; did really well with an average (at best) roster and seemingly corrected the major issues he had with the Bucks.
I mostly agree with your logic. Though I can assure you that Laker fans were bitching about Vogel the year they won the championship and Warrior fans are even bitching about Kerr this year, let alone the two years they were tanking. I would be worried Boston fans would rather swap our Ime with Kidd/Billups given their current situation. Same with Dallas fans wanting a Billups/Kidd swap given they had more succcess. I think Billups did a fine job this year, but if I had a time machine, I'd prefer we hired Ime of Billups. Having said that, I don't think either hire makes a huge difference.
It's not about being a homer, it's more an incomplete grade or wait and see. Both Kidd and Ime were terrible up until the point the Blazers started tanking. If you did this poll around the 30-40 game marks both Dallas and Boston fans were hating them. Both turned around dumpster fires. Billups started bad too but wasn't given the same chance to turn around that start like the other two were. Could still go either way with Billups, good or bad.
To your point, it's always going to be incomplete until all 3 coaches are done with their careers. I agree the poll would likely have different results one year ago, 6 months ago, and 5 years from now. The poll is meant to gauge peoples preferences, right now, with all the knowns and unknowns out there. I suspect Billups is far less likely to win this poll 5 years from now, simply due to the fact that fan bases typically start calling for the head of their head coach after 3-4 years. The homer factor is real unless you think you'd get these same percentages from Dallas and Boston fans, which I think nobody thinks would happen. Those fans would likely think their coaches is the one they'd rather have.