are we tanking or are we just really this bad?

There's always an excuse.

There was always an excuse with Olshey, and there's always an excuse for Cronin.

When do the excuses run out?

 

I wish we were a .500 team. We’d have a shot at the 5 seed. Unfortunately we are six games below .500.

 

We suck even when Dame is healthy. Our record is 26-28 when Dame plays.

 

So you didn’t mention the fact that we actually don’t have much talent at all. You think that impacts whether we win or lose?

 

I think they have enough talent to win every other game.

 

We are this bad. We shouldn’t be, but we are.

33 games with Nurk, Grant, Hart, Simons and Dame and we are only 18-15. That’s with Dame playing at an MVP level. It’s probably, no it IS enough talent that we should have a better record. Style of play is killing us. If you are small, run a variation of a 3-2 zone with EVERYONE crashing down when a shot goes up. It’s not that hard.

 

Who has the best record of those four?

 

Both. Cronin is stealth tanking (not going extra mile to make certain upgrades and prioritizing evaluation) and Chauncey is trying to win with said roster and doing it with mixed results.

 

@Natebishop3

Regular season | Playoffs

Mo Cheeks (.538) 162-139 | (.300) 3-7
Nate McMillan (.497) 266-269 | (.333) 6-12
Terry Stotts (outlier) (.558) 402-318 | (.355) 22-40
Chauncey Billups (.387) 58-92 | -

 

Now we're tanking

 

So Dame isn't playing?

 

17 blown double digit leads, and counting

 

That lies firmly on the coaching staff. If they can’t manage to keep big leads consistently, that is them. A few could be the other team going off but that many, that’s coaching.

In essence, we are doing nothing more than playing playground ball.

 

That’s how I see it too

 

Has to be. Nothing else makes sense.

If the roster just wasn't good enough they wouldn't get the large leads in the first place.

 

same thing I thought in the offseason, not talented enough... they are this bad no matter who is coaching

STOMP

 

Cronin said this team wasn't complete. It's a work in progress. That's not an excuse. It's where we're at.

But the talent has been good enough to lead by double digits in most games.

 

Part of it is because this team gets very young very fast when some of the players sit. But a big part of it is coaching

 

I'm not a Cronin apologist, but at least he has talked about the real issues with talent and size on the Blazers, and he's done so since he was hired (which makes his signing of Payton so suspect)

on the other hand Olshey always talked about how much talent he added every off-season. It was as predictable as the seasons. Turner was a "perfect fit"; Meyers had "all-star talent"; Gerald Henderson was a "6th man of the year talent" ; CJ was "elite talent"; Nic Stauskas was "like Kyle Korver"; Hezonja was immensely talented"...yes, he said all those things