Last night's performance we one for the ages. Certainly the beginning of the end for ol' Chaunc. Pour a 40 out for our homey. It may not be today, or tomorrow, but the writing is on the wall. Yes, the idea is to tank, but there's no development or improvement. Players look lost and disinterested. What strong developmental coach would you bring in?
He is not good, but not good is what this season is about....to get as high of a pick in a good Draft as possible. However........ I do think they need someone who will help develop the younger players better and make them more competitive. There is no excuse for getting blown out that badly when the other team is sitting players. I expect some of the veterans will be traded at the deadline, but the younger players need to see some growth in their games and to see the goal they are going towards. Getting absolutely annihilated by a team sitting multiple starters is demoralizing.
I'm one of the rare people who is fine with Chauncy staying as coach. The roster is a complete joke, it was that way in July when Cronin set it up to its current state and continues to be a joke today. The primary problem for the Blazers right now is it makes no sense at all to have all three of Grant, Ayton, and Ant on this roster. After that is fixed I'd like to see how the team plays with Billups. Not saying Billups is a decent coach or a long term answer, but when he is given one of the worst if not the worst roster in the NBA I can't fault him for the team playing up to its designs. Irrespective of that - I'd be shocked if Billups is fired because then the Blazers would have to pay more for an interim coach.
I have nothing to go on (as usual) other than what I've seen so far. But my hunch is that Cronin wanted to see how his rebooted 2024 roster would perform before making any decisions on direction. He may have been willing to wait till the New year or even the trade deadline before diving into the deep end of the tank if that's the case, does he really need to see team performance past last night's game? The roster is dysfunctional, and it's ridiculously expensive gauging by results. The other side of that coin though is if he does dive into the tank, isn't an incompetent HC suited for the job? and isn't Chauncey perfect for that role? The downside is that the younger Blazer players are likely getting coaching bad for development
The trouble is that the problems with our roster are with our supposed "foundation". I've got no problems with our "role players" - Toumani, Murray, Rupert and even Avdija (so long as we forget what we gave up to get him). I would happily watch a lineup of them and Timelord (Avdija is the PG in this scenario) lose scrappily night after night. They play the right way.
I hope people here realize that we'll still be shit even if he's fired. I think it's a forgone conclusion that he won't be back next year. The only reason to fire him now is if he's lost the locker room, and they don't want toxic culture to influence the youngins. Yesterday was the first time I got that feeling. Let's see if this kinda thing manifests more over the coming days/weeks.
This team is essentially unwatchable. A mismatch of mediocre talent, with two young players (Henderson and Sharpe) that appear to be over matched and over rated at this point (To me Sharpe has seemed uninterested and unmotivated since his Kentucky days). If they are our future, it's time to start praying. As disgusted as I was with the Jailblazers, at least they had talent. I don't see that three years of tanking has gotten us anywhere but backwards.
I pretty much agree with this assessment. I'd probably say a few things differently. I don't think the roster is a "joke", I think it's set up to achieve the Blazers' (Cronin's) goals for the season: - Let the young guys get some run playing alongside a few seasoned vets, but avoid winning too often; - See which players rise to the top, - Position for the draft to hopefully get a franchise player. - Figure out the long-term answer at coach after the season. I can't see a coach who's worth a damn deciding to take on this mess mid-season with this roster.
last season, after a couple of months of an aggressive tank-job, and trying to lose games, the Blazers had a net rating of -9.2. This season, trying to win games, their net rating is -11.1. That doesn't seem possible maybe this should go in the Billups thread
since Dame was traded, I've been advocating for organic tanks instead of faking a dozen injuries. Dump ALL the veterans and let the youngsters sink or swim. There would be some bad basketball for sure, but it wouldn't be nearly as boring as watching Simons-Ayton-Grant chuck up half the shots and dominate the offense
Shouldn't the Blazers have sent every player home with a sleep monitor so they would know who slept well and therefore would know who the losers are on the team?
Saw this comment by a non-blazers fan: “The Blazers are this year’s version of the Monty Pistons. A team that is clearly tanking but the coach doesn’t seem to have gotten the message about what that means, unless they’re just trying to pump up some other values for trades. That’s the only reason I can think a team would play Time Lord over Clingan, marginalize the role of the young player they just acquired in Avdija, bench their #2 pick, have Jerami Grant be the focal point of their offense lol, while in a rebuild season.”
