You don't think that Chauncey has at least two mandates that are conflicting? One being to develop the prospects and the other being not to tank the value of the vets. The other explanation is that Chauncey is just trying to win games and when Ant, Jerami and Deandre are engaged, they are the best players at contributing to wins that we have at their positions... most likely it's a lot more complicated than that with Joe talking to Chauncey a lot about who starts and when guys are going to sit out for injuries. In post game pressers, when Chauncey gets asked about the injuriy status of players who were not playing in the game he always says he doesn't control that. I doubt he's making the calls right now but if he is I have to think it's in lockstep with the front office.
I think Chauncey is a pretty good defensive coach and a sub-par offensive coach. However, my guess is that the marching orders he has are to feature the vets before the trade deadline to help with the trade market. I am willing to bet that once the trade deadline is past all the vets that remain will be resting / hurt and see their roles diminish. So, no, I do not think he is ruining the franchise. I think that rebuilding an NBA franchise, especially when a new GM comes in is an exercise that takes years unless the previous administration accumulated assets/picks - which the NeO regime did not. So, I do not think anyone is ruining the Franchise. It's simply is where it belongs given the need to rebuild after a sub-par GM regime.
Just an observation from what I saw on the Charlotte feed. It looked to me that Deni was getting a little tired of being pulled aside and being micro-coached by Billups.
Hire Tuomas Iisalo from Memphis right now. Sit everyone good and lose every game to close the season.
He's averaging 31 MPG for the season, which is starter minutes. And to state the obvious, NBA MPG is far from the only way young guys improve STOMP
Chauncey is a lame duck coach who knows its probably his last season here. So if you think about it, what reason does he really have to develop kids he won't likely be coaching? Versus trying to win games. Might as well try to pad that win total. Nobody will look at the rebuild when they simply discuss his poor coaching record. This one's on the GM.
What about Rupert getting no minutes ? I believe this is the most likely scenario. Dead man walking and he wants to go out with wins.
I don't have a problem at all with Billups coaching the roster to get wins. In fact I'd argue that's what a coach should always be doing. It's the job of the GM to put the right mix of vets on the roster so the young talent has clear roles and clear opportunities for growth. Billups isn't the one who designed a roster to have 100 million tied up in irrelevant vets that warrant starting and are entitled to shots. The current Blazers roles is the predictable outcome of a roster that never made sense going back to the draft when Cronin set it up. This roster probably should have been changed when Olshey was fired and we did the Clippers trade. If not then, than certainly when we traded Dame. If not then, than certainly that deadline. If not then, than certainly last draft. If not then, than certainly by the deadline in a few weeks. We keep waiting for Cronin to do moves that make logic sense, but at some point we should probably just expect this team to be ran without any strategic direction as that's all we've had since Olshey was fired.
In this draft, right now, We need to lose every game from here on out. There is nothing else that this team could do the rest of the season that could possibly improve the team more than the draft possibly could. I definitely have some concerns about the GM. But Chauncey has handled this horribly. I want him gone. We need to offer Tuomas Iisalo (Memphis's lead assistant) whatever it takes to bring him in as our coach. And we need to get it locked in now. He can finish out his season with Memphis (if that's even allowed). Chauncey can't coach this team anymore, if I'm Jody or Joe. I don't care if he gets bumped up to a management role or whatever.
I saw it twice. During timeouts, Billups used his arms to show Aveeja how to do something, and Aveeja tried to escape like the rebellious student who can't spell.
Chauncy will get tired of it and bring Deni off the bench behind Grant, who does everything better...
