I do not agree. But I am not trying to guess what will happen, I think he should have been fired based upon his lack of leadership last season.
I wasn't exactly happy about keeping him either but I'm willing to give him until around the all-star break to prove his worth. If we're a dumpster fire by then (talking 10-15 wins) he gets fired and we start our coaching search early. Guys like Thibs, Walton, Lue, etc. should be interviewed right away.
So you want our secondary scorers to play roles in the preseason they won't play in the regular season? I saw enough of guys like Plumlee trying to create offense, dribbling around and jumping in the air with nobody to pass too. The games Damian didn't play were brutal when CJ was on the bench. Having Davis and Meyers force shots in those situations won't help prepare for anything.
From your first question it appears that you don't think we should be looking to get other guys involved in our offense during the regular season. I think it's a flawed question. To answer it I'd say, no. I wanted to see them start working on roles that would carry over to the regular season. It's imperative that we get other players more involved in the offense. Nowhere did I say I want to see Plumlee "creat[ing] offense, dribbling around and jumping in the air with nobody to pass too." But Stotts should have plays drawn up that result in Plumlee catching a pass on the move towards the basket. Ditto for Davis, Vonleh, Harkless, Aminu, etc. Getting these guys involved, getting them more shots, does not mean that we just give them the ball and they look to score on their own the way Dame/CJ do. It means that we utilize the 5 guys on the court, working as a cohesive unit to create cutting/passing lanes, that results in a more even distribution of shots...and with time, higher percentage shots.
I think you'll see Gerald Henderson and CJ on the court together in a lot of games but Dame will play big minutes. Teams are going to key on Dame every play so he can play decoy and defer to the other guys like Meyers and Noah ..if they get that pick and roll going teams will pay for keying on Dame. Crabbe has to play really well when he's on the court and shoot consistently to put the team on the next level.
Exactly. Practice is for having guys work on things they wont be doing on the court anytime soon. Games are for how to get the team to gel with the best players. Cant do that if your letting players work on scoring in a game when that isn't what they will be there to do in the regular season. Makes no sense to me. For example: How can Plumlee work on picknroll and positioning for rebounds and catching the lob pass if he is busy trying to post a guy up? Yes we all want to see Plumlee learn more of a back to the basket post up game, same with Meyers. But I don't want them working on that in the game right now. I want them DOING it in the game.l Practice is for working on things you currently cant do in a game. I want these guys working on how to play off Dame and CJ and if they are going to be shooting in regular season, then that is what they need to be doing in the preseason. Only way the rest of the team can get a head start for what they will supposed to be doing in the regular season. Doesn't that make sense?
Of course we would want to see the players improve and expand their games, but that isn't first priority at the moment in preseason. Priority was to get burn for end of bench players to see who would be cut and to get this team playing together to see who is not gelling come mid season. Yes I m willing to bet Stotts is a good enough offensive minded coach that he will have plays written up for all sorts of lob and roll to the hoop type stuff, but that isn't the main objective in this preseason.
A - Our regular rotation players played a lot of minutes during pre-season. And pre-season is exactly for working on what I discussed (working together as 5-man units, getting prepared for the regular season). What we saw in pre-season was Dame/CJ scoring heavily - that's not a priority at all in pre-season. B - I'll be shocked if Stotts has many plays. To this point in his Blazers career he's mostly gone with a free lance offense with very few set plays.
There other players had good pre-season games. All those shots that flew up was the last game and CJ threw up alot in certain games but that when he got In groove. But don't blame the offense if we got guys afraid to shoot the ball. It all comes down to trust in your team mates or trusting yourself.
Your acting as though these are the only two that touched the ball. Harkless had a good preseason. I agree with A. I disagree with B. If Dame and CJ are taking the bulk of the shots in the regular season, then don't we want our bigs to know their positions? How else to do that but to practice that in preseason? Again, its not about these two shooting, it about the rest of the team and what they do WHEN these two are shooting. The team must prep for that. Pretty common sense to me. Are you as Stotts hater?
Stotts Hater? So if you like ball movement offense where Dame and CJ create, but everyone scores evenly then you are a hater because you don't like Dame and CJ taking 60% of the shots? Stotts offense is a thing of beauty, and I believe, and hope and pray, that this last game was not really the goal. We will find out shortly, but I can't imagine anyone will be happy with the guards jacking up that many shots. It will lead to massive losses and discontent. Once the regular season starts I think this thread will die away and everyone will be happy with the balance. I think.
I'm a huge skeptic, and I can easily see myself becoming a hater this season. This is his chance to change my opinion of him. But it's gonna be a huge uphill battle for him to do so, because he has a lot of past stupidity to overcome.
I think Stotts has done the best he can with the players he's had the past three years. He's had a crappy bench so he had to play his starters major minutes, he had to use Aldridge about the only way anyone could effectively use him, and he had to cater to said prima donna rather than let the true leader of the team lead. I think Stotts is finally going to be able to coach to both his (Stott's) and Dame's strengths this year. And regardless, Stott's is 100% better than McMillian. Now there was some butt ugly basketball.....
Agree and disagree. I don't care enough at this point (I'll save it for later in the season when Stotts is failing the team) to get into it. I'll just say in response to your Nate comparison that being better than Nate isn't something to hang ones hat on. I can dislike Nate and still dislike Stotts, even though Stotts is clearly better. It's a bit like comparing a fresh turd to a moldy turd.
Okay, were more on the same page than I previously thought. Please name some? All coaches experiment and some experiments fail. I think Stotts has kinda had his hands tied and this is the year he has free reign to develop this team. He needs to make sure he has the right assistants in place (obviously he better already or now is too late). And he needs to have a good handle on each players upsides, weaknesses and strengths. Fairly obvious what he needs to do after that. This is a big task for any coach and most premier coaches dont even bother with this kinda shit. They go join the Clippers or the Knicks or some place with an MVP already and a contender. With that said, I have not really seen anything since Stotts has been here that has been so glaring for me to say... WHOA... I think its safe to say that the WHOA usually comes from watching the coach try the same thing over and over and expect different results. However with the last team, he had little choice because of prima donna. The whole organization was trying to cater to him from the top down so he would resign. I think its unfair to say that any coach with their hands tied like that has done alot of stupid things... with exception of maybe not investigating the job enough before hand and then diving into a hands tied situation. He has coached two straight 50+ win seasons in a row with a team that we all know would never win a ring the way it was. Where has he failed so miserably in your point of view? Totally different coaches not even worthy of comparing. With that said, again.. You have obviously fired Stotts in your mind already. Please lay out the reasons why? Maybe I missed something?
Set plays don't work against a modern NBA defense; players are too skilled to defend a static look if there aren't a huge variety of options from the offense. Golden State, Altanta, Clippers, San Antonio all give similar offensive freedom to players.
