I think you mean we made the playoffs in spite of Cheeks. Look at this roster: Rasheed Wallace Bonzi Wells Derek Anderson Scottie Pippen Zach Randolph Ruben Patterson Dale Davis Jeff McInnis Damon Stoudamire Antonio Daniels Qyntel Woods and tell me how the hell we didn't get past the first round? Fuck, that team was 3 deep at most positions. Cheeks totally fucked up the way he handled that Dallas series. Dallas started Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz up front and Cheeks barely used Zach and Sabas in the first 3 games of the series. That Dallas team was 2 players, Dirk and Nash. Dirk was just starting to enter his prime and Nash wasn't as good then as he later became in Phoenix. That Dallas team had a very thin bench and only really played 7 players in that series. The Blazers had more talent and more depth. But, we had a totally incompetent coach. It took Cheeks until game 4 to FINALLY realize Dallas didn't have ANYBODY that could guard Zach. The Blazers should have won game 2 in Dallas and stolen HCA, but Zach played 11 minutes with ZERO field goal attempts. Cheeks didn't play him enough and when he did, he didn't run any plays for him. Some people like to give Cheeks credit for starting Zach in game 4 and turning the series around. If he would have recognized the obvious mismatch sooner, the Blazers would not have been down 3 games to 0 heading into game 4. They would have had the series in hand and won it in 6 games. BNM
I understand your post and agree that Cheeks was horribly outclassed that series, but I wanted to add that Michael Finley was a nice player for that Dallas team, too.
He was definitely their 3rd best player, but they started Bradley and LaFrentz and their bench was basically Najera and Van Exel. For most of the series, they were playing 3 on 5 on the offensive end- and still outscoring the deeper, more talented Blazers. BNM
The was my most frustrating series as a fan after the 2000 WCF. Although, eblazer, myself, and a few other posters were able to go to Game Four for free because nobody wanted to go and the Blazers gave away tickets to the ESPN board. Then, for Game 6, we had about 20 fans from the ESPN board at Damon's in Jantzen Beach, when it existed, to watch the game on TV. Were you at that function?
It was Van Exel that was the difference in that series. He destroyed us. Dirk got his, he was very good, but it was Van Exel that was hitting big shots when we were doubling Dirk. I remember everyone screaming for the big lineup. It was ridiculous that it took Cheeks so long to make the change. We could have easily won that series if he'd done it sooner. I had the advantage of seeing a Cheeks practice, and a McMillan practice. Cheeks did nothing whenever I was in practice. His asst coaches did everything. He would just sit on the sidelines and watch. Completely uninvolved. Nate was the polar opposite. He was on the floor, teaching and working with the players. Nate had a lot of flaws, but he was a far better coach than Cheeks ever was. Apparently Detroit forgot about how Cheeks completely flopped in Philly.
I didn't forget about Finley, but he didn't have a good series against the Blazers - something like 5 ppg below his season average and shot the ball poorly. Van Exel definitely killed us, especially in the 4th quarter of game 7. The Blazers were ahead going into the 4th quarter and ended up losing by double digits. I seem to recall Van Exel scoring 16 points in that quarter. Nellie was smart about going with the hot hand. The Mavs 4 best players were Dirk, Nash, Finley and Van Exel. Nellie started a huge line up of Bradley 7'6", LaFrentz 7'1" and Dirk 7'0", but wasn't afraid to go small when Van Exel was hot. And that's the difference between a coach like Nelson and one like Mo Cheeks. Nellie made the moves that gave his team an advantage and Cheeks was constantly juggling his line ups in a reactionary manner. Cheeks had so much depth, but he didn't know how to use it to his advantage. He didn't start the big line up of Sabas, Sheed and Zach until game 7. Sabas killed the Mavs in the first half. Hell, he had a PER of 32.0 for the series. Then Nellie went small, with the hot handed Van Exel in the 4th and Cheeks didn't have an answer. BNM
In Dallas' wins that series, NVE had 8, 12, 14, and then his big Game 7 where he scored 26 points on 10-15 shooting. The first three Dallas wins, he shot 3-15 from three, and 40% overall while attempting 2 FTs total. NVE really didn't do much to get Dallas the 3-0, considering his season average was 12 ppg, but his great Game 7 skews the memory as to how important he was in that series.
I'll be curious to see how Cheeks does. His credentials are just as good as Stotts; both of them had disappointments in their first head coaching jobs. I think a lot of Blazer fans just dismiss any former players or coaches of the Blazers.
Look on the bright side folks, that's just one more team out of the other 29 we don't really have to worry about.
Cheeks also was a major dissapointment in his second head coaching job, and I'm not sure anyone with realistic expectations would say Stotts was a disappointment. And there's a lot of love lately for ex-Blazers still in the league, so no, not your best attempt.
