Im thinking stay with coach for another league and tweak the roster some to address area's of weakness. If it requires a trade of CJ, do it, but it better be for a player that can offer instant productivity at the 3/4 or a lock down defender/scorer at the two. Otherwise just use what capabilities they have in acquiring complementary role players/veteran to shore a few things up. I look at Utah and see even with the loss of their big star how they have stayed the course for the most part with a few changes here and there and its worked out good for them. Unless its major upgrade with a proven winning coach stay the coarse!
I'm really torn. I would like to see him stay if they can make a significant move this summer to balance the roster better. If they keep the same players, then I'm not as keen on Stotts staying. My take on the playoff failure is that Stotts tried to optimize the talent he had on this team during the regular season by setting up a certain playing style that emphasized the guards. It worked. But, all the sudden he ran into the second best PnR defender in the league (Holiday) and arguably the best overall defender in the league (AD), with Mirotic doing a good impression of AD too. After the first game he didn't adjust because most of the metrics said Blazers got good shots, but just didn't hit them. No adjustment needed. By the time it was clear there was a bigger problem it was really too late to do anything dramatic. Frog in a kettle. I guess I'm somewhat going to vote against what I think is really going to happen. Given Stotts isn't fired yet, and neither is Olshey, it appears that both will be around for the draft and FA period. If that is true, then I don't see Olshey moving CJ, so everything stays the same.
It's time for change. I want to see what a different coach can do with Dame/CJ. Think Terry has taken them as far as he can. We need someone who can instill more discipline and accountability, and someone who can force these guys to execute more than letting them free lance. A telling factor in how horrible we are out of time outs.
Please share. I have yet to see a good point made in his defense...or at least anything that comes close to outweighing the arguments against him.
This is, to me, what separates great teams from good teams. Good teams react well to changes, but great teams force the other team to react to them. I think part of that is the coach’s force of will. Terry is a good coach but he isn’t a great one. Now... Do we deserve a great one? As fans I say of course we do, but our lineup maybe doesn’t yet.
Things could be a lot worse. We were the youngest team in the playoffs. We were the 3rd youngest team in the league. Stotts is doing pretty good. We don't have a complete roster 3 years after losing our best player. That's not uncommon... I think we're 1 player away. We're going to get better by just letting these guys grow up. So we can already expect to be a bit better next season. Collins is going to become a very good player. Nurk will improve over his already impressive ability. Harkless is still young and will improve. Why make changes if you aren't pretty sure it's a big improvement? It's not like these are bad guys. This is a good team. These are good guys to root for. When they're on they are very fun to watch. This team will improve without taking that chance. Why force it until you're sure?
I can't believe people are actually buying what Neil is selling. This is such a fallacy. Our three highest paid players are Dame/CJ/ET. Next season, Dame is going to be in year 7. CJ in year 6. ET in year 9. This is our core. And they're in their primes.
Roster is a mess. Mind set of the players is broken. I simply can not stand to even try to watch another season of hero ball, flat footed play and forgotten fundamentals.
Blazers will try the old laker approach and bring a person out of the media (Pat Riley) in to coach and announce Dwight Jaynes as the new Blazer head coach with Isaac Rupp and Big Suke as assistants. I'd love to see how this forum would react to that.
Play Style Lack of ball movement - the ball is stuck in a small arc at the top of the 3-point line. Lack of player movement - other than running a "wheel", there is very little player movement, despite distance traveled. Lack of passing, period! Slow player movement - players move at a half-jog pace throughout the offensive set. Slow to initiate offense - the shot clock is generally down to 15-17 seconds by the time the ball is in position for its first pass (if there IS a pass). Over-reliance on the jump shot and ISO. Coaching Style Lack of accountability - let's players do whatever they want. Lack of adjustments - in-game, and multi-game adjustments are few and far between. Poor grasp on when to call a time out - we aren't the Pops Spurs or the Phil Lakers where the players have earned the trust to fix mistakes on the fly (because we don't really have a plan that the players can get back to and execute). Poor grasp on sticking with the "hot hand". Inability or unwillingness to "work the refs" - as sad as it is, it's part of the game. Reactive rather than proactive - prefers to attempt to "match" the opponent, rather than develop and impose a style of play that the opponent must deal with. Past Mistakes Thought he could use LA like Dirk - never seemed to realize the yawning talent gulf between the two players. He ran an offense his defense was designed to give up - defensively the plan was to cede the mid-range jumper to opponents, but his offense was DESIGNED AROUND mid-range jumpers for LA. I still don't think he understands this, given the way his offense relies on Aminu/Turner to take long jumpers. I'm sure there are a handful of other things I could add to this list, but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Yes, the roster ALSO needs to be addressed. This isn't an either/or - it's a BOTH. But this roster is only 2 pieces away from being really good. And yes, a couple roster changes will make the team (and Terry) look much better than they currently do. But a couple roster changes won't change any of Terry's many short-comings. We'll make more 3-pointers if we replace Aminu/Turner. And that will mean their replacements will have to be guarded opening more space for Dame/CJ. But it's still a weak style of play (dribble penetration rather than pass penetration), there still won't be any accountability or adjustments, there still won't be an increase in pace, there still won't be a value change in what constitutes a "good shot". Terry is a fine regular season coach. He'll never be a coach who will excel in the Playoffs. And I don't think he'll ever be a coach who makes the sum of the team greater than the individual players. Whether another coach can remains to be seen - but we owe it to the player and the fans to try to find something that works better. Terry's philosophy has been flawed from Day 1, and after 6 (7?) years it's long overdue to make a change.
Stotts and Olshey will be here next season unfortunately. They have paul wrapped around their fingers.
Near every player on the roster overperformed. As much as you hate on Aminu, he had career playoff averages shooting, to actually getting something out of Shabazz and Pat. He took a team slated to won 27 games and made the playoffs with an unbalanced roster and has made the playoffs while improving our defense to top 10. No one in here gives Terry props for this. Terry even got something out of Meyers Leonard this season...
