They are a lot of fun to watch for sure, in wins and losses because we can see growth every game but what does "competitive" mean? I don't think Ant equals Markkanen and Clarkson so the Jazz are way more competitive than we are and they will fight just to make the playoffs. We aren't what I would call competitive and we should make the moves at the deadline to become less competitive while retaining the pieces that will help us become competitive in a few seasons. I remember the first season that Cronin was GM and he very plainly said that he wasn't interested in being a team that was in the playoffs for a first round exit, he said he'd rather have a high pick. Now I think that was in the context of having Dame but I also think until Joe thinks he has there are pieces in place for a roster with a contending future, he's likely to have the same mentality. I hope.
Portland is ranked #3 in steals. If the Blazers keep up the good D, they'll lead the league in thievery.
Uh, What? That last time Markannen and Clarkson played in Portland it was a wire-to-wire trouncing by the Blazers. This graph represents a losing team that is not competitive, at least in this particular game. "With the available roster healthy" the Blazers are 3-2 in the last 5 games, 1-0 at home (the Utah blowout) and 2-2 on the road. The Blazers were obviously competitive in the 3 wins, and in the 2 losses were TIED with Milwaukee with 18 seconds left in the game, and the loss in Utah doesn't need any explanation as to whether the Blazers were competitive as it went into overtime. I am not really interested in what Utah is doing, but since you think they are competitive, how many good road wins do the Jazz have? ZERO. In fact, the Jazz have only ONE road win this season, over the Memphis Grizzlies. In their last 4 road games, the Jazz have lost by double digits in each of them. 11, 14, 16, and 32. I don't know if they had important guys missing or not, but I don't yet see evidence that this is a competitive team.
Coach Billups interview today. Seems pretty happy the team is getting better, better, better. His best basketball sensei quote is, "Building something is tough... you know. There's gonna be some painful days. But it can be very rewarding when they do it right." Then Coach talks about Shaedon & Toumani's wicked poster dunks.
I was not in favor of Billups as the hire. I was frequently furious last year as team repeatedly blew late double digit leads. I was unhappy with the passivity at the start of the season. But I have to admit I might have been wrong. The team is learning and improving. They play hard. I might have underestimated Billups.
I feel like I'm eating Chauncey crow for the third time this season but he has gotten the young players playing incredible D and held them accountable. The team is starting to finally have an identity that's not just Dame time. I like the parity between our starters and bench. There's no drop-off like there has been for what seems like over a decade
To me, that’s always been the one thing I could bank on with him—he can motivate young guys. I was, dare I say one of the feel Chauncey defenders, because I knew he wouldn’t be able to change Dame, CJ, or any of the vets on that team. Players don’t suddenly change bad habits when they are pushing 30. He was pretty bad at a lot of things in the beginning like clock management, when to use his challenges, general X’s and O’s, so I understood the complaints but accepted the reality this wasn’t a good roster (far before Billups ever got here) and him being bad at in-game coaching wouldn’t be what made the difference. Billups was always going to be a guy who was going to flourish with a young team. We saw how much more ball movement and defensive cohesiveness when Dame and CJ were injured and Ant was the only exciting guard we had on the floor. His mistakes as a coach have been due to a combination of inheriting a bad roster and being a rookie head coach. I do believe that if he was in a situation where he had the young Warriors (except they were great on offense already instead of defense), he could’ve had early playoff success like Kerr, Udoka, Nurse.
That being said, that isn’t to say he’s THE coach yet. He’s shown he’s a great motivator so far and can coach a defense. He still has to get this team to the playoffs. How many years does he have left after this one, two? I can see us turning into a Warriors situation where in ‘26-‘27, we have a young core that now has learned after four years how to play great defense, and we need a coach who comes in to revolutionize the offense. Not sure how many coaches have started from rebuild to making a finals run with one franchise. Chauncey just needs to keep doing what he’s doing. In two years, we will have had four rookie draft classes cycle through Chauncey’s defensive schemes with between 1-4 years of experience. There’s a chance that the coach is the missing piece by then. If the in-game coaching improves, you could extend him. If it doesn’t or we aren’t in the playoffs yet, bring in a more accomplished coach who can help guys compete rather than guys that can help guys develop. By then, he’ll probably get a gig with another rebuilding team where he’ll use his cache from his experience here and success in rebuilding a defense. Unlike Jackson, Billups will have zero problem finding another job.
I go back and forth on his career arc. So far I've been thinking he's a great defensive coordinator along the lines of Tom Thibideaux or even Nate McMillan who was defensive coordinator for team USA ...some guys can be great at that and completely stagnant on offense. Right now I think Chauncey has a chance to beome a two way coach but as we type, we're still a bottom feeding offense but showing imporvement with 3 OT games win or lose.
That’s what I’m waiting to see on him as well. Good defensive coach, questionable on everything else. The fact that he’s great with a young team is only a benefit when the team is actually in its infancy. Without being good at all the in-game adjustments, he won’t be someone who lasts from rebuild to finals run. In two more years, I don’t know what the coaching landscape looks like, and I’m not sure I’d want to bring in a rookie head coach again unless they were an offensive guru.
I'd still like an offensively minded advisor. I doubt Stotts would want to come back as an assistant, but someone who can really coach scorers would be nice.
