Game 78: Portland vs Boston 3:00pm Root, Root+

[JasonStern]

I found out recently that Banton credits Billups for his good play since joining the team. When Banton arrived in Portland, he was dealing with confidence issues. Billups pulled him aside and shared his personal story of being on 5 teams in 6 seasons. Basically told him that he understood what Banton was going through. Then told Banton that he believed in him and would do what he can to help him succeed. Not many coaches have that ability to do that.

The thing is that many around here and social media don't realize how much the players love Billups. It's stories like Banton is why players love him. Billups even continues to tell Scoot that he believes in him and eventually he'll figure it out. He sure believe in him more than I do at this point.

Billups problem isn't individual player coaching. It's team strategy. His ability to make adjustments and challenge the right plays leaves a lot to be desired.

I agree!!! But can his x and o get better? Absolutely, maybe hire someone as an assistant.

He did. Scott Brooks.

I will give credit where it's due. Billups is a player's coach and he has the locker room engaged.

[Shem]

I don't discount the possible merits of Chauncey's coaching. He still has a lot to answer for. I think his roster sucks. But it didn't last season. And where's the overachievement we just love attributing to plucky, player-friendly coaches or wunderkind strategists? I don't pretend to know how to measure the effectiveness of NBA coaching. I do know that in the biz, results matter, and his stink.

Cronin decided to tank the 2nd half of the season last year. The Blazers were 3 games out from the 4th seed and instead decided rather than make a playoff push and likely bounced early (we've seen that script before many times in the Dame era), tank the rest of the season by going 4-18 which led to getting the 3rd pick of the draft. One of the things they had to do is talk Dame into sitting most of the 2nd half of the season because of his sore calf. Play him a game here-and-there to get him to 58 games.

This article explains why with Dame:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39318248/nba-65-game-rule-affect-mvp-race-supermax-deals

I still recall the Blazers sitting Sharpe out one game to make sure they didn't win one of the tanking games.