Chauncey Billups Now Odds-On Favorite To Be Next Coach Fired

[The Sebastian Express]

Both things can be true. Chauncey is not a great coach and under his watch a veteran team inexplicably gave up numerous leads. But also we were tanking in the latter half of the seasons and those losses shouldn't be held against him (development of younger players should be weighed against him, good or bad).

[BNM]

So you're saying there was no tanking... at all during the last 3 seasons???

Here's a hint: Last year the Blazers were 29-31 at one point and finished 33-49.

That's not what I said at all. I drunk post as well, so no offense taken. The last 2 seasons, intentional tanking occurred once the playoffs were out of reach.

The last play-in team in the west (New Orleans) had a 42-40 record. Now go back to when the Blazers were once at 29-31. They could have gone for it and no your argument doesn't hold how it was out of reach at that point.

However, it would have ended with either a play-in loss or a 1st round exit at best. Management decided it was best to tank for the draft pick thus leading to the 3rd pick of the draft which was a much better outcome in the long run than going for it.

What I am saying is if the Blazers had retained Stotts as opposed to Olshey throwing him under the bus for bad general management, the Blazers would have been in the playoff hunt the last two seasons.

Again after just explaining Year 2 (again) and how they could have gone for it, Year 1 of Billups as coach (explaining it again) Dame was playing with a core stomach issue and only played 29 games and his last game he played that season was in December.

The only argument you have left with Year 1 is how you believe the Blazers could have made the playoffs without Dame since December. So if you really truly still believe your argument, I hope you have a good one for how they could have made it without Dame.

Yes, during Year 2 of Chauncey's suckage, the Blazers were 29 - 31 after 60 games and in contention to reach the play in before they shut it down and went all in on the tank. However, it was painfully obvious to anyone watching the games that Chauncey's ineptitude is what forced them to tank. Here's two things that happened in Year 2 - BEFORE THEY DECIDED TO TANK, when they were actually trying to win as many games as possible:

POR was a HORRIBLE clutch time team, the worst in the league, blowing games they should have won ( and would have easily won under Stotts):

POR went 0-8 over an 8 game span if Clutch Time performances. The combined records (at the time) of their opponents was 143-165. Not exactly the elite of the league.

POR's execution was absolutely pathetic in the 4th quarter of close games. The Lakers game was just ine debacle. They had that one won, and also the IND game where POR was outscored 13-0 the close out the game.

In those 8 games, POR was outscored 71-25 during Clutch Time. POR has shot 17.6% from the field, 10.0% from 3-point range for a eFG% of 20.6%. Their opponents shot 51.0% from the field, 31.6% from 3-point range for an eFG% of 56.9%. POR turned the ball over on 25% of their Cutch Time possessions. POR had 0 points off TOV, their opponents had 16.

During Clutch Time, POR had a league worst ORTG of 54.5, a league worst DRTG of 136.5, and, of course, a league worst NETRTG of -82.0 (second worst was HOU with a NETRtg of -57.6).

What really stands out here, is that despite of their Clutch Time ineptitude, POR actually had the 5th best overall ORTG of 115.9. POR clearly had the talent to score the basketball, yet their execution with the game on the line was absolutely abysmal. I blame this 100% on Chauncey. The team was completely lost during Clutch Time. No one knows what they are supposed to do. I see no clear play calling, just chaos that leads to shot clock violations, bad, forced shots, defensive breakdowns and countless unforced TOVs.

Bottom line, POR was consistently getting abused by inferior talent during the closing minutes of close games. They lostvgames they should have won. Stotts was far from perfect, but his teams never struggled to execute during crunch time. Under Stotts, POR was a great 4th quarter team. During his final season in POR, the Blazers were 24-13 in Clutch Time with a league best 126.9 ORTG, a 3rd place DRTG of 99.3, for a league best, by far, NETRTG of +27.4. We went from the most clutch team in the league to the worst. This is the difference between an experienced coach and one with absolutely no clue how to run a modern NBA offense.

Second, POR was the worst team in the league when it came to blowing double digit leads in the second half. Again, this was due to Chauncey's ineptitude. He had the talent to consistently be up double digits, but as soon the the opposing coach made adjustments at halftime, the game was over. Chauncey had no clue how to respond. When POR decided to shut it down, they had blown a league worst, by far, 17 games where they led by double digits in the second half.

Yeah, Chauncey got a pass in Year 1 due to Dame's injury, but what's his excuse for blowing 17 double digit leads when he had POR's best starting 5 since the Aldridge era??? He had three scorers averaging over 20 PTS/G - a luxury Stotts never had, and he had the best Clutch Time performer in the league having his best season ever, yet he can't figure out how to hold a 20-point lead.

If POR was just 10-7 in those games, they would have been solidly in the 4th seed, just 1 game back of the No. 2 seed SAC. Yeah, Cronin blew it up at the deadline when he realized this team wasn't going anywhere with Chauncey at the helm, but we started the season with the best staring 5 we've had since Aldridge left. This didn't have to be a wasted season. Chauncey made it so.

So yeah, Chauncey has proven he has absolutely no idea how to coach at the NBA level. Sure, the goal now is to lose, and he is certainly good at that, but his incompetence is also hurting the development of the same young players we tanked to get. He was an absolute disaster of a hire for a team trying to win, but his lack of experience and incompetence also makes him a terrible choice for developing our young players.

[Waynearchetype]

The whole Olshey hanger-ons should have been gone, that includes Billups and Cronin.

But, don't expect any better until a new owner appears.

[Brandon-Clyde]

One question that needs to be asked is has Billups been improving as a coach? We don't expect rookie players to be finished products so we should not expect a rookie coach to be a finished product either. Personally I think that Billups has not really improved enough that I would retain his services and we need a more qualified coach.

[Shem]

The last play-in team in the west (New Orleans) had a 42-40 record. Now go back to when the Blazers were once at 29-31. They could have gone for it and no your argument doesn't hold how it was out of reach at that point.

However, it would have ended with either a play-in loss or a 1st round exit at best. Management decided it was best to tank for the draft pick thus leading to the 3rd pick of the draft which was a much better outcome in the long run than going for it.

And the Blazers at that point had something ridiculous like 8 games where they were leading in the 4th quarter only to choke. Let's say a veteran coach like Stotts corrects half of those games - fairly reasonable. Guy won 402 games as a Blazers coach. Now you're sitting at 33-27. Probably the 6th seed. Passive ownership would be fine with that and not force a tank.

Again, with Stotts that is still a first round fodder team. Especially in a stacked western conference. No argument there. And I understand the logic behind tanking if you know the team won't be remotely competitive.

My entire point is that Chauncey Billups is a terrible coach that is in over his head. Seems like a nice enough guy. It just doesn't translate into winning basketball.

So you're pivoting away from your previous argument that the Blazers were out of it is why they tanked and used more mental gymnastics using speculation all because of your bias. Got it!

Why can't you just admit your short memory is a major part of your bias against Billups??? And this is me giving you a huge benefit of the doubt. I'd hate to claim you just use BS propaganda to fuel your personal vendetta.

The only argument you have left with Year 1 is how you believe the Blazers could have made the playoffs without Dame since December. So if you really truly still believe your argument, I hope you have a good one for how they could have made it without Dame.

In theory, you rest Dame early. You tread water. Then, you hope a healthy, rested Dame makes a push late in the season. Not sure how realistic that is. I'm fine giving a pass year one. Even the Warriors tanked in 2019-20 despite having an insane salary.

But, the counter-argument for your pro-Chauncey stance is that you had what could possibly be the best season Dame will ever have, solid role players in Grant, Nurkić, and Simons. And you wound up with the #3 pick in the draft and the franchise GOAT PG asking out. How exactly is that good coaching?

So now you use the Dame would have sat out and rested in the early season with the injury because that is what Stotts would have done (not management) and somehow magically with wild crazy speculation the Blazers would have made the playoffs with your theory you are so sure would have happened if Billups wasn't the coach which is grounds in your mind why he needs to be fired. Are you really this shameless after I exposed your short memory causing your personal bias instead of reevaluating how you approach things???

Maybe... just maybe try to use legit points instead of using your bias and vendetta to fuel points that don't exist at all.

[Shem]

That's not what I said at all. I drunk post as well, so no offense taken. The last 2 seasons, intentional tanking occurred once the playoffs were out of reach.

The last play-in team in the west (New Orleans) had a 42-40 record. Now go back to when the Blazers were once at 29-31. They could have gone for it and no your argument doesn't hold how it was out of reach at that point.

However, it would have ended with either a play-in loss or a 1st round exit at best. Management decided it was best to tank for the draft pick thus leading to the 3rd pick of the draft which was a much better outcome in the long run than going for it.

What I am saying is if the Blazers had retained Stotts as opposed to Olshey throwing him under the bus for bad general management, the Blazers would have been in the playoff hunt the last two seasons.

Again after just explaining Year 2 (again) and how they could have gone for it, Year 1 of Billups as coach (explaining it again) Dame was playing with a core stomach issue and only played 29 games and his last game he played that season was in December.

The only argument you have left with Year 1 is how you believe the Blazers could have made the playoffs without Dame since December. So if you really truly still believe your argument, I hope you have a good one for how they could have made it without Dame.

Yes, during Year 2 of Chauncey's suckage, the Blazers were 29 - 31 after 60 games and in contention to reach the play in before they shut it down and went all in on the tank. However, it was painfully obvious to anyone watching the games that Chauncey's ineptitude is what forced them to tank. Here's two things that happened in Year 2 - BEFORE THEY DECIDED TO TANK, when they were actually trying to win as many games as possible:

How do people like you not know how management shutdown key players down the stretch of the season which led to tanking. The Blazers even sat out Skylar Mays and Shaedon Sharpe one game each because they were afraid it would led to a win. How do you not know this??? HOW??? Or are you purposely leaving this stuff out because it doesn't fit your narrative.

POR was a HORRIBLE clutch time team, the worst in the league, blowing games they should have won ( and would have easily won under Stotts):

You mean when Dame hitting clutch shots that won games? How many games did Dame miss last year?

POR went 0-8 over an 8 game span if Clutch Time performances. The combined records (at the time) of their opponents was 143-165. Not exactly the elite of the league.

It's almost as if you again forgot that Dame played 58 games which means he missed 24 games. Simons missed 20 games, Grant missed 19 games, Nurk missed 30 games, and Watford missed 20 games. Gary Payton II only played 15 games and was eventually traded back to Golden State.

HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THIS???

All the rest of your post was just you saying, "Chauncey is a bad coach so I'm going look for evidence of to support what I want to believe and work backwards from your conclusion." Not once have you not acknowledged how man key players missed games via injury and you did that because it didn't fit your narrative. It's no different than the talking point on how the Blazers TV ratings are down ONLY because of how bad they have been and refuse to acknowledge how ROOT Sports moved to a premium package. And that's just pure dishonest by all who have been framing the issue that way. 100% Propaganda!!!

What you fail to understand is that you can find stats like what you posted that support how every coach in the NBA is terrible at. If Gregg Popovich had started his coaching career in 2020, he would be considered by many as one of the worst coaches in the NBA. What you don't see is that a healthy team with actual talent is necessary to win.

The truth is many ignorant fans with huge egos that live vicariously through their sports teams are butt hurt that the Blazers in this case haven't won much over the last 3 seasons and we as a culture have been conditioned to ALWAYS blame the coach when things go wrong. It's like how people think they have to have pepper with salt or a bun with their burger.

There's a lot of reasons why the Blazers have sucked for the last 3 years and only a small percentage of it has to do with Billups. To be honest, I don't think Billups has been given a fair chance based on the rosters he's been given which includes the lack of health and management shutting down players to tank.

Adrian Griffin was fired after going 30-13 and the reason his team had a 30-13 record is because of the talent he got to coach. Because talent matters and sorry to burst your bubble, but the Blazers talent on top of the lack of health has a lot to do with why we've been bad record wise for the last 3 seasons.

And I got BREAKING NEWS for you to share. THE BLAZERS ARE GOING TO SUCK AGAIN NEXT YEAR!!! Deal with it. Maybe it will teach you patience during this rebuild.

[Shem]

Here's a big reason why I am not for firing Billups at this time. He hasn't lost the locker room. The Blazers players respect him. Had he already lost the locker room, I would be for firing him. It's why Adrian Griffin was fired after 43 games despite the 30-13 record. Meanwhile the players on the Blazers love Billups and that's important. Especially during these rebuilding years when wins and losses are not considered important.

Never forget that in the first season when Westbrook and Durant played together, they went 23-59. Guess who was the head coach? Scott Brooks. It led to the 3rd overall pick in the lottery which they drafted Harden. The Thunder also brought over Ibaka who was drafted as the 24th pick in the 2008 draft that was a year earlier that helped them get the 8th seed in the playoffs the following season.

[Norm2953]

Perhaps what is needed then are better assistant coaches to help Chauncey with the X's and O's

Management has a lot of investment in Sharpe, Scoot and their pick in the 2024 draft. Is this
coaching staff up to developing these guys into NBA starters?

[m0ng0]

Other than guys from the first year have we come up with a roster with expectations of winning yet? I dont understand this mindset that Chauncey sucks. It's a slow burn

[BNM]

Other than guys from the first year have we come up with a roster with expectations of winning yet? I dont understand this mindset that Chauncey sucks. It's a slow burn

The expectation of winning started when Chauncey was hired. He was hired to be a win now coach for a veteran roster that had made the playoffs 8 years in a row.

Yep, Chauncey gets a mulligan for the first season due to Dame's injury,

Opening night of his second season, there were DEFINITELY expectations of winning. POR added Jerami Grant and Josh Hart at the starting forward spots, giving POR their best starting 5 since Aldridge left. Dame was healthy and Simons had emerged as a reliable 20 ppg scorer. We had a veteran roster AND one of the most talented, exciting players from the previous summer's draft. It should have been POR's best season since going to the WCF in 2019.

Chauncey's ineptitude torpedoed the best season of Dame's career (32.2 ppg on .645 TS% is insanely good). I have never in my life seen a coach so 100% clueless when it comes to in game adjustments, especially counter adjustments. We had the talent to be a top 4 seed, but after completely sucking in clutch time and blowing 17 double digit second half leads, we ended up throwing in the towel and tanking again.

Think about it, and do a little basic math. If POR ONLY hangs on and wins 10 of those 17 games (not unreasonable at all), they are at 39-21 instead of 29-31. That just narrowly misses Phil Jackson's benchmark for being a contender of winning 40 games before losing 20. POR had that level of talent, it was terrible coaching by Chauncey that ruined their season.

Even if they had won just 5 of those 17 blown games, they would have been 34-26, which would have put them solidly in 4th, only 1 game back of the 3rd seed. They had the talent to win, but lacked the coaching. I've been a Blazers fan since the Walton days, and last season was the most frustrated I have ever been watching Blazers games. They had a great, veteran starting 5, consistently led by 12 - 15 points early in the 3rd quarter, only to see lead after lead after lead slip away with Chauncey clueless how to stop the bleeding. As much as I loved seeing Dame have such an incredible season, I felt bad for him that his efforts were for naught.

This season is the first time in Chauncey's coaching career that his team did not enter the season with expectations of winning. He's certainly good at losing, but given what I've seen of his coaching ineptitude, I am also of the belief that he is NOT the ideal coach for developing all these young lottery picks we are amassing under his guidance.

[BNM]

Perhaps what is needed then are better assistant coaches to help Chauncey with the X's and O's

Management has a lot of investment in Sharpe, Scoot and their pick in the 2024 draft. Is this
coaching staff up to developing these guys into NBA starters?

Oh, hell no!

[BNM]

The last play-in team in the west (New Orleans) had a 42-40 record. Now go back to when the Blazers were once at 29-31. They could have gone for it and no your argument doesn't hold how it was out of reach at that point.

However, it would have ended with either a play-in loss or a 1st round exit at best. Management decided it was best to tank for the draft pick thus leading to the 3rd pick of the draft which was a much better outcome in the long run than going for it.


Again after just explaining Year 2 (again) and how they could have gone for it, Year 1 of Billups as coach (explaining it again) Dame was playing with a core stomach issue and only played 29 games and his last game he played that season was in December.

The only argument you have left with Year 1 is how you believe the Blazers could have made the playoffs without Dame since December. So if you really truly still believe your argument, I hope you have a good one for how they could have made it without Dame.

Yes, during Year 2 of Chauncey's suckage, the Blazers were 29 - 31 after 60 games and in contention to reach the play in before they shut it down and went all in on the tank. However, it was painfully obvious to anyone watching the games that Chauncey's ineptitude is what forced them to tank. Here's two things that happened in Year 2 - BEFORE THEY DECIDED TO TANK, when they were actually trying to win as many games as possible:

How do people like you not know how management shutdown key players down the stretch of the season which led to tanking. The Blazers even sat out Skylar Mays and Shaedon Sharpe one game each because they were afraid it would led to a win. How do you not know this??? HOW??? Or are you purposely leaving this stuff out because it doesn't fit your narrative.

POR was a HORRIBLE clutch time team, the worst in the league, blowing games they should have won ( and would have easily won under Stotts):

You mean when Dame hitting clutch shots that won games? How many games did Dame miss last year?

POR went 0-8 over an 8 game span if Clutch Time performances. The combined records (at the time) of their opponents was 143-165. Not exactly the elite of the league.

It's almost as if you again forgot that Dame played 58 games which means he missed 24 games. Simons missed 20 games, Grant missed 19 games, Nurk missed 30 games, and Watford missed 20 games. Gary Payton II only played 15 games and was eventually traded back to Golden State.

HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THIS???

Of course, I know that. How many of those missed games came after POR shut it down and went 4 - 18 over their last 22 games? Over half of them - well over half if you consider that 8 of the 20 games Trendon Watford "missed" were DNP-CD (he was dressed, healthy and available, but the coach chose not to play him). Seriously, you are including a guy who averaged 19 MPG and regularly got DNP-CDs as a key reason the Blazers underachieved last season??? At the time the Blazers shut it down, Simons had missed a total of 4 games and Grant 5 - hardly significant by NBA standards. The injury excuse was valid for Chauncey's first season, not even close for his second.

In spite of all this, even with these injuries, POR was 29-31 WITH 17 BLOWN DOUBLE DIGIT SECOND HALF LEADS prior to shutting down Dame, Nurk, Ant and Jerami.

DO YOU NOT UNDER STAND HOW MATH WORKS????

Pick any reasonable number of wins in those 17 blown leads. Is it unreasonable to expect a team to win at least half the games they lead by 10+ points in the 3rd quarter? A third of those games? In general, teams being up by 10+ points in the second half have a much greater chance of winning those games than teams that are down 10+ points - UNLESS THEY ARE COACHD BY CHAUNCEY BILLUPS. That team had the talent to regularly be up by double digits in the second half, but as soon as the opposing coach made ANY adjustment, GAME OVER. Chauncey has ZERO clue how to respond.

Edit: Here's the standings from February 27, 2023 when the Blazers were 29-31 when they decided to shut it down.



To see where they would have been had they not blown those 17 double digit second half leads, add the number of additional wins and subtract the same number of losses. For example, if they'd only won 5 of those 17 games (hardly seems unreasonable), their record would have been 34 - 26. That would have put them in 4th, 1 game out of 3rd. Thanks Chauncey!!!

[Shem]

DO YOU NOT UNDER STAND HOW MATH WORKS????

Pick any reasonable number of wins in those 17 blown leads. Is it unreasonable to expect a team to win at least half the games they lead by 10+ points in the 3rd quarter? A third of those games? In general, teams being up by 10+ points in the second half have a much greater chance of winning those games than teams that are down 10+ points - UNLESS THEY ARE COACHD BY CHAUNCEY BILLUPS. That team had the talent to regularly be up by double digits in the second half, but as soon as the opposing coach made ANY adjustment, GAME OVER. Chauncey has ZERO clue how to respond.

Edit: Here's the standings from February 27, 2023 when the Blazers were 29-31 when they decided to shut it down.



To see where they would have been had they not blown those 17 double digit second half leads, add the number of additional wins and subtract the same number of losses. For example, if they'd only won 5 of those 17 games (hardly seems unreasonable), their record would have been 34 - 26. That would have put them in 4th, 1 game out of 3rd. Thanks Chauncey!!!

All you have done is forget all the f'ing injuries the team had.

Dame 58 games
Simons 62 games
Nurk 52 games
Grant 63 games

Dame wasn't given the opportunity in the 2nd half of the season to put the team on his back and carry them to the playoffs like he had in the past. YOU JUST MADE AN ARGUMENT ON WHY YOU BELIEVE DAME WASN'T CAPABLE OF THAT!!!

And those standings show that the Blazers were 3 games from the 4th seed. So despite the injuries to key players that messed up the rotations which can lead to chemistry issues which will lead to more losses, the Blazers MANAGEMENT decided it was better to tank and get a high draft pick than go for the playoffs and get bounced in the 1st round. AND YOUR MAD AT THE COACH FOR THAT!!!

Here's the part you're overlooking. Had Olshey been the GM last year, the Blazers go for the playoffs. How many times had the Blazers at the all star break have a .500 record or below and Dame goes nuts and carries the team to the playoffs during Olshey's tenure? Especially if the team is 3 games from the 4th seed.

Cronin is different. He's more of it sucks to be stuck in mediocrity and high end free agents don't come here and refuses to throw huge money at guys like Evan Turner just to get someone to come to Portland. So getting high draft picks is the answer to getting new top end talent. But that also means years of suckage to pull this off. THIS IS THE PART YOU BILLUPS HATERS DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!

[The Sebastian Express]

They're upset at Billups for his coaching in crunch time and his team blowing large leads. Those are significant and valid criticisms. Prior to Nurk getting injured and not playing in February besides the first game, which they won, the team was 25-26. The team was 26-28 prior to Josh getting traded (but won the game that night so were 27-28 the night of his trade, even though he did not play).

The only significant injury before 2/1 was Dame's calf injury. I believe Nurk missed a couple games at the end of December, not sure, but otherwise the team had been relatively healthy outside of DAme and started off hot. Then underperformed and blew a lot of leads. That's partly on Chauncey. It's okay to criticize him.

[Shem]

They're upset at Billups for his coaching in crunch time and his team blowing large leads. Those are significant and valid criticisms. Prior to Nurk getting injured and not playing in February besides the first game, which they won, the team was 25-26. The team was 26-28 prior to Josh getting traded (but won the game that night so were 27-28 the night of his trade, even though he did not play).

The only significant injury before 2/1 was Dame's calf injury. I believe Nurk missed a couple games at the end of December, not sure, but otherwise the team had been relatively healthy outside of DAme and started off hot. Then underperformed and blew a lot of leads. That's partly on Chauncey. It's okay to criticize him.

But the argument being made for those blown leads was why management decided to tank the season when the Blazers were 3 games from the 4th seed with 22 games left. And it was being argued as if that was fact with no supporting evidence. My argument is that under Olshey the team would have went for it and Dame would have played through the calf injury to carry us just like he did when he has his stomach injury for all those years. But under Cronin, he's seeing that collecting high-end young talent through the draft is better than getting the 8th seed and getting bounced out of the playoffs in the 1st round.

Sure, you can blame coaching for some of it. But you have to also acknowledge that the roster was in flux with players missing games at random times. And since you brought up Nurk, he missed 30 games last season. I didn't even mention the injuries of Little and Winslow who actually were vital parts of players coming off the bench to help hold leads (which was a reason why the Blazers started 10-4) when the starters were resting until now.

It's difficult for any coach to constantly making rotations when the roster is in flux on random nights a lot and having to rely on horrible talent that normally don't play to fill in the gaps.

Right now Chauncey has the locker room and they love and respect him. That's huge when a team is in the developmental stage of a rebuild. To fire him at this point would be a mistake. Have you ever noticed how Billups talks positively about his players during every press conference? Even after losses? He's always calm and in control when talking to the press about how much he loves his players. Not every coach is like that (looking at Doc River as an example). If people wouldn't just turn off their TV's after a game and listen to Billups talk, it's actually refreshing.

Whether or not he's the right coach later on for the team is something to evaluate later. But right now, I think we need to keep him and give him a fair chance with a developed roster that can stay healthy.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Billups has earned the odds he’s getting, but the question becomes who would be better to (1) develop young talent who will stick with him, (2) lose games to get a high pick next year, and (3) work with the youngish, promising vets who enter via trades of several current veterans (in a hypothetical trade order of) Brogdon, Thybulle, Ant, Timelord, and Grant?

[obviously a few assumptions in the above hypothetical]

I have no horse in the race in keeping Billups. But the trade of CJ finally happened. The days of undersized 2-guards with sucktastic D, paired with non-scoring, undersized SFs will be done pending the trade of Ant (the Blazers are not the right team for him). There’s actual positional size and defensive want-to already forming on this team. (Grant at SF helps for the short-term but not this year.)

Ayton, Grant (for another year), Sharpe, Scoot — starters at 5, 3, 2, 1
Reath, Walker, Camara, Murray, Rupert, Banton — back-ups in development / Camara with the best shot of becoming a real starter though he will be challenged pending the identity of 2 lottery picks this year.

[HMFFL]

Blowing leads is what I have noticed but that happens with a team that doesn't have much experience.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[BNM]

Blowing leads is what I have noticed but that happens with a team that doesn't have much experience.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

POR led the league in blown double digit second half leads with a starting five of Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Josh Hart, Jerami Grant and Jusuf Nurkic.

Chauncey can play the inexperienced team excuse this year (kind of - they still had Simons, Ayton, Brogdon and Grant for much of the season), but not last year. They blew 17 double digit leads when they were actually trying to make the playoffs - before they shut it down and went all in on the tank.

The reason they blew so many leads is Chauncey's simplistic iso centric offense and complete lack if in game adjustments - especially counter adjustments. Go into half time with a double digit lead, other coach makes a simple adjustment, Chauncey does NOTHING, lead slips away, game lost. Lather, rinse, repeat...