Pre-season

[BlazersBroncos]

Not much to really get you excited in this first PS game.

Scoot not doing much to separate from my Emmanuel Muiday comparison. The team was SO much better when Graham was the floor general vs Scoot.
Walker seems to be the same guy - great hustle and rebounder but not enough shot to really be a quality rotation guy.
Rayan looked much better handling the ball, he was for sure a bright spot.
Kris still cant really shoot.
Clingan had some nice passes but he really needs to find a way to get a step quicker on both sides of the floor IMO - this could happen as his body is clearly not very well refined at this young age.
Banton is a dime a dozen chucker who wont change IMO - he has the twitch to be a nice bench combo guard with elite size but his game is just too stupid to be a rotation guy on a good team.
Camara looked great. Starting to think he may be the prize of the entire wheeling / dealing and draft season of 2023. Thats sorta sad, but whatever. He is big, agile, has greatly improved his shot. The type of glue guy every team needs. Wish he was a bit younger but it is what it is.

The other guys I dont really care about as they are not long term cogs to this team.

[m0ng0]

I guess until we see Deni play, I wonder if Deni and Camara could play the 3 and 4 together? Could be very interesting.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I only saw one game last year, Lillard's return to Rose City. This was my first real look at Scoot. I saw nothing that gets me excited. Maybe I need to rethink getting rid of Simons. Not that he's the answer, but at least you get some production out of him.

[Butter]

Billups is an absolute joke. I know preseason doesn't matter but the last 2 plays should get him fired. First he has Scoot defending the dunker spot against kai jones, with Walker being the biggest player on the court and he is pressing over the half court line? Like WTF swap Scoot and Walker in that situation at least if you aren't gonna put in an actual center to defend the lob play. Oh and then last minute we chuck up a stupid 3 on the most pointless and uninvolved play ever, like does he not actually do anything in the huddle?

This team has so many problems I know but god I hate Billups so much.

It would be very interesting if the Blazers hired a Larry Brown, X and Os genius for this team. Would this group be able to execute this advanced concepts?

But like another poster said in this draft, that would squeeze out more wins, and decrease ping pong balls.

In the meantime our young players arent developing and our vets aren't being put in a position to maximize their value and even so the ping pong balls might not go your way.

Coach is not the position to use for tanking purposes. Trade away your vets, make use of the injury list, but get a coach who develops young players and makes vets look good enough to trade away easily for value. Don't get me wrong Cronin is to blame here as well, but it would be nice if they looked good enough that someone wanted them...

Agreed. There are so many valid coaching replacements out there

[PDXKnight]

I guess until we see Deni play, I wonder if Deni and Camara could play the 3 and 4 together? Could be very interesting.

Seems like a decent lineup

[Blazinaway]

I'd like to see a big lineup with Deni at SG with Simons/Scoot at PG, and a Grant/Ayton/Camara front line

[Tim Lehrbach]

Didn't see game one (and probably won't see much of the team this year, being out of market and not ponying up for LP). It shouldn't be surprising that they'd struggle out of the gate. The team's backcourt is putrid, and you don't typically win in today's NBA without elite guard play, or damn near it. Even if Scoot is going to improve, it's not going to be right away -- he's either a long-term project or (hopefully not) a bust. The skill level just isn't there. My guess is Sharpe will not be ready for a major leap, either.

Deni and Camara do sound like an appealing duo at forward -- on a better team -- but Grant will of course start, and not just for salary/incumbency reasons. This team is starved for credible offensive threats (it's basically just the three underwhelming vets most of us would be happy to move on from); they could be hurting the role players' development by foisting undue offensive responsibility on them or encouraging shot-seeking behavior, IMO.

[GEE]

I know Chauncey is from the "Old school", but how old? I'm wondering if he looks at positions in BB, like my father (who always raved about J.Wooden-UCLA's Legendary Coach). The main take-away, and speculation being:

Instead of: PG/SG/SF/PF/C ----------- Seeing players as one of three: Guard/Wing/Post

If we look at our squad in this old-school way, I think we are quite loaded with talent in all 3 departments, with tons of flexabilty and options with our guys.

I again, strongly feel it's up to Chauncey now, and will just wait to see how he cooks, with the ingredients he has. I am willing to give him the chance though, where some are already calling for him to get run after just one preseason game. Can we give him a chance? We obviously "Tanked" the last two years, so at least for me, the no more excuses evaluation of whether he's the right coach (or not) will be my biggest evaluation of this season, but willing to at least give him a chance to prove himself.

[Tim Lehrbach]

I know Chauncey is from the "Old school", but how old? I'm wondering if he looks at positions in BB, like my father (who always raved about J.Wooden-UCLA's Legendary Coach). The main take-away, and speculation being:

Instead of: PG/SG/SF/PF/C ----------- Seeing players as one of three: Guard/Wing/Post

If we look at our squad in this old-school way, I think we are quite loaded with talent in all 3 departments, with tons of flexabilty and options with our guys.

"Wing" comes the closest, with Grant/Deni/Camara being an interesting and potentially very productive trio. We might actually have three competent starters for two positions there.

"Guard" is horrific unless one assumes massive improvements from Scoot and Sharpe and has faith that Simons' regular production somehow translates into more team success than it ever has.

"Center" has potential to be decent if Clingan and Williams can play right away and provide the defense and unselfishness that Ayton cannot.

But the main problem with calling the roster "loaded with talent" is that nobody, including you, believes that even the best-case scenario for this team is the playoffs. "Loaded" should be reserved for teams that can compete, even very young, developing ones.

I know you are tired of everybody's pessimism and like this collection of players, and that's fine. You could be right about some of them, and the rest of us could be wrong. That would be a tremendous development, and I'd be right there celebrating it with you. But you've projected an awful lot on to unproven or proven low impact players.

[kdawg32086]

I know Chauncey is from the "Old school", but how old? I'm wondering if he looks at positions in BB, like my father (who always raved about J.Wooden-UCLA's Legendary Coach). The main take-away, and speculation being:

Instead of: PG/SG/SF/PF/C ----------- Seeing players as one of three: Guard/Wing/Post

If we look at our squad in this old-school way, I think we are quite loaded with talent in all 3 departments, with tons of flexabilty and options with our guys.

I again, strongly feel it's up to Chauncey now, and will just wait to see how he cooks, with the ingredients he has. I am willing to give him the chance though, where some are already calling for him to get run after just one preseason game. Can we give him a chance? We obviously "Tanked" the last two years, so at least for me, the no more excuses evaluation of whether he's the right coach (or not) will be my biggest evaluation of this season, but willing to at least give him a chance to prove himself.

Funny enough, I've heard multiple people refer to the traditional lineup of PG, SF, SF, PF, C as "old school" in the past few seasons. Many seem to define "modern" lineups now as PG, SG, SG, SF, and either a PF or C.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

where some are already calling for him to get run after just one preseason game. Can we give him a chance? We obviously "Tanked" the last two years, so at least for me, the no more excuses evaluation of whether he's the right coach (or not) will be my biggest evaluation of this season, but willing to at least give him a chance to prove himself.

Several years and a preseason game. I'm not litigating for his removal based on just this game but highlighting how several issues from the past few years are still present and how my opinion he needs to go is still active. It is not simply reactionary but considered.

I really don't think Billups has any real system. He has some philosophies but he is a player driven coach who believes in letting his players play the game. I get why a former player would think that but I don't think former players make the best coaches.

Also we are not set up any better this year than previous years, so I don't agree this year alone is the make or break year and the only valid time to judge him. We have seen so little player development and no one wants our vets because they have looked horrible. He isn't suddenly going to find the secret sauce, at least I am not holding out any hope. I mean explain him having Scoot defend Kai Jones under the rim for the last possession of that game where they got the easiest lob dunk ever. God that type of thing just really gets under my skin because it is purely a coaching decision.

[Norm2953]

Fortunately I missed the first pre-season game but was wondering since Chauncey was out getting
inducted into the HOF, did he make it back for the first pre-season game?

Not that it matters for I've been on the fire Billups bandwagon for some time.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Billups coached Friday night. He's not around today.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Billups coached Friday night. He's not around today.

That might explain the 29 point lead.

[Braggins]

Several years and a preseason game. I'm not litigating for his removal based on just this game but highlighting how several issues from the past few years are still present and how my opinion he needs to go is still active. It is not simply reactionary but considered.

I really don't think Billups has any real system. He has some philosophies but he is a player driven coach who believes in letting his players play the game. I get why a former player would think that but I don't think former players make the best coaches.

I watch quite a bit of NBA basketball and of all the teams I got a decent enough sample size of games watched last season I thought that Charlotte and Portland were the worst coached by a pretty comfortable margin. I didn't watch many Portland games the previous seasons with Billups, so my opinion of him is almost entirely based off last season to be fair.

Thankfully Charlotte finally decided to rid themselves of the Clifford curse and I was honestly pretty surprised that Billups didn't fired. I thought it seemed like the situation was well past the point where it would honestly be unfair to the young players that this organization needs to develop if they kept him around any longer.

[m0ng0]

I am box scoring it but aScoot looks better from what I can see, Clingon looks ok also

[Norm2953]

Billups coached Friday night. He's not around today.

That might explain the 29 point lead.

Okay....

Most of us have been around long enough to know pre-season games mean next to nothing.

Lots of guys who are playing themselves into shape and teams are experimenting with
their rosters.

I think it will be interesting to watch how the team plays when TL comes back (assuming he comes back).

One would imagine there will be a number of team scouts from teams looking for a big man

[Blazinaway]

I'd like to see a big lineup with Deni at SG with Simons/Scoot at PG, and a Grant/Ayton/Camara front line

and we saw it a few times with Scoot and foru 6"8 or taller players and when Banton played we also had 5 guys over 6'8"

[Blazinaway]

I am box scoring it but aScoot looks better from what I can see, Clingon looks ok also

Clingan looked solid, early on Scoot was pretty bad but started making some good drives and getting fouled as well - closed the half really well, I'd say a mixed bag from Scoot but progress from 1st game, Deni had a rough go, Ayton looked good, nothing else stood out and Sac was pretty awful, easily over 20 TO's

[Tim Lehrbach]

I am box scoring it but aScoot looks better from what I can see, Clingon looks ok also

Clingan looked solid, early on Scoot was pretty bad but started making some good drives and getting fouled as well - closed the half really well, I'd say a mixed bag from Scoot but progress from 1st game, Deni had a rough go, Ayton looked good, nothing else stood out and Sac was pretty awful, easily over 20 TO's

Did the Blazers provide meaningful pressure, or were the Kings just that bad/phoning it in?