Chauncey Billups has his contract extended!

[Tim Lehrbach]

I find the logic of rooting for tanking losses and at the same time upset with Chauncey with the tanking losses fascinating.

Source?

[oldfishermen]

I think somebody asked on these forums, and it's a valid question...

Has any team in NBA history retained a losing head coach after 4 years? Especially one with a 35% winning percentage?

That was me. I asked chat GPT what the record was most losing seasons in a row by a head coach, and it came back with 4. Once Tim Floyd (Bulls) and Bill Fitch (Clippers), and neither got a 5th year. Though looking at Fitch's career, I see he had 5 in a row with the Cavs in the 70s. They kept him on a 9 year tenure.

So it looks like it did happen once.

The NFL is even less forgiving, with the record being 2.5 seasons.

There is an NBA head coach with 6 losing seasons in a row.

Win/loss record
32-39?
33-39
34-38
22-60
22-60
34-48

6 seasons from 2019/20 to this season

Head coach Gregg Popovich, Spurs

[Sinobas]

I find the logic of rooting for tanking losses and at the same time upset with Chauncey with the tanking losses fascinating.

I find your logic for finding that logic fascinating. I suspect it's because some fans don't want the team to tank forever, but actually become competitive.

[red_power]

So this sht season ends in the same mold as it has been going. I literally lack my English vocabulary to properly describe the full spectrum of emotions this news makes me feel.
I guess Chancey is a least paid head coach in the NBA by a wide margin, I simply can't come up with other explanation to logically comprehend this decision.
I mean there must be some sense behind this, right?

[red_power]

Taking into account the talent Billups has had to work with. I rate him an average coach, with plenty of room to develop.

We have had better and worse head coaches. All of the worse coaches were great people (except one), but, could not think on their feet during a game, and or, lost the players.

I can't find a single reason that makes him any look like a decent coach. Yep, he is good at getting along with players and commanding their respect but he is still quite bad at every other aspect. Billups seems to be a poor man Nate McMillan when it comes to coaching an NBA team and that's quite depressing.

[PDXKnight]

That was NEVER going to happen. Malone will likely hold out for a job where that has a better core and bigger market.

People need to remind themselves that there's a reason why big name free agents don't come here and that includes coaches. There's a reason why Dame didn't get voted in to start his first all-star game until after he left Portland. Small market west coast teams have a major bias against them. It sucks, but that's a reality.

The only coaches Portland at this moment are ones that are looking for anyone to hire them. Experienced coaches with success had just as much of a chance coming here as Luka signing a free agent contract with us. It's just not going to happen.

Maybe we couldn't get Malone but coaching any nba team is a small needle to thread and we should have and could have done better than extending Chauncey. This was an autopilot move and a stupid one at that.

Exactly, this is my biggest gripe with Cronin. After his initial house cleaning trades to dump the NEO roster, he just seems to go path of least resistance.

Agreed besides the deni trade. But by and large he's indeed been very path of least resistance.

[Wizenheimer]

I get the idea of players getting bigger and stronger

not so much the idea of coaches getting smarter

[Shem]

I find the logic of rooting for tanking losses and at the same time upset with Chauncey with the tanking losses fascinating.

Source?

You're going to say that people never used Chauncey's career wins and losses as an argument for his dismissal? While at the same time leave out context of the rebuilding and tanking?

[Shem]

I find the logic of rooting for tanking losses and at the same time upset with Chauncey with the tanking losses fascinating.

I find your logic for finding that logic fascinating. I suspect it's because some fans don't want the team to tank forever, but actually become competitive.

Tanking forever was NEVER the argument.

[Shem]

I do find it fascinated that the same people who were pissed about Sharpe's benching won't turn around and credit Billups for it as it turned the season around which led to the Blazers having the 3rd best defense in the NBA during the 2nd half of the season.

[DusterBuster]

Heard Blazer fans booed Billups at pregame with Lakers... man... I really would have preferred a new coach and direction because the current direction is - driving blindfolded - but I also feel thats a bad freaking look for a fanbase. Booing the dude on the day of his extension just feels gross.

Also, listening to the post-game/season team comments, hearing Cronin talk about all the "data" they got back this year as an answer to why they felt this was a successful season and that they didn't need to flunk for Flagg, it's just ugh. I can't imagine the data they're speaking of was anything to do with wins/loses/advanced stats/rotations/defense/offense/efficiencies/etc... the data was butts in seats. 10-11 wins, fans came flooding back even after 3 years of garbage. The data was, "we don't need to try for a contender, we just need to have good players people like and to play hard".

These are two very conflicting thoughts. I just absolutely hate this directionless team, but being directionless isn't the fault of the players or coaches, it's ownership or management. If the players and coaches were doing good or got rewarded, it feels gross as a fanbase to boo them when they haven't done anything specifically to really deserve it.

I also say that though with the fact that Billups just feels like a personality that will never be embraced here. His hire was controversial from day 1. Who hired him, his checkered past allegations, him clearly not being qualified to even have the job from the jump... it just was all suspect. But that also has made many people unwilling to see any positives or growth in him.

It's all just weird.

One of the Blazers bloggers had a great way of putting it, there just feels like a lot of celebrating mediocrity going on with this team right now, which ends up really deflating the genuine positives that could have been taken away from the season with player growth and development.

All in all, I'm pretty apathetic to the Billups extension. It gets a big... meh... from me. What I keep going back to now is that the Blazers and us fans basically need to hope that the "star" everyone is looking for is already on this team. It's clear that player probably isn't coming via a trade, it's DEFINITELY not coming from FA, and there's about a 15-20% chance it might come from this draft. I think I said this a few weeks back when it was clear where the season was headed when they decided not to egregiously tank for Cooper, everyone basically needs to put all their hopes and prayers into Deni right now. Everyone needs to just cross their fingers and wish upon a shooting star that this second half of the season we saw from him is a sign of things to come. Blazers might have a piece to build around if that guy turns into a 20+ 6 and 7 guy for a full season and clear all star.

[wco81]

So which young player do the Blazers build around? Deni? Sharpe? Scoot?

Or someone not yet on the roster?

Blazers now have a lot of good young players. Maybe they need to try to consolidate for a star.

[DusterBuster]

I find the logic of rooting for tanking losses and at the same time upset with Chauncey with the tanking losses fascinating.

Source?

Yeah... I'm happy Shem found something positive for himself out of this year, genuinely so, but he seems completely incapable of grasping why some fans are upset. No one here is rooted for indefinite tanking. But after the team tanked in what was (correctly) billed as a historically god awful draft, than decides they don't want to do that in a draft billed with multiple stars in the top 5 and they're still sub-par talent wise... it's just baffling roster construction. There's no exact science to this, but there is some methodologies that tend to work better than others. The current methodology being used has an almost 0% success rate.

[DusterBuster]

So which young player do the Blazers build around? Deni? Sharpe? Scoot?

Or someone not yet on the roster?

Blazers now have a lot of good young players. Maybe they need to try to consolidate for a star.

At this point I would think it's Deni. No one else has shown the ability and consistency of his talent level yet. Sharpe is a fun player, but super inconsistent and doesn't have the drive factor that Deni very clearly has.

I would love it to be Scoot, but this franchise has shown they have zero faith in the "generational PG" prospect who was too good to pass on, even if it meant alienating their previous HOF PG.

[Wizenheimer]

Heard Blazer fans booed Billups at pregame with Lakers... man... I really would have preferred a new coach and direction because the current direction is - driving blindfolded - but I also feel thats a bad freaking look for a fanbase. Booing the dude on the day of his extension just feels gross.

Also, listening to the post-game/season team comments, hearing Cronin talk about all the "data" they got back this year as an answer to why they felt this was a successful season and that they didn't need to flunk for Flagg, it's just ugh. I can't imagine the data they're speaking of was anything to do with wins/loses/advanced stats/rotations/defense/offense/efficiencies/etc... the data was butts in seats. 10-11 wins, fans came flooding back even after 3 years of garbage. The data was, "we don't need to try for a contender, we just need to have good players people like and to play hard".

These are two very conflicting thoughts. I just absolutely hate this directionless team, but being directionless isn't the fault of the players or coaches, it's ownership or management. If the players and coaches were doing good or got rewarded, it feels gross as a fanbase to boo them when they haven't done anything specifically to really deserve it.

I also say that though with the fact that Billups just feels like a personality that will never be embraced here. His hire was controversial from day 1. Who hired him, his checkered past allegations, him clearly not being qualified to even have the job from the jump... it just was all suspect. But that also has made many people unwilling to see any positives or growth in him.

It's all just weird.

One of the Blazers bloggers had a great way of putting it, there just feels like a lot of celebrating mediocrity going on with this team right now, which ends up really deflating the genuine positives that could have been taken away from the season with player growth and development.

All in all, I'm pretty apathetic to the Billups extension. It gets a big... meh... from me. What I keep going back to now is that the Blazers and us fans basically need to hope that the "star" everyone is looking for is already on this team. It's clear that player probably isn't coming via a trade, it's DEFINITELY not coming from FA, and there's about a 15-20% chance it might come from this draft. I think I said this a few weeks back when it was clear where the season was headed when they decided not to egregiously tank for Cooper, everyone basically needs to put all their hopes and prayers into Deni right now. Everyone needs to just cross their fingers and wish upon a shooting star that this second half of the season we saw from him is a sign of things to come. Blazers might have a piece to build around if that guy turns into a 20+ 6 and 7 guy for a full season and clear all star.

yeah, I'm not crazy about booing a player (unless it was Felton) or a coach. I would have thrown my back out booing Olshey if given a chance. And from everything I've heard I would definitely boo Bert Kolde

in fact, in the Cronin/Billups exit interview they mentioned that they checked in with Kolde every week. And there are lots of rumors of Kolde micro-managing the team and decisions by both Croin and Billups. Now, I think there is a bit of ass-covering spin for Joe and Chauncey in those rumors. But I also think it's entirely possible both got their extensions from being Kolde's yes-men. And that would definitely suck

**************************************************************************************

as far as butts in the seats, Blazer attendance numbers:

2022-23: attendance - 767,364....10th of 30
2023-24: attendance - 751,395....13th of 30
2024-25: attendance - 719,369....19th of 30

those numbers are headed in the opposite direction. Personally, I think it's due to trading Dame and a lot more fans than just the fanatics posting on the internet are sick of mediocre veterans like Simons, Ayton, and Grant. But obviously, my bias may be dragging me to that conclusion

*********************************************************************************

I may have said this before, but right now I'm getting 2015-16 deju vu vibes. The Blazers won 44 games that season after the Dame-Aldridge team disintegrated. I think their pre-season over/under was 27 wins. Instead, they made it to the playoffs, then beat an injury-decimated Clippers team in the 1st round. It was a major 'Feel Good' vibe. Olshey and the rest of the organization completely misinterpreted the context of that season, and it allowed Olshey to go on that idiotic 340M spending spree for CJ-Crabbe-Turner-Harkless-Meyers-Ezeli. And that hamstrung the franchise for years

same kind of feel-good vibes right now; extending Cronin & Billups. Constant citing of a 15 win improvement over a deliberately tanked previous season. I'm just hoping the Blazers don't repeat making a major miscalculation based upon ignored context. Blazers have depth and a relatively strong supporting cast. But they need a batman; going all in on another Robin would be a mistake

[oldfishermen]

My 2 cents.

By the end of the season, I was neutral on re-signing Billups. I see no reason to let the Billups hate live rent free in my head. Let it go. Give him a respectful chance.

As far as tanking. This opinion will not be popular.

I believe this entire draft class is overhyped and over valued. That includes Flagg on down. Flagg is not a generational talent. But he should develop into an all star. From there on down, the warts just get bigger. Now, throw in the luck needed in the lottery draw. Developing the kids should have been the priority, not tanking, regardless of the draft position. Now, it is up to the scouts to find the hidden gem in this draft. But I do not see one.

[elias808]

Where are people pulling this “3rd best defense since…” stat from? They were 9th in DEFRTG for January, 4th in February, and 16th in March.

We were also 22nd in OFFRTG this year only above the teams that committed to the tank all season.
28th in assists. 29th in assist to turnover ratio. 28th in Def reb %. 29th in turnover %. 25th in EFT%.

I’m also gonna bet we resign Ayton and Ant now. Who knows how many games we could have won if they weren’t injured.

[zzaj]

Heard Blazer fans booed Billups at pregame with Lakers... man... I really would have preferred a new coach and direction because the current direction is - driving blindfolded - but I also feel thats a bad freaking look for a fanbase. Booing the dude on the day of his extension just feels gross.

Also, listening to the post-game/season team comments, hearing Cronin talk about all the "data" they got back this year as an answer to why they felt this was a successful season and that they didn't need to flunk for Flagg, it's just ugh. I can't imagine the data they're speaking of was anything to do with wins/loses/advanced stats/rotations/defense/offense/efficiencies/etc... the data was butts in seats. 10-11 wins, fans came flooding back even after 3 years of garbage. The data was, "we don't need to try for a contender, we just need to have good players people like and to play hard".

These are two very conflicting thoughts. I just absolutely hate this directionless team, but being directionless isn't the fault of the players or coaches, it's ownership or management. If the players and coaches were doing good or got rewarded, it feels gross as a fanbase to boo them when they haven't done anything specifically to really deserve it.

I also say that though with the fact that Billups just feels like a personality that will never be embraced here. His hire was controversial from day 1. Who hired him, his checkered past allegations, him clearly not being qualified to even have the job from the jump... it just was all suspect. But that also has made many people unwilling to see any positives or growth in him.

It's all just weird.

One of the Blazers bloggers had a great way of putting it, there just feels like a lot of celebrating mediocrity going on with this team right now, which ends up really deflating the genuine positives that could have been taken away from the season with player growth and development.

All in all, I'm pretty apathetic to the Billups extension. It gets a big... meh... from me. What I keep going back to now is that the Blazers and us fans basically need to hope that the "star" everyone is looking for is already on this team. It's clear that player probably isn't coming via a trade, it's DEFINITELY not coming from FA, and there's about a 15-20% chance it might come from this draft. I think I said this a few weeks back when it was clear where the season was headed when they decided not to egregiously tank for Cooper, everyone basically needs to put all their hopes and prayers into Deni right now. Everyone needs to just cross their fingers and wish upon a shooting star that this second half of the season we saw from him is a sign of things to come. Blazers might have a piece to build around if that guy turns into a 20+ 6 and 7 guy for a full season and clear all star.

yeah, I'm not crazy about booing a player (unless it was Felton) or a coach. I would have thrown my back out booing Olshey if given a chance. And from everything I've heard I would definitely boo Bert Kolde

in fact, in the Cronin/Billups exit interview they mentioned that they checked in with Kolde every week. And there are lots of rumors of Kolde micro-managing the team and decisions by both Croin and Billups. Now, I think there is a bit of ass-covering spin for Joe and Chauncey in those rumors. But I also think it's entirely possible both got their extensions from being Kolde's yes-men. And that would definitely suck

**************************************************************************************

as far as butts in the seats, Blazer attendance numbers:

2022-23: attendance - 767,364....10th of 30
2023-24: attendance - 751,395....13th of 30
2024-25: attendance - 719,369....19th of 30

those numbers are headed in the opposite direction. Personally, I think it's due to trading Dame and a lot more fans than just the fanatics posting on the internet are sick of mediocre veterans like Simons, Ayton, and Grant. But obviously, my bias may be dragging me to that conclusion

*********************************************************************************

I may have said this before, but right now I'm getting 2015-16 deju vu vibes. The Blazers won 44 games that season after the Dame-Aldridge team disintegrated. I think their pre-season over/under was 27 wins. Instead, they made it to the playoffs, then beat an injury-decimated Clippers team in the 1st round. It was a major 'Feel Good' vibe. Olshey and the rest of the organization completely misinterpreted the context of that season, and it allowed Olshey to go on that idiotic 340M spending spree for CJ-Crabbe-Turner-Harkless-Meyers-Ezeli. And that hamstrung the franchise for years

same kind of feel-good vibes right now; extending Cronin & Billups. Constant citing of a 15 win improvement over a deliberately tanked previous season. I'm just hoping the Blazers don't repeat making a major miscalculation based upon ignored context. Blazers have depth and a relatively strong supporting cast. But they need a batman; going all in on another Robin would be a mistake

Oooooh, I couldn't quite place it, but this does in fact remind me also of that exact 2015-2016 scenario. That worries me with Ant and Ayton contracts in the future mix...

As for the boooing. I could care less. It's sports. There are always a ton of holier-than-thou, terrible LA fans at Blazer games, it was probably them.

[zzaj]

My 2 cents.

By the end of the season, I was neutral on re-signing Billups. I see no reason to let the Billups hate live rent free in my head. Let it go. Give him a respectful chance.

As far as tanking. This opinion will not be popular.

I believe this entire draft class is overhyped and over valued. That includes Flagg on down. Flagg is not a generational talent. But he should develop into an all star. From there on down, the warts just get bigger. Now, throw in the luck needed in the lottery draw. Developing the kids should have been the priority, not tanking, regardless of the draft position. Now, it is up to the scouts to find the hidden gem in this draft. But I do not see one.

I haven't really done my deep digging on this draft yet, but I actually agree with you for the most part. I think this draft falls off a cliff after pick #2. I do believe Flagg will be an allstar and can change the trajectory of a franchise. Harper I'm less sold on...he couldn't even do that in College. But he has potential also...
I'm not really an Ace believer.

Pretty much all the rest of the players in the first round have major warts, and will need to thread the needle of best possible outcomes in order to make this draft a strong one, IMHO. A big part of NBA success is scaling to an NBA team role out of a college role, and there are A LOT of prospects that will need to have the exact right role to succeed.

I actually think the player that could end up being the 3rd best player in this draft is Jeremiah Fears. If I were to bet right now, I'd say:

Flagg
Harper
Fears

...in that order.

[PDXKnight]

Heard Blazer fans booed Billups at pregame with Lakers... man... I really would have preferred a new coach and direction because the current direction is - driving blindfolded - but I also feel thats a bad freaking look for a fanbase. Booing the dude on the day of his extension just feels gross.

Also, listening to the post-game/season team comments, hearing Cronin talk about all the "data" they got back this year as an answer to why they felt this was a successful season and that they didn't need to flunk for Flagg, it's just ugh. I can't imagine the data they're speaking of was anything to do with wins/loses/advanced stats/rotations/defense/offense/efficiencies/etc... the data was butts in seats. 10-11 wins, fans came flooding back even after 3 years of garbage. The data was, "we don't need to try for a contender, we just need to have good players people like and to play hard".

These are two very conflicting thoughts. I just absolutely hate this directionless team, but being directionless isn't the fault of the players or coaches, it's ownership or management. If the players and coaches were doing good or got rewarded, it feels gross as a fanbase to boo them when they haven't done anything specifically to really deserve it.

I also say that though with the fact that Billups just feels like a personality that will never be embraced here. His hire was controversial from day 1. Who hired him, his checkered past allegations, him clearly not being qualified to even have the job from the jump... it just was all suspect. But that also has made many people unwilling to see any positives or growth in him.

It's all just weird.

One of the Blazers bloggers had a great way of putting it, there just feels like a lot of celebrating mediocrity going on with this team right now, which ends up really deflating the genuine positives that could have been taken away from the season with player growth and development.

All in all, I'm pretty apathetic to the Billups extension. It gets a big... meh... from me. What I keep going back to now is that the Blazers and us fans basically need to hope that the "star" everyone is looking for is already on this team. It's clear that player probably isn't coming via a trade, it's DEFINITELY not coming from FA, and there's about a 15-20% chance it might come from this draft. I think I said this a few weeks back when it was clear where the season was headed when they decided not to egregiously tank for Cooper, everyone basically needs to put all their hopes and prayers into Deni right now. Everyone needs to just cross their fingers and wish upon a shooting star that this second half of the season we saw from him is a sign of things to come. Blazers might have a piece to build around if that guy turns into a 20+ 6 and 7 guy for a full season and clear all star.

yeah, I'm not crazy about booing a player (unless it was Felton) or a coach. I would have thrown my back out booing Olshey if given a chance. And from everything I've heard I would definitely boo Bert Kolde

in fact, in the Cronin/Billups exit interview they mentioned that they checked in with Kolde every week. And there are lots of rumors of Kolde micro-managing the team and decisions by both Croin and Billups. Now, I think there is a bit of ass-covering spin for Joe and Chauncey in those rumors. But I also think it's entirely possible both got their extensions from being Kolde's yes-men. And that would definitely suck

**************************************************************************************

as far as butts in the seats, Blazer attendance numbers:

2022-23: attendance - 767,364....10th of 30
2023-24: attendance - 751,395....13th of 30
2024-25: attendance - 719,369....19th of 30

those numbers are headed in the opposite direction. Personally, I think it's due to trading Dame and a lot more fans than just the fanatics posting on the internet are sick of mediocre veterans like Simons, Ayton, and Grant. But obviously, my bias may be dragging me to that conclusion

*********************************************************************************

I may have said this before, but right now I'm getting 2015-16 deju vu vibes. The Blazers won 44 games that season after the Dame-Aldridge team disintegrated. I think their pre-season over/under was 27 wins. Instead, they made it to the playoffs, then beat an injury-decimated Clippers team in the 1st round. It was a major 'Feel Good' vibe. Olshey and the rest of the organization completely misinterpreted the context of that season, and it allowed Olshey to go on that idiotic 340M spending spree for CJ-Crabbe-Turner-Harkless-Meyers-Ezeli. And that hamstrung the franchise for years

same kind of feel-good vibes right now; extending Cronin & Billups. Constant citing of a 15 win improvement over a deliberately tanked previous season. I'm just hoping the Blazers don't repeat making a major miscalculation based upon ignored context. Blazers have depth and a relatively strong supporting cast. But they need a batman; going all in on another Robin would be a mistake

In my eyes the 15 wins was engineered. Artificially low losses then win some more games this year to sell fans. Only I think fans are getting less stupid these days and with chauncey at the helm I'm not convinced we make any more than the play in unless someone pops and becomes a superstar. But I certainly feel we are treading water and content with that.

I believe the play in to be a detriment as there will be 4-8 teams around the league periodically content with mediocrity. I'm afraid we may be one of those teams who wouldn't mind winning but won't move the needle to win nor will spend the money to keep a good team together. Spending just enough money to skate by but never willing to pay the tax even if we ever somehow build a contender with this group of bafoons. The teams that want to win generally try for it or bare minimum have competent management. The Blazers otoh are wishy washy and run by a general manager and ownership that wouldn't be fit to run a taco truck or a gas station convenience store