Fire Stotts thread

[Ripcity4life]

This is the bottomline for me too -- If they replace him i can see why but if he gets retained then i understand why too . Also i think in the end this will end up being both Stotts and Olshey on the hot seat next season. Also People who really think Stotts should be fired need to realize Olshey did not do him any favors on how NeO built this team. I am not saying its ALL on Olshey but its not fair to put it all on Stotts either.

My guess in a year or so the team either pulled off a small miracle to pull it all together or the Blazers are searching for a GM and a Coach.

[wco81]

Toronto peaked around Jan and Feb and they've not been as good defensively since then.

Guess they never figured out why the team declined.

[Epicurus]

Give Casey LeBron and give the Cavs their choice of Raptors, this conversation doesn't occur. Give Stotts Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Nurkic, and this tread doesn't exist. Maybe I am the only person tired of scapegoating of coaches (albeit even very well paid ones) and pretending that wins are despite the coach and loss are due to him.

[Wickzki]

Give Casey LeBron and give the Cavs their choice of Raptors, this conversation doesn't occur. Give Stotts Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Nurkic, and this tread doesn't exist. Maybe I am the only person tired of scapegoating of coaches (albeit even very well paid ones) and pretending that wins are despite the coach and loss are due to him.

Disagree.

Zach Lowe is spot on. On his radio show he said, "I was there for Game 2 Cavs vs Raps, when Love posted up CJ Miles 4 or 5 times in a row without help without any adjustment. I wrote in my note "Dwane Casey is going to be fired"

I watched that game. How as an NBA coach you allow Kevin Love at 6'10" post up a swingman who is 4-inches shorter on CONSECUTIVE possessions let alone the 5 times in a row that he allowed him to WITHOUT making a change, WITHOUT switching up your defense is unfathomable. In a playoff game, it's unforgivable.

[tester551]

Give Casey LeBron and give the Cavs their choice of Raptors, this conversation doesn't occur. Give Stotts Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Nurkic, and this tread doesn't exist. Maybe I am the only person tired of scapegoating of coaches (albeit even very well paid ones) and pretending that wins are despite the coach and loss are due to him.

Disagree.

Zach Lowe is spot on. On his radio show he said, "I was there for Game 2 Cavs vs Raps, when Love posted up CJ Miles 4 or 5 times in a row without help without any adjustment. I wrote in my note "Dwane Casey is going to be fired"

I watched that game. How as an NBA coach you allow Kevin Love at 6'10" post up a swingman who is 4-inches shorter on CONSECUTIVE possessions let alone the 5 times in a row that he allowed him to WITHOUT making a change, WITHOUT switching up your defense is unfathomable. In a playoff game, it's unforgivable.

Agreed. It's much like Stotts running the P&R with Dame into a trap time & time again without adjusting the attack.
We've seen almost the exact same defense played against Dame in the playoffs before.... with almost no counters to it.

[Epicurus]

You both have absolutely (as I don't either) no accurate notion on how much information and combinations the coaching staff, with years of experience combined, consider. Again if what is done hasn't worked, surely what wasn't done would have worked. NO. ALso you think adjustments are not made because a whole new offense or defense isn't being employed, rather than the fine tuning being done throughout the game. In a nutshell, why do you believe that what you or a sports writer see has not already been considered by a professional basketball coach with a score of others, and mounds of data, helping?

BTW, I saw in the Pelican series more than a few loops by Lillard and double (triple, a couple of times)screens augmented to the standard pick and roll. Further if the opponent sells out to stop one player, especially on his go to play, then the teammates need do something, like make open shots. In game one, where we have a little bit of the advanced info available to coaching staffs, we know that the Blazers took shots that average NBA player would be expected to make about .540 efg%. They didn't that night, about .100 less. That is not a systemic problem, but a shooter problem.

[Epicurus]

Give Casey LeBron and give the Cavs their choice of Raptors, this conversation doesn't occur. Give Stotts Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Nurkic, and this tread doesn't exist. Maybe I am the only person tired of scapegoating of coaches (albeit even very well paid ones) and pretending that wins are despite the coach and loss are due to him.

Disagree.

Zach Lowe is spot on. On his radio show he said, "I was there for Game 2 Cavs vs Raps, when Love posted up CJ Miles 4 or 5 times in a row without help without any adjustment. I wrote in my note "Dwane Casey is going to be fired"

I watched that game. How as an NBA coach you allow Kevin Love at 6'10" post up a swingman who is 4-inches shorter on CONSECUTIVE possessions let alone the 5 times in a row that he allowed him to WITHOUT making a change, WITHOUT switching up your defense is unfathomable. In a playoff game, it's unforgivable.

You disagree that if LeBron played this series for Toronto against the Lebron less Cavs, that the outcome would not have been in the opposite direction? Ditto Davis rather than Nurk in a Blazer uniform???????????

[Matt800]

Give Casey LeBron and give the Cavs their choice of Raptors, this conversation doesn't occur. Give Stotts Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Nurkic, and this tread doesn't exist. Maybe I am the only person tired of scapegoating of coaches (albeit even very well paid ones) and pretending that wins are despite the coach and loss are due to him.

Disagree.

Zach Lowe is spot on. On his radio show he said, "I was there for Game 2 Cavs vs Raps, when Love posted up CJ Miles 4 or 5 times in a row without help without any adjustment. I wrote in my note "Dwane Casey is going to be fired"

I watched that game. How as an NBA coach you allow Kevin Love at 6'10" post up a swingman who is 4-inches shorter on CONSECUTIVE possessions let alone the 5 times in a row that he allowed him to WITHOUT making a change, WITHOUT switching up your defense is unfathomable. In a playoff game, it's unforgivable.

You disagree that if LeBron played this series for Toronto against the Lebron less Cavs, that the outcome would not have been in the opposite direction? Ditto Davis rather than Nurk in a Blazer uniform???????????

I think you make a good point about the players. I don't have any sources ready to cite, but in at least a few interviews after losses I heard stotts talking about their game plans and they sounded good, they just weren't executed well by the players. It sounds like he would even change his defensive plans if he had players with better defensive capability, but he can only give them as much as they can handle. I'm sure coaches make mistakes, but sometimes what looks like a coaching problem is a player problem. And in regard to coaches getting fired, I think that has a lot to do with if the franchise players like them or not. I think Stotts will stay as long as lillard and cj want him.

[Epicurus]

Teams with two-way all stars have a huge advantage in playoff series. In series, with the added rest and the larger public view, two-way all stars can shine. Regarding coaching against them, how will any new coach defend against LeBron with the Raptors' squad? Substitute any coach against a two-way allstar in playoff series. Now I am sure that someone is thinking of the Celtics and Stevens, but Horford, not at the same level as Davis and Lebron, is close to being a two-way all star, from the games I saw.

[Matt800]

Teams with two-way all stars have a huge advantage in playoff series. In series, with the added rest and the larger public view, two-way all stars can shine. Regarding coaching against them, how will any new coach defend against LeBron with the Raptors' squad? Substitute any coach against a two-way allstar in playoff series. Now I am sure that someone is thinking of the Celtics and Stevens, but Horford, not at the same level as Davis and Lebron, is close to being a two-way all star, from the games I saw.

I think that's a fair point. Regarding The Blazers, there were some quotes from Lillard and CJ talking about how they are trying to learn how to save energy on defense, and that's part of getting better. Maybe that is true to an extent, but I think a better mentality would be shutting the other team down first and foremost and then worry about scoring. Or at least value them equally. Which is what these two-way all stars you are talking about seem to do, and seem to bring out in their teammates.

[Epicurus]

I think this season, at least in the first part, the focus on defense lead to reduce performance of offense (compared to the two previous years with basically the same players). I always get back to the formula that margin = power/load. In the Blazers case the added load of a more smothering defense in the lane with the same capacity to perform (power) produced a lower margin for the offense. Two way allstars have the power (or capacity) to deal with a large load on both sides of the court.

[Matt800]

I think this season, at least in the first part, the focus on defense lead to reduce performance of offense (compared to the two previous years with basically the same players). I always get back to the formula that margin = power/load. In the Blazers case the added load of a more smothering defense in the lane with the same capacity to perform (power) produced a lower margin for the offense. Two way allstars have the power (or capacity) to deal with a large load on both sides of the court.

I think you are right. Or that offensive success while having poor defense is an illusion of the amount of power that team has. Maybe guys can get better under that greater load of actually playing defense, and maybe we saw that throughout the season for POR. But I think the point remains that they need more power if they want to be able to beat good teams in the playoffs.

[Epicurus]

I'm not sure if the Blazers guards did much to slow the ball handlers down this season, as opposed to the last two. But the backline defense since Nurk has compensated by not making the opponents' drives so downhill. ALso the defensive plan was that the beaten guards would follow the step slower drive into the low paint and try to make blocks and bothers on the sides and backs of the drivers. That seemed to work decently throughout the season (but not in the playoff series as all the ball handler needed to do was not hit the stadium's ceiling with a pass to Davis). One of the consequences, however, was the deeper defensive movement of the guards nullified getting out quick enough for fast breaks.