getrichordie wrote:
Billy Donovan is an above average coach, IMO. Feel free to disagree. His reputation around the league and resume precedes him. So let me start there.
His reputation and resume are primarily collegiate, not professional.
I think many OKC fans view Westbrook = or > Paul. And George > Gallinari, so even if healthy, I think of you asked fans, they would say we would be worse than last year's iteration
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Which version of Westbrook? Last year’s? I’ll take this version of Paul. Also, the trade wasn’t Russ and George for CP3 and Gallo. You forgot our teams leading scorer, shai.
But yeah, there was talk earlier in the year of trying to find Paul a home and taking on bad contracts for assets, etc. It sure sounded like we wanted to tank for a while.
I don’t disagree.
Losing George + Westbrook in one offseason and replacing them with Paul + Gallo + Shai is a pretty huge difference in terms of personnel and strategy.
I don’t disagree. However there is a reason CP3 is called the point gawd. He could make Jim Boylen look good. If next year he’s gone and billy is back, I think there will be much more clarity about Billy’s ability to run an offense and not shift blame/credit to Russ or cp3.
But yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but replacing a declining Westbrook with a heady and healthy Paul and having a legitimate stretch 4 and an up and a promising PG (who I thought should have been a top 5 pick, BTW!) is going to be a good thing and capable of replacing if not improving upon last season's production.
Agreed.
With that being said, I felt like Donovan handled it as well as you could have. I think he's made the most of what he's had and considering the holes on our roster (no legitimate good wing + little depth), he's done really well.
I personally want to see Donovan and his staff given the chance to cultivate a bunch of young guys and fully install his offense in the way that a Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich was given a chance.
Phil Jackson and Popovich didn’t need an ideal set of circumstances to win. It’s possible that once cp3 and russ are long gone we find out more about Billy’s abilities. At best he’s terry stotts, imo. However, I just not that interested in bending over backwards to give a coach every circumstance possible to prove his abilities. You do that stuff for young players like shai, not expendable coaches.
I don't think Presti is stupid and isn't going to give into fan sentiment so I think we keep Donovan unless there are financial issues at play here or Donovan wants to go back to coaching college.
Nothing presti does or will do surprises me, for better or worse.
I think some of you think the grass is greener on the other side, but I like where we were at and I appreciate the fact that we haven't had any real tangible issues (just speculative ones from fans reading to deep into quotes they can't find) in the locker room or off the court.
I’ve been pretty consistent on where I stand. I don’t think a rebuild is a sure thing. Nothing is a sure thing, including completing this season and next. However I’m a proponent of having a clear plan and working that plan.
Limbo years like this one are a waste because we have shai. If we had no young talent on the roster I wouldn’t be as adamant about it. However if we fail to add another high level young talent to the roster this off season that leaves us going into shai’s third year with no real core around him. Bazley and Dort may develop in to serviceable players but we need all star level talent alongside shai or he will get discontent and want traded. I want to avoid years of unclear direction and then finally being forced to tear it down and trade shai in 2023 because we never committed to a clear path.
There is more than one way to get a young core around shai. I don’t care if we suck for a year, trade up in the draft or manage to get a guy like Oladipo from Orlando and he makes the jump with our team but it needs to happen this offseason.
