Chauncey Needs to Go!

[Wizenheimer]

I see that GEE hasn't given up on his twisted-logic jihad against Dame

[GEE]

I see that GEE hasn't given up on his twisted-logic jihad against Dame

As the Treadmill continues... and "Jihad", great choice of words... But I'm the twisted one just because in this thread I disagree that Chauncey is the blame.

[Wizenheimer]

I see that GEE hasn't given up on his twisted-logic jihad against Dame

As the Treadmill continues... and "Jihad", great choice of words... But I'm the twisted one just because in this thread I disagree that Chauncey is the blame.

it's not just this thread. You have, for a long time, consistently trashed Dame, and that includes blaming him for all kinds of management and coaching decisions....beside making lots of statements actually saying his character is flawed

I remember in 2012 when Dame was drafted by the Blazers, there were a couple of posters who went absolutely bat$hit about it. I'm wondering if you were one of them. This animus you consistently demonstrate toward Dame seems irrational to me

[Wizenheimer]

I made no attack on Dame!

hmmm:

Dame, and his POWER to control this teams future, given to him by Jody and the Vulcans, has created a break in the "Chain of Command", stripping Chauncey and Cronin the ability to move off the treadmill. It's a tug of war. I think Dame and the Vulcans care more about getting paid, than they do about winning a title. .

Dame, our PG, still shoots 25 shots per game,

(it's actually less than 20. Dame is 8th in scoring but 15th in FGA. But I suppose if you hate a player, 20 shots can seem like 25)

and clearly is currently more concerned about his 7th All-Star appearance, than he is with winning and making the players around him better.

LOL...."clearly"

It's clear to me that Dame, Jody and the Vulcans are to blame, and the team is giving up due to Dame's refusing to sacrifice his personal achievements, accolades and self-glossing for the sake of winning a title. .

well, you 'clearly' have an extreme bias against Dame....did I use that word correctly?

geeeezuz...

[Norm2953]

Helps Portland get into the lottery if we keep Chauncey

[GEE]

I made no attack on Dame!

hmmm:

Dame, and his POWER to control this teams future, given to him by Jody and the Vulcans, has created a break in the "Chain of Command", stripping Chauncey and Cronin the ability to move off the treadmill. It's a tug of war. I think Dame and the Vulcans care more about getting paid, than they do about winning a title. .

Dame, our PG, still shoots 25 shots per game,

(it's actually less than 20. Dame is 8th in scoring but 15th in FGA. But I suppose if you hate a player, 20 shots can seem like 25)

and clearly is currently more concerned about his 7th All-Star appearance, than he is with winning and making the players around him better.

LOL...."clearly"

It's clear to me that Dame, Jody and the Vulcans are to blame, and the team is giving up due to Dame's refusing to sacrifice his personal achievements, accolades and self-glossing for the sake of winning a title. .

well, you 'clearly' have an extreme bias against Dame....did I use that word correctly?

geeeezuz...

Just like others on here, You step into this thread, contributing nothing, only to make hater comments about me... Never once mentioning Chauncey, or offering your own opinion about why our Blazers are so dysfunctional.

My opinions were on topic, while yours were just about me. To be clear, I don't "hate" Dame, but I do think he's what is keeping us on the treadmill, but that wasn't my point in this thread at all. This teams history of Owner to Player contact, which strips the Coach and GM of the Power they need to do their job. That was the point I was making, and it was on topic.

So who's the Hater Wiz?

[DeBlazerRiddem]

I will absolutely agree our problems go much deeper than Chauncy. I think he is fine as a motivating coach and could maybe be decent cutting his teeth with a young roster with no expectations, but he does not bring what Damian Lillard needs, who doesn't lack for motivation but needs a cunning vision on how to create the right situations on the court for him to be successful offensively and minimize his weaknesses on defense. Its always been a tough one and a window that seems to get smaller and smaller each year.

The most frustrating thing is that our team has committed to the middle of the road path which speaks to the situation regarding a very weak ownership without the fire to really go for it. We are against the tax with almost nothing to show for it, at risk of another lottery pick. Dame is a good person and all you could ask for as a face of the franchise, he is a player that can score big and create special moments but needs a ton of players to support him in all the other ways. GP2, Hart, like get it done type players, we need as many of those as possible but we never seem to get the right mix together to make it work.

At some point though, you need someone in charge who is going to say enough is enough and be confident making big changes and after Paul I just don't feel we have that with ownership or management. It's all a bunch of folks who are happy to keep the gravy train rolling.

[Wizenheimer]

So who's the Hater Wiz?

when it comes to Dame, you are, and everybody here sees it but you, apparently

[Wizenheimer]

I will absolutely agree our problems go much deeper than Chauncy. I think he is fine as a motivating coach and could maybe be decent cutting his teeth with a young roster with no expectations, but he does not bring what Damian Lillard needs, who doesn't lack for motivation but needs a cunning vision on how to create the right situations on the court for him to be successful offensively and minimize his weaknesses on defense. Its always been a tough one and a window that seems to get smaller and smaller each year.

The most frustrating thing is that our team has committed to the middle of the road path which speaks to the situation regarding a very weak ownership without the fire to really go for it. We are against the tax with almost nothing to show for it, at risk of another lottery pick. Dame is a good person and all you could ask for as a face of the franchise, he is a player that can score big and create special moments but needs a ton of players to support him in all the other ways. GP2, Hart, like get it done type players, we need as many of those as possible but we never seem to get the right mix together to make it work.

At some point though, you need someone in charge who is going to say enough is enough and be confident making big changes and after Paul I just don't feel we have that with ownership or management. It's all a bunch of folks who are happy to keep the gravy train rolling.

pointing at the Vulcans is easy and most likely valid. Their priorities have never seemed to be about putting the best team on the floor, more about putting out a product that keeps revenue rolling in without rocking the boat. When Paul Allen was alive it sure seemed he kept the worst tendencies of the Vulcans at bay. That's not to say that PA didn't have some flawed tendencies himself, the main one being his willingness to keep Olshey in place

I can't fault the Vulcans for not wanting to pay tax for this year's team. And for wanting to get out of the tax with last year's team. neither team seems/seemed worth a luxury tax investment and looked like a perfect opportunity to re-set the repeater tax clock

Portland's biggest issue, and the one that has been the biggest issue over the last decade or so is the Olshey era. The Blazers still have an Olshey hangover. While the rest of the NBA was going for length at wing (the SG-SF-PF) positions, Olshey, idiotically, went the other direction and created poorly balanced rosters with undersized players all over the rotation. And while the rest of the NBA was recognizing the value of having two-way players, guys who contribute on both ends of the floor, Olshey tries to cheap-screw his way thru by adding inexpensive, one-dimensional role players.

Cronin has really had less than a year to correct all that and it simply isn't enough time or enough trade-deadines or off-season to do so. He doesn't escape scrutiny either because all three of the contracts he gave Simons-Nurkic-Payton are very questionable

Olshey wasted many cap-space opportunities ( I mean, c'mon, max-contract offers to Roy Hibbert, Enes Kanter, Greg Monroe, Chandler Parsons, and Hassan Whiteside?....geeeeezuz). And he went on one of the most ridiculous spending sprees ever in 2016 when he gave out over 340M in contract to role players, and almost all of them well below average role players. And of coures his ridiculous man-crush on CJ cost Portland several opportunites at a major upgrade

but those screw-ups aren't his most egregious mismanagement. That's what he did to Blazers draft picks in his tenure. Olshey spent 7 first round picks, yes 7, on Afflalo, Zach, Swanigan, RoCo, and Nance.....geeeezuz squared. And I had to endure the drivel for years about how great Olshey was at drafting. What BS, he was a draft disaster for the Blazers. 7 first round picks wasted and right now, the Blazers roster has not one thing to show for those 7 picks. Nothing...Nada....Zilch. The draft is Portland's best hope of building a contender and they have wasted too many firsts over the last 6 drafts; and they still have one more to send to Chicago

so yeah, it's a mess right now, and Cronin may or may not be the GM who can correct it. And it may be that ownership saddles Cronin with impossible demands. Trading Dame is not going to yield the godfather package many apparently anticipate. And unless the Blazers trade everybody else with on-floor value, including Simons, they will stay in that purgatory of play-in-seeding/end-of-lottery.

[JRoy]

Helps Portland get into the lottery if we keep Chauncey

I didn’t think of that.

Great point.

But seriously, Billups needs to go.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Chauncey is better than Nate was in one respect at least, Nate would throw the players u Dee the bus after every loss. Chauncey at least seems to be willing to take part of the blame.

[BNM]

POR is now 0-8 in their last 8 Clutch Time performances. The combined records (at the time) was 143-165. Not exactly the elite of the league.

POR's execution has been absolutely pathetic in the 4th quarter of close games. The Lakers game was just the latest 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 has been 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 have shot 51.0% from the field, 31.6% from 3-point range for an eFG% of 56.9%. POR turns the ball over on 25% of their Cutch Time possessions. POR has 0 points off TOV, their opponents have 16.

During Clutch Time, POR has 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 is HOU with a NETRtg of -57.6).

What really stands out here, is that despite of their Clutch Time ineptitude, POR actually has the 5th best overall ORTG of 115.9. POR clearly has the talent to score the basketball, yet their execution with the game on the line is absolutely abysmal. I blame this 100% on Chauncey. The team is 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.

This shouldn't be a surprise, given Chauncey's (lack of) coaching resume. Prior to the PPOR hire, Chauncey had not been a head coach at any level - not the NBA, not college, not high school, not even 3rd grade CYO. His ONLY previous coaching experience was limited to one season as one of eight assistant coaches for the Clippers. When yo have a head coach and that many assistants, what are the odds that the new guy with zero previous experience was actually heavily involved in the play calling?

Bottom line, POR is consistently getting abused by inferior talent during the closing minutes of close games. They are losing games they should win. 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 have gone from the most clutch team in the league to the worst. This is the difference between an experienced coach and one with zero prior head coaching experience.

[BNM]

Chauncey is better than Nate was in one respect at least, Nate would throw the players u Dee the bus after every loss. Chauncey at least seems to be willing to take part of the blame.

He deserves 90% of the blame. I have never seen such disorganized chaos during the 4th quarter by an NBA team. Chauncey is in way over his head. Sure, it's great he accepts part of the blame. If he wasn't so incompetent, there would be a lot less blame to go around.

[Sinobas]

I think we can safely say he's not getting par with this roster. There are teams that just started rebuild mode that are doing better than us.

[Moonbeam]

Yeah, I would be pretty happy to see Chauncey go at this point. Portland does not seem to be playing to its talent level in my view, and there are far too many early big deficits or late capitulations for my liking. At this point, Billups seems like yet another parting gift from Olshey that will hamper the team as long as he remains with the team.

[m0ng0]

Or maybe this team is not very good...

[Moonbeam]

Or maybe this team is not very good...

They're not, but I think they should be quite a bit better than they are. Chauncey shouldn't get all of the blame for that, but IMO he should have enough that I'd be happy to see him fired.

[BNM]

Or maybe this team is not very good...

Yet, talent wise, they are better than the roster during Stotts' last season (a roster that started RoCo and Derick Jones Jr. at forward for most of the season, who averaged 8.5 and 6.8 ppg). That team finished the season 42-30 and 6th in the West. They were also 24-13 in Clutch Time games and didn't consistently blow 4th quarter leads against teams with losing records.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

The team consistently coming out flat at the start of the game and the end of game is telling IMO, those are the two of the three parts of the game the coach needs to influence the most (the 3rd is coming out of halftime where we maybe seem slightly better?). This team seems to do most of our work in the flow of the game, and that could very likely be down more to players just playing the game and scorers just knowing how to score than it is any coaching direction, perhaps the middle parts of the game are reflective more of our talent level versus the strategic decisions we made.

The truth is however, that us fans looking from the outside wont really know if the issue is Billups. I think its a pretty damn fair guess that he isn't helping anything, but honestly it comes down most to whether the players still believe in him, whether they think he is putting them in the best spots to win and it is for other reasons that we are not. But for whatever reason it seems like the decisions of how to utilize players is not doing its best to maximize our talent.

That's not to say that the best coach of all time would win a championship with this team but we should be better than this, we are playing below the sum of our parts. We at least have some solid scorers and solid role players and some bench pieces that aren't abysmal. We definitely could use a couple more legit rotation players but it feels like we are mostly tweaks away from reaching the sum of our parts, a mid-low seeded playoff team. I do think we lack the top level talent to be true contenders but it is not easy to get top level talent. Still, with a few tweaks I think we can be a better more successful team and provide a challenge for more talented teams but you have to have solid coaching to make a roster play more than the sum of their parts.

[Wizenheimer]

might as well put this here:

Dame over the last 12 games:

34 & 8
30 & 5
50 & 3
36 & 10
40 & 6
44 & 8
25 & 11
24 & 10
37 & 12
60 & 8
30 & 3
41 & 6

that's a 38 & 8 average....such a bad teammate