Post#25 » by zzaj » Sun Jan 14, 2024 4:05 am
With a team this young, and especially with a 19 year old starting PG it was always going to be rough. We all knew that. But we all secretly hoped Scoot was as good as his hype and his opinion of himself, and we're used to PGs that can come in and do what they do pretty much out of the gate.
Also, caveat...the Blazers have probably had what? maaaaybe 15 practices since the start of the season? For a variety of reasons the NBA needs to shorten the season. I have heard that most teams are averaging 1-2 practices per week because of travel. They are literally practicing during games.
That being said, despite what seems like a daunting task, Chauncey had a pretty simple job to do: take one or two areas of each of the young players' games and make them a repeatable area of focus so that they can build some confidence and 'second nature' NBA ability, which will big picture look like "development". A lot of losing can be forgiven (including by the players, IMO) if we can see some personal growth in the players. Personally, I've seen none of that except for a bit in Scoot and some in Camara. Sharpe in particular needs to be groomed and he's just not getting set up for success. I'd love for somebody like Roy to be in his ear constantly...
I noted it a couple of weeks into the season, but Chauncey doesn't seem to really have much of an offense or defense set up for the team. And if he does, then he's doing a piss-poor job of getting his players to execute anything resembling good NBA basketball. This shouldn't come as any surprise with Scotty Brooks as his lead assistant. I never had huge love for Stotts, but you could actually SEE that he had a system in place when his players were on the court, and to his credit the teams he led often overachieved based on his coaching and Lillard's greatness and ability to run Stotts' system.
If Chauncey came in because Lillard wanted him here, I see no reason that he should be here now. I don't think Budenholzer would come here, but I believe 100% that the team would be better with him at the helm. Becky Hammon, too. It may not add more to the W column (it probably would) but more importantly we would see some structure and evidence of good coaching.