Time for a new coach? If so, whom?

[Epicurus]

1. Last night was certainly on the offense, as I previously stated.
2. I don't think opponents get to rest four guys when say McCollum or even Anthony pound the ball. Both would destroy almost any defender one on one.
3. I personally would like to see all our primary ball handlers passing the ball quicker when double teamed. Yet they are not that accurate of passers (yes, even when getting assists) and getting rid of the ball is what the opponent wants from them. But still, the number of times I've screamed at Lillard particularly to pass grows innumerable. Yet he doesn't seem to hear me through the tv.
4. The offense is not the problem overall, as even in the playoff shot quality is not bad.
5. Upsetting to me last night was the 22-3 run and 21-3 runs, each about 5 and half minutes. In each the Blazers fouled just once. That implies to me too much passiveness. I am not calling for intentional fouls, but at least enough defensive hostility to force the refs in deciding to call a foul.

[Pattycakes]

The “I don’t see a better name out there” train is off base, sometimes a change of scenery is good for both sides regardless if we have to rally around an interim. It’s clear as it can be that Stotts has maxed out his capabilities here, and his ability to make the most out of things is cool and all, but we actually have the vets to be much better at this point and continue to be very mediocre while he still walks out with a smile every night and scoops his paychecks. It’s embarrassing... it’s like our team is the loyal bf that continues to settle while all their friends are just happy for them they even could go get a good girl. This is a professional multibillion dollar business, there’s very little room for emotions when underperforming is becoming such a regular theme. I don’t like throwing away opportunities to contend, I don’t know about everyone else... but the same lifelong loyalty to this backcourt in context to a lifelong loyalty to the coach is very one way thinking. Clearly the commitment to culture is outweighing the commitment to winning, and this team needs to be a bit riskier if they’d ever want to win a title. Otherwise what are we here for? Sell some tickets, be a comparatively relevant small market team stuck in treadmill oblivion? I’ll take my Martell Webster/Telfair Blazers any day if it at least isn’t so stubbornly focused on being mediocre forever.

My dream... Pop sees more value going out with a veteran team than spending ten years making the Spurs a contender again... gets his balls back and comes here and commands the most out of these guys. Literally the opposite of Stotts. My gut has been locked on him for about a full year now, so I’m hoping there’s something there and this off-season we make a final run with this core and bring back Melo/Enes/Norm for the year and try to change things up.

[Goldbum]

I have always been happy with Stotts but I can no longer deny the obvious... His offense is dated. His defensive is embarrassing... I genuinely wonder how much of his success has been the direct result of assistant coaches and not his own coaching. We just have to move on. He's been a class act and overall good guy. His tenure with the team will be remembered as a missed opportunity.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Changing a coach is the first things teams in trouble do because its literally one of the least impactful and therefore easiest changes. The players on the court stay the same.

Mid-season, especially in a compressed schedule like this year, there isn't a chance for a new coach to really implement any of their own schemes or mold the team to their vision in a meaningful way so you are left with the players and the habits they have. That is no more conducive to winning in the playoffs than having a coach who has worked with the players for years and should only be considered by teams looking to lose out the rest of the season. If a coach has really reached the limit long-term with the team in terms of X and O's then the time to change is in the off-season.


That's not to say get we can or should never get rid of Stotts, but the best argument to get rid of him mid-season wont come from outside the team but from the players themselves, if they can no longer work with the coach for whatever reason. Other than that it is only a pacifier for the fans, a way to temporarily shut up the critics, maybe a hope and a prayer that something *anything* changes in the short term, be it good or bad.

[Epicurus]

I have always been happy with Stotts but I can no longer deny the obvious... His offense is dated. His defensive is embarrassing... I genuinely wonder how much of his success has been the direct result of assistant coaches and not his own coaching. We just have to move on. He's been a class act and overall good guy. His tenure with the team will be remembered as a missed opportunity.

Missed opportunity? Are you really representing that the player talent and its balance over the last nine years would have produced more wins under another coach? If this is a period of " missed opportunities, " I think one should look more closely at the front office than the coaching staff. Further you realize that Stotts was once considered one of the best assistant coaches and thus has the coaching chops you deny him and attribute to his staff. But yes, head coaches rely heavily on their assistants in many areas. Rick Carlisie has a championship ring due to his reliance on his offensive and defensive coordinators.

[kumquat]

I’d say yes but idk who we realistically replace him with. There’s always guys who go from one nba team to another and they’re kind of meh at this point. Then there’s college coaches, Juwan howard has done well in college but like any coach is he gonna be any good in the nba? Dana Altman has had massive success at oregon but he’s getting older. Or the usc coach has done well as well. I think the big question with any college coach is does their coaching mesh with grown men nearly as well as it does with college players. And honestly besides guys like izzo self and coach k there’s no one in college that really jumps out at me

as far as nba assistants udoka would be interesting perhaps. I’ve heard joerger mentioned as one of the tougher guys to game plan for and he got stuck in sacramento but did ok but i’m not sure about him.. Alvin gentry has eyons of playoff fails as does Dantoni. Maybe our best shot is to wait to see if any nba coaches with solid resumes get thrown under the bus

Dave Joerger would be at the top of my list. He's reknowned for tough, defensive minded teams. He's never coached a player like Damian Lillard. It would be very interesting to see what he could do with this team (minus changes of course)

I like the Dave Joerger call.

There is no rhyme or reason to anything the blazers do on the court. The two guard ISO ball that’s being played doesn’t work and it took about 6 seasons to figure out a solution to the defenders thrown at Lillard. That was literally shoot from near half court to drag defenders out further.

There is no defensive scheme put together to fit the players in the current roster. Putting in great man to man defensive players like Roco isn’t going to hold your team defense together.

[Epicurus]

The offense doesn't work? 5th, 3rd, 3rd in last three years. There are some wild charges being leveled at Stotts' time, but a non productive offense is the most bizarre. Maybe the opposing coaches are just really stupid that they can't control the Blazers' offense better. I am also curious as to what defensive "scheme" (love the use of that term, almost an admission of unknowledge) exists given the primary guards' defensive play and the need to give Kanter minutes given Nurk's condition.

[GEE]

This question, in reality, isn't as easy to answer as one might think. My simple answer is Yes, and IDK who. Doing it soon and not waiting would also be my choice, as we aren't winning anything this year, and it essentially puts the "HELP WANTED" sign in the window.

Should be plenty of interest I would think, and my heart too wants Ime Udoka, but I worry that ship may have sailed with his recent hire in BKN. Maybe not, or maybe we can do better. I really don't know who the best choice would be, but Luke Walton is the guy I'd like to kick the tires on, knowing how Sac's problems seem to be at the very top levels, well beyond the coaching staff. He has a ridiculously high BBIQ influenced by HOF'ers like his father, obviously, but also John Wooden, Lute Olson and Steve Kerr.

[PDXKnight]

I’d say yes but idk who we realistically replace him with. There’s always guys who go from one nba team to another and they’re kind of meh at this point. Then there’s college coaches, Juwan howard has done well in college but like any coach is he gonna be any good in the nba? Dana Altman has had massive success at oregon but he’s getting older. Or the usc coach has done well as well. I think the big question with any college coach is does their coaching mesh with grown men nearly as well as it does with college players. And honestly besides guys like izzo self and coach k there’s no one in college that really jumps out at me

as far as nba assistants udoka would be interesting perhaps. I’ve heard joerger mentioned as one of the tougher guys to game plan for and he got stuck in sacramento but did ok but i’m not sure about him.. Alvin gentry has eyons of playoff fails as does Dantoni. Maybe our best shot is to wait to see if any nba coaches with solid resumes get thrown under the bus

Dave Joerger would be at the top of my list. He's reknowned for tough, defensive minded teams. He's never coached a player like Damian Lillard. It would be very interesting to see what he could do with this team (minus changes of course)

I like the Dave Joerger call.

There is no rhyme or reason to anything the blazers do on the court. The two guard ISO ball that’s being played doesn’t work and it took about 6 seasons to figure out a solution to the defenders thrown at Lillard. That was literally shoot from near half court to drag defenders out further.

There is no defensive scheme put together to fit the players in the current roster. Putting in great man to man defensive players like Roco isn’t going to hold your team defense together.

i’m really undecided on joerger. I’d agree it’d be interesting to see what he could do with more talent. I’m really not sure why he was terminated from his past jobs other than teams maybe overestimating their talent levels?

He doesn’t seem like he has a ton of post season success but then again it’s not as if he’s coached world beater teams.

[Blazer50]

Doubt that there would be any interest - but with their dismal season I would ask about Nick Nurse - who is renown as an offensive guru who was able to utilize motion and ISO sets effectively with Kawhi and Lowry running the show. Moreover, he built a solid defense around a talented but relatively unknown Siakam and Marc Gasol. Like to see if he could repeat with Collins and Nurkic.
He could solidify our chances to retain Norm Powell.

Stott's and CJ for Nurse and Siakim. Any Takers

[Brandon-Clyde]

Another option might be too hire both a top defensive assistant to handle the teams defense and an assistant coach whose main focus is big men

[d-train]

I don't believe an extra voice or a better voice would help our defense. I think we need a bigger player with the mobility to switch onto smaller players.

Our problem is execution and a player physically suited to defend the paint. No change in plan is going to help. It would more likely make execution worse. The only way to improve execution is reps or different players. Different players could also be worse if you replace the wrong players.

A proper solution would be to replace Nurk and Collins with players that aren't injured. How do we do that? Worse players aren't going to help. It's always easy to replace the coach. But, replacing the coaches does nothing to help us.

Right now, our best solution is continue to work on execution and wait for better health. The best time to change players is during the off-season when players are changing teams. And, good luck getting better players than Nurk or Collins. I'm sure Olshey will try, but only extreme luck will yield a result.

[Wizenheimer]

the first thing is to fire the guy who hired Stotts and let the new guy decide on the coach

[Village Idiot]

the first thing is to fire the guy who hired Stotts and let the new guy decide on the coach

Yeah, I didn't even see much of a point of starting a thread like that.

[whatchaknow]

I know coaching change usually precedes roster rebuild but the overall composition of this roster can’t win you a championship or feasibly get you close. So I’m more of a rebuild the roster at this point but Olshey won’t touch that idea

[Epicurus]

Looking at playoff probability charts at 538, I notice that the Blazers started the season with a 57% chance of reaching the playoffs. That chance is now 88%. Looking at other Western teams that seems the largest gain from the start of the season.

The player additions are better than the subtractions, but that just means one should have expected a better record, all things being equal than the previous season and not a championship contender. Thusfar that has happened.

[d-train]

I know coaching change usually precedes roster rebuild but the overall composition of this roster can’t win you a championship or feasibly get you close. So I’m more of a rebuild the roster at this point but Olshey won’t touch that idea

The clock is ticking on this team. Our key players realistically have 2 years left. This doesn't mean Olshey should give them 2 more years. 3 years ago, when the pull the plug crew were already calling for a rebuild, this roster had 5 years left. Olshey should consider a rebuild anytime the prospects of progress are more negative than positive. If we aren't going to see this team with Nurkic and Collins soon, then we don't lose much by dumping Lillard and CJ. We got the best of these guys in there prime. The few remaining good years are expensive. Lillard is ridiculously expensive. Olshey should demand results or save Jody's money.

I'm confident Olshey will blow this team up when the time is right. He wasn't afraid to blow it up in 2015. He will blow it up and spare nobody.

He could change coaches to start a rebuild, but that isn't necessary. Olshey hired Stotts to coach a fairly young team. He kept him in 2015 to coach a very young team. He kept Stotts after 1st round sweep in 2018 to coach a veteran team. Olshey clearly likes Stotts to coach either young or veteran players.

Personally, I am still very optimistic about this team. But, I am ready to start seeing some results. Playoffs are coming up. We have some very expensive veterans on this team. Nurkic should be close to proper physical condition. Collins can't be far from ready for limited minutes. The clock is ticking.