Fire Terry Stotts?

[illuminati666]

I understand he wasn't working with a full roster, but this team was horrible this season defensively. Ranked 27th in DRTG, and while the offense was number 10, they were at the bottom of the league in assists. As a Dame fan I tried watching a bunch of their games, and while yes they didn't have great defensive personnel... they didn't even seem to have a defensive system at all. Rotations were poor, effort was poor, and I think that that's a reflection of poor coaching.

On offense, it felt like they were Iso-heavy and being carried by Dame with poor ball movement and no system... imo another reflection of poor coaching. If I'm wrong about their play correct me, but IMO they've always been a limited team with the way that they play. They remind me of the Dwayne Casey Raptors, iso heavy with good offensive players, but not a winning system.

Terry Stotts is a good coach imo. Ik he's been good with the Blazers, the team loves him and his job is probably safe for atleast 1 more yr. But I think like many 'good' teams before them they need to make a coaching change to have a chance to reach that next level. Casey, Mark Jackson, SVG all good coaches but their teams took off when they finally changed things up, and I think unless there's a strong resurgence where they make it back into the playoffs and play WELL in the first round, the Blazers should consider looking for a new coach this offseason, regardless of the injuries.

[realball]

They lost Nurkic and signed Melo. You expected them to be a good defensive team?

Stotts has done wonders with what he's been given.

[HeatIn5]

Depends how involved he is in their signings/trades.

He's a stable adult to have around during this time. If he is not completely hindering you, keep him. If he wants to resign Whiteside? Fired.

[Lockdown504090]

A coaches job is to put the best system in place for the players he has. They have melo and Whiteside so they can’t rotate on defense, can’t switch screens and Cj is small for a 2. On offence, they don’t have “ball movers”, good screeners, or a low post presence. What else should they do. Gm and owner gotta die on this one. When he had a good roster, he made the wcf, without nurkic and lost to a team that’s way better than the blazers.

I don’t think a new coach can solve these issues

[TheFinishSniper]

Yes. So Bulls can hire him.

[Dzon Dilindzer]

i wanted terry stotts gone in the previous years, but he shouldnt get any blame for this season

blazers lost nurk last season, then we traded harkless and let aminu walk in the summer (both of them solid defenders when engaged) and we brought in hezonja and tolliver which is clear downgrade, bazemore was a bad pickup too, then we lost collins at the beginning of the season and brought in carmelo as replacement and then we lost hood early in the season too

blazers played all season without two best defenders in nurk and collins, and hood who was really nice pickup for the blazers, so thats three starters out... like i said, hezonja, tolliver and baze were trash, carmelo is trash too if hes not scoring efficiently and whiteside is not good as his numbers suggest

there are few positives like dame who is having a great season, then gary trent jr who is a pleasant surprise and its safe to say blazers have a nice backup sg in him, then ariza who was a nice pickup too and then theres simons who is inconsistent, but thats understandable given hes playing meaningful minutes for the first time in his career and hes not pg

injuries destroyed this team, so its not fair to blame terry stotts, we should wait until next season when were gonna have nurk and collins back, hopefully hood too and hopefully neil olshey will do better job than last summer

[babyjax13]

Terry Stotts has never been the problem. They've had one of the worst front offices in the league at putting talent around their star players, and had they not lucked out with Lillard, I think people would view them as a much worse FO than they do. Damien Lillard, IMO is a top five player in the league, and they've only put one reliable player next to him (CJ).

[NCHeels2008]

Stotts has made lemonade no matter what he is given, but I don't think it's the worst move just to shake things up. He was fine this year but overall the Blazers seem stagnant (though that's more a roster issue than coaching). 8 seasons is a long time in the modern league but I'd only want to find a different coach if he was a clear upgrade (e.g. Kerr, Pop, Nurse, Stevens, Carlisle).

[NCHeels2008]

Terry Stotts has never been the problem. They've had one of the worst front offices in the league at putting talent around their star players, and had they not lucked out with Lillard, I think people would view them as a much worse FO than they do. Damien Lillard, IMO is a top five player in the league, and they've only put one reliable player next to him (CJ).

If you look at each offseason in isolation there aren't many terrible moves, the biggest crime they committed was bad timing (good supporting cast becoming FAs in 2016 like Heat and Hornets).

[babyjax13]

Terry Stotts has never been the problem. They've had one of the worst front offices in the league at putting talent around their star players, and had they not lucked out with Lillard, I think people would view them as a much worse FO than they do. Damien Lillard, IMO is a top five player in the league, and they've only put one reliable player next to him (CJ).

If you look at each offseason in isolation there aren't many terrible moves, the biggest crime they committed was bad timing (good supporting cast becoming FAs in 2016 like Heat and Hornets).

Their 2016 offseason may be the single worst offseason in the past 20 years. Evan Turner signed for 4/70; Meyers Leonard 4/41; Allen Crabbe 4/75; Mo Harkless 4/40...had they let every one of those players walked and signed replacement level guys at the minimum, they would have been no worse as a team. They put themselves into a terrible situation, and it was pretty clear at the time.

[Jabroni Lames]

Yes. So Bulls can hire him.

Bulls are hiring a black coach. 100% book it.

[NCHeels2008]

Terry Stotts has never been the problem. They've had one of the worst front offices in the league at putting talent around their star players, and had they not lucked out with Lillard, I think people would view them as a much worse FO than they do. Damien Lillard, IMO is a top five player in the league, and they've only put one reliable player next to him (CJ).

If you look at each offseason in isolation there aren't many terrible moves, the biggest crime they committed was bad timing (good supporting cast becoming FAs in 2016 like Heat and Hornets).

Their 2016 offseason may be the single worst offseason in the past 20 years. Evan Turner signed for 4/70; Meyers Leonard 4/41; Allen Crabbe 4/75; Mo Harkless 4/40...had they let every one of those players walked and signed replacement level guys at the minimum, they would have been no worse as a team. They put themselves into a terrible situation, and it was pretty clear at the time.

Zach Lowe a pretty respected NBA writer didn't list them as a "loser" in his 2016 FA recap and even listed the Hornets as a winner (who had a similar FA).

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16992129/rating-won-lost-nba-free-agency-period

In this piece, he was slightly more critical but even seems to admit there weren't a lot of great alternatives for them.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/17213986/the-blazers-looking-get-better-build-future

But please tell us more Captain Hindsight.

[PDX MM]

If anyone is getting fired then start with Neil Olshey since he is the one responsible for the roster construction.

[illuminati666]

If you look at each offseason in isolation there aren't many terrible moves, the biggest crime they committed was bad timing (good supporting cast becoming FAs in 2016 like Heat and Hornets).

Their 2016 offseason may be the single worst offseason in the past 20 years. Evan Turner signed for 4/70; Meyers Leonard 4/41; Allen Crabbe 4/75; Mo Harkless 4/40...had they let every one of those players walked and signed replacement level guys at the minimum, they would have been no worse as a team. They put themselves into a terrible situation, and it was pretty clear at the time.

Zach Lowe a pretty respected NBA writer didn't list them as a "loser" in his 2016 FA recap and even listed the Hornets as a winner (who had a similar FA).

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16992129/rating-won-lost-nba-free-agency-period

In this piece, he was slightly more critical but even seems to admit there weren't a lot of great alternatives for them.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/17213986/the-blazers-looking-get-better-build-future

But please tell us more Captain Hindsight.

I mean the Crabbe and Turner contracts looked pretty bad at the time. But I thought most contracts during that offseason were ridiculous, turned out to be right. They def have made some blunders as a front office, but they've also made great moves. The trade for Nurkic was a steal, the signing of Hood fantastic, drafting Zach Collins. But then letting Aminu and Harkless go, trading for Bazemore... it sucks but I think overall they've been average with their moves.

[illuminati666]

i wanted terry stotts gone in the previous years, but he shouldnt get any blame for this season

blazers lost nurk last season, then we traded harkless and let aminu walk in the summer (both of them solid defenders when engaged) and we brought in hezonja and tolliver which is clear downgrade, bazemore was a bad pickup too, then we lost collins at the beginning of the season and brought in carmelo as replacement and then we lost hood early in the season too

blazers played all season without two best defenders in nurk and collins, and hood who was really nice pickup for the blazers, so thats three starters out... like i said, hezonja, tolliver and baze were trash, carmelo is trash too if hes not scoring efficiently and whiteside is not good as his numbers suggest

there are few positives like dame who is having a great season, then gary trent jr who is a pleasant surprise and its safe to say blazers have a nice backup sg in him, then ariza who was a nice pickup too and then theres simons who is inconsistent, but thats understandable given hes playing meaningful minutes for the first time in his career and hes not pg

injuries destroyed this team, so its not fair to blame terry stotts, we should wait until next season when were gonna have nurk and collins back, hopefully hood too and hopefully neil olshey will do better job than last summer

I probably agree that Stotts deserves another year with a healthy roster. I guess my point is that he shouldn't be let off the hook for this season. They didn't have a great team, but they didn't have a terrible one either, and I think even with the injuries - they underperformed. Watching the games it was definitely a defense issue, and the biggest problem I saw was that noone was on the same page. They didn't have a system, they didn't have good rotations, for how good of a team they're supposed to be it was horrendous, and it's a coach's job to instil the system within his team. Ppl say Whiteside sucks and I agree, but his Heat teams were decent defensively bc Spoelstra had his players playing at a high level and with effort. And offensively unless they move away from the heavy-iso system they're never gonna get to the next level.

I think next year if Blazers fans don't see a more dynamic offense, and a much improved defense, Stotts should be on the hot seat. He's still a great coach but at that point I think you would need to bring in another guy who might take this team to the next level both defensively and offensively...like Nurse did for us. Lillard is a stud, this team could become a contender, if Stotts can't do it why waste more of Lillard's years.

[KnicksGadfly]

Can't blame Stotts. He did his best with washed-up guys like Melo.

[HMFFL]

If Coach reaches free agency he will be very popular.
Portland's front office has been active but not in the best ways. Blame Neil Olshey!

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[JRoy]

No coach in history could get good defense out of this years Blazers.

As others have said, the problem is more Olshey that Stotts.

[JayMKE]

Probably shouldn't fire an adequate coach if you don't have some other plan, you don't wan't to be fighting with the Knicks over Thibs Or Jason Kidd. Injuries and roster construction more of the issue.

[DaPessimist]

They don't have any good passers or defenders... so fire the GM?