SEASON OPENER Portland vs. Clippers 7:30pm Wednsday Root,Root+

[Moonbeam]

Garbage time was a little fun seeing the players shake loose. Love seeing Jabari play, and it was good for Scoot to finish with some easy buckets to build confidence. Toumani Camara was awesome to watch as well.

We're in for a long year, so it's important to take what rays of hope and joy we can.

[Moonbeam]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

They do not. To be fair, there has been so much roster turnover that it is understandable that the players will take some time to get on the same page. That said, there was very little rhythm, especially on defense. Cronin said that Chauncey "finally has his guys to run his system", but if these are the results, it's not looking good.

[monopoman]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

They do not. To be fair, there has been so much roster turnover that it is understandable that the players will take some time to get on the same page. That said, there was very little rhythm, especially on defense. Cronin said that Chauncey "finally has his guys to run his system", but if these are the results, it's not looking good.

Billups is on a bit of a hot seat if this team really struggles. Sure they aren't expecting playoffs but they expect this team to trend up as the season goes along.

Some Blazer fans think his 2 more years on his contract after this year is huge but I read he only makes $2 million per year. So at that price I doubt wasting $4 million would be a huge ordeal. Especially if they feel another coach could do a better job. **** guys on vet minimum deals make about half what Billups makes per year.

At this point in the NBA terms $4 million is nothing much, when so many players make like 10 times that or more.

[PDXKnight]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

They do not. To be fair, there has been so much roster turnover that it is understandable that the players will take some time to get on the same page. That said, there was very little rhythm, especially on defense. Cronin said that Chauncey "finally has his guys to run his system", but if these are the results, it's not looking good.

Billups is on a bit of a hot seat if this team really struggles. Sure they aren't expecting playoffs but they expect this team to trend up as the season goes along.

Some Blazer fans think his 2 more years on his contract after this year is huge but I read he only makes $2 million per year. So at that price I doubt wasting $4 million would be a huge ordeal. Especially if they feel another coach could do a better job. **** guys on vet minimum deals make about half what Billups makes per year.

At this point in the NBA terms $4 million is nothing much, when so many players make like 10 times that or more.

even coaches making 10 million annually could be bought out pretty easily. Coaches are pretty expendable in every sport these days, it’s just a matter of when a franchise wants to change directions more than anything

[Effigy]

Yeah,I will be stunned if Chauncey is our coach next year.

I will laugh my ass off if we bring Stotts back.

[DusterBuster]

Yeah,I will be stunned if Chauncey is our coach next year.

I will laugh my ass off if we bring Stotts back.

I think Chauncey is getting a free pass this year and will be back.

No chance Stotts comes back.

This is definitely a “highlights only” year for me.

[Goldbum]

Clown show. Ayton sucks. Scoot looks like he needs to go back to the g League.Why did we rebuild? Because Jody decided one day ef the city and the fans? Ef Dame? It's so strange just watching this team with so much animosity. I've never felt this way before,I don't like this. I'm still angry, and I don't think it's going away any time soon. I think I actually hate this organization and I've been a blazer fan for 35 years. I'm just seething hatred right now.

I agree it looks awful so far, but it's Game 1. I share some anger with how management has treated the team and fans. Let's see how the team is looking by Game 20 or so.

It just makes me wonder what the roster would look like if Jody sold to Knight.

I think we're gonna try and get the first pick but I think we'll slide to 4-5.

Record after 20 games will be like 4-16.

I mean that's on pace for 20 wins and a lot of fans guessed 20-28. I don't want to advocate for gambling but maybe put something like 5k down in the under, that way you can get some enjoyment out of the losses

[Goldbum]

I really hope Jody decides it's worth the $$$ to fire Billups. I don't want to waste thus development year. Maybe she brings in a ringer to be an assistant development coach? Someone who can get s handle on the roster for most the season then takes over the final 20 games. Then next season bri gs in a whole new staff (and gawd help us blotts Scotty Brooks name from the history of thus franchise). I've asked the fans of every major Blazers site to name 3 current NBA coaches worse than Chauncey and I have received 0.00 suggestions.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Didn't see the game, but watched the highlights on YouTube and looked at the box scores. Surprised to see Simons only took 14 shots and am scratching my head at Ayton only taking 4 shots. Did Sharpe do anything other than follow-up everyone's misses and get some nice putbacks? I know the Clippers are stacked, but I was hoping for a better defensive showing than that.

[PDXKnight]

I really hope Jody decides it's worth the $$$ to fire Billups. I don't want to waste thus development year. Maybe she brings in a ringer to be an assistant development coach? Someone who can get s handle on the roster for most the season then takes over the final 20 games. Then next season bri gs in a whole new staff (and gawd help us blotts Scotty Brooks name from the history of thus franchise). I've asked the fans of every major Blazers site to name 3 current NBA coaches worse than Chauncey and I have received 0.00 suggestions.

Scott Brooks seems like a decent option for the developmental route

[Sinobas]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

They do not. To be fair, there has been so much roster turnover that it is understandable that the players will take some time to get on the same page. That said, there was very little rhythm, especially on defense. Cronin said that Chauncey "finally has his guys to run his system", but if these are the results, it's not looking good.

Hmm, so we're building a roster for Chauncy, but Chauncy hasn't even shown that he's worthy to be an NBA head coach. We've only looked worse in every way since Stotts departed.

[Sinobas]

Didn't see the game, but watched the highlights on YouTube and looked at the box scores. Surprised to see Simons only took 14 shots and am scratching my head at Ayton only taking 4 shots. Did Sharpe do anything other than follow-up everyone's misses and get some nice putbacks? I know the Clippers are stacked, but I was hoping for a better defensive showing than that.

I watched the game on a stream. Ayton displayed for me why the Suns grew to loath him. No motor. Robert Williams looked much better than Ayton, and I'd love to have him as our starting center, but historically he hasn't been able to play big minutes or stay healthy. I'd just love to put Robert's brain into Aytons body.

Time was split among the 4 guards. They had Scoot playing the role of SG at times, which makes zero sense to me either. Grant was just chucking shots, trying to get his numbers.

The team is a mess.

[red_power]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

Like there were times in the last two years when this team looked well coached

[DusterBuster]

I really hope Jody decides it's worth the $$$ to fire Billups. I don't want to waste thus development year. Maybe she brings in a ringer to be an assistant development coach? Someone who can get s handle on the roster for most the season then takes over the final 20 games. Then next season bri gs in a whole new staff (and gawd help us blotts Scotty Brooks name from the history of thus franchise). I've asked the fans of every major Blazers site to name 3 current NBA coaches worse than Chauncey and I have received 0.00 suggestions.

Yep, I'm fully in the same boat as well. Still just not seeing any sort of improvement in game management whatsoever from Chauncey. That said, I totally expect he's getting a free-pass this year.

Players still swear by him and he seems to have the team unified for now (not on the court obviously, where everyone just runs around like a chicken with their head cut off). So until lockerroom fissures start showing, I think his job is safe - sorry to say.

This team was going to be bad and that was about what I expected, but a good coach running set plays can get a lot out of a little. Chauncey has had talented rosters, but he's routinely gotten less out of more.

[Effigy]

Yeah,I will be stunned if Chauncey is our coach next year.

I will laugh my ass off if we bring Stotts back.

I think Chauncey is getting a free pass this year and will be back.

No chance Stotts comes back.

This is definitely a “highlights only” year for me.

Why would he get a free pass? It's his third year with the team. It's not just a young roster with nothing on it, we have Williams, Ayton, Grant, Brogdan, these are good NBA vets. The team should not look as abhorrent as they did yesterday. That is 100% on Chauncey.

And the Stotts comment was tongue in cheek, however, it's not unheard of for teams to rehire former coaches. Look at Clifford in Charlotte for instance. Personally I think it's about as likely that Stotts is our coach next year as Chauncey is. He needs to go.

[zzaj]

Overall, exactly as I expected...sort of. Only surprise was Ayton not going into "me" mode more.

Helluva defense for a 19 year old to start an NBA career against. But again, his numbers are what I expect this season...low assists, lots of TOs and plenty of fouls. Wemby's first game was underwhelming too, and fully expect him to be a top 10 big of all time if he stays healthy. Miller's first game was pretty meh, too. For those comparing it to Lillard's first game as a Blazer? That's an apples to oranges comparison. Like somebody pointed out, Lillard was 23 in his first NBA game and is a probably a Top 50 player all-time.

Chauncey. I'm not really sure what to say here. The team from a roster construction standpoint is a complete mess, and obviously nobody has a sense of how good he is at developing young players. But in terms of rotations and XO basketball it looks pretty effing bleak. He doesn't look like an NBA head coach to me. Jason Kidd level coaching...

That being said, what do you do if you're Cronin? If the plan is to throw all this roster spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, then I guess it's fine to stick with Billups? It doesn't make sense to have a "win now" coach with where these guys are at, currently. I don't really see any better options out there...

Ayton. I still think it's a better option than Nurkic, for the locker room and for the above the rim potential. Scoot will definitely miss Nurkic's screen game, but having a lob threat will hopefully shift defenses enough to open up new angles in the half court for Scoot. And let's not forget we'd only see Nurkic for 40-50 games anyway.

All in all, this is EXACTLY what we're going to be seeing a lot of this season...or should I say, trying to see, since the Blazers have their head completely up their own a$$ in terms of regional viewership.

[DC_Melo]

Dames first game he had 23 and 11 +16 and ended the Lakers ridiculous all star team of Nash, Kobe, Howard etc before they even got started. Basically ended Nashs career his first game as a Laker. Legendary.

Dame’s first game was indeed legendary. Injuring Nash on an accidental contact play was unfortunate, but that didn’t take away from his great game. Which is a rarity among rookie PGs. Dame was a real one that was too often under appreciated IMHO.

Scoot’s got big shoes to fill. But I think he’ll do just fine. It’s pretty obvious he’s struggling to read NBA caliber defenses, which is normal for playmaking PGs, especially the ones that enter the league so young.

[zzaj]

Yeah,I will be stunned if Chauncey is our coach next year.

I will laugh my ass off if we bring Stotts back.

I think Chauncey is getting a free pass this year and will be back.

No chance Stotts comes back.

This is definitely a “highlights only” year for me.

Why would he get a free pass? It's his third year with the team. It's not just a young roster with nothing on it, we have Williams, Ayton, Grant, Brogdan, these are good NBA vets. The team should not look as abhorrent as they did yesterday. That is 100% on Chauncey.

And the Stotts comment was tongue in cheek, however, it's not unheard of for teams to rehire former coaches. Look at Clifford in Charlotte for instance. Personally I think it's about as likely that Stotts is our coach next year as Chauncey is. He needs to go.

You really think Stotts wants to come back and agree to be the head coach of a likely 20 win team? Would YOU want to do that if you were Stotts? Or would you want to wait a year or two for a middling or contending team to ditch their head coach and come knocking...OR sit back and enjoy your family, play golf when you want, and enjoy your millions?

Obviously, being a head coach is a massive commitment that takes you away from your loved ones for most of the year and is hard on your body. Stotts is in his mid-60s now. There is a reason veteran head coaches with winning records don't take jobs with losing organizations very often.

[DC_Melo]

I know this team is young, but they do not look well coached...

They do not. To be fair, there has been so much roster turnover that it is understandable that the players will take some time to get on the same page. That said, there was very little rhythm, especially on defense. Cronin said that Chauncey "finally has his guys to run his system", but if these are the results, it's not looking good.

I harbor a bias that NBA (and honestly all sports) coaches get too often scapegoated by fans, and often don’t get a fair shake. I can go on about it but I won’t lol.

That said, Chauncey does not look good as a coach. I believe he has potential, as he clearly displayed an ability to not just understand the game, but to learn and grow his understanding as a player. So I believe it is still possible for Chauncey to someday be a good coach.

But yikes he looked bad yesterday. I get that we were overmatched against a team with far more continuity than ours (which is almost every team tbh), but since I live out of market and watch on LP, I get a lot more shots of coaches talking to players in their huddles (since LP doesn’t show most of the transitional special effects of the broadcast. It just ends a commercial and cuts to a team huddle lol).

It was crazy the disparity between him and Lue. Lue was coaching his ass off in every huddle from tip to finish. He didn’t waste a second of opportunity to talk to his players. You’d think he was coaching a playoff game 7 from his body language. Then the cameras would cut to Chauncey, standing around his huddle looking more lost than the ethical conviction of a politician while his assistants discussed with each other what to do, before eventually talking to the players.

[Effigy]

I think Chauncey is getting a free pass this year and will be back.

No chance Stotts comes back.

This is definitely a “highlights only” year for me.

Why would he get a free pass? It's his third year with the team. It's not just a young roster with nothing on it, we have Williams, Ayton, Grant, Brogdan, these are good NBA vets. The team should not look as abhorrent as they did yesterday. That is 100% on Chauncey.

And the Stotts comment was tongue in cheek, however, it's not unheard of for teams to rehire former coaches. Look at Clifford in Charlotte for instance. Personally I think it's about as likely that Stotts is our coach next year as Chauncey is. He needs to go.

You really think Stotts wants to come back and agree to be the head coach of a likely 20 win team? Would YOU want to do that if you were Stotts? Or would you want to wait a year or two for a middling or contending team to ditch their head coach and come knocking...OR sit back and enjoy your family, play golf when you want, and enjoy your millions?

Obviously, being a head coach is a massive commitment that takes you away from your loved ones for most of the year and is hard on your body. Stotts is in his mid-60s now. There is a reason veteran head coaches with winning records don't take jobs with losing organizations very often.

I think you may need to google 'tongue in cheek' my friend.