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Blazers edge is reporting that Chauncey Billups will return as Blazer head coach next year.

Curious about forum consensus on that.

Let's hope Chauncey leaves for another job

He hasn't really shown himself to be head coach material. The only thing I can guess is that management wants a tank commander who won't get too many wins.

Brandon-Clyde wrote:He hasn't really shown himself to be head coach material. The only thing I can guess is that management wants a tank commander who won't get too many wins.

Exactly. It feels like the Blazers don't have the foundation that they want yet (from what it seems). Let's see how these draft picks look and if Billups can develop them this season.

Haven't put much thought into it, but I wonder who out there is ready for a HC job.

It's a bit difficult situation to evaluate. Have this team had a more sensible ownership, changing the HC would have been a top priority.
But in reality, tanking team like Blazers could actually do even worse than Chauncey.

Anyway, it might OK with this return as long as you can put up with Blazers not being able to perform well for another season.

If a high quality coach becomes available, I hope they pull the trigger.

I've long given up on the Blazers firing Billups.

The only ways I see him stopping being the Blazers coach is if they're still awful when there are more (any) expectations or if he just decides he doesn't want to keep doing it. In the latter example, I could see Cronin giving Chauncey an off-ramp of sorts to a front-office role as another assistant GM kind of thing.

I don't think Billups is a good coach. More than that though is that Olshey should have never been given the opportunity to hire him

it really doesn't matter much at this point. In fact, if Billups is a bad coach than he's the perfect tank commander to have for next season, especially if Cronin screws up the off-season as I suspect he will

It's less that he returns and more than he isn't being let go early. That BE article was phrased really poorly IMO, he still is owed guaranteed money. He also is being a good company man and delivering the lottery outcome the team pretty obviously desires. With those two circumstances he wouldn't be let go early based on performance but because we had someone lined up to take his job that we think is an upgrade. Until that person is identified and ready then there is no real reason to pay him to stay home and force our hand into a coaching search. Not every coach would good sports about the intentional tanking job that we have been doing here, especially at the end of season, so it would be weird to fire a guy for delivering the results he is asked to deliver.

I'm not really trying to defend him as a coach and will be happy to move on whenever no love lost, but there is more to being a coach than shouting from the sidelines during games. There is a ton of internal team and player politics that he is in the middle of, so having good working relations with both the front office and the players is an essential job role as he is the bridge between them. Having players feel confident and emboldened, especially young players who might have bounced around from a couple teams, is an atmosphere and culture that a coach can foster and Billups seems to get high praise in that regard and with his personal journey.

Again, I don't think he is anything special as a coach but I do suspect the things he does well are the things we as fans are less likely to see. Of course if we end up extending him you will find me being upset by that decision as being the wrong move, but for this current summer I don't see it as being very important to ditch him.

JRoy wrote:Blazers edge is reporting that Chauncey Billups will return as Blazer head coach next year.

Curious about forum consensus on that.

I think the Chauncey hate is just as bad as the cronin hate. Only few can stomach a tanking mission, and this team succeeded quite well while imparting on significant development of DA, Murray, Camara, Scoot, Rupert and Walker.. not to mention possibly helping both Banton and Reath become nba players.

I think we’ll be better next year and I just wish we could all manage a little optimism towards the process. Like we suffered enough tread milling for over a decade practically. Anything but that should be heavily coveted.

Billups clearly has the players' trust. Every young player has improved (even if slightly) with him as coach. He's perfect for "capture the Flagg".

No good coach is going to willingly come to an obvious tanking situation, so the only other option would be to hire an unknown/young coach--and I don't really see the benefit there.

If Stotts was a 7:10 then Chauncey is a 3 or 4:10. I really can't stand him as a coach. However, he's pretty perfect for where the franchise is at currently. If he goes, it'll be after next season, IMHO.

zzaj wrote:Billups clearly has the players' trust. Every young player has improved (even if slightly) with him as coach. He's perfect for "capture the Flagg".

No good coach is going to willingly come to an obvious tanking situation, so the only other option would be to hire an unknown/young coach--and I don't really see the benefit there.

If Stotts was a 7:10 then Chauncey is a 3 or 4:10. I really can't stand him as a coach. However, he's pretty perfect for where the franchise is at currently. If he goes, it'll be after next season, IMHO.

seems like most young players improve organically anyway. Not a lot of evidence coaching is responsible

Wizenheimer wrote:

zzaj wrote:Billups clearly has the players' trust. Every young player has improved (even if slightly) with him as coach. He's perfect for "capture the Flagg".

No good coach is going to willingly come to an obvious tanking situation, so the only other option would be to hire an unknown/young coach--and I don't really see the benefit there.

If Stotts was a 7:10 then Chauncey is a 3 or 4:10. I really can't stand him as a coach. However, he's pretty perfect for where the franchise is at currently. If he goes, it'll be after next season, IMHO.

seems like most young players improve organically anyway. Not a lot of evidence coaching is responsible

Yeah, I guess what I mean is his "coachiness" a la Thibodeau didn't crater guys like Scoot or Sharpe, when they could have been vulnerable to that style.

Agree that if a player is going to really improve, much of that is self-guided.

How much longer does Jody Allen have before she has to sell the team? Maybe that will be Billups last day.

Wizenheimer wrote:I don't think Billups is a good coach. More than that though is that Olshey should have never been given the opportunity to hire him

it really doesn't matter much at this point. In fact, if Billups is a bad coach than he's the perfect tank commander to have for next season, especially if Cronin screws up the off-season as I suspect he will

I concur. This situation reminds me very much of the Nate McMillan Era. Here's hoping if the team ever gets good again the front office is smart enough to get a better coach.

zzaj wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:

zzaj wrote:Billups clearly has the players' trust. Every young player has improved (even if slightly) with him as coach. He's perfect for "capture the Flagg".

No good coach is going to willingly come to an obvious tanking situation, so the only other option would be to hire an unknown/young coach--and I don't really see the benefit there.

If Stotts was a 7:10 then Chauncey is a 3 or 4:10. I really can't stand him as a coach. However, he's pretty perfect for where the franchise is at currently. If he goes, it'll be after next season, IMHO.

seems like most young players improve organically anyway. Not a lot of evidence coaching is responsible

Yeah, I guess what I mean is his "coachiness" a la Thibodeau didn't crater guys like Scoot or Sharpe

I dunno about that. How could either player have had a worse season?

Tim Lehrbach wrote:

zzaj wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:
seems like most young players improve organically anyway. Not a lot of evidence coaching is responsible

Yeah, I guess what I mean is his "coachiness" a la Thibodeau didn't crater guys like Scoot or Sharpe

I dunno about that. How could either player have had a worse season?

Well, Scoot ended the season in his last 15 games averaging 18.3 points, 7.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds, and judging by his exit interview has confidence and a path forward. Compare that to the beginning of the year and it's a pretty clear difference.

Sharpe I can't really speak to. He had a pretty nice stretch of games before his injury. He still hasn't shown me the competitive edge that I'd like to see from a great player.

Speaking of that edge, I heard on some podcast that at the Hoop Summit practices the coach at one point said "whoever wins the next scrimmage wins the day". Something happened (I forget what) but the World team won on a technicality and Flagg totally freaked out shouting "NO WAY!" "NO WAY!" and "RUN IT BACK RIGHT NOW!" over and over, and they did. I'd love to see that kind of "edge" out of Sharpe...

Pattycakes wrote:this team succeeded quite well while imparting on significant development of DA, Murray, Camara, Scoot, Rupert and Walker.. not to mention possibly helping both Banton and Reath become nba players.

Like we suffered enough tread milling for over a decade practically. Anything but that should be heavily coveted.

I disagree. After the Drexler teams fell short, the WCF Game 7 4th quarter choke job, Roy's knees going out, Oden over Durant, and refusing to go all-in during Dame's prime, I've completely come to the realization that the Blazers will never win a championship in my lifetime.

Thus, spending years in the lottery watching a borderline unwatchable team, hoping fringe NBA players might develop into backup role players isn't something I can get excited about. Remember - this is year 3 of the tank. Oklahoma City tanked for 3 seasons, then went on to win 57 games. The Blazers are a long ways away from that.

Wizenheimer wrote:it really doesn't matter much at this point. In fact, if Billups is a bad coach than he's the perfect tank commander to have for next season, especially if Cronin screws up the off-season as I suspect he will

Eh. I fully expect he uses the lottery picks, then uses remaining assets to dump Timelord's contract to stay under the luxury tax. Or failing that, stretch him so we get dead cap space for 3 seasons. Olshey Guide to General Managing. Here's hoping our scouts are lucky.

JasonStern wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:it really doesn't matter much at this point. In fact, if Billups is a bad coach than he's the perfect tank commander to have for next season, especially if Cronin screws up the off-season as I suspect he will

Eh. I fully expect he uses the lottery picks, then uses remaining assets to dump Timelord's contract to stay under the luxury tax. Or failing that, stretch him so we get dead cap space for 3 seasons. Olshey Guide to General Managing. Here's hoping our scouts are lucky.

well, if Timelord is stretched in the off-season it would be a 5 season stretch of around 5.2M/year