re: Why is Monty a good coach?

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I'll give you Vasquez

Aminu is still pretty awful

At least he's gone from "holy shite how is this guy on an NBA roster" awful to "wow, I can't believe that guy gets as many minutes as he does" awful

But seriously, outside of Vasquez who has Monty really developed?

I keep hearing all these wonderful development stories, but where are they? Vasquez is good, but the second best success story is that he has made Aminu only slightly terrible? That doesn't do much for me

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Dude, we get it, you don't think he's a coach good, bad, or even average.

And Aminu is coming into his own, he is playing in his own lane (I don't see how you don't realize that) and knows what he is good at and continues doing that well (rebounds, dunks, defense, etc.)

And he is one of the reasons why (or people may be lying, you know, since he's super shitty) Batum and Outlaw got better and a lot others in Portland, but those two are the standouts

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Grevis Vasquez is lights out this year.

Gordon is a max contract "top 3 SG"

Aminu is having a career year.

Ryan Anderson is a top 10 PF in the league.

Davis should be rookie of the year.

Lopez is having a career year.

There is no excuse to blow 17 and 20 point leads with those guys. Sure, the players deserve some of the onus, but players don't get fired, coaches do.

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I did say fire him, fire and release them all, correct?

And there is no excuse for the team to blow these leads, no excuse at all.

My thing is, a coach can rally only do so much, he draws up the plays and tell them to run them, but players play ( ) and most of them has been playing bball for years.

It comes a time where pride steps in and makes you not want to continue bleeding all over the court.

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I like Aminu as a player, I really do

But the dude gets by on pure athleticism. He has literally zero offensive skill. None.

He can run fast and jump high. That's it.

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A lot of players excelled in the NBA with just athleticism. And a lot of players lasted a while in the NBA with a skillset similar to his. If he continues the way he is going, he will be good. Someone said like Rodman, and I kind of agree. Isn't he like 21 or 22 or something? He just has to continue training, practicing, working on himself.

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nd getting whooped in the first round

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they didn't exactly go down lightly in that series.

and for danman hating on aminu earlier...his 12 points, 16 boards, 3 blocks, 2 steals, and assist say hold mah dick

I still think aminu can grow as a player.

He's found his niche imo

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Question, when Bower was that coach, did they make the playoffs?

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37 wins...Paul missed 40 games.

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they didn't exactly go down lightly in that series.

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it wasn't a bad effort, but not impressive enough to give Monty so much slack.

JMO

No a lot of people say that quote. I wasn't necessarily talking about you though just talking. And I hope he does. Maybe shake up his staff over the offseason as well.

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Grevis Vasquez is lights out this year.

Gordon is a max contract "top 3 SG"

Aminu is having a career year.

Ryan Anderson is a top 10 PF in the league.

Davis should be rookie of the year.

Lopez is having a career year.

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First of all, you KNOW that's not true (which is why I assume you put it in quotes). Second, Monty almost certainly had a pretty big say so in getting every one of those players here (including EG's potentially bad contract, as well as AD, who was a no brainer).

He is making some terrible decisions/rotations, and the team is underachieving for a supposedly defensive minded coach, but he also seems to be doing a fairly good job developing talent (masterful job with the underachieving Aminu) and finding undervalued players (Vasquez, Ryno, to a lesser extent Lopez). And, given what's happened since the start of February, we can't overlook that Rivers may have actually been a good pick. Given that AD was a sure thing, Rivers is the only other 1st round pick that Monty has been involved with choosing.

Right now, based on his short career, I'd compare him to Andy Reid: does a lot of really good things to go along with some bafflingly stupid gameday decisions, especially in crunch time. It will be a tough decision for Benson to make. You could say that he deserves to finish what he started and complete the team that he wants with the substantial capspace we'll be having next season, something that he hasn't had the opportunity to do since coming here. He could also just as easily focus on Monty's bad decisions and decide that he doesn't want him having a say so in the most immportant offseason since 2009 (after the Spurs series).

Finally, everything I just said may be bullshite if Demps was the main guy behind Rivers, Ryno, Vasquez, and Lopez. That would leave Monty as a factor in developing Aminu (clearly) and possibly Vasquez (his improvement is a bit overstated as I think he was really underlooked last year) to go along with a lot of iffy in game decisions. I don't think any of us have any way of knowing exactly how big of a role Monty has in trades/draft picks.

ETA: Let's not forget the Okafor/Ariza trade, which pretty much said "frick the 2012/13 season, let's sacrifice it in favor of 2013/14 flexibility." It would be unfair to let him make that trade (that I'm pretty sure 100% of the people on this forum supported) and not letting him survive the benefit.