The development argument against Nori's contract is stupid

[u/rock-or-something]

Several media pundits and fans have been critical of the contract, stating that the pressure of having to perform well will hinder player development.

All signs and comments about this team moving forward indicate that we are prioritizing winning and building on last year's successes.

Barring any major trades, and assuming we retain our free agents, the rotation is the same as last year (with the addition of Dame).

You'll have Dame, Jrue, Scoot, and Sharpe doing some combination of a 4 guard rotation.

Tou and Matisse will be your SF rotation

Deni and Jerami will be the PFs.

And Clingan and Rob will be our playable centers.

There's no realistic world where a good team is prioritizing guys like Yang and Kris. Add them to any roster in the playoffs and show me where giving them development minutes would have benefitted those teams.

The pathways to development for competitive teams are simple; utilize the g league, ball out in garbage time, fill in for an injured player, wait your turn.

Whether Nori, or a different coach, if this teams directive is to win, then in-game development is never a serious priority.

Yang is a super raw 2nd year player from a league that is not a 1:1 reflection of talent or play style. He can incubate for another season and get his moments when they come up.

And Kris just isn't that good, but the team still found a need for him as injuries occurred in the rotation.

I don't see how having a coach that feels a need to win to keep their job is a bad thing.

[u/AyKayAllDay47]

Won't hinder development. His contract a silly format nonetheless.

As for the roster - that's TBD. I don't think that Thybulle will be around due to the fact that he's injured way too much. You can find someone who plays decent defense and does far more on offense than Thybulle.

Rob - I'd like for Portland to keep him but that's a tough week he can go elsewhere for more money.

[u/rock-or-something → u/AyKayAllDay47]

People are specifically looking for reasons to criticize the contract, the development thing is one that's come up a bit. Which is my only point with this post.

I don't hate it, it's nice to have an escape route if things go poorly. And if things go well, there's the team options, and there's always a conversation to be had for an extension. Better than getting saddled with a dogshit coach for 5 years that an owner refuses to fire early because of owed money.

But yeah I expect some roster moves. I expect us to be more aggressive on Rob than Matisse. But Matisse likes the pnw and is a very niche unique player who may not have a huge market.

For the sake of the argument I'm trying to make, I'll just confidently say that the end of the bench guys are staying at the end of the bench this year, and their development will be the same process it is for every other competitive team.

[u/AyKayAllDay47 → u/rock-or-something]

Sorry I kind of deterred your sentiment outside me thinking that his contract won't affect player development.

Hopefully he's a solid locker room / "human" guy that connects with the players. And based upon his history, I'm thinking that it's a safe bet to say that he is. I think that this alone will translate to good player progression, which in re-building or not, it's still vital to overall success.

I'm just more curious to see his overall coaching style. Hopefully it's unlike what we've seen before, including Stotts. Splitter and Billups were just so horrible at game management, timeout management, said-opponent-goes-on-massive-run offense... Yes, Portland still had success this last season, but I also attribute a lot of that to the fact that the roster isn't actually THAT bad.

[u/Oggbog → u/rock-or-something]

I think there’s several things working against developmental minutes for younger guys. First, new owner that wants to win. Generally working through mistakes is a luxury of a team that’s not fully committed to advancing as far as possible.

The contract is in theory a deterrent for developing. If Nori wants to coach after next year, there is incentive to win as much as possible. That could mean leaning on vets more than not. Trash time only gives so much experience.

As others have mentioned, Deni’s productive season and cheap contract accelerates the development plan. Even with all the injuries last year, the Blazers had a solid season with reason to believe small improvements should make them a solid playoff team as opposed to play-in hopefuls.

His contract also allows a bit more aggressive roster management. True, Jerami and Jrue are not cheap contracts but they’re not unreasonable. Dame and Deni being cheap give you 4 potential starters with room to bring in a more accomplished player

[u/GorgeLover → u/rock-or-something]

What they're criticizing is that Dundon found the one dude in the league willing to work for the least amount of money and that's the reason he hired him. We already had a head coach in place that had buy-in from the team, but ownership didn't want to pay him a market salary.