Is it Time For Blazers to Move on From Head Coach Chauncey Billups?

The fourth-year head coach is overseeing another lottery-bound season for Portland.

Dec 6, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups looks on before the game against the Utah Jazz at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images / Soobum Im-Imagn Images

The 2024-25 Portland Trail Blazers have gotten off to a poor 8-17 start, good for just the No. 13 seed in the crowded Western Conference. The team's success on the court has been hampered by with long-term injuries to several rotation pieces.

Two-time All-Defensive Team wing Matisse Thybulle has missed 25 games and counting as he deals with a Grade 2 right ankle sprain. One-time All-Defensive Team center Robert Williams III has sat out 18 missed games and is presently sidelined with a concussion.

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$34 million starting Portland center Deandre Ayton, currently out with an undisclosed illness, and starting shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe have both missed eight games, currently out with an illness. Both of Portland's two most recent lottery selections, rookie center Donovan Clingan — the No. 7 pick out of Connecticut in June — and second-year point guard Scoot Henderson — the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft out of now-defunct development club the G League Ignite — have sat out for seven games apiece with their respective maladies.

Beyond the injuries, it's pretty clear that the current personnel is either too young and raw, or just not good enough, to really vault this Trail Blazers squad into the play-in race for 2024-25. Just seven games separate the 13-13 Sacramento Kings, the West's No. 12 seed, from the 19-5 Oklahoma City Thunder, the No. 1 seed in the conference. But there's a 4.5-game disparity between the Trail Blazers and the Kings, and Portland has little incentive to close that gap.

Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin has recently received significant criticism for his role in constructing a roster that seems doomed to hit the NBA draft lottery for a fourth consecutive season.

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But how much blame should be placed at the feet of former Hall of Fame point guard Chauncey Billups, currently the club's head coach?

The 6-foot-3 former five-time All-Star has been in his current gig since the beginning of Portland's tanktastic troubles.

One could argue even then that the last two years of All-Star former Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard, 2021-23, were severely limited in part because of injuries and questionable roster construction, under both Cronin and his predecessor, Neil Olshey who was let go just a month-and-a-half into Billups' tenure. With Lillard ailing at the end of both seasons, the Trail Blazers opted to embrace the tank, resting veterans and overplaying young pieces strategically in an effort to ensure lottery appearances.

Portland selected Sharpe with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, followed by Henderson and Clingan. Of those three, only Sharpe seems to be definitively on track for at least a borderline star turn. Following an injury-plagued sophomore season in 2023-24, the 6-foot-6 swingman seems to be fully rounding into form during his third pro stint. He's averaging 17.0 points on .435/.282/.800 shooting splits, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists a night.

Billups has posted a discouraging 89-192 record during his head coaching run thus far, across three seasons and change. But, given Portland's clear goals of rebuilding towards the future for four straight seasons now (plus a confounding ownership situation), it's unfair to pin his lack of success entirely on his coaching acumen or lack thereof.

He has managed to help develop some less-heralded pieces for the Trail Blazers, especially young success stories like forwards Toumani Camara and Dalano Banton. Is Henderson's disappointing NBA start the fault of Billups, or poor Portland front office appraisal? That's a bit unclear, although the 20-year-old's brutal defense has been an eyesore either way.

It would be pointless to remove Billups just over a quarter into his fourth year with Portland, unless Cronin was truly convinced Billups was not the right coach for his club's future and was adversely impacting its present culture. If a change is on the table, it makes sense for the Trail Blazers to tackle that in the offseason.

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