I like Mo, and I think he handled himself with a lot of class and dignity during some very tumultuous times. He was a class guy, and I think he added some class to the organization, and I am glad he was a part of the team for 4 years at least.
As far as a coach, he has done some good things here, but lets face it, he has done a horrible job this year. He got dealt some bad luck when he lost Rahim, Zach, and Miles simultaneously, and Ratliff was hurt, and Damon, NVE, and DA could make a shot if their life depended upon it. He made some hard calls, and every single one of the starting 5 lost his starting spot for some period of time.
At the same time he has done a horrible job with Darius Miles. Darius had a huge second half last year, and after getting in the starting lineup this year he was playing very well. Since then though Miles has been nothing short of worthless, and most of it is related to the fact that Cheeks cannot figure out what he wants to do with him. Miles is very frustrated, and Mo deserves at least some of the blame.
Cheeks has done nothing with DA. DA is a talented player, but Cheeks was unable to create an offense that allowed DA to thrive let alone even contribute. DA went from being a slasher with a decent 3 point shot, to becoming nothing more than spot shooter who stood at the 3 point arc waiting for a kick out. He isn't that good of a shooter, and as a result he was worthless most of the season. Mo called him lazy, and when DA was getting blasted for sitting out games with "dental pain", Mo did nothing to back up DA. As it turns out DA had huge problems requiring 3 root canals in less than 2 weeks, a major sinus infection. The swelling was so bad that his entire face was swollen, and he lost 14 pounds because he couldn't eat. Didn't hear Mo standing up for him to the media.
Cheeks has been bound and determined to play Ruben Patterson, even when it was clear that Patterson starting wasn't helping us win games. As soon as Patterson became a starter, our opponents began to out offensive rebound us by an average of 4 per game. Why? Because Patterson leaks out on the break on almost every play. Early in the season we were one of the better FT shooting teams in the league, but he was determined to start Patterson and his 50% FT shooting, which cost us at least 3 wins. Patterson has done some good things, but he has so many holes in his game, and to continue to play him, when Miles is a far better player makes no sense.
The Blazers were a plus .500 team with Zach and Shareef starting together, and that was with Theo getting 5 pts, 5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks, Damon shooting 32%, and DA 36%. They played their best basketball with that lineup, and if the guards could have made even 40% of their shots they would have had the 5th or 6th best record in the West. Injuries hit, and the season was derailed, but Mo has made no effort to put Shareef and Zach on the floor at the same time. The reality is if you are going to start NVE and Damon, then you need Zach and Shareef for rebounding. Also Damon and NVE compliment the low post game of those 2 much better than DA does.
As far as the starting lineup he had for most of January and February, I mean come on Mo. Damon and NVE give you a good scoring and passing backcourt, but horrible rebounding and even more horrible D. With Ruben, Theo, and Pryzbilla, you have one rebounder in the entire lineup, and no dependable offense on the front line, and two bad FT shooters. This has to be one of the worst starting 5's in the league, but Mo was not about to make any changes, even as the Blazers lost game after game.
John Nash has gotten a lot of criticism, and some of it is due. We needed a guard that could shoot first, and be a decent defender. Nash didn't pull off a trade.
We offered Shareef and DA for Carter and Rose. We were willing to take on Rose's bad contract, and give them a $14,000,000 ending contract, and they passed on that to take the crap they got from NJ. What do you say? Toronto passed because they were afraid of Shareef's elbow injury. Excuse me, but you are afraid of SAR elbow, when his contract comes off at the end of the year, but you were willing to take on 2 more years of Zo Mourning and his kidney problems at $12 million. Toronto was stupid.
Milwaukee offered Redd and Van Horn, for Shareef, Outlaw, a #1, and $3,000,000. We came back and accepted and they backed out. Milwaukee made the right call anyway. KVH was scheduled to make $14+ next year, and they traded him for Calvin Booth and Alan Henderson.
At the end of the season they renounce Henderson (actually already released him), and they have a payroll of $25,000,000 meaning they have $20,000,000 million left to sign players with. Redd only counts as $3,000,000 towards that $25 million. They sign the additional players they want with the $20,000,000 and then re-up with Redd at $9,000,000 per. That means they could spend up to $29,000,000.
If they had acquired Rahim, with the intention of resigning him, they would have a payroll of $33,000,000 meaning they only had $12,000,000 to sign players with. If they resigned Rahim for the same $9,000,000 as I referred to with Redd above. That is total salaries of $21,000,000. At $29,000,000 they could sign two guys at $9,000,000 (basically the max), plus 2 more guys at $5.5 million each. If they had Rahim they could resign Rahim, and then have 2 more guys at about $6,000,000 each. In other words Milwaukee made the right call.
Beyond that how many other good shooting guards are really available?
As far as expiring contracts, I think it is a misnomer that expiring contracts are easy to move for talent. First Portland had Rahim's at $14.5 million, and Damon's at $12.5 million, and NVE at $11.9 with a team option for next year. Now if you are going to take back $14.5 million in salary YOU BETTER GET A GREAT PLAYER. If you aren't then look for a better deal. Second the only teams that are looking for expiring contracts are those that are rebuilding, and the reason they are rebuilding is because they SUCK, and generally they don't have any talent.
