I will speak as someone who defended Blake pretty often in recent years, who has soured recently. I'm not really coming at this from a hindsight perspective. I understood his need to rebuild once the team fell apart under Stevens, I mean it was kind of forced upon him. However, despite understanding the general direction of the team it's the moves he has made along the way that I am questioning. Starting with hiring WD. He might possibly be the worst coach the Kimgs have ever had and Blake needed to step in after WD was having a very open spat with the players. That whole situation was an absolute mess. As far as coaching goes, I've also mentioned that I despise TMac's 1-3-1 and the fact that we are spending prime development years of our blue chip prospects having them focus on it. TMac being Blake's buddy means he will be here long term and I am concerned that the system will not be successful.
There also should be some concern about our development program, despite having the best prospect pool in the league we do not have any prospects that appear to be taking the next step. Of course it is early and prospects have a long ways to go and I am still very much excited for all of them, but I am a bit wary.
Lastly, the team being so lifeless at times during the season is a bit of a concern. This is a lingering issue that goes back to 2015 and those crushing losses down the stretch leading to us missing the playoffs, but this still is on Blake. Here has had the steering wheel for long enough and was assisting for even longer. The longer that issue persists, the harder it is to purge.
Of course Blake has all of the opportunity in front of him to turn this team around. He has built a deep prospect pool and a great cap situation. I'm not completely turning on him, but I am noticing some warts.
