Zombie Fire Olshey

You've posted this before. It's a bit tired.

 

It might not have been a sure thing, but the warning signs were there. And if you believe all of the reports out of the Blazers that LMA was a diva and an issue to work with, I can't imagine he wasn't concerned.

So maybe it was hubris that he and Paul thought they could convince him to stay? Either way, it wasn't completely out of left field. There had been rumors of LMA wanting out for a couple of years at that point.

 

I think the same can be said about his trades. Here's his record (minus the ones that occurred in June with the draft).

February 24, 2011: Traded Baron Davis and a 2011 1st round draft pick (Kyrie Irving was later selected) to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Jamario Moon and Mo Williams. Very BAD

December 14, 2011: Traded Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman and a 2012 1st round draft pick (Austin Rivers was later selected) to the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Paul, $350K cash and a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Arturas Gudaitis was later selected). Very Good

March 15, 2012: As part of a 3-team trade, the Los Angeles Clippers traded Brian Cook and a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Arturas Gudaitis was later selected) to the Washington Wizards; and the Washington Wizards traded Nick Young to the Los Angeles Clippers. Neutral

July 16, 2012: Traded Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas to the New York Knicks for Dan Gadzuric, Jared Jeffries, Kostas Papanikolaou, Giorgos Printezis, cash and a 2016 2nd round draft pick (Chinanu Onuaku was later selected). Neutral

July 20, 2012: As part of a 3-team trade, the Portland Trail Blazers traded Jon Diebler to the Houston Rockets; the Boston Celtics traded Sasha Pavlovic to the Portland Trail Blazers. Neutral

February 21, 2013: Traded Giorgos Printezis to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Eric Maynor. Oklahoma City also received a trade exception from Portland. Good

July 10, 2013: Traded Kostas Papanikolau, Mirko Todorovic, a 2015 2nd round draft pick (Richaun Holmes was later selected) and a 2017 2nd round draft pick (Dillon Brooks was later selected) to the Houston Rockets for Thomas Robinson. Neutral (but good try)

July 10, 2013: As part of a 3-team trade, the Portland Trail Blazers traded cash, a 2016 2nd round draft pick (Malcolm Brogdon was later selected) and a 2016 2nd round draft pick (Chinanu Onuaku was later selected) to the Sacramento Kings; the Portland Trail Blazers traded Jeff Withey to the New Orleans Pelicans; the New Orleans Pelicans traded Terrel Harris and Robin Lopez to the Portland Trail Blazers. Good (Rolo solidified the team)

February 19, 2015: Traded Will Barton, Victor Claver, Thomas Robinson and a 2016 1st round draft pick (Malik Beasley was later selected) to the Denver Nuggets for Arron Afflalo and Alonzo Gee. (DEN 2016 1st round pick received from POR is lottery protected.) BAD (this has been re-hashed several times. I didn't like Afflalo at the time, and thought it was a poor trade).

June 24, 2015: Traded Nicolas Batum to the Charlotte Hornets for Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh. BAD (would've been a neutral if we would've kept Gerald past 1 year)

July 14, 2015: Traded a 2020 2nd round draft pick to the Orlando Magic for Maurice Harkless. Good

July 27, 2015: Traded cash considerations to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller, a 2019 2nd round draft pick and a 2020 2nd round draft pick. Neutral

February 18, 2016: Traded cash considerations to the Miami Heat for Brian Roberts and a 2021 2nd round draft pick. Neutral

February 18, 2016: As part of a 3-team trade, the Portland Trail Blazers traded a 2020 2nd round draft pick to the Orlando Magic; the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Anderson Varejao and a 2018 1st round draft pick to the Portland Trail Blazers. (1st-rd pick from CLE to POR is top-10 protected in 2018 & 2019). BAD (The trade itself was OK, but Olshey decided to cut & stretch Varejao instead of keep his salary on the books during the '15-16 season. Varejao is still on Portland's books for almost $2M for the next 4 years. If Portland ends up paying tax, this trade will become very bad).

January 6, 2017: Traded a 2018 1st round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a 2017 1st round draft pick (Caleb Swanigan was later selected). (2018 1st-Rd pick is Cleveland's own pick, previously traded to Portland in Feb. 2016) Neutral

February 13, 2017: Traded Mason Plumlee, cash considerations and a 2018 2nd round draft pick to the Denver Nuggets for Jusuf Nurkic and a 2017 1st round draft pick (Harry Giles was later selected). (2017 1st-Rd pick sent to POR is MEM's pick) Good.

June 28, 2017: Traded Tim Quarterman to the Houston Rockets for cash considerations. Neutral

July 25, 2017: Traded Allen Crabbe to the Brooklyn Nets for Andrew Nicholson. BAD (The trade itself was OK, but Olshey made a VERY poor decision to match the contract in the first place. Portland now has Nicholson's contract on the books for almost $3M for the next 6 years. If Portland ends up paying tax, this trade will become very bad - because it was necessitated by matching the contract).

 

I know you wanted to trade him bad but don't let hindsight cloud the truth. The truth is that turncoat motherfucker LIED.

Plain and simple.

 

How long do you think it would take for you to do one of these for the other GMs? Because it shouldn’t be hard, just need the agenda.

 

It's not hindsight if we were basically screaming to trade him when the rumors first came out that he wanted a trade.

He lied publicly, to the fans, but I can't imagine that Neil wasn't aware of any issues.

We did everything in our fucking power to make that bastard happy. You don't do that unless you're worried they're going to leave. It's pretty obvious that he talked about wanting out, and instead of dumping his ass we tried to win him over. It was a mistake.

 

You can call it "doing everything in our fucking power to make that bastard happy" or you can call it building around your best player.

EVERY team does that.

 

Paul Allen has a long history of over-rewarding players based on a short run of good or exciting play. I have no doubt that if Nurk's contract had been up this summer Paul would have maxed him. When did Paul extend Olshey, and based on what move? Olshey is a slick talking bully with the media which seems to help insulate him from criticism. I think the body of evidence is not in Olshey's favor. If he doesn't put it together by next July, Olshey should be fired. If not sooner.

 

MF's shouldn't come in here with fire scenarios unless they have hire scenarios to back them up.

 

EXACTLY!

 

100% fact

 

I agree with this. I think he needs to go, but I have idea who to replace him with

 

It's also correct

 

I disagree with his assessment. Just like I disagree with the assessment of NO's trades. All of that is subjective to people's opinions.

 

True

 

If it was a rebuild then he should have ripped the band-aid off and done a proper rebuild, not some half-ass, patchwork job, stitched together with old cast-offs.

The trouble is, Olshey treated the roster like it was playoff/conference finals caliber with the money he spent, and while there wasn't anything better on the free agent market that he could have gotten over Turner, the fact is, that move is preventing things from happening now, because his contract is so unmovable (same goes for Meyers' deal), nevermind the fact that his whole strategy was built around free agency in the first place. He struck out. His plan failed. Time to move on and stop repeating the same mistakes.

 

I just don't think another GM will have better luck signing free agents though....it's not a free agent market here. Olshey tries to do it through the draft and trades.....and he's had some hits and misses...not sure another GM will have any better luck in that world...best bet we have for attracting free agents is to improve from within'.....that's not a proven method but it's all we've really got unless we can fleece someone in a trade....players seem to like Stotts...those players are our best bet at luring talent to the team

 

http://prosportstransactions.com/basketball/GMs/Team.htm

 

I agree. Which is why I'm critical of Olshey's strategy, as much as his tactics. Also trading away as many first round draft picks as he has is part of the problem too, especially for a franchise who's only option for acquiring top-tier talent is the draft.