I think the guy acquiring a bunch of players who (in your words) suck is a problem. Every player's job is to play to the best of their ability--it's completely removing any accountability from the GM to act like every player he acquired could have been great but they just didn't try hard enough or want it enough. Maybe one of those guys "didn't want it enough," but most of those guys probably did improve as much as their talent allows. The same holds true if you simply blame the coaches for not "unlocking their talent." Crabbe has continued to suck away from Portland. Nurkic played at this level in Denver too. By your logic, how can you ever blame a GM? Just blame the players for "sucking." Cho was great, can't blame him for the players just sucking instead of improving. PatterNash was great, can't blame them for the players just sucking instead of improving.
What am I talking about? I'm talking about you replacing one of the guys that has actually been really good for us this year in a specific role with a guy who couldn't play on a terrible team and who sucks at defense. On top of that you want to change the role for Davis to something he isn't any good at. All while limiting the minutes of our potential breakout star in Collins just so you can take a flyer on a guy who put up some meaningless stats last year as a rookie.
I would raise the substantial distinction between young players and vets, especially young players with tools. Vonleh has a fantastic Strength*Athleticism. Great tools, he should have improved more. Pat has meh tools, understandable if he didn't improve much (but he actually did) Crabbe has a great shot and prototypical NBA 2G body, but didn't convert it into average NBA player. Biebs has great Athleticism and 3 point shooting, but isn't an NBA player because he could learn the basic principles of NBA defense or offense. ...... Young Players with great tools need to improve, and if they don't it's on the players themselves and the coaching staff - not the GM. Where does Neil deserve criticism? Look no farther than Evan Turner. Frankly, the ET signing was a panic move. Without the ET signing, we're re-signing Vonleh today, and probably would have used our cap flexibility on another player, a la trade for Rolo and trade for Nurk. The reason this all matters, is that some of these guys were supposed to turn into assets, and by not doing so destroyed not only our competitive, but our ability to consolidate. What are we left with? 1) An expiring contract for a good player in Ed Davis 2) Aminu, who would be a good chip in a multiplayer trade, but no one's going after just him. 3) A first-rounder in 2018. 4) Fat contracts that can be used to match larger salaries. The team's best player went over Neil's head and said don't trade Davis. IMHO, we should have used our 1st rounder to get a player (e.g. Rodney Hood), but Neil, for whatever reason didn't. 2) and 4) aren't enough to get a good player. So, yes, my additional criticism of Neil is that he didn't use the 1st this trade deadline. I'll be watching to see what happens to it. If we don't trade it, and end up drafting a player like Justin Jackson, I'll be disappointed/annoyed.
Tools don't mean a player is destined to be great, or else they just didn't work hard enough. Otherwise, drafting would be easy--just use their measurements (including timed speed, ability to lift, etc). Basketball talent is a lot more than just how fast you can run, how high you can jump, how strong you are, etc. Virtually every player who makes it to the NBA has some physical tools that you can call a strength, in the way you did with the list of players you gave. Young players need to work hard. How much they improve depends on their talent level (which is not the same thing as their physical tools). It's entirely possible that Olshey simply did a poor job of finding good/great basketball talent and these players did improve to the extent that their talent level allowed (not much).
Year three of a 3-5 year rebuild. I'm not saying he shouldn't be on the hot seat, but I doubt PA fires him until he sees the 5 years plan is lost. And it isn't lost yet. We just did better coming out of the gate at the base of the mountain, but its still a fricken mountain to climb when you lose 4 of your 5 starters. This is kinda like asking why sprinters cant keep their pace for a long run when they gun it out of the gate. Come one.. you cant figure that out? Moves arent done, rebuild isnt done, NO is not done. If its truly a 5 year plan to emerge as GSW fades, then we are in perfect position in a year or two to package our overpaid expirings with whatever else to take a top dollar star back. NO, Dame and CJ wont be past their prime in two years ( some people seem to think a prime is a six month span or something when its closer to a ten years span). I think this also bodes well for us to have solid vets on the team along with our new young future bigs and then the x factor that NO makes a trade for when our overpaid guys become valuable expiring contracts for other teams ot rid the books of. People need to calm down. Barfo said.... Waited 40 years so far.. what the hell is another year or two gonna do to kill ya? In this instant world, there is just too little patience. Plain and simple.
The key fact for me is that 2.5 years ago our franchise player walked for nothing, basically right after he promised he wouldn't. I don't blame Olshey for that. But also Matthews limped on one ankle into a $70m free agency contract with the Mavs. I certainly don't blame Olshey for that. And we let the Knicks sign Lopez for a $50m deal, which I'm glad we aren't on the hook for as well (especially given how the league has gone). In hindsight the Batum trade didn't yield anything special for us, which is pretty disappointing and is definitely something you can pin on Olshey. But those other three guys were more in the "shit happens" bucket than anything else. When your franchise player plus 2 really good starters leave because shit happens, well, I can't blame the GM for not putting better pieces around Dame quickly. We have that classic problem where you have a really good franchise player, a really good second banana, and so you don't get great draft picks. We also have never been able to attract free agents, so that option is out. So Olshey is left picking through the bargain bin and working trades, which every other team in the league can do just as well. Olshey has to be elite at this if the Blazers are going to go anywhere, while other GM's just have to be decent at it. Is Olshey elite? Not really. But he's certainly better than most. I'm not optimistic that we're going to find another GM who can do those things better.
We have one of the richest owners in sports, why can’t he buy one of the best front offices. It’s not like there’s a salary cap or any financial restrictions. Throw 10+ mil at Danny Ainge, general managers can resign to switch franchises, worst case he breaks his current contract and has to pay back some money, im sure Allen could cover any losses in his new deal. Seems to me there are about 4-5 gm that are superior to the rest, why we don’t have one with Allen owning the team baffles me...I mean we had Cho for fucks sake.
We're impatient because we're not likely to see another Damian Lillard fall into our laps in a very long time. He's our best chance to do something meaningful with. And he's not gonna stay young forever.
I Why does it baffle you? If we can toss contracts out to players like parsons and they pass and everyone believes we can’t get free agents hen why do you think money can buy out the elite gms and front office??? They wouldn’t want to be here for the same reasons right?? Listen I’ll say it like tony Ziegler from West wing once said. You have a problem? Okay. What’s your solution? You have none? Don’t come to me without our a solution!!! Don’t come to me with half a thing!!! If you don’t have a solution then you do not fully understand your problem!!! Go back and study more and Come back to me with a solution before you bitch about a problem!!!
Are you serious? Because paying players and front offices is no where close to the same! The pay scale for an nba gm is between 1-3mil per year, that’s right the top ones make 3 mil per year, triple that for the best and see if their current team matches to keep them, I doubt it. As far as coming here, money talks, ask Evan Turner. The difference between parsons and an elite gm coming here would be that there were other teams offering Parsons a max, if you triple the going rate for an elite gm I doubt anyone else beats your offer. For the record my solution in both my replies were to overpay for a top 5 gm, significantly overpay if you have to.
Exactly my point. No need for another big man project when we have more pressing needs and we weren't likely going to win a championship this season.
Parsons was not a target...they did due diligence but didn't have another conversation...Neil wanted ET...we weren't trying to get Parsons...that isn't how it went down...Neil talked to all the agents...we did go after Enis Kanter...
We need a new soap opera star. I think this girl in a movie I just saw was in one. Tell HER no on a trade.
Dude isn't a project. He's as good as Davis and close to Burks level, he just needs 20mpg. He's signed for $1.4M for the next two years. Would give us additional flexibility for decision making going into the off-season. We just got rid of a big man project too. If Davis walks or gets offered $10M+ were fucked at backup C.
