Neil Olshi**y's Summer

So you can’t use the full MLE and the tpe?

 

Neil was already on most people’s shit list with the team getting swept, followed by his condescending exit interview with animosity towards fans... now he follows that with complete lies in follow up interviews... says we need vets and drafts 19 years olds... says he is willing to go over cap for this team, let’s Ed walk for only 4.4 mil and signs Nik Stauskas to minimums deal... this guy truely is a used car salesman... unbelievable he still wants to kee Dame and CJ together with no plan or realistic path forward to improve team... but why try when most fans will still buy tickets if they are just good enough to squeak into playoffs

 

You can use both, but if you use the full MLE you're hard capped at the apron. Right now, the Blazers are about $13 million under the apron. If they spend $8 mil on a player using the full MLE, then they only have about $5 mil left to re-sign Nurk and make any use of the TPE. If they stick to the tax-payer MLE they don't have the apron restriction.

 

So we have replaced 3 crucial rotation spots with Nik Stauskas, Caleb Swanigan, and Wade Baldwin as of today.

That’s how you end up in the lottery.

 

Man if you think Connaughton, Shabazz and ED kept us out of the lottery, I think you severely overvalue those players. Two of them are EASILY replaceable. Connaughton quite literally had negative value... as in, he’s worse than the average player at his position..

Shabazz, or should I say scoring guards, are easily replaceable.

ED is the biggest - and it better mean a HUGE minutes increase for Collins.

Plus, I’d rather suck and get a lotto pick than retain Connaughton and Shabazz - talk about a treadmill

 

I hate being a treadmill but I don’t think being in the lottery helps us with Dame... we are in a really shitty catch 22. Basketball hell, and Satan is Mike Rice tweets..

 

This has probably been mentioned before but does anyone think maybe the reason they let Davis walk was because of how much of a liability his lack of shooting (and passing) is for the offense? Teams could just hedge the shit out of dame/CJ when Davis came to set a pick, because he was a complete non threat to pop and shoot, and a limited threat to roll. This was illuminated further in the playoffs.

 

Sources: As he becomes eligible for five-year maximum rookie extension, Phoenix Suns' Devin Booker is upset with the front office over release of best friend Tyler Ulis, who started 43 games last season.

Hey Booker, you have Ariza to replace Ulis. Look at us, we released our energy guy and Dame’s friend Davis for Staukus.

 

Nah, Stauskas was a replacement for Pat Con.

 

No... It was likely a financial reason. Davis is an elite rebounder and a good defender, who cares if he can’t shoot? Not every player in the nba needs to be a threat...

 

Dame has more than one friend in the NBA.
He had to give the nod on Davis leaving...jmo

 

If this was truly his moves I'll be right there with you but can't we at least see what the roster is in a few weeks?

 

The moves thus far haven't made sense. There has to be other dominoes to fall still. Assuming Davis gave Portland a chance to offer the same deal (who knows if that happened or not), there has to be a reason why Olshey would let him walk for that low of an amount.

One thing I will say though is that the Stauskas signing and Davis leaving are completely unrelated. Getting Stauskas for the minimum was simply a cheap end of the bench filler who can shoot the rock. It's the type of value move the "good" Olshey makes instead of the "bad" Olshey who gives Turner $70 million for 4 years. I'd rather have Stauskas at the minimum than spending a ton on guys like McDermott and Joe Harris who each got $7-$8 million last night. Stauskas is two years younger than those two as well.

Now if Davis walks and we make moves simply to avoid the tax again this summer I am going to be livid because the team will be worse and they should've just blown it up.

 

Well unless one of us has PA’s number there isn’t anything we can do.
I just don’t get it though, how many times are we supposed to just wait for him to do something? Especially when we can’t do much because he screwed the Blazers out of any flexibility giving guys way to much money over way too many years. There’s not a single player out there we can get with the TPE that makes them a contender with GS or Houston.
I respect you a ton and your knowledge on this stuff is absolutely insane, but what possibly is his plan to make the short term future be at least interesting? I don’t see it.
This isn’t just Ed, or Stauskus, or 2016, or letting AC go for nothing, or whatever it’s just this sense of the team really isn’t going anywhere fast, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope...
Neil doesn’t inspire confidence for me at all.

I know we’ve all been over this way too many times, but if you were the GM I’d have more hope that the team has a realistic plan. Is there anyway we can vote you in...?

 

Neil right now

 

I agree about Stauskus but the appearance there being that it happened so fast on free agency was that the focus of the team was getting end of the bench filler... That’s not what teams are supposed to be looking for on July 1st...

 

There was a point in time I would listen to Neil’s press conferences and feel reassured. Now all I see is a smooth talker who doesn’t know what he’s doing . I’m not sure who we could get to replace him, but I think it’s time he moves to a city that cares more about valet parking that a Portland.

 

There are people on this forum I think could do a better job given time to create relationships with other GM’s and agents...

 

Looks like Neil is taking my advice, rip it down and start over...with a high lottery pick.

 

There HAS to be other moves lined up, look at the roster imbalance

PG: Lillard and an unproven Baldwin

SG: How many of these do we need? CJ, Turner, Simons, Trent, Stauskus. Turner and Trent can play SF, so that’s good , I guess.

SF: We pretty much have one, plus Evan and Trent.

PF: Aminu, Collins, Swanigan

C: Nurk and uhh Papagiannis and Meyers. No matter where Collins plays we’ll need to add another big, unless they’re ready to roll with Biggie, which would go against everything Olshey has been selling this offseason.