Zombie Fire Olshey

This.

 

Neil olshey = Willie Taggart sans the recruiting ability.

 

Not trying to be snarky - but what is Olshey actually that good at?

Payroll/cap management? Nope
Draft? Hit-or-miss. He either hires mediocre scouts, or he has good scouts he doesn't listen to. I find him way too willing to trade his picks, but YMMV.
Free agency? His star acquisition is Turner. He can't hide behind the "no cap space" argument, as he is the one responsible for that.
Trades? Outside of Nurk, what trade has he made that had a major, positive impact?

I guess you can say he is a decent dumpster-diver....but that isn't much to hang his hat on. Stauskas and Curry haven't really made an impact. Davis and Vonleh are already gone. Aminu is being asked to take on way too big of a role and will likely be gone next year.

 

Please remind me why he got fired in Philly?

I was on the Billups bandwagon until I heard him talking at Summer League.

Hinke is intriguing. I'll do more research on him.

I really don't know...

 

Isn't Hinkie the one that had Philly tank for years on end?

 

Hinkie would be great if you’re on team blow it up. He’d probably trade Lillard though.

I’d go with Billups. We need an X factor when recruiting players. Generally speaking, players don’t want to go to Portland. Surround Billups with a strong team he can lean on for things he doesn’t have experience with, and it should be fine. He doesn’t strike me as an ego maniac.

 

When Neil traded a bowl of steam for Robin Lopez, every Blazer starter had career years in rebounding (look it up). Even TT's soft ass averaged double digits for the first time.

We were 2nd in the West at one point, and I think 3rd in the league when Wesley tore his Achilles.

 

Exactly. The continued to tank after he left tho.

I'm just wondering why anyone would want the guy. What's he done besides tank?

 

He traded Evan Turner.

 

If we place all the blame for the failures during Neil’s time I am fine with that. That also means he gets all the credit for any good thing. He drafted Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and got Nurk and a pick for Plumlee. He got Mo for nothing. He drafted Will Barton when no one thought he was going to be good coming out of college. So I would say he drafts well. He as you said dumpster dives well which this team needs. He revamped the practice facility - he played a major role and made sure the place was a location players wanted to hang out in. I’ve been there a few times and it’s awesome. It’s top notch. Again - he has failed and made mistakes. No question. My thing is they should add to the current team not blow it up.

 

The Stotts system inflates stats at non-Forward positions. Once Lopez and Plumlee left, they settled back into reality.

 

Im happy for Elton Brand!
Always seemed like a good guy and he deserved his shot more than Colangelo did, Colangelo always came off as taking credit for everyone else’ work and lucky that his Dad was rich and well connected.

 

Here's my kind of random idea for an ex-player who I think would rep portland well (he always has), Ime Udoka. He's been in the spurs system for a long time. I think of him more of a coach than an GM type role, but if the Blazers could pry him away to Portland in some capacity I'd be in favor of that.

 

Nah, Hinkie would trade Dame for peanuts.

 

Go read that novel "resignation letter" he wrote after leaving the 76ers. The guy is insane.

 

Insanely intelligent, yes.

 

The organization had pretty much made up their mind on Dame though, and he read the obvious pick. So was McCollum. At 16 and 17 years old, those were my #1 options at that point in the draft (of course, I wanted Meyers at #11 too, but oh well). Many fans wanted the same guys. If you cant be better at being a GM than you're average fan, then that's not a good look.

He had a good find in Barton but obviously didnt believe in him enough to not trade him and a pick away for a half-year rental.

Since June of 2013 (4 and a half years ago), he's done nothing good other than trade for Plumlee for Nurkic and a pick.

 

not only had the Blazers identified Lillard as a primary target, it was Chad Buchannen, IIRC, who traded for that 6th pick with Brooklyn. Dame was gift-wrapped for Olshey

and as for the Plumlee for Nurkic deal, there's some substantial circumstantial evidence that Olshey was ready to pull the trigger on a Plumlee for Jahlil Okafor deal till Denver ponied up that 20th pick. If the Nuggets hadn't done that, it's a pretty good chance Portland wouldn't have Nurkic and Collins. That trade kept Olshey afloat and it's entirely possible he stumbled into it

 

Really people?

I think it is extreme hindsight to say that Lillard was the obvious choice. He would've went higher than 6th if that was the case. For most people (of course there are exceptions) they only started to believe in Lillard as the pick after it became obvious that is who the Blazers were targeting. In fact some people actually believed that Kendall Marshall would be the better PG.

Then when it came time to pick most people weren't expecting Harrison Barnes to still be available either. There was also Andre Drummond who could've been taken there and we needed a C just as bad as a PG because JJ Hickson was our starting C that following year. You can say it was a logical pick but to call it obvious or a no-brainer isn't remembering the situation fully.

 

There is literally nothing more annoying than finding reasons to not give someone credit for things and then quickly assigning blame. It is so hypocritical. Unless you are IN THE ROOM you don’t know.