Isaac Ropp @iropp For years, the Blazers have been trying to sell you it’s actually possible that togetherness can trump talent. It cannot. Ever. It’s about players and it’s good Lillard is admitting this publicly. However, it seems we’re now being sold this roster is the best we can do in Portland because we’re little ol’ Portland. Simply not true. This is also preying upon classic PDX inferiority loathing. This franchise has built three different iterations of championship caliber teams here. While there is no doubt it’s harder in PDX, this feels like an excuse for a GM who has failed. Olshey hasn’t put enough talent around his star. Good players want to play with other good players and the Blazers have one of the best PG’s in the league. So how is this roster the best they can do? He’s had draft picks. He’s had chances. Olshey is a glorified scout whose best attribute is finding cheap diamonds in the rough, none of whom have meant much to playoff success in the Lillard era. The Nurkic trade was good but it’s a one-off. This is not to mention the many FA targets he thankfully DIDN’T sign. This Blazers team is no different than any other Lillard-led team since Aldridge left. Same thing, different year. A dangerous 8-seed disguised as a 3 or 4-seed because of all that chemistry that allows them to gobble up wins vs. bad or dysfunctional teams in the regular season. Here are the #’s vs. teams over .500 last 4 seasons since Aldridge left (including playoffs)... 2018-19: 14-14 (??) 2017-18: 24-30 (Rd1 sweep) 2016-17: 17-30 (Rd1 sweep) 2015-16: 23-34 (Rd 2 lost 4-1) Against “talent” they are a combined 78-108. Short of good fortune and your first round opponent losing their top two players to injury mid-series (Paul/Griffin going down sort of proves the point), togetherness doesn’t trump talent. Ever. And this year is no different. The same fate awaits. So what to do? Whoever is now calling the shots needs to honor a passionate owner who wanted to win more than anything by hiring a big swinger GM with balls who isn’t just biding his time for a better gig. A GM who will take risks to capitalize on a star in his prime. It’s not easy to acquire enough impact talent to be in the conference finals convo. Yet we sit back and watch as franchises in varying market sizes continue to at least try by taking big swings: Boston, Houston, Minny, Lakers, Indy, Philly, Toronto, OKC, Denver, etc. No guarantee it works out because more talent brings more potential problems. But wouldn’t you rather be OKC trying to make it work with all that talent vs. this cute little chemistry game that ends the same way every year? This isn’t the best Portland can do and I feel like fans may be starting to buy this BS that it is. Hold your franchise accountable. You are the ones paying to watch. This isn’t good enough and everyone knows it including Damian Lillard. Don’t you trust your franchise player and leader to make it work with better players? Isn’t he why they have such good chemistry now with lesser talent? He deserves a shot and despite what he says now, don’t think he won’t leave to eventually get it. This is a talent-driven league. Blazer fans must be so bored of this “growing together” line. It’s getting them nowhere. What’s worse? It seems they may be trying to sell you this is the best they can do. It is not. You deserve better and should demand it.
Agreed that the talent is not there. However if Ropp thinks the Blazer management is trying to sell us that it is enough, or that they are saying it is the best they can do..........then Ropp is an idiot. No one is saying that. Not Neil, and especially not Dame.
Posts like this always leave me scratching my head a bit. Who is he arguing with? Does the poster honestly think that Blazers managements or the other fans on this board are satisfied with the roster as is? Are we supposed to read this, see a sudden ray of light and acknowledge that the Blazers are mediocre and go picket the Rose Quarter demanding an instant fix? Given the roster, the Blazers have had reasonable success. They managed to retool from the Aldridge departure without ever missing the playoffs. Losing last year in a sweep by the Pelicans was awful. Losing to the Warriors the two years before that was only to be expected. They added Nurk, who is turning into a legitimate third star. They still need depth and they still need improvement at SF and PF if they want to contend. It's a process.
Instant world must translate to instant change and instant results or it should be wiped from this world instantly!!!
True. But, in my opinion, the NBA is clearly broken. The Blazers have had one of the best back courts in the league for several years now. We have seen the reports on the caliber of talent Oshley has gone after. Yet, even with our talented twosome, the Blazers can't beg, borrow or steal another name talent to come play here, they only want to play with our guys if they leave Portland and come play with them. I'm not really sure how the hell the Blazers can ever overcome this problem. This is not a criticism of the article or anything. Just my two cents.
Did no one listen to Olshey's presser at the end of last season? "Eat your shit sandwich and thank us for it!" was exactly the message he sent. Olshey is perfectly happy with being first round cannon fodder. I challenge you to point to one thing he has done since the end of last season that shows otherwise.
Actions speak louder than words, and Neil has done.... nothing. And he has squandered assets left and right. Doesn't matter if he isn't explicitly selling this roster as being more than it is. But the fact that he hasn't done anything to it suggests that he's either satisfied with it, or feels secure in his job to not give a shit.
You guys seriously don't see how stupid this statement is? " But wouldn’t you rather be OKC trying to make it work with all that talent vs. this cute little chemistry game that ends the same way every year" A team that didn't swing for the fences to resign James Harden? How is their philosophy working any better?
Isuck Ropp is an idiot that knows nothing about basketball and is still butthurt over being fired by Comcast/NBC SportsNW
and this is exactly the 'settling' that Ropp is talking about because Portland doesn't have a 2nd star, they only have one, but a whole bunch of Blazer fans still believe the company bullshit that CJ is a star with star-quality impact. There's only one star-quality impact CJ has and that's to the Blazer salary cap wut???...what's the "caliber" of talent has Olshey gone after? Roy Hibbert Spenser Hawes Enes Kanter Greg Monroe Chandler Parsons I'm hurting myself with eyerolls meanwhile, when players like PG13 and Butler and Kawhi were available all we heard was that Olshey was holding players like CJ and Zach "untouchable" in trade talks and laughingly trying to deal himself into those trades offering guys like Aminu or Harkless or Turner for sure...those annual press conferences are interesting only in order to gauge the new depth of the perpetual river of bullshit that flows out of his office. I kind of feel like Siddhartha watching that river roll by, but there's no enlightenment, only another season of disappointment
Oh yay its you. the guy got fired from talkin ball because he was critical of the team. He's the one thats butthurt? He's 100% correct.
As well as having Durant walk for nothing. They also got lucky that George ended up signing there as he could have easily walked for nothing as well and they would truly be sucking this year.
That's not their philosophy anymore. They know they fucked up. Source: look at their payroll the last few years.
They made some blunders purely motivated by financial motives. But just one season after their superstar left in free agency, they replaced him with a damn close superstar alternative. We still have Aminu as our Aldridge replacement. If they could sell Paul George on signing in OKC, wtf is our problem in drawing a big FA to Portland? There is no small market bias when OKC is getting top guys. You don't see Sam Presti using that excuse.
Yes, he's the one that's butthurt as he was the one that went on and on whining about it. Never heard the Blazers even issue a statement over it, but NBCSportsNW did and said the call was theirs. Talking ball wasn't owned by the Blazers and Jaynes and the idiot Aaron Fentres didn't get fired for being critical of the Blazers while on the show. Nice try. NEXT
