[QUOTE="Cippy91, post: 4656044, member: 28373" Summer of 2016 really fucked us and that was all Neil. [/QUOTE] Was it? My sources is no better than anyone else, but none-the-less he said it is widely known among insiders that Paul was behind those decisions. Not saying Neil was free of blame but I have to question why fans to continue to say it was ALL Neil.
I've heard Paul wanted to keep the players and was willing to pay the money. I've heard zero that Paul insisted they all be 4-year contracts without a laddering of expiring deals where some where shorter.
damn, why didn't Neil convince other teams to take on non expiring contracts!? That man has no balls.
I've been saying this for years now. Seems like Neil's ok with mediocre players. That's why players like Zach Collins is untouchable. Honestly I bet if Neil included Collins in a trade for Nikola Mitotic we probably would have gotten him.
Show's how difficult it is. Seriously @TBpup - if you were in the driver seat do you think you could do better? I ask because you seem like a pretty sharp dude.
Wasnt an exciting day for Blazer fans, but hey at least they didnt make any stupid trades. There was never a big chance the Blazers made a big trade so Im not all that down about it. I mean Yeah I really hoped they could pull something off but big trades have never really been NO’s MO.
“Jody is much more matter of fact. I don’t think the emotional attachment is there. Paul would get attached to the guys we drafted and then be more reluctant to kind of include them in packages.” “I think Jody’s only goal for us was to get better…We were able to get better. I don’t know that it’s anything earth-shaking, but I think without her support it would've been harder.”
It's no doubt a difficult job. Everyone will have their opinion on things - so you'll always be in a damned if you do/damned if you don't situation. However, there are a couple of posters in here that I would 100% back as being a better GM than NO. I think there are a few who would be very good at certain aspects of being in the front office (like being the head scout, or head of analytics, etc).
Was it? My sources is no better than anyone else, but none-the-less he said it is widely known among insiders that Paul was behind those decisions. Not saying Neil was free of blame but I have to question why fans to continue to say it was ALL Neil.[/QUOTE] Put a different way... I have no doubt that PA might have said "Match Crabbe." Hell, I said at the time I would and I haven't come off that much--I think it was the right play. I don't even doubt that PA might have said "find a way to keep Meyers and Mo here." But we didn't have to bet against ourselves, in $ or years. Signing Ezeli to a 2yr deal wasn't a crippler, even though it was a total waste, b/c it was after we'd done some major dealing and we had a ~8M use-or-lose cap spot. That's not even getting into Parsons/Turner...I sure as hell don't blame Parsons for not picking Portland over anywhere else for the same money, and if someone was offering me 30M more than my perceived worth of myself I'd probably be working for them right now as well. So Turner's not the bad guy for me, either. That leaves...hmm... And for an even more different way...our previous GM, say what you will, was negotiating down on Brandon Roy (turns out, for good reason). It would be hard to think that we couldn't have offered Meyers 3+TO, or Moe 2M/yr less, or...
https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/da...l-reportedly-sign-pacers-after-release-knicks Ex-Maverick Wesley Matthews will reportedly sign with Pacers after release from Knicks
Which is why I made sure I said he was not free of blame. My point was that it was not ALL Neil. We were coming off of a high in the playoffs and Paul wanted to make sure we locked in our young players, and use the cap space. In particular.....Meyers.
