He went from mediocre to good. The challenge is always going from good to great. He's failed at that.
that Aldridge team won 54 games in Olshey's 2nd season. The Blazers haven't matched that record in the 7 seasons since. IMO, that 54 win team would have beat this year's team in the first round
Do you guys remember Trader Bob? He was a really smart guy. He realized that in a market like Portland you gotta swing for the fences and gamble. He had us closer than we’ve been in years to a Finals appearance. Which we would’ve without a doubt won. I could’ve gone to without a few of the trades and signings (Patterson and Kemp). But you gotta be a little ballsy. Worst move by Olshey was signing CJ to the deal that he did.
I dunno, I think summer of 16 still takes the cake don't you? Teams with all-star level players usually have one chance to add a huge free agent - when their star is in the last year of their rookie deal. Our free agent was Evan Turner. Not to mention the other 150 million he handed out that off season...
I didn't see this thread and this post seems more appropriate here: WC standings in 2016: and in 2018: think about that...in just 3 years, Utah, Denver, Dallas, and Phoenix have lapped the Blazers and are now better teams. Portland was better than the Clippers and Lakers 3 years ago as well how can anybody look at that and still support keeping the architect of this team? Olshey must go
Haha yeah. Leonard and Crabbe contracts were just plain ridiculous. Neither had even proven that they were regular rotation guys and without a doubt they wouldn’t have got that kind of money elsewhere.
This is bad, but at least somewhat understandable because the team fell apart after the trade deadline, and it was something that was out of his control. Up till then the team was legitimately looking like it could contend.
I remember watching the Pelicans series in Mexico at the bar with my dad. Every game we watched. He’s not an avid Blazer fan like myself but he knows sports really well in general. He catches some games during regular season. He told me Stotts was a trash coach. They played piss poor defense. I disagreed at the time. He still texts me sometimes to ask if I think Stotts is a good coach just to bust my balls No dad, Stotts is trash
it was even worse between CJ, Turner, Crabbe, Harkless, Meyers, & Ezeli, Olshey handed out 340M in contracts that summer and not one fucking all-star in sight
A lot of valid points have been made on the bad Olshey has done, but to me the biggest offense will always be the fact he kept Stotts for as long he has. I don't know a team that would keep their head coach for consistently getting damn near beat down in almost every first round of the playoffs and still think he can lead this team. We had one good run and that was mainly because of Dame, nothing really Stotts did. If you are going to be a bitch and keep players that just don't make sense on this team (like CJ) then at least fucking get a new coach a lot sooner to see if they can do anything with the roster.
I will always remember when Crabbe said he was shocked as hell they even offered that. I think Turner said it too lol.
I’m admittedly a little bias but I would give Neil a shot to hire a new coaching staff (or keep one or two guys I don’t know), and run the draft. I know that will make you and others cringe. But I still think the roster has plenty of talent to win a first round series ffs. New system, new coach, CJ gone, Nurk gone, some studs in and things can change quickly. If it doesn’t then let Neil go.
we all know he isn't the brightest guy in FA, but we got out of most of that unscathed. what was the opportunity cost here with giving up all that money?