Sports talk media is kinda stupid. The guys commenting have no more in depth knowledge than anyone here, aside from the fact that they get to interview gms and players. But they don't know how anything is going to work out. Olshey TRIED to get Hibbert, Gortat, Aski, Noah etc...the other teams didn't want what we had to offer, so what do you want him to do? Go into next season with Hickson as our center?
Damn, y'all gonna make me start repeating myself. The assets we had this summer were #10, a bunch of 2nds, 11.9M in cap space and obtw our pick next year goes to CHA. From a team that started out 21-18 before injuries to Batum (and later, Wes, and later, LMA), Olshey kept the Core 4 starters, upgraded from Hickson to Robin Lopez at C, brought in McCollum to be 6th man, Robinson and Leonard to be 7/8 in some order, and made it so that Freeland and Claver may never see the floor. We still have ~3.5M in cap space, a 2.6M room exception, and all of our future firsts (aside from the aforementioned CHA one). We didn't have enough for Splitter. We didn't have enough for Jefferson. We may have had enough for Millsap. We didn't have enough for Tyreke, and though we had enough for JJ Redick, who's to say he would've chosen us over playing with CP3 and Griffin? We could've taken Biedrins with our cap space, but had no other upgrades. Asik may still be a pipe dream, and Horford never was even that. At this point we have a defined 8-man rotation, some wiggle room left under the cap, our room exception, and still the chance to trade LMA and remain a playoff team.
WTF is up with sports writers these days? Do they all just want to pan every move in the hope that someone will notice their outrageous indignation? You know it's bad when (and it makes me cringe to type this) John Canzano (of all people) is the voice of reason: Seriously, for the first time ever, Canzano is the ONE writer I agree with on the current state of the Trail Blazers. I need to go vomit now... BNM
I know what you mean. It made me feel icky twice: once when I read it and actually agreed with him and a second time when I quoted him and admitted it publicly. I think I'll go take a shower - in Lysol - to wash away the stench of my shame. BNM
Ever since he got that SI/CBS gig, Ben has been awful. Dude's a tool for sure. You should read Dave's dumbass report on BEdge on why picking up assets for cheap is a bad move. God these fools are being sensationalists to drive up hits, and it's an awful look
Yeah, what bothers me about their articles primarily is they react to a move(often) with negativity. But going into this offseason, what was he expecting, exactly? Dwight wasn't coming here. Is he looking at who else is available? I don't get where they want that money utilized
You have to forgive Ben. He came along when you had to bash the team to be taken seriously by the other members of the media. I refused to play ball and was ostracized from the community for not joining in, so I'm sure he only did what he thought he had to do to be accepted. Of course, it seems once you've gone down that path you can never go back. Just look at Dwight Jaynes.
Well said, let me put it another way. If we sign a rotation player with #10, we have $12M cap space for 4 positions - that's $3M/position. We're supposed to move the needle for $3M? We got a starting C, backup PF, and both a backup PG AND backup SG with #10 and we still have cap space left. All we need is a backup SF, and push come to shove Wes can hold that down. At the same time, we got young players with potential (not old players) didn't have to give up any of our core 4 didn't give up any future 1sts. got a replacement SG if we need to trade Wes, now or in the future. p.s. I generally find the blazersedge guys interesting and inciteful, but they've been fucking stupid about this offseason's moves.
Olshey has repeatedly said that we are in talent acquisition phase. His hands were tied this draft because he didn't have pieces. So, he goes out and buys low, hoping at least one of the acquisitions increases in value this next year. If so, he can either keep it, or use it in the draft or FA next season (before needing to trade LMA) to see if he can get one really good piece. So far it looks like he is doing a very good job. I think Robinson will show a lot this year--unless he has totally lost his drive. Lopez is more of a mystery, but could be a good trade piece if you are trading for a center, and the team needs a replacement. Everything Olshey has done to this point looks like chess moves for a set up for next summer. I like what he is doing.
You are too kind. As much as Quick and Canzano bug me sometimes, they are like Mensa members compared to Golliver.
I had the same reaction as you. I wanted to post a reaction, but my fingers were speechless. I just logged out and went home.
Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine 3m RT @WindhorstESPN: Rockets center Omer Asik has no interest in backing up or playing next Dwight Howard, sources say. Could force trade is it possible we can still get asik and flip lopez to Houston? among other things im sure as well
I don't really blame anyone that isn't excited about Robin Lopez. It's Robin Lopez........ The team still has a ton of work to do with the hardest decisions yet to be made. Right now they're just a .500 team. Big whoop
Asik is only considered so much better than Lopez because he's been on much better teams. He's an elite defensive rebounder, but that's where his advantage over Lopez stops.
