One Thing Seems Crystal Clear

Neil Olshey has no intention of trading LMA this summer. He's stocked the bench with solid players to fulfill his promise to Aldridge that the team would be competitive next season. I know a lot of you feel he'll bolt when his contract is up. That could happen, but it's pretty obvious that NO is doing his best to make sure LMA will re-up with the Blazers.

 

Asset acquisition. More moves to come. Maybe not now, but in the coming several months.

 

It seems that way.

Now, if LaMarcus still wants to leave at the end of this coming season, that's not bad timing considering all the quality free agents that are going to be available.

 

gonna have some interesting expirings next year, thats for sure

 

Well, sure, but any future moves will still relate to the game plan of keeping Aldridge here in Portland. Granted, it may not work, but I'm glad to see NO all in on this plan.

 

I think you misunderstood, Sly. The plan is to keep you out of the drunk tank this year.

 

Whatever we do, at least we have some decent players to make moves. Before, all we had to offer was cap space. Not that our newly-acquired players are super-enticing, but they have the potential to improve, and be bigger assets. That's more than we can say about most of our non-starters last year.

 

That's the thing. We have cheap contracts to trade if a disgruntled player wars out.

 

That is a strategy that had it proponents here on S2, but even if they were to trade Aldridge this summer, there is no way we would be bad enough to tank hard enough to get good enough.

Damn you Olshey!

 

That's loser talk! We're all about winning in Portland.

 

I have never thought we'd trade LA.

 

That was obvious from the beginning, barring a deal that made the Blazers better this season. There was no way Olshey was going to move LMA for some draft picks and/or lesser players. That's how GMs lose their jobs.

I know you know that, though, and I think I know why you started this thread. There is a very vocal crowd here that likes to assume the worst about this team, and seems to take pleasure in being upset at all times about the team they follow.

 

I'm not sure they are good enough to make the playoffs. I'm also not sure if they are bad enough to save their pick. Perhaps they should to come to a conclusion on Aldridge. He's good for about 15-20 wins himself.

 

Other than, perhaps, Houston, which WC team(s) have improved themselves more than the Blazer thus far this off-seaon

 

Not many, but we had so much to improve!

 

OK, my question was in the context of the Blazers potentially making next season's playoffs.

 

I don't know about making the playoffs...... but just looking at the roster on paper, we sure got a hell of alot better.