Awfully quiet on the NEIL OLSHEY front

Consolidating a few of the deep bench scrubs to teams trying to tank and clear cap room won't affect chemistry all that much.

Any rotation players? forget it, not going to happen.

 

Like I said in the Joe Freeman trade, I don't think Neil is actively looking for trades, but if one came along that was too good to pass up, I think he pulls the trigger.

 

LOL at you STILL trying to trade Matthews for Ross!

 

One of the things I really like about Neil is that he won't talk about it until it's done. If he makes any move at all, it will probably be something low key because we don't have much to trade and he's not taking rotation players out of a winning formula anytime soon. Trading guys that aren't playing for guys who won't play isn't going to change much.

 

Success is never guaranteed. When a team is on a roll, they need to go all in to win.

Not gonna happen.

Beyond the starting 5, the team has no assets to work with. No pick, no cap space, nobody on the bench another team is hot to acquire.

 

I would really like Seraphin from Washington. I think he could be sneaky good. And I would think he would come relatively cheap.

 

It's Fropez's defense I have issues with . . . but I am loving what he brings to the team

 

I am all for trading to bolster.... But this team is not just built for today it's also built to grow. If we were going to trade I wouldn't activiely be looking to move any of our starters Plus, Mo WIlliams, Robinson, Freeland, McCollum and Leonard.

No before people all get up in arms about my list I want to point out that trading Leonard or Robinson at this point is jumping the gun a bit. Both guys have loads of physical tools that you just don't find everyday, you wait them each out one more season and see if the "get it". As far as Mo and Freeland are concerned they are the stability of the bench. Mo is the reason Damian can take a break, CJ hasn't shown to me that he is a PG, so Mo isn't easy to walk away from... And don't tell me Earl Watson. Freeland I would consider if it was a really good deal for a really solid backup 5.

I wouldn't remotely touch the starters they play too well together. Yeah sure there are better players at each position, but you roll some pretty big dice if you talk about trading anyone of those 5 for an upgrade on paper.

 

From the little snippets being bantered about, NeO (much like this last summer) is still shopping at the Rack. Given that he has little room to the Lux Tax and not Draft picks at his disposal, I'm not sure what his other options are.

I've yet to be told a starters name has come up so that leaves young players on rookie contracts or older players on very reasonable contracts. The thing is, what would any combination of Leonard, Freeland, Robinson, Wright, Barton, McCollum, Watson and Williams bring back?

The bench certainly needs help and maybe young lottery picks on rookie contracts can entice a trade that brings back more of an instant contributor versus someone who might develop down the road. If the time is now, make a move.

 

Your first sentence kills your whole argument. We have seen first hand that the whole "wait till next year" approach is a lie.

 

It would seem to shore up our backcourt and provide some at least competent defense. His deal's not perfect, but not terrible. And it would provide some insurance if Wes wants too much money down the line.

Plus, doesn't he still live here in the offseason? He'd probably be pretty happy with 20 mpg in a motion offense. I think, next to Rudy and Sergio, he suffered the most under Nate's offense.

 

These starters are too good to waste with this bench. No way we're a contender without some major growth from a young guy or two, I think we have to make a trade (w/o using starters obviously) to try to put us in the mix.

some guys that could be had seem like: Shumpert (for D, being in a real system might help him), I like the Seraphin mention above, as you've seen I like the thought of Andre Miller, Frye or Hawes would also be great role players for us that could provide offensive consistency off the bench.

 

Why do we need a big? What are Lopez and Freeland doing wrong?

 

they arent greg oden:MARIS61:

 

The sound of nothing happening is usually quiet and I agree, we don't really need another big on the bench

 

Olshey learned from watching Kevin Pritchard from afar that it's not good enough to build a solid team. After the team starts getting publicity, the GM should slink back in the shadows, and let Bert Kolde take the credit that he's due for being Paul Allen's college roommate.

Remember what happened when Hat Guy started to get a little publicity? Last I heard he's a haberdasher in Walla Walla.

 

Here's what Neil is up to...(phone rings) Hi, Neil Olshey...huh? No thanks! (ring....)Hi, Neil here...huh? No thanks! (Repeat all day long).

 

Lots of MRA's in Walla Walla. The fedora business is good.

 

I thought that was KP?

 

Just under a month until the trade deadline.

It all comes down to whether we think this can be our year.

-Can we win a playoff series with the roster as is? I think so.
-Are we better than a healthy OKC? Doubt it.
-If we somehow luck into the finals, can we beat MIA/IND in 7 games? Doubt it.

The fact that I can even ask these questions with a straight face tells me that we aren't too far from this thing. I would be okay with Neil going all in. Just sucks that we don't have any assets to work with.

But something else to consider: there are 21 teams with higher payrolls than ours, but only maybe 4 or 5 teams ahead of us in terms of championship chances. Maybe give us a year or two to build some assets and we can go all in then.

Definitely a sort of fork in the road that Neil was referencing earlier