Actually, I don't think Olshey needs "defending". The only person whose opinion matters is Paul Allen. As long as the Seahawks are winning - Olshey is safe.
I really believe LMA meant it when he said he wanted to be the best Blazer ever and didn't want this to end...when he said it. Things change. Life changes. Feelings change. Nothing remains the same forever. What would it have taken to keep LMA here? No Wes Injury No Afflalo injury A first round win and tough fought second round series The signing of the likes of a Gasol or LBJ EVEN THEN HE MIGHT HAVE WENT HOME TO FAMILY. and no one can blame him for that in my opinion. Shit happens. Shit changes. Will I cheer him when he comes? Yeah. I honestly don't think he ever meant us any harm and he was truly looking for a winning situation, which is proven by how many teams he checked out and the types of questions he asked that were reported. BTW, Phoenix is much closer to Texas than we are, so IF he had chosen them, I would still consider the move to be family motivated. This was his biggest decision of his career and I don't think he honestly knew until after Wes injury that he was seriously thinking about moving on, and I don't think he got REALLY serious with that until after the 1st round oust.
Sometimes you take risks as a GM..Olshey is not afraid to take a risk. I like it personally. I didn't see Jared Jeffries, Hasheem Thabeet Nolan Smith on the roster
Great post! Someone who isn't a cynical fear monger know it all, what a refreshing take! All these "I knew LMA was going to leave before he was born" posts are already quite old. This post is like watching the daily show after being forced to watch of Fox news for the last week.
Good post - again refreshing to see someone else also understands risks, keep up the good fight riverman.
That's because you have no idea what it was like two years ago and you have no idea how it felt to have our opinion thrown back in our face repeatedly. They called us haters because we thought there was a very good chance that he goes back to Texas. They brought it up again last summer when he said he wanted to retire as the best blazer ever and that he was only waiting to sign for that extra year. So we have been waiting for two years to see if we were right, and it turns out we were, so now we get to dish out some of the trash that we have received for the past two years. Sorry if that bothers you but you have no idea what we went through. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am going to tear up a little bit when I see LMA hoist the trophy and not be in a Blazers uniform...
When you look at the individual moves Olshey has made, it is easy to rationalize and justify every action. However, when you look at all of the moves Olshey has made as a group since signing on as the Blazer’s GM, I do not see a long term plan. The only pattern or plan I see is how Olshey has used his cap space to sign free agents. Every July, he has missed out on signing his primary free agent target, and then gone dumpster diving to fill in some of the holes. This ride Olshey is taking us on feels like an out of control rollercoaster. Everyone is hanging on hoping for a safe landing, including Olshey.
I think the plan was to make Aldridge happy. Most of the moves were made to keep him happy. So the biggest question is whether the most recent moves were to keep him happy so he would re-sign, OR were they to start the rebuilding process?
I think "rebuild". Using my "hindsight 20/20 meter", I think Olshey finally knew the moment Matthews went down. I think the Batum deal was a "keep Aldridge happy" move, then plan B was signing Monroe as the last ditch effort to keep Aldridge. When that failed, the rebuild move was trading with Brooklyn. It could still be a retool if we can make a splash tonight. I think he will try too. But if that fails, then he has an out with rebuild on other players and or future draft picks.
Olshey was really clear about the 3 year window to make the WCF and that window closed. It's not a mystery any more and he's just doing what needs to be done while not taking on any long term expensive contracts beyond Dame.
And that's why GMs shouldn't base moves around what a particular player wants. Fuck letting divas have control over roster moves - just build a good team and ship out any divas.
Of course you can't see how they all fit into a long term plan, because there have been two separate long term plans. One was to build a team around Aldridge that could compete for a title before his contract was up. He did that...until Matthews' achilles ruptured. Now the plan is to put a hyper-athletic team around Lillard, and that plan appears to be in process and progressing nicely.
Because LBJ's moves have been so great? Remember LBJ's first stint with CLE? That was a TERRIBLE team - and LBJ still took them to the Finals. That's the nature of the East - LBJ is going to walk any team he's on into the Finals. Now, if he actually let the GM do his job (like Pat Riley was allowed to do) then maybe the roster would be good enough to WIN the Finals.
Kobe and LBJ are the only active diva superstars who've won titles...and they only won titles when their GMs weren't catering to their whims and desires.
I would question that. I think PP is a diva. I think Howard is a diva. I think harden is a diva. I think Westbrick is a diva. I could go on and on and no they haven't won, but they would all be solid parts of a winning team. NBA is full of divas.
I'd throw max at a player like Butler and tell him it's his and Lillards team. Guys like Butler want to be the man on their team he could be on ours.
