The past few weeks have been a collage of chaos. First, we witnessed our starting small foward get traded away. As fans, we were half torn, we liked Batum, but he continued to be inconsistent in his play, to discordant for the Blazers to continue to over pay him. We were confused by the assets we received in turn for him, in Henderson and Vonleh. It was the first red flag in LaMarcus Aldridge's future here in Portland. A lot of us didn't want to accept that he was going to leave, that the rest of our core would be out the door behind him. We didn't know what was happening behind Olshey's doors. We were in the dark. So when Aldridge made it official, and Olshey revealed to us that he would not be resigning Matthews and Lopez, the harsh reality of things began to set in. All us at one time or the other were angry, some of us still are. We wanted Olshey's ass on a platter, asked for him to be fired, or to resign. We hissed and spewed profanity at Aldridge, called him a traitor,, hated on him to the extreme. This was both appropriate and necessary. Aldridge deserved the animosity of the fans for the way he handled things, and we needed to vent, to work through our anger and our disbelief. We were discombobulated, more than half our team that had won fifty plus games two seasons in a row, were gone, and slowly being replaced by younger less experienced players. I was impatient, as I am sure most of the other Blazers fans were, from the start of this process, when Olshey traded Batum, whats next? Then draft came and I expected something big was going to happen, like perhaps the 9th pick had been included in the trade with the Hornets, but no, we drafted Rondae Hollis -Jefferson then traded him to the nets with Blake for Plumlee, Then traded for two picks in the second round and took Diez and Connaughton. We fans argued what this meant, whether we were completely rebuilding or just putting a younger core around Aldridge. With the signings of Aminu and Davis we thought Aldridge might change his mind and stay, we hoped and waited. But, alas the Popovich supplied dreams of a chamipnship lured him away. We signed Connaughton and Montero and went all in for Kanter. Alas we are left with a young team. We will mostly likely guarantee the contracts of Fraizer and Crabbe, and along with the trade for Harkless, the picture was becoming clearer. But, some of us didn't want to see it. Some of us gloated in our despair that we had been right all along, that Aldridge was going to leave, that Olshey is some stupid actor, playing the role of a lifetime. But, while we were arguing over who was right and wrong, something was happening. It was occurring under our noses the whole time. Olshey was putting together a masterpiece. Maybe it wasn't his plan A or even B, but he had thought about this, how he would go about rebuilding this team if it came to that. He decided to be patient, knowing that there were alot of diamonds in the ruff out there, that other GMS in their haste to put together win now teams, or to quicken rebuilds, were over looking and taking for granted that they were there. But, Olshey saw them and plucked them up, engineering the best opportunity for the Blazers to have a bright future. Ar first, I didn't understand this. I like I said was impatient, I wanted win now team, a replacement for Aldridge and a resigning of everyone else. But, all that would have done would have been to fill in the cracks with glue that might not and eventually would no longer stick. Like Paul Allen said himself, "Teams that hold on to long to something that isn't good enough are doomed to end up in mediocrity and failure." There then was no need for Olshey to convince him of anything, nor Olshey to convince me or you. They knew it was time to let go. After seething being emotional and illogical about this last few weeks of turbulence, I too realized that it was time to let go. Now, we start anew, a carefully planned beginning, a new era of RIP CITY basketball. So, it doesn't matter who was right and wrong about this or that, because we are where we are. So instead of complaining about Aldridge or Olshey, or pouting that we may suck next year, let's get excited about what may be. Yes, we might suck, but we are in an unknown right now, we don't know how all these young guys will mesh and play together. They may surprise us like all the Blazer teams of the past, and play well. I'm not contending that they will win a championship or even make the playoffs. I am going to be realistic, but I am going to hope, and I am going to watch this team fail and succeed, and I'm going to continue to be excited about the possibilities. It is gonna be one hell of a journey and I hope you'll take it with me.
masterpiece or not I am first and foremost a blazer homer/glass half full kind of guy. it will be an exciting journey that has already started with summer league practices and games, and I look forward to further developments in the roster building process, picking out favorites and hoping for their personal growth,developement and hopefully improvements. may the new era be a healthy ,exciting and fulfilling engagement of my time and might I hope that their hard work is rewarded with both team and personal success. go rip city!go blazers! aloha
I read it... Here is my problem. First of all, if we are going to stay committed to the team, we don't have much of a choice but just watch and see what happens. Second of all, Even if Neils plan works in bringing in a ton of young talent. There will be a point in time in which he will have to add a star of two. He has proven unless he is out to ink someone to toxic offer contract to help them out with their relative team, he can't recruit to this market. When it was time to fine tune this roster who was ready to compete and get it into contention last year, IMO he failed. Chris Kaman and Steve Blake as likeable as they are don't cut it. So what happens when this next roster he is putting together is on the brink of contention and it's in need of maybe another star or two or a fine tuning to get into contention. Will he miff again? Cuz he did, last off season. Like I said I don't have much of a choice to watch and see what happens. He has this owner sold as he does many of you.
This is the dawning of a new era! I met a girl from area three She told me that she worked in a chicken factory barfo
Just playing . . . but idea is Neil is still here to set up a roster that will make the team attractive to a buyer. Cheap contracts, draft picks all the while a GM selling it to fans . . . what more could a new owner want.
Interesting. I think he would move the team before selling them. Or I could see him sell the team to a local buyer so he can buy a franchise for the Seattle area. With Balmer opting for the Clips. Not sure they have a major investor.
This is NBA team-building as a game of Twister: take a mediocre team and make it great without becoming bad enough to land at the top of the draft or clogging your long-term cap sheet with overpaid veterans. The Rockets and Pacers have pulled it off to varying degrees, and the Blazers are in the thick of it now — with a roster competitive enough to satisfy the “never rebuild” edict of Paul Allen, the team’s über-rich owner, but also one with an asset-rich young core and potential max-level cap room in the summer of 2015. That is when LaMarcus Aldridge will become an unrestricted free agent, and Portland’s brain trust has worked hard to put a bunch of potential paths in play ahead of that next defining moment in the tortured history of this beloved franchise. At least for now, none of those paths involves trading Aldridge early, and none has ever involved a complete Sixers-style teardown — a path several rival executives who are pessimistic about the ceiling of an Aldridge–Nicolas Batum–Damian Lillard core would suggest the Blazers embark upon yesterday. “Paul Allen has never wanted to rebuild,” says Neil Olshey, Portland’s GM. “He does not want to take three steps backward in order to take four steps forward. So we decided we were just going to have one foot in, and one foot out.” The foot in: acquiring quality veterans to revamp one of the worst benches in recent league history, a must to chase one of the last two playoff spots in a loaded Western Conference. The foot out: making sure none of those veterans eats into that 2015 cap space, adding two high-upside top-10 picks in C.J. McCollum (Portland’s own pick) and Thomas Robinson (the spoils of Houston’s pre–Dwight Howard salary shedding), and making all these moves without sacrificing a first-round pick or highly valued prospect.
It is indeed a new era! I welcome the youth movement and hope that they will compliment Dame and his style of play. I see a deep roster that can come in and out giving full energy with interchangeable positions. Hawks are a good example of no names working together and getting to the east finals. Yes they did get crushed at the end and realize we are in the west. Still I am hopeful!
Ahhh the Blazers and the changing times...... Well, all I can say is that the Blazers are a professional sports team, and to enjoy the games you go and buy tickets, then you go to the Moda Center and watch them. If another owner buys this team and moves them, then we will have to learn to watch the Thunder I guess.
Somebody clearly skipped third-fifth grades. I mean, I've long felt that way about most of you, but damn, if I ever needed specific evidence. Wtf was that?
Great post! Thanks for putting that all together. I do think it's a little too early to say what Olshey has achieved. I'm open minded but not ready to call it anything.
