It worries me also but the funny thing is he has gone from 62% a couple years ago to 25% so far this year. In 3 years with a sample size of just over 500 shots he sits at just over 53%. He seems to be in a slump at the line and i would hope it will even out. I also get the feel that he will put the work in to get better. He most certainly needs to. The good news is his overall FG% is over 65% and his rebounding is up this year. Of course this has happened with a jump in his minutes per game. I just don't see being able to keep both him and Davis with both not being able to hit free throws. Something has got to give. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/plumlma01.html
If they lost all of those guys, and won 50+% of their games in the west, while having the lowest team payroll in the league (over 10 million less than the next lowest), I'd say people would notice that.
And they would still have less wins than they had last year. It's all about the narrative. The bottom line would still be that the Blazers got worse. Now if they won MORE games.....then it's more likely. I don't know how many GMs won exec of the year when their year over year wins were lower.
But that is a great narrative, over-coming adversity....every national power poll started them off as one of the last teams. So if they compete for a playoff spot, people will notice.
I think that would do more for Stotts's COY campaign than Olshey's EOY campaign. "Look at the pile of garbage my GM left me with, and we still managed to play above .500 ball"
Maybe Stotts will be in that race, but Neil still acquired 4 players at bargain prices who are playing very well so far.
I just don't think he can overcome the stigma of losing a perennial all-star for nothing. Unless of course, LaMuskrat totally tanks the season and people think he's done.
I bet a lot of owners are going to wish they had a team that was as fun to watch as the Blazers, for so little pay.
Definitely. I was holding my breath until the inevitable signing. High stakes poker is what that was.
Just remember that the vanilla gorilla was an absolute disaster at the FT line in the beginning of his career. With hard work and determination, he evolved to be half way decent. Davis and Plumlee are really bad, but they were never really playing to win on the other teams. They usually never saw crunch time either. I expect them to get much better by mid season.
I'm 100% on board with giving Olshey all the credit in the world. I personally believe he did a masterful job this past off season and have no real heartburn over letting Aldridge walk for "nothing" (cap space being more than nothing). But the guy who also deserves a ton of credit is Terry Stotts. I've read lately on this board that Stotts sucks, that he's a terrible coach, he's stupid, yada, yada, yada. But he's taken a roster that was significantly gutted and reloaded with cast offs and journeymen, and has them playing beautiful (at least in stretches), intense and entertaining team basketball pretty much from the opening tip to the final buzzer. Even better, we're winning some games. Stotts has shown a nice ability to adjust to major changes in talent and to teach young players. I'm not holding my breath that we will be a playoff (or even winning) team this season, but we have serious reason to be excited for the present AND the future. And Stotts is a big part of that. I hope that some of the Stotts detractors simmer down a bit and start to appreciate him a little more. He's the perfect guy for this roster and we could do a whole lot worse as far as coaches go.
Olshey really just rebuilt an entire franchise in one offseason lol. Sure we could use more pieces but Olshey did in one offseason what other teams have spent years attempting to do. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Portland won more games than the Wolves this year and they've had back to back first picks.
It's of course still a young season, but 6 out of our core 7 players have an above 15 PER. All are showing nice career trend lines - Dame and CJ, have really brought it to the next level. Aminu, Harkless, Plumlee, and Davis all look like excellent finds by Olshey. And these guys are all still 2-3 years away from their prime!
