I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. When I read Aldridge passed on signing an extension I immediately got a bad feeling. Yeah there were a bunch of political quotes from him and yeah he could've gotten paid more had he waited, but something seemed off about it. The rumored insecurities about not being the man from back in the Roy days played a part in my uneasiness. The final nail in the coffin however imo was when Wes went down. That gave Aldridge the out he wanted deep down. "We've gone as far as we could go, time to move on bla bla." I don't really blame Olshey for the Aldridge situation, but he did play it relatively safe, especially if Aldridge actually asked to be traded. Trading him would've been the riskier move. That's my problem with Neil. Whatever the riskiest move is, expect him to go the other way. Think about it. What's the riskiest move he's made since he's been GM?
I don't consider the Afflalo trade a failure, or at least I don't blame Neil for it. He wasn't brought in here to start. Team was playing awesome when Wes went down and Afflalo was starting to adjust to his bench role. It was an obvious trade to make. I agree on Batum. Still don't get why he did it. My guess was Olshey was trying to please Aldridge who might've not liked batum I don't know. Some fans still shit on Batum but that trade hasn't been talked about enough imo. It was awful. Vonleh is an even bigger beta than Batum, but not as talented.
Fun fact. LMA has asked to be traded THIS offseason, and as far as I know, the Spurs are not shopping him. This is his potentially his last year as he has a player option for 18-19. So, do you think the Spurs be shopping him?
They were reportedly shopping him at the start of the off-season. That's what drove Aldridge to remove the Spurs from his Twitter bio. They just couldn't find any buyers, as they didn't want to just give him away for nothing but cap relief. I think if any team will offer them real value, he'll be on the next plane out.
Aldridge stated that he was pacing himself because he'd seen so many teammates ruin careers with injury.....I think he's paranoid and wants to do just enough to get paid....he didn't want to play in the paint because of the risk....he's had everything from dangling thumbs to a heart problem for quite a while..Duncan was going to play alongside him for 2 years...after one year with Lamarcus...he decided to retire early...I don't think Lamarcus' hero was that impressed
BUMP!! Neil might be the GM but would bet that Paul is just as involved in every trade, non trade and draft selection just as much. Of course I think they play it to safe. I've been saying that for a couple years now. It's not just Neil though. BIGGER BALLS ARE NEEDED!!
Tried to trade for PG13.... but ran into a vindictive douche. Tried to trade for Melo..... but Melo didn't want to come to Portland.
I think if Olshey had been able to pull off one of those moves and if it had made us x games better??? Then the positive press would have deflected from all the bad contracts he signed. He would have been able to bring it up in every press conferencs or podcast. The Nurkic trade originally looked like that. But that signing spree a year and half ago has just created one too many bullets for the firing squad. It's not that Olshey a bad GM it's just he's in a system that doesn't allow for mistakes. Sometimes an exec can make that many bad signings and cut themselves loose from the dead weight.... and sometimes they can't.
Neil went after PG-13 but he wouldn't pony up the player the Pacers really wanted which is C.J McCollum. And yes it would have been a big risk but that's what I'm talking about. So the Pacers got Victor Oladipo instead.
No. I completely agree. But we could have done worse, I guess. He's good at flipping second round picks for journeyman players. Not exactly "Jerry West" levels of player trading. But Olshey's limitations are definately showing now.
