What if we told the Clippers that if they did this now that we would be more willing to take a bad contract back this summer using the TPE if they need to clear room. They could give us Gortat or Austin Rivers. I know this isn't legal to agree to it now but just give them a little wink since they'd be helping us out. The other part of the equation is that they could be worried about Jordan opting in which would leave over $24 million on their books.
Which of "his guys" did he meticulously avoid signing to bad contracts prior to 2016? I think the cleaner, simpler explanation is that 2016 is when the guys he drafted or traded for came up for extensions and he either preferred to overpay rather than lose them for nothing or else he felt he was correctly valuing them. Neither of those would be particularly inspiring. The only player he massively overpaid that he didn't already have prior investment in was Turner, but you agree that that was an Olshey decision. (Ezeli could also be viewed as a massive overpay considering the nothing he gave the Blazers but I think that wasn't a terrible decision based on the information at the time and the overall risk was minimal.) While it could be all Allen, that seems like a convenient fan deus ex machina for any Blazers GM--if you want to excuse the GM, just suggest that Allen made him do all or most of the bad stuff.
Well in the Haynes article last year he did say that it was Allen who said he wanted to match Crabbe "without hesitation". I actually really like having Allen as an owner but it's gotta be hard as a GM if you think that your best move is blowing it up and Allen won't let you (I'm not saying that is what happened here but it is what happened to Cho). You're probably right though about Olshey not wanting to lose his guys. He did let go of several guys he signed or traded for though so who knows. I really like Olshey but since the draft if his only real move ends up being trading Crabbe away then I'm going to start to get frustrated too. Even though he created the cap situation, I think he should be given time to fix it (just like I thought Hinkie should have been able to see his plan through in Philly). There has to be a way to get better.
