IMHO, Olshey isn't comfortable with dealing with a real fan base. In LA, the press usually focused on the Lakers first - and the bulk of the fans are bandwagoneers. Say what you will about his job performance (and I am not that impressed), but I don't think he has the personality for a small market/one team environment.
As opposed to every other GM the Blazers have had since Trader Bob’s heyday? The problem with this fanbase is that we keep expecting the Blazers’ GM to spin straw into gold and go flat out bonkers when he can’t.
Only to those with thin skin. I think he is fine. It's like east coast vs west coast The west coast would look you in the face and say that's a great hair cut!, then go off to their west coast friends and berate your haircut. On the east coast, if your haircut is not liked, you are told just that. I think NO is more of an East coast. Doesn't care as much about being PR, he is gonna lay it out there and you can either like it or don't, but he doesn't care for petty, "hold your hand", nuances that some folks around here seem to need. I personally would much rather have the East mentality than the West.
Accept that Neil constantly lies and moves the goal post... I don’t know how someone having a problem with him lying is thin skinned. Man, some of you will follow that guy off a cliff... it’s really unbelievable.
So, it takes the best player from the best team in the East who is a 4-time all star, plus a young big who was picked 9th in the draft, and a future 1st round pick to land Kawhi. Even if we ignore the fact that the Spurs specifically stated they would not trade Kawhi to a Western Conference team, would you have been willing to trade our best player, who is a 3-time all star, plus our young big who was picked 10th in the draft and a future 1st round pick for a possible 1-year rental of Kawhi Leonard? All this talk about C.J. (a zero time all star) for Kawhi is bullshit. It took WAY more than that to get Kawhi. So, all you Neil haters, would you have pulled the trigger on Lillard + Collins + a future 1st for Kawhi? Given the Spurs stance on refusing to trade him to the West, would you have tried to beat TOR's offer by sweetening the pot with a second future 1st round pick? If you wouldn't, then please move on, because that's what it would have taken to get him. BNM
Free throws are great, but they're not a guarantee. Especially during the playoffs. When we beat the Rockets a few years back, I watched Harden blow it time and time again because he would try to pull his usual bullshit move of driving into the lane and flailing and the refs simply weren't calling it. Not in the playoffs. That's not bias. That's fact. During the regular season: DeRozan - 7 FTA Harden - 10 FTA During the playoffs: DeRozan - 5 FTA Harden - 7.8 And during that time, here is how their PPG looked: DeRozan - 22.7 PPG Harden - 28.6 PPG CJ - 25.3 PPG This might be unfair because DeRozan had an incredibly BAD postseason where he shot 43.7% from the field and 28.6% from three, compared to CJ shooting 52% from the field and 42.3% from three, but this drop in FTA can be demonstrated consistently from the regular season to the playoffs. Everyone knows that the playoffs are more physical, and the refs usually let you get away with more contact. Three point shooting, on the other hand, is vital in the playoffs. That's why teams are building their teams around shooting now, and DeRozan is BAD at it. VERY bad at it. Also, the only reason why I brought up usage% was because I wanted to demonstrate that DeRozan is the #1 option on offense. He has the highest usage on the Raptors by a wide margin. CJ is behind Dame in USG% and actually only ahead of Nurk by a tenth of a percent. If you want a different stat, Dame averaged 19.4 FGA last season, CJ averaged 18.6, and Nurk averaged 12. DeRozan averaged 17.7 FGA Lowry averaged 12 Ibaka averaged 10 The whole point behind this particular topic is that I'm curious what CJ would do if he were the #1 option on offense, compared to his current role. Either way, CJ possesses a skill that is highly sought after in this NBA, and that's shooting and the ability to create his own shot. DeRozan is a demonstrably bad shooter who relies on other human beings to gift him free points. Drawing fouls is definitely a skill, but it's not a guarantee and if I was going to take one of them into the playoffs, it would be CJ.
Without reading anything other than the thread title: Yes. Yes he does. And he doesn't care about our stats, history, heuristics/"gut feel", eye test, viewing habits, cap/CBA knowledge or anything else. We're not close to his level, and not worth the time to even dismiss properly.
So you can prove he lied? Please do or you are wasting your time. Some of you are delusional about expectations and some of you simply straight up make shit up to fit your stance....
I don't think All-Star was a requirement. That post mentioned ppg. You're pretty much the authority on statistical analysis around here, so I would be interested in your take on CJ vs Demar. I have my opinion. Bones has his. I'm too lazy to do a deep dive though. Actually, you and @BrianFromWA are both highly encouraged to weigh in on CJ vs Demar.
To name a few recent lies: he touted the TPE and how big a tool it was... isn’t gonna use it... then he said we needed veterans with playoff experience... didn’t do that either
Has it expired? Saying we need something but not getting them is not a lie. You do know what the definition of a lie is right?
Something like CJ/Collins/Simmons/1st for Kawhi/Green probably could have happened. The fact that Kawhi’s new team can offer about 50 mil more next season is pretty huge imo, I bet with a little team success he resigns there.
Personally I would of given up anything other than Dame so that we could have 2 of the 10 best players in the league together, finding a solid 3rd option next season when you have Dame/Kawhi on the roster would have been a better situation to be in than our current one....yes I believe he would of stayed, 50 mil extra is a lot of reasons to stay, especially when you are playing with another first team all nba guy who would most likely defer to you(I believe Kawhi wants to be the alpha star wherever he goes)