Dude...I got to legitimately use "bifurcate" in a sentence in defense of those who critique the very man who brought that word into Blazer fan's lexicon. That, right there, is a win.
What Banner...? They didn't win the division, all they did was get to the WCF's. Don't take this the wrong way I enjoyed the year and the post-season and even believe NO deserves a lot of credit for his moves and the roster he put together this year, but at the same time, they didn't win a ring or get to the finals. Being 4th best doesn't really do it, the goal is to be the best. Next year let's get a healthy nurk and make another run.
There is so much to this argument you cannot prove. He's the best GM we could hope to get? Really, you have no way of knowing that.
I wouldve drafted Little. HoopsJock wouldve drafted Little. Dviss wouldve drafted Little. You wouldve drafted Little. 95% of this forum wouldve drafted Little.
I see Bazemore starting over Moe. Moe will be good off the bench but Bazemore's 3 and D would be great next to Dame and CJ.
And that is in incorrect and NEVER stated or implied i am immune. My complaint has been the same people voice the same complaints over and over again. How many times does the same complaint have to be said?
If it was so obvious how come so many teams, especially the ones directly in front of Portland, passed?
I was so stunned Little fell that far, it never crossed my mind he was even going to be an option. It was indeed a very interesting draft.
But people would've been saying that we "owed Olshey props" for whoever we traded for. Just like I was told I owed Olshey an apology for criticizing giving up two 2nd round picks for Trent when he was killing it in the G-League.
This is a fair question and one I thought of, was there a lot of red flags that came up in pre-draft stuff? Like I said above I never even considered he would drop that far prior to the draft. It's interesting, and yeah NO deserves credit for drafting whomever he drafts, because HE drafted them, even if all of us would have too we've seen a lot of GM's make picks we wouldn't make. It's just odd because I didn't expect that result, but mostly because I thought other teams would draft him before the Blazers had the chance.
There were obviously some concerns teams had. What those are, who knows. Did I want little? Yes. Do I have the same intel teams do? No. But Olshey took him, and if Little turns out to be a good player, he deserves credit for it. If he were such a safe pick he would’ve gone much earlier.
I would like to believe this, but Harkless has not been good off the bench historically. He has faired much better starting.
It was obvious in part to team needs. Other teams overvalued players (ORL - Chuma Okeke, PHX - Cam Johnson, BOS - Grant Williams), drafted their specific niche (SAS -Luka Samanic), Drafted for an elite skill (PHI for defense - Thybulle, PHX for shooting - Johnson and Jerome), or bought into a lottery ticket (OKC - Bazely). I'm not going to give Olshey credit for something 95% of the board would've done.
Oh man.... Now choosing to draft a player that every other GM in front of him passed on was a gift? Wow!