Good for him. Then blame stotts, not olshey. Stotts is the one who plays them... Olshey just deals them.
Stotts was playing him. Im not even hard on that move. I've defended it to people that are too harsh. In hindsight, its a mistake.
Hindsight doesnt make the trade. It was the best move. It was shitty luck. There is no argument. Hindsight isnt an argument for saying its a mistake when it comes to trades. Now, lets talk about something that can be argued, since this cant.
Not sure what you were expecting on the Afflalo move? Actually it was a blessing that he had someone to replace Wes at all? Dude was supposed to bring 10-12 mins off the bench. I guess you are blaming Olshey for a Achilles injury? That year with a healthy Wes and that roster the Blazers might very well have gone deep. Olshey gets a B from me. Only thing keeping him from an A is a finals appearance and that may very well happen.
Yep Broken finger and he also was still recovering from the foot injury. https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2014/11/trail_blazers_backup_guard_cj_mccollum_fractures_f.html Picking up Afflalo was a good move. CJ had not been playing consistently. His shot was not falling. He had been injured twice and he was pretty much nonexistent on defense. Did it turn out good? No but Olshey does not deserve blame for the situation. Matter of fact "Hindsight" makes the move even better IMO.
You think its good value to trade a first and a good young prospect for a guy who you say was only supposed to play 10 to 12 minutes? That trade didnt even affect my grade.
I wouldnt say his shot wasnt falling. He had a 55% TS% in February. He was finally starting to breakout and then got stuffed on the bench for a ghy who was very overrated IMO. I dont hate the trade, but it was definitely a mistake, with or without Wes getting hurt. You dont here of teams trading 1sts AND a good young prospect for 2-month rentals of a bench player.
Hindsight is literally the only way to judge someone in a results based business. It doesn't mean you don't take into account, injuries, bad luck, whatever. Id argue that the Afflalo trade wasnt that bad, Barton has been an “ok” scorer for Denver and has started at times, but he’s never been anything more than basically a pretty mediocre NBA SG. Afflalo came in, wes got hurt, then Afflalo got hurt too. Injuries dont happen and that whole season wouldve been different.
I would have given up Victor Claver, T-Rob and Will Barton all day long on that trade. It's been years and we still watch Barton make bonehead (Me First) plays every time he is on the court. Claver and T-Rob i don't even have to explain i assume. Now the pick ended up being protected but of course the the Blazers were good enough late enough that it went to the Nuggets as a number 19 pick for Malik Beasley who did actually start to produce a little last year. Now lets go situational again. The Blazers at the time when Mathews went down were 41-19 and had a hand at being not only the best team in the entire league but were vying for the top seed in the west. They were on pace to win at least 55 games. They were on a 5 game win streak and had won 9 of the last 12 so in essence that record could very easily been a 60 win team. Now lets just take the game prior to Wes going down. They beat the Clippers in Los Angeles the night before in an OT game that Afflalo played 32 mins and pulled in 6 rebs added 7 points. Played stellar defense on Hedu Turkeyglue (I love spelling that) Arron was a +13 while on the floor. The point is the Blazers needed him at that point and he was producing exactly what they needed. Barton and CJ and Claver and T-rob were not at all. The Blazers were poised to make a deep run. Neil Olshey put them in the position to do just that. Stotts was using his lineup correctly if wins are a Barometer and we as fans were getting ready to cheer for a championship. I was at the game when Wes went down. The feeling was pretty much the same as when Nurk went down. But that year Aldridge was the leader or not the leader??? You could just see he quit after the injury. Last year Lillard never quit. No matter what Damian Lillard will not quit on you. That is why he is the leader! I am going to be very busy today but i want to continue this conversation. If i don't respond quickly it's just because i got things going. I'll be back tonight.
B+ - cant think of another team like ours where they lose a good portion of their team and a few stars, and bounce back as quick as we have in contention. 28 out of 35 B or higher this far speaks well.
I also think that having “some” success this year plays a lot into the rating. Honestly last summer at this time Id have given him an overall of like maybe a C, and thats being generous. I think he did quite a few good things this last year that directly correlated to a good playoff run though, I gave him a B- because he managed to do something with the 2016 contracts.
Didn't Denver basically do that? Plumlee and a late 2nd for Nurkic and and a 1st? They clearly over paid for a back up center to be able to retain Plumlee otherwise they would have had just a late 2nd round pick. Affalo might have been re-signed as well if Mathews didn't go down as that changed everything and then Olshey was able to replace 4 starters and still retain a competitive team that continued to make the playoffs.
