Imagine being Neil Olshey. You have a team that went to the Western Conference Finals. You have a great player who made a shot heard round the world. You are poised to take the next step and compete for an NBA championship. So you trade or release half the team, bring in a batch of new guys, and the next season you sink to the bottom of the league. Olshey now appears set to become the GM who ruined Portland’s chances for another championship—and took away Lillard’s best opportunity to get a ring. Is he even sleeping at night? Is he on suicide watch?By all measures, this appears to be a miscalculation of historic proportions. Unless something dramatic happens, the Blazers are going to struggle for the remainder of the year, and can only hope that two guys coming back from major injuries are somehow going to save them.
I'm no fan of Olshey and I would be perfectly happy to see him fired, but he was in some ways a victim of circumstance. It's not his fault that Nurk is injured and that Zach got injured. Aminu was a free agent and that was a sort of tough decision, and if he'd re-signed him more of this board would have been baying for his blood than if he hadn't. We all agreed with the ET trade (well, I didn't, but only because I thought Bazemore was a scrub, not because I was in love with ET). And Whiteside was only supposed to hold the fort until Nurk came back. What this really reveals is that our previous success was tenuous at best and the result of fragile team chemistry.
Yeah, he should have known that Zach's shoulder would dislocate and throw a wrench into the gears. What a moron.
So Zach Collins’ shoulder injury is the reason we couldn’t beat Golden State’s bench? I don’t think so. This team’s problems run much deeper than one missing player. Other teams have an injury or two and still manage to stay competitive.
It's funny (but not funny ha ha) how everyone was trashing Phoenix's offseason but they're now clearly superior to us.
Dame 'waived' goodbye to the Thunder franchase as it was and not only sent them packing but dramatically changed their roster. They lost Westbrook who is now on the 11-5 Rockets and George who is on the 11-5 Clippers.....and the Thunder have a better record. We still have 2 of our 3 best players from last year and they are without their 2 best. It's not just injuries. Something isn't right in the locker room.
Perhaps something is wrong in the locker room, but something is definitely wrong on the court. Preseason was the canary in the coal mine. We cannot so teams from scoring period. It’s astounding. As to the title of this thread, I expect Olshey is a bit panicked. I mean, this team, to a man, was unabashedly talking CHAMPIONSHIP! (As was the idiot known as Propagandist.) Again, I’m astounded.
The good thing about this one is that he says up front you needn't expect to win for at least 6 years
I was concerned last summer... Getting to the WCF seemed to be validation to all of them from the top down. They had arrived, their mentality all summer wasnt we got swept, it was like they achieved their goals. Even in the WCF they just seemed happy to be there. They brought in all these new guys and Dame said were not gonna do the SD trip, and getting guys on the same page wasnt a priority. Somethings felt off basically since the season ended last year. Dont get me wrong, I was crazy excited for this season, Im still holding out hope, but that underdog, we need prove ourselves mentality vanished when they made the WCF’s and I dont think it should have. Hopefully they can turn back on, but watching them just get out worked, and out executed has been more disappointing then the losses...
I never got why they thought they were a championship caliber team with the roster as is (esp with Nurk out). Even with their new players, they're weak at backup forwards and starting SF (I like Hood, but he's much better as a 6th man type role instead of starting). Here's hoping Little and Anfernee continue improving.
You have Zach’s shoulder and Dame has back spasms. And Hood has back spasms. And Whiteside’s hip. And Ant’s ankle. And Skal’s ankle. And Nurkic’s leg. And Gasol’s foot. That’s not 1-2 injuries. That’s over half our team. Your argument is absurd.
Lol. No. You expect them to miss one or two games because of injuries... But when zach went down and before dame got back spasms we still sucked. This entire season hinged on zach not getting hurt. Thats fraility. You can try to spin that with a guy that never played for us getting hurt, or Whiteside empty stats man who gives up more than he produces and is a broken wall on defense... But once zach went down we sucked. We have no depth. Thats on Olshey. Valiant effort though.
We made a series of bad moves this offseason, bringing in several guys that just aren't good. Chemistry doesn't matter unless the players are good, and Whiteside/Bazemore/Hezonja aren't, and haven't been, good. Now we've plugged in Carmelo... we're bad. I don't know how Olshey is sleeping, but I'm hopeful that a strong offseason of shoring up the bench can get us back to where we want to be.
Most people in this forum before the start of the season: “wow our roster is better than last season! Goodbye Turner, Aminu, and Meyers you scrubs! Bazemore is so much of an improvement!” most people in this forum today: “wow I can’t believe Olshey made those offseason moves. What an idiot! Bazemore sucks!!”
