https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/...ord-to-waste-damian-lillards-prime-years.html Canzano spelled out everything I've been saying for several years: The Blazers are wasting time pissing away Dame's prime years by roster bandaids and shitty player move. Yes, they struck gold a couple of times with Nurk and Rodney, but even before that, the makeup of the team was broken with the dual-PG system and lack of defensive intensity, and I believe the two are related. When Portland gave CJ the near Max extension, it kind of sealed the fate of the team for the next several years. Olshey is loyal to "his guys" to a fault, and mediocrity is the result. It's sad, because at the end of this contract, I almost want Dame to walk and go somewhere he can win a ring. It would be different than with Clyde, who never really was the personable, approachable, involved public figure that Dame is. It was easy to frame his demanding to be traded as being an ungrateful malcontent who was a Portland Icon but never seemed to live up to that role publicly. Dame has, and does. He almost deserves Portland to move him to somewhere he can win.
Neil is using Nurk as a crutch for his inactivity. As good as Nurk is, this team lacks talent outside the obvious three or four (Hassan). Neil is too conservative and seems content with being a nice little playoff team and not a true contender. The sooner Neil is fired, the quicker this team will be on the path out of purgatory.
the 'Blazers' aren't wasting it. There's been one person in charge of roster construction since May 2012, and Dame's talent has given the guy in charge over 7.5 years of cover for not taking risks and stroking his own ego, while peddling hype, deflection, distraction, and spin
We need a better coach. It's difficult to assess what we have on our roster when the coach has a faulty game plan. It's possible we need to trade CJ, I've been open to it for years, but it's also possible he can succeed within a different framework of an NBA team. We need a new framework and to do that, we need a different coach. Unfortunately, Olshey has been acquiring players that fit into this coach's faulty system. We need to continue to stack talent and not put our eggs in one basket.
Exactly. Neil had a good off-season this summer. But injuries + horrible coaching derailed this season.
Absolutely, I agree that defense is the crippling agent of this team and Dame has pop action personnel attached to him. If the team allowed Dame to move on, the real ICON of the Blazers would be lost. He should always be our legend, no matter how our dismal season evolves. Shit, the Lakers once sucked when they lost 16 in a row to us. Why can't we improve?. Our D Sucks and our coach doesn't emphasize that important facet.
Dame isn't on the level of Kawhi, Giannis, etc. Now we have young guys like Luka, Morant passing him. Stars like Anthony Davis wont resign here so we can't trade for them. Now the Turner Meyers contracts were a disaster. Outside that Neil and Stotts are fine. Neil finally had a summer where he took some risk and move away from safe guys such as Aminu who would get lots of wins but fail in the playoffs. Well the risk didn't work out. Trading CJ or firing the coach wouldn't make the team contenders this year. The nature of the NBA is the best players win titles, Dame isnt at that level. I dont think a new GM with no history to Jody Allen will come in and do better than Neil. Just ride this season out and reevaluate changes in the summer. Yeah I know fans want a better chance of contending.... sad truth is whatever action the team takes will most likely not have the Blazers contend.
My look into this partly agrees with JC and in some ways agrees with the reset scenario. The thing is the Blazers have pretty much one more rebuild available around Lillard. They need to get a solid team built in the next 2-3 years and capitalize on Lillard while he is here. They have some pieces. Trade or what have you but they have Lillard, Nurk, CJ, Hood?, 1M, Little, Collins, Whiteside They need two or three more solid pieces. I say three if they decide to trade and get better. A solid team that is deep is going to be what makes another run. I would be on board with trying a different coach for sure. It might be time. But if you bring in a new coach you better make sure he is the one. Changing and going through three coaches in the next 4 years would be catastrophic for Lillard's career in my opinion.
Anytime when I hear Canzano and I have a similar opinion, I worry I was wrong all along. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often!