This appeared to be a good signing. I didn't include him in my original list because I was comparing the subtractions to the additions.
So what? The unexpected success of 21-year-old Gary Trent Jr. makes up for a lack of progress for Simons. Trent Jr. now leads active Trail Blazers in 3-point shooting percentage at 39.4 percent. Olshey used two future 2nd round picks and cash to get Trent Jr from Sacramento who picked him at #37 in 2018.
Apparently Stotts is always a horrible coach. Olshey is always a horrible GM. Lillard is always great and will continue to carry whomever is in those positions and injuries have had no effect on the season. Oh yeah.... And CJ sucks, Whiteside is Lazy, Ariza is old, Nurk/Collins coming back will fix everything?
I don't think Stotts has been horrible and seems to do quite well with the 'player/coach' part of the game. But many of his strategies, as have been pointed out numerous times, seem junior-high at best and at the least, highly questionable. Last year was fun (#3, but only 5 games above #8) but (again) if not for Simons/Skal going nucluer in a game Stotts sat anyone close to a starter and tried to lose, the Blazers would have faced Utah in the first round and Golden State in the 2nd. Anyone thing they would have been in the WCFs in that scenario? So if not for a rookie messing up the plan, Portland would have been out in the 1st or 2nd round (again) but to be fair, won just as many games in the WCFs. Stotts has been a decent regular season coach and if that were all that mattered, we would be about one run above meh....which is fine for some people, but not this fan. Nice guy....much like Mark Helfrich when he was at Oregon. Great as a coordinator but results as a head coach leave much to be desired.
What a ridiculous take. Like we don't want to improve the team as much as we can? What's Canzano's idea? That we should have traded Meyers Leonard for Anthony Davis? Seth Curry for LeBron? Traded Aminu for Kawhi? Magically kept Aldridge? Oh, no! We passed on the Greek Freak! So did eleven other teams. We tried to get Paul George. The Pacers took a crappier deal because Pritchard hates us. Lillard begged Melo to come here two years ago. We have the highest payroll in the league; you can't say we're not trying to win. However, it takes two sides to agree. And Portland is not every young black kid's idea of paradise. Not every team gets to win a title. We made the WCF last year. I think the moves Olshey made were solid in the offseason. Not one of the trades has worked out better for the other team than it did for us. Injuries happen. This hindsight bulls*** is just silly.
