now that I can agree with...to a point at least. Having some good luck is probably a significant factor in making most teams contenders. And Miami has some foundational good luck that Portland can't mimic: great weather (except for an occasional hurricane) and no state income tax. So compared to Portland they begin the race with a little better traction. Miami loaded up on their good luck in 2020. But, it sure looks like lots of that was luck they made for themselves. They landed an elite player in Butler, and all they paid for him was Whiteside, Richardson, and a lottery protected 1st several years from now. I think Dame is a little better than Butler, but Butler is a 2-way wing, and wings are the most valuable position. Adebayo exploded but that was some 2017 luck and it could have just been good scouting rather than luck, They traded Waiters, Winslow, and Johnson for Crowder and Iggy. Was that good luck or was that the Miami front office willing to take the kind of risks Portland's front office retreats from? looks to me like a big part of Miami's luck is evaluating talent better than Portland, in both trades and the draft, and a willingness to take much bigger risks. Portland has had some good luck too but it's just been spread out over several years. Drafting Dame was franchise altering good luck. Trading for Nurkic instead of Jahlil Okafor was very good luck. Finding Gary Trent in the 2nd round was good luck. But an 8 year period will see plenty of bad luck cancel the good luck, and that has certainly happened with Portland and of course, a lot of what we're calling luck is just a combination of good and bad decisions by management. Miami has made more good ones and less bad ones than Portland so then I guess that leaves people such as myself, pessimistic about the roster and management while believing the Blazers are in purgatory, open to criticism for those views because, you know, Portland might be stumbling into some good luck next year. Ok then, it's going to be a fresh deck of cards this off-season, but it sure would be better if the card-player was somebody like Pat Riley than Olshey. Riley has been 'lucky', again and again, for 50 years
The fact we didn't sit on our hands doesn't mean we can become contenders though. That's what we are talking about here. We haven't changed our style of play and haven't tried to improve our weaknesses for many years in a row. Still when it matters it's trap Lillard game over. Seriously it's same basketball every year and we just depend on the leaps Lillard will make. We almost went home by the Nets this season. We are unlucky for sure, but it's more than that.
exactly Portland's Achilles heel in the playoffs since they beat Houston in 2014 has been that when good teams focus their defense on Dame, there is no other singular talent on the roster good enough to punish that defense. Portland keeps rebooting the roster without addressing that flaw. This offseason is just about certain to be the 7th straight reboot and the fatal flaw will still be there. Until that's fixed they are pretenders
I agree with you that Miami changed their team. I didn't agree with the statement that Portland just rolled back the same roster last year as the season prior. If we were to add a Jimmy Butler, Crowder, and a stud rookie types to our roster, we would be in the discussion, especially out East. Do I think Olshey will do that? No.
he didn't roll out the same roster in terms of personnel. Names were changed and talent was downgraded the problem was he exchanged Kanter, Aminu, Harkless, Curry, Turner, Meyers, and Layman for Whiteside, Bazemore, Hezonja, Tolliver, Little, and Gabriel. And later added Melo and Jaylen Hoard. After Whiteside, it was downgrades across the board, and basically, the hell with defense. H rolled out a different roster, and it was worse. He's done that before this was the 2nd time Olshey revamped the roster. The first time was the Dame/Aldridge team. In the last 2 years of that team they won 105 regular season games. In the first two years of Olshey's new team, they won 85 games. Now, he's worked his magic on the first permutation of the Dame/ CJ team. Over the last two years of that team, Portland won 102 regular season games and two playoff series. In the first year of the new team, Portland won the equivalent of 39 games. That means they'd have to win 63 games and make it to the WCF again, just to match the previous team's 2 year record. LOL...what are the chances for that...that's really not a question I've spent decades as a remodeling contractor. If I managed my jobs the way Olshey has managed the Blazers, cabinets would fall off the wall into a puddle of water from the leaking roof
New rule: you can continue the eternal Olshey-bashing thread but you have to come up with at least one bargain-basement player for each post.
You forgot Meyers Leonard. And, hey, Meyers could be a bargain bin player this year so I have that covered. Oh, and Olshey sucks. Did I do that right?
So, the Heat have been farting around for many years, and now they decided to develop some useful players? What a bunch of idiots, they should have just done that years ago....
of course, they are idiots enough to have won 3 championships in the last 14 years...the same number as Golden State. They have also appeared in the finals 5 times in that span and might show up a 6th time this year
Yeah, and those title appearances were all because of solid drafting and development right. Come on, youre better than that.
ok then...maybe I missed the thread within the thread...sorry they did draft DWade but like Dame, he didn't need to have much development
Who will be this year's Anthony Tolliver or Mario Hezonja? That is grounds for firing right there that Olshey thought those two would help this team take the next step from a winless WCF appearence. Seriously? That was the thinking? Simons as the backup PG? Neil has shown the ability to find servicable players later in the 1st round or in the 2nd, but none of them have been THAT big of a deal and the choices made with earlier 1st round picks has been hit-or-miss at best. This roster needs a serious upgrade or re-do. Otherwise, it will just be more of the same mediocrity that we've seen for the vast majority of Dame's time here. Bargin Bin isn't going to fix a damned thing. I get that some of the moves were out of pure necessity. Whiteside because Nurkic was going to be out. Melo because almost anyone playing the 3/4 was out. But those were survival moves, not moves that would make this team better. Melo, for all his inefficient shooting which once in a while nets a big shot, is a HORRIBLE/TURBLE defender and Whiteside (while a shot blocker) is useless outside of the circle. It is a wing league but Olshey keeps going small or inept. Stop wasting Dame's prime and step it up.
Meyers Leonard will be back as Whiteside sign with Lakers. You can take Meyers out of the blazers but you cant take they blazers out of Meyers. He'll be back.....
Those guys were acquired to fill out the end of the bench. Unfortunately we have a coach who would rather play below mediocre veterans than rookies who can offer something. If it wasn't for Ariza not playing we would have never gotten Trent Jr. Nassir Little and Wenyen Gabriel were losing minutes to Tolliver and Mario the whole season.
