as an Olshey "hater" I'll give him credit in another area, although I think Paul Allen made this a priority: the blazer roster over the last 8 seasons has been filled with quality people. The polar opposite of the jail-blazer era a parking ticket would be shocking
I think it helps that marijuana is now legal... how many jail blazers were villainized for that? Sheed, Isaiah, Damon and I think a couple more. That being said we have really good guys as players and that's nice.
Neil is not destined to stay here to many more years, he will end up in one of the larger higher profile markets.
I mean he came from LA and the Clippers to be in Portland. But yes I think Judy will eventually decide to not pay the GM/president as much as NO is currently getting.
I'm happy that he saw our issues last year and made it a priority to add personal to help those specific issues. What I'm even happier about is that he was willing to get pieces that might not fit Stotts typical way of coaching, and THEN put the onus on Stotts to do things differently and to utilize them correctly. Cant blame Olshey for getting poor scheme fits if he's telling Stotts he needs to be more creative as a coach and is forcing his hand. That's what I've wanted for a while so instead of looking at it as "They dont fit Stotts scheme", I look at it as Olshey forcing Stotts to change for the better. Good job Olshey! Now we see if Stotts will improve.
This is an interesting takeaway. In the past, he's certainly brought it other players that don't fit in Stotts' scheme, so I wonder how this is a major shift. Either way, it's always good if the GM/Coach are pushing each other to be better. I was surprised the he repeatedly brought up us having one of the best offenses. Certainly felt like something he took pride in.
It's the entire basketball world that's saying these things about our off season. I'm not saying they're guaranteed to be right but it's a lot more likely that all of these guys are right and the pessimists in here are wrong. The RoCo move is a great move, that's all that needs to be said about him. I was already really high on Jones so maybe I'm a partial judge but I love that move too. Bringing back Hood on the biggest contract we could give him wasn't only the right basketball move (I think he'll be very effective for us) it is a move that will endear Neil to his players and a lot of other players around the league. Giles was also a really smart pick up. It's brilliant to have Enes back at that price, playing behind Nurk. Neil gave Terry something that he just hasn't in the past, a deep team and did it while fulfilling a mandate from ownership to stay under the luxury tax. I have no idea about Elleby, he seemed like he was just the guy at the top of our board but when does Stotts ever play rookies anyway. Overall, look at those moves... yeah I wish Neil would have addressed the fact that CJ and Dame's games don't coexist well but we all knew that wasn't happening. This is a helluva team to put around Dame and CJ if you believe in them like Olshey does. I know we were hoping for a blockbuster move but instead we got a bunch of really positive moves that chipped away and in my opinion busted that block in the same way. This is a very different and much better roster than we had last season.
I totally agree with you. I actually think Neil likes feeling like a big fish in a small pond. I think he likes working for a rich owner that he can sell to easier than he can sell to the team's fans or free agents. So while I don't know if he's had an offer for a bigger deal than this I don't think he's really looking for one, when he leaves it will be because he's fired or abandons ship because of new ownership. Also according to some articles Neil is one of the top 5 highest paid GMs. It's a nice gig for him with a lot of autonomy, limelight and a bunch of excuses for his team not being elite.
When we see better results from a backcourt of CJ and Dame, I would then say he deserves more credit. I like the moves this off-season and hope it works. As others have said, he may have built a nice house on a shaky foundation.
We're not seeing better results out of that combo. That's not true, CJ could do much better on offense being a second fiddle. He could pass/rotate the ball when he's covered instead of going one on one, he could shoot every open three that he sees and he could decide not to run the shot clock down like there's fourteen seconds when there's only five. On defense there is no hope, I believe Dame is maxed out at being a slightly above average defender and CJ is the worst starting defender in the league... at least on a competitive team. So we just have to understand that CJ might improve the offense by not stalling it but he will continue to be the weakest link in our defense and give up a lot of points. However that doesn't change the fact that Olshey put the best possible team around them. He believes in that back court and has 8 very complementary players on this roster to help them win. Neil deserves credit for that and blame for his stubbornness about the Dame/CJ debacle.
In summation: good trades; questionable FA signings; ignored underlying issues (Stotts, Dame/CJ pairing).
Sure he has, his kids are older now and he realizes that you can only turn down so many opportunities.
Remember when Neil tried to trade Nurk for Boogie and it almost went down. That was a massive bullet dodge. https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/...cousins-blocked-by-agent-report/283-570284191