Grade Olshey's deadline trades

Olshey sure does love to make trades at the deadline. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. Name and grade in this thread.

I'll start:
On February 19, 2015, we traded Will Barton, Víctor Claver, Thomas Robinson, and a lottery-protected 2016 first-round pick for Aaron Afflalo and Alonzo Gee.

If I'm correct, that pick became #19 in 2016 which was Malik Beasley. Pascal Siakam was taken at #27.

I give that one a D-, and that's being generous.

 

The trade failed for two reasons.

1. Afflalo was meant to be a backup. Wes went down and that changed the plan.

2. Afflalo got hurt and wasn't as effective.

It's amazing to me that people look back at that trade through 20/20 hindsight vision

 

I was pretty pissed about it at the time but I was a big fan of the Thrill, so I was admittedly biased.

 

Afflalo sucked even as a backup. That was one of the more shortsighted deals Neil has ever made. You don't even need to look at hindsight to know that it sucked.

Not to mention we had CJ on the bench at the time. If Neil believed in CJ half as much as he did now he would have never pulled the trigger.

 

It was a "win now" move that many of us are calling for right now.

You don't think a trade that sends out any of Simons/Trent/Collins/Little couldn't bight us in the ass?

 

Sure, it could. And has a high chance of biting Portland in the ass if he traded them all for a mediocre backup. I didn't like the trade at the time, though I didn't expect it to turn into as terrible a deal as it did.

 

It does seem like the majority call for win-now trades and yet the most highly critized trades were the win-now moves. Never put the two together before.

 

Neil was desperate to keep LMA.

 

not that impressive, but I guess that's how it goes.

 

I'm fine with win-now moves if the value is there. That has to be true for any trade. I'm not in favor of win-now moves just to "go for it" if you have to pay well more than the value of what you're getting.

And, in general, across sports, the worst moves historically are contenders who are so desperate for a player, they give away vital pieces of their future.

 

Context is pretty important. The "win now" trade landed a mediocre backup on an expiring deal. Afflalo sucked that season in Denver. The win-now guys that people are talking about don't fit that criteria, although you could always argue their level of mediocrity.

 

but thats what was needed. At the time we were set in all five starting positions, unlike now.
Apples to oranges. That move was to put veteran leadership on the bench.
Todays win now call is for a starting caliber player.

Edit: ill add that at the time The thrill had shown zero consistency and that is what the bench needed. A consistent veteran off the bench.

 

But also, Stotts refused to play or use Barton. Same with McCollum. It wasn't until Afflalo got injured that Stotts gave in and gave CJ minutes. It didn't turn out good but I don't see it much of Olshey's fault. More so Stotts for not allowing Barton to show them what they had.

 

I don't think it was about belief in CJ, but rather the understanding that Stotts wasn't going to play him or Barton.

 

Right, the GM believed he had excellent young players but didn't think the coach would play them...and was fine with that and kept that coach on the payroll for the next 7 years. Sounds realistic.

Bear in mind, you seem to feel anyone who thinks there's any redeeming quality to Stotts as a coach is an idiot--yet you lionize the GM who thinks he's a good coach. Cognitive dissonance.

 

I take minor exception to Afflalo being labeled mediocre at the time. The season prior he average 18-4-3 while shooting 43% from 3 in what appeared to be the prime of his career. I think there were many people thinking his 50 game dip in Denver to 14-3-2 on 33% from three was not on Afflalo, but the Nuggets.

https://www.si.com/nba/2015/02/19/arron-afflalo-trade-blazers-nuggets-grades

 

But everybody here was begging for that trade. Afflalo or Wilson Chandler.

 

how else are you supposed to judge any roster move than by how it works out? Hindsight is the only way to gauge decisions. There are always variables that enter the equation

I might have great reasoning for buying a stock when it's selling at $50. But if I need to dump the stock at $20 my reasoning wasn't worth shit and I was a fool for buying at $50. The Portland GM, was it Nash? thought he had great reasons for drafting Martell Webster instead of Chris Paul. I mean, the Blazers already had Telfaire at PG and they needed a SF. But it was a fucking stupid choice. Hindsight made that apparent

Will Barton has been better the last 3-4 seasons than Afflalo was at the time and when the 1st round pick Portland gave up was on the clock, Caris Levert, Pascal Siakam, Dejonte Murray and Malcolm Brogdon were available. That's some significant opportunity cost

all that given up for 25 games of Afflalo. Bad trade

 

What about the Hood trade in 2019? Got him for Sauce and WB4. Gosh remember them?