Grade the Blazers' roster changes

You have to remember, the press was RAVING. No doubt Olshey got all the reviews framed and has been making sure Jody sees them.

 

What can I say - I REALLY love RoCo.

 

my point remains. for the kinda criticism Olshey has received in this forum, you'd think there would be multiple Ds and Fs.

 

To be fair, the people most critical of Olshey did give the lowest grades, which was B-. Just surprised it wasn't lower. Maybe because they were influenced by the amount of LOVE from the greater media.

I only gave a B- because of the Melo signing. In hindsight that signing may not have been that bad if it wasn't made in conjunction with some of the other deals.

 

sticking with this, my review, save for the nurk/jokic comment.

we had the guys that everyone here almost universally agreed would improve our defense, yet we finished 29th. then why is there surprise when Olshey throws Stotts under the bus?

also, as i said, if my profs graded like the people here did in saying the worst possible grade is a B-, i would have gotten into lot better grad schools than where i ended up going.

 

why? because we should be perfect at predicting the future?

if you buy a new car, what grade means more: the one when it's setting in the showroom or the one after you've driven it for a year? Grading a roster before it's tested by actual games is irrelevant. It's meaningless

I know something else, if I would have given it a C- at the time, guys like you would have been trashing me hard for my Olshey-hate

 

this is some kinda spin you're putting on here. not sure why you just dont own it.

and it's hilarious to know that you apparently grade on a curve because you're influenced by what other people think of your grade.

 

With good reason.

We replaced...

Trent --> Powell
Whiteside --> Nurkic
Ariza --> Covington
Hezonja --> Jones
Swanigan --> Kanter

....and got worse, while having Dame play at an MVP level and CJ having his best year yet in his career. Not to mention the likes of Little/Simons improving and RHJ being very serviceable.

Make that make sense to me. What other choice does Olshey have except to run Terry over with his bus?

 

This is Olshey:

 

Nope - that hadn't happened yet.

 

as long as you're busy going after me for my opinions, why don't you tell me again how wrong I was for saying CJ's start to the season was unsustainable

glass houses

 

jesus, dude. it's just an anonymous forum. ive made plenty of blunders and had wrong opinions, didn't realize it means so much for you to be correct all the time.

 

I have to go back to RealGM for how long I've wanted CJ traded.

 

I gave a B+. That was grading on a curve, understanding the cap realities that Olshey has placed the team in.

I still think the off-season was slightly better than I thought he was going to do. Still a LONG way from a homerun offseason.

 

I was stupid to think that Stotts would use DJ correctly but I loved both pickups. DJ, even though not used in the most efficient of ways had a lot of success as our starting small forward. RoCo is really a great fit for our team and was a good pickup. That being said, the Rockets flipped one of the two picks and Ariza for Wood. That stung a little bit but people talked me out of blaming Neil because he can't be expected to know about that sort of deal when he makes ours. So in a vacuum DJ for the MLE was fantastic, RoCo for Ariza and two firsts was really solid too. Bringing Enes back was good for when Nurk was out and would have been great if we would have had Zach to play the role he needed to.

So I stick with my B+ if I'm dumb enough to not consider roster building in the context of who the head coach is. If I do consider who the head coach is then I think a C is the right grade.

 

what the fuck are you babbling about? I didn't come after you for how you voted in that stupid poll...you came after me...by name. What was the point of that?

 

Really wanted Wood and was completely dubious of the DJJ signing. His strengths were slashing to the basket (the #1 slasher in the NBA last season) but the Blazers don't do that. Then he was very good on defense in the Zone that Miami played. Portland rarely plays zone. And of course, Jones was an elite finisher out on the break.....which Portland has notoriously been bottom of the league with.

So he had some things he excelled at.....but Portland didn't do those things. So Olshey tried to fit a square peg in a round hole.....and then Stotts did very little to incorporate the skills provided from the player.

It was never going to work with this style and this coach.

 

Now that
(a) Ariza went on to play 28 mpg for the Heat
(b) the 2020 pick was Isaiah Stewart (and could have been Saddiq Bey)
(c) the 2021 pick was Usman Garuba

I wish to state that I now don't even like the RoCo trade. I change my grade to a D.

 

RoCo is still on the books and is more impactful than any and all of the players you just listed. I think Ariza wouldn't have been as good and we know the rookie wouldn't have played. If we go into a total rebuild then you will be right but the object of that trade was to build around Dame and it's still the right move to do that... I love shitting all over anything that Olshey has done that is reasonably wrong but it was the right move at the time and I feel like it holds up.

 

yeah

I like RoCo. I think he was Olshey's best addition to the roster since Robin Lopez in 2013. Shit, 7 years between good additions

two first round picks was kind of a high price generically. But not so high a price in light of the Dame situation. And of course, first round picks in Olshey's hands have low value