Zombie Fire Olshey

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by Fez Hammersticks, Dec 26, 2016.

  1. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    The thing about all these “incidents” is we’re only hearing one side, and people just run with it because it supports their narratives about him. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. For example, remember when Kanter claimed Olshey was pressuring him and only gave him 5 minutes to make a decision in free agency? Had Dame not came out and debunked it, people would’ve also ran with that story and taken it as fact.
     
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  2. illmatic99

    illmatic99 formerly yuyuza1

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  3. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    That's where I'm going with this also.
     
  4. UKRAINEFAN

    UKRAINEFAN Well-Known Member

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    The story did confirm that it was Portland's choice not to bring Melo back. I wonder if Billups is having more personnel input than Stotts. It does reinforce my opinion that Olshey has always had a haphazard approach to building a team, never had a real vision of what kind of team he wanted to build.
     
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  5. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    notice that I haven't said anything about that clutchpoints article

    I will say this, it wasn't just Melo, Matthews, and Ed Davis left hanging. it happened to Robin Lopez too. I also seem to recall Batum saying something like Olshey didn't tell him he'd been traded, it was the assistant GM. Of course, Olshey was probably still pissed off about the hardball Batum's agent played with Portland and Minny

    as for Kanter, he said 6 minutes which was an exaggeration. Dame said it was 45 minutes. That's still a real tight deadline for a 10 million dollar decision
     
  6. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    It's not surprising from Olshey. The guy is a tool, if people can't see that then I don't know what their definition of a "good guy" is. Olshey is a self serving egotist and not just some of his actions back up this opinion... all of his public actions do. If you disagree with that assessment, don't tell me I'm being too hard on the guy, give me examples of him not being sleazy.
     
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  7. Scalma

    Scalma Well-Known Member

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    I don’t think billups would’ve taken the job if he didn’t have some say in personnel. He had leverage, I’m sure he could’ve gotten a head coaching job somewhere else, if not this year then next.
     
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  8. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    You could also say the way he handled the Billups hiring fiasco was sleazy as well. So i guess if it's good to point out then we will but if not? Not so much?
     
  9. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Oh, I've beaten that one to death. I don't mind the Billups hiring but Olshey's whole "you're going to have to trust us that we did a thorough investigation..." I have huge problems with that. Like I said, you would be hard pressed to find one thing the guy has done that's not totally self serving and sleazy besides gifting players that don't deserve it with huge contracts.
     
  10. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Do you know what Olshey was saying to Melo agent? Olshey seems to have a great relation with agents so I find it unlikely he didn't communicate anything to them. Maybe Melo wanted to come back and Olshey had a reason for not making an offer or not eliminating any options of reaching out to Melo later.

    It was reported Olshey told Ed Davis to take the Nets offer so I don't see how you can blame any of that on Olshey.

    I'm fine for ripping on Olshey when its deserved (I think he deserves to be fired from the 2016 contracts) but some of the witch hunting with Neil is ridiculous. I'm sure you could look at any of the best GM's off all time such as Jerry West and find similar issues to nitpick if you wanted.
     
  11. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Do you realize how fast free agency works? Hours into it the majority of the league has agreed to deals. The team has to act very fast. Kanter should have known for weeks what he would accept, the team could offer the tax MLE and that was it, very clear and simple. Kanter agent job is to get a guage of what offers he will have prior to 7/1 so they can be prepared to make decisions immediately.

    If Neil has any fault in the Kanter situation it was waiting too long IMO. 45 minutes could have cost the team Hood or another addition.
     
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  12. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I just don't give a crap about this opinion, it's irrelevant to a GM's job performance. I find him fine in press conferences and interviews. Yes I know some may disagree and want a GM who is more of a PR talking head, or makes them feel good, I don't care about that.

    Neil has had a great relationship with players and agents IMO. Guys like Kanter, Mo Williams, etc chose Portland because of him.

    Neil has made plenty of blunders with stupid signings and some dumb trades, I judge his failings on issues such as that. Not some opinion of his attitude or his preference for valet parking.
     
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  13. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Melo said they wouldn't return his phone calls, Wes said the same thing, it seems like that's how Neil rolls... neither Melo or Wes specified if it was just a personal call or if it was both them and their agents but they said they didn't hear anything from our front office. It's just unprofessional and rude. You have 14 players from the previous season's roster, if one of them wants to talk to you, you could make the time to tell them that you're going another way.
     
  14. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Yes I agree Neil and the Blazers screwed this up.

    To me its a valid criticism of the organization, but its irrelevant to Neil's primary job duties which is assembling talent on a basketball team.
     
  15. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    It all goes together for me. I look at him as a total package and find that he should have been fired a long time ago and can't stand that he's still here because of his performance and his attitude... for me the attitude that comes from the top mouthpiece for our team is more important than the attitude of any player and plenty of people around here get hung up on players' attitudes.
     
  16. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    You know what, if the team was kicking ass and we had the most talented roster year in and year out, I wouldn't love the fact that the dude is a pompous ass but I'd just deal with it... like Krause in Chicago. The fact is that Neil is shit at his main job so that other stuff, that's still his job (talking to media, treating people decently as a figurehead) does pile onto the frustration for me.
     
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  17. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    So two guys who didn't get contract offers they wanted from the team were disappointed?

    Maybe the players are upset with how it happened, but they would've been even more upset if Neil calls and says thanks but no thanks.

    Maybe their agents said don't contract us until there is an offer we are busy negotiating at that time. We have no idea how this communication is supposed to work, as others have said we are only hearing one side of the story.
     
  18. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    no, I'm stupid and haven't paid attention for the last 30 years


    it's obvious what happened: Olshey had Kanter as the priority over Hood and had a standing offer for the MLE. But he was keeping track of Hood. Hood got an offer and used that to leverage Olshey into a deadline for making a counter-offer. So then, Olshey had to call Kanter and attach the Hood deadline as an amendment to the standing offer. Kanter was in discussions with Boston at that time. I'm sure Kanter was a little aggravated by the new deadline to accept Portland's offer, but that's the nature of a competitive market

    I was making a smaller point than you want to make: that being that a 45 minute deadline is not a lot better than a 6 minute deadline. Kanter should have known that any offer could be rescinded at any time, and I'm sure Olshey didn't say "we'll give you the MLE and you have all summer to decide"
     
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  19. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I look at the Blazers 5th and 6th best players right now... its pretty good. I remember the 15 years of never winning in the playoffs, Neil has made a roster better than a lot of those years. Its not only Dame, Neil has put a few great roll players around Dame over the years as well.

    If Simons or NAS makes a big leap this year all the sudden we have a very deep team.

    It's extremely rare to have a Chicago or contending team, so I don't use that as any kind of measuring stick.

    I think Rich Cho, John Nash, Steve Patterson would've been much worse for this organization. So while I don't like Neil as much as Trader Bob and top GM's, I still don't believe he has been a terrible GM.

    I'm willing to see how the start of this year goes.

    The big problem, is lets say its time to move on from Olshey, I have even less faith Jody will make a better hire than Olshey.
     
  20. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I don't know that Kanter was the priority.

    From everything I heard I suspect Hood. Hoods agent, and the Blazers thought they would get much more than the tax MLE. So Kanter had priority because Hood didn't appear to be an option. When Hood didnt get those big offers, they decided they would be interested in the Blazers MLE.

    Neil putting a time limit on Kanters offer is actually nicer than they had to be, they could've withdrawn it at any time. Any criticism for Neil on this incident is ridiculous IMO.
     
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