If Jody and the jerkoffs are shit you can't expect them to hire a good GM. As a fan, all you can do is hope... That's where I'm at. He's obviously not afraid to pull the trigger. He got about the value I thought was realistic for CJ. A less haralded player who plays both ways and has a far better contract. If we'd have gotten a lotto pick as well for Nance that would have been a steal, IMO. Worth the shot. The Clips deal was about what I expected as well. Had to give up RoCo to get somebody to take Norm's contract. Not great, but fine. And I think he was dealing with some mandates. So I'm good with it. People who've worked with him say he is smart, thoughtful, and deliberate. And that he's well respected. Fingers crossed.
Not the only one.... We have shared the mediocrity opinion regarding high Neil's plan and Dame/CJ's ceiling for years. Met Neil early on, and his oily used car salesman traits are on full display. Left with the impression of needing a seriously hot shower.
Most of any of our thoughts are speculation, as obviously none of us were at the table or have the details, but what fun would a message board be if we DIDN'T speculate. At that point I walk away from the table ... there were still two more days before the deadline! You had CJ wanting to go to NO, you had NO in desperate need of a player to help them catch a spark and you walked away without getting a lottery pick. I think that was the most frustrating part for me, was that he made this deal so early in the process, when it doesn't seem anyone else was knocking down the door wanting to go to the Pelicans like CJ was. I think it's idiotic to let a player dictate where he's going in this situation, but I understand it, what I don't understand is the rush to make a deal. Let the Pels linger for a day and see if you can extract more out of them. It's not like they were asking for Zion or some crazy demand, it was making sure a pick conveyed in the lottery. I guess this deal, coupled with the LAC deal along with his background has me seeing Cronin as a guy pretty good with the cap but a crap negotiator. I hope he proves me wrong and I'll give him the summer but my hopes aren't high.
All of us that spend hours upon hours on this site is because we all HOPE for the team to contend from one year to the next. And HOPE is addicting, the nba knows this.
For years we’ve wanted a guy that would take risk and swing for the fence. Any GM that does this successfully wins some and loses some.
Pelinka was given sainthood after getting bron & davis. Now he’s made the worst trade in the NBA in years. Should he be fired?
I don't have any problem calling him a liar. Same with Olshey. They can hide it behind GM-speak and technicalities, but GM's are politicians at heart...so there you go if there were better offers out there I think we would have heard of some by now. The only two we've heard about were not better offers. I will continue to say there were no better offers until I hear of one that was. there could have been other offers but those offers were likely in the no-fly zone of Portland taking on significant future payroll, and that, pretty obviously, was counter to instructions that Cronin had from Seattle.
I'd MUCH rather have the team we had before the trade deadline than the one we do now. Why? Because I think we could get deals at least as good as the ones we got. And we'd have the offseason to decide what to do with them. And CJ's contract (the reason he isn't worth that much) would be shorter, so teams might be more willing to give value for him. The main downside of not making those trades is that we might not have lost so many games, but I don't know where our lottery ball will fall, so even that might not have been a big deal. The garbage we got from the trades themselves has done/will do us no favors. But... it got Cronin the permanent GM job somehow. Just amazing.
One of the big hang ups of dealing CJ in the offseason is the loss of financial flexibility. A team would have to send us 26 million or so to be able to take him on. So maybe we get an extra pick out of it(doubtful), but we'd take on an extra 12-16 million in salary, which then means we're in the tax almost immediately upon signing simons and nurk.
exactly my sentiment as well. there was nothing to be gained by rushing to make that CJ deal especially.
in reality what is this so-called flexibility actually getting us? the Non-tax MLE vs the tax MLE? i don't see this as much of a value add given our history with MLE caliber FAs. unless we actually use it for value, we essentially salary dumped 4/5ths of our starting lineup and our best bench player.
If the team doesn't want to go too high in to the tax, it allows us to keep two of our better players. It opens up trade options with the TPE that weren't otherwise there. There doesn't have to be one specific move, but it's better to have the flexibility than locked in to a super expensive roster that isn't going anywhere.
i don't care about saving Jody $. I only care if we're competitive. Jury's out if this current build will actually amount to anything more than the Dame/CJ build, and not maximizing our assets is a terrible start. But back to the point, Cronin getting this job was a foregone conclusion. I am just hoping he realizes that he needs to eek out every last bit of value he can from his so-called flexibility. I remain skeptical that can do that. It's why I really would like some oversight above him.
I dont care about saving her money either, just being realistic. Gone are the days of SPAM. Worrying about the tax for management is a real thing, when you're a mediocre team. It's the unfortunate reality. So ignoring it as a fan and just saying spend more isn't realistic, IMO.
Quick said there was no real search for other candidates. But how does anyone know for sure? How can franchise chair Jody Allen, or her right-hand man Bert Kolde — or whoever is making the decisions these days — know? There was no search. No candidates flew in for an interview. No phone calls were made to feel out if people were interested. No nothing. “They were never opening it for a search,” one prominent agent said. Another agent was more colorful in his disgust but didn’t want to be quoted. It was clear the lack of process was not only confusing but also laughable. --- For the Blazers to make this decision without measuring Cronin’s plan against those of other sharp candidates is more than concerning. It’s borderline malpractice. Wouldn’t you feel better today as a fan knowing the Blazers chose Cronin after listening to what Chicago’s Marc Eversley thinks? Or after the Blazers weighed Cronin’s plan against those of up-and-comers like Sacramento’s Wes Wilcox, Brooklyn’s Jeff Peterson, the Clippers’ Michael Winger or Memphis’ Chris Makris? Heck, do the bare minimum and listen to what old-school guys like Ed Stefanski or Jeff Bauer thought about the job. --- I don’t care about the length of the contract, or that Cronin was hired. It’s the process that stinks, which is unfortunate for Cronin, who may very well be up for the task ahead. Right now, it’s safe to say the jury is still out on how Cronin has fared. There are some in league circles who joke that Cronin was recently voted the MVP for the New Orleans Pelicans and LA Clippers for his deals that greatly enhanced his rivals while doing little for Portland aside from net “financial flexibility” and Josh Hart. Those inside the Blazers say people around the league are telling them they did well in unloading the bloated salaries of CJ McCollum and Norman Powell and the creaky knees of Robert Covington.
Wouldn’t you feel better today as a fan knowing the Blazers chose Cronin after listening to what Chicago’s Marc Eversley thinks? Or after the Blazers weighed Cronin’s plan against those of up-and-comers like Sacramento’s Wes Wilcox, Brooklyn’s Jeff Peterson, the Clippers’ Michael Winger or Memphis’ Chris Makris? Heck, do the bare minimum and listen to what old-school guys like Ed Stefanski or Jeff Bauer thought about the job. Not one bit.
