Yeah I was fine with the Collins pick at the time and still am today. He got injured and guys later were home runs. That always happens with the draft. Now the Swanigan pick is the questionable one. Just not an NBA body and all sorts of question marks. Little was fine as a late pick. Trent/Connaughton/Barton were very good for the 2nd round Simons pick was very good. The extension, development, role were the issue with him. I always wondered if we flipped him for max trade value and kept Norm on that nice contract how much better we could have been. Just a ton of years the Blazers gave up 1st round picks for irrelevant vets. Its about half of the years Olshey was GM. The 2016 contracts also killed any ability to build talent or assets on the roster. The post Aldridge years the Blazers weren't contenders with a young Dame/CJ they should have been aggressively building assets. I kind of wonder if that series we beat the injured Clippers was such a false sense of accomplishment that it set the franchise back.
Yeah. Then giving guys like Meyers some stupid overpaid extension when he had zero market. All of the crappy GM's do that just to validate their stupid prior actions. I certainly like that Cronin has been willing to flip directions very quickly on multiple acquisitions. GPII, Ayton, Nurk extension, etc. Good that they view sunk costs as sunk costs and just move on.
he's definitely a lot more competent more than that is he isn't an insufferable condescending douche-nozzle like Neil
Decent tier list. I probably would have had Cronin GM tenure at a C last summer but this off-season was very good so a B now makes sense. It's really certain areas Joe is distinctively good vs bad at. Drafts - good Adding/retaining overpaid useless vets - bad Moving on from prior mistakes - very good Overpaying own players - bad Trades - good Really the next step comes down to our youth. If two of them make a big improvement that could turn into an A. If none of our youth improve it could drop him to a C or D. Although once we have a new owner we might need to consider him a new Joe 2.0 with separate grades.
Ok.....here goes. This is my take on the GM. Not really into arguing any points made here. Feel free to respond to this in any fashion. If nothing else, let's just say I'm lobbing one up for some of you. I think the previous GM was a control freak. I think that in his tenure, he let some of the players into his circle of decisions. I think he had conversations with them that created a sense of involvement that players should not have. I state this, because in addition to taking on the financial nightmare on Center Ct St, Mr. Cronin also had to disconnect the players from the inner circle. I think Joe was being honest when he claimed he was intending to go all in, but things did not align to make that move. I think he made decisions that were uncomfortable with the top vets, but he had to hold his cards to his vest. I am guessing it was extremely hard to do. He took a lot of heat for that. He is still taking heat. For a player like Dame....who loves the Red & Black like no other, the removal from that plan made him seek a trade. He now states "communication" as the issue. I believe him. I think when Joe got to resign him, I think that may have been an extremely happy moment for Joe. Still....he takes the hard road, and keeps his cards to his vest. To clarify, I am not saying that a vet of Dame's tenure should not be made aware of certain things. I am saying that gm's need to gm....and players need to play. There are some facets of operation, that should not mix. I have watched very intently every time he does a presser. Joe Cronin is a very methodical, calculating, and intelligent man. I am not put off by his actions, nor his decisions. He is extremely aware of what's at stake, of the challenges to bring vets to Portland, and of his direction. His ability to make truly long term decisions and take the heat for the short term opinion of those decisions, is what GMs of quality are suppose to do. I honestly don't think there is a single GM out there who could have done a better job, in the market that they are in, of taking this team from where they were....to where they are. I am filled with pride at the optic of character. These players wearing the uniform, are really good human beings. That is not by accident. This is a direct result of this GM's decision making. At least for me, that is more important than championships. Fire away.
if the gauge is Cronin's personality vs Olshey's personality, Cronin wins in a slam-dunk. Olshey was a condescending asshole; Cronin isn't. Olshey wouldn't really own up to miscalculations. Cronin will. It sure didn't take Cronin years to correct the mistake of signing Gary Payton. It did take him a while to correct the mistake of adding Ayton, but at least he did correct it. it's true that the current roster seems to be filled with solid-character people. But, so were Olshey rosters. It's been a long time since a Blazer was mentioned in a police report. My take is that the foundation of this was a directive from Paul Allen after the debacle of the Jail-Blazer era. PA even talked about that as being a 'prime directive' as to the notion that any other GM couldn't have done better? Unknown but unlikely. Keep in mind that Cronin took over a Blazer team that won 48 games (Covid Adjustment) and was 6th seed. This will be his 5th Blazer team and it doesn't seem very likely it will match 48 wins and 6th seed.
Well Ben Macklemore was just sentenced to 6 years for rape so the Blazers havent been completely jail free over the last stretch but other than that have signed a bunch of high character players
