After the moves he pulled last year, Neil Olshey is like a cop that saved my cat from a bus. The bar is always open and his drinks are free. He can do no wrong. Check back with me next year on this same subject.
I think the thing that annoyed me the most about the article was the trade section. Dave's showing PER of guys traded FOR, but not guys traded WITH. If you want to make some point about NO's skill using PER, show input - output, show that it's always a negative. Showing that the guys he's traded for have below average PER, and not comparing it to the guys he traded is just dumb.
Yes, it's possible. What I would like to do is get 2 or 3 really good articles from you guys, with a semi-firm commitment that you would write more, that I could take to the Blazers. Have them set up a page, The Best of the Angry Nerds at RipCityTwo, and post them there with a link leading to a discussion thread here. They would tweet it, you would get attention and love, we would might get a few more visitors to the forum. But I don't want to bug the Blazers if this isn't something that would have new content on a regular basis. ( @Denny Crane @BrianFromWA @Natebishop3 @Boob-No-More @Stevenson )
Dave's just terrible. Was never a big fan of BlazersEdge in general, but feel like everything I've seen linked has gotten a lot worse. Maybe the dude is just a glass half empty sort of person. I get that with other things in life. With sports, seems like a shitty way to go through entertainment. Seems like a common theme, people feel like they have more credibility if they look for the negative(almost always) because then they're "being real" instead of homers. Why did he leave out Davis and Aminu? Not to hide an agenda. It's because he did a shitty job writing his article. And he simply went to basketball-reference.com and went through his list of moves. For some weird reason, that website doesn't have them on there. And because he's a shitty writer, he didn't do any thinking about moves he has made, he just essentially copy and pasted a list. The negativity towards the Afflalo trade we've gone through ad nauseum here. And IMO, it's unfair to judge in hindsight, with the Matthews injury, compared to what he was brought in to be. But so be it. The analysis of the Paul trade is pretty weak. And looking back at old articles, the only city I can find mentioned that he wanted to go to was NY to play with close friend Carmelo Anthony. Not really finding the LA demand. So it wasn't an oh, they're the only one left! sort of deal that was super easy for Olshey to pull off. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-chris_paul_hornets_knicks_nba_trade_120111 From Woj, before the rejected deal took place. Mentions a slew of teams interested, and even mentions how some were willing to see if he'd like it there, like GS. I don't see the LA or bust there. It's odd that Dave would grab an article "looking back 4 years later" instead of just using an original source from the time all of that went down. It's not like it was that long ago. He inherits a team with Aldridge, Matthews, and Batum. He drafts Lillard, trades for Rolo, essentially filling your starting lineup. The overall need or space for a big free agent signing that was going to somehow average 12-15 points for us just wasn't realy there. And think about how many in hre were talking about JJ Hickson getting 8-10 million. HOw some here would prefer to keep him and dump Aldridge, etc. Should he not get praise for knowing to not throw money at that hunk of junk? TL;DR: Same old same old out of BE. Lazy writing, and...maybe not an agenda, but the annoyance of someone trying, seemingly, too hard to be a "realist".
I think we could do a series for the blazers about which nba players and fellow board members we have had sex with. I think they would like that.
The first post of the thread gives some article which lists Olshey's moves. It's not new information. For over 10 years, I've posted this site, ProSportsTransactions.com, on the ESPN message board and now this S2 board. Here are the trades & signings for many executives, not just Olshey. http://prosportstransactions.com/basketball/GMs/Exec.htm
This is really all that matters. What has he done for us lately; what is he going to do for us now? Most people grow and mature and learn throughout the course of their lives and their careers. What matters is not the bumps Olshey may have had along the way, but what kind of job is he doing today? I don't even see the point of writing an article on the subject, unless it were to show how his methods and decision-making may have improved over time.
How About "Blazers Trail" @Stevenson is a published author on Basketball don't Ya know. It's apparent Dave from BE needs to read his book.
I noticed the same thing, I had to scroll back up and double check the date of the article. For the record Aminu was 12.7 last year and Davis was 18.7 Another thing about Neil's track record is who he tried, but failed, to sign. Monroe, Hibbert and Kanter. I think we can definitely say Hibbert would have been a big flop. Not sure about the others. Kanter is so great on one end and so bad on the other.
June 24th, 2010: Traded a first-round pick which later became Fab Melo for Eric Bledsoe. Bledsoe averaged 6.7 ppg with a 13.6 PER in 3 seasons for the Clippers. +1 February 24th, 2011: Traded a first-round pick which later became Kyrie Irving forJamario Moon (3.5 ppg, 8.4 PER in 1 season) and Mo Williams (13.8 ppg and 14.6 PER in 2 seasons) -3 December 14th, 2011: Traded Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, and a first-round pick which later became Austin Rivers for Chris Paul (18.9 ppg, 9.9 aps, and 26.3 PER in 5 seasons, ongoing) and 2 second-round picks. +3 March 25th, 2015: As part of a three-team deal traded Brian Cook and a second-round pick to receive Nick Young (9.7 ppg, 9.9 PER in 1/2 season) 0 July 16th, 2012: Traded Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas to the New York Knicks forDan Gadzuric, Jared Jeffries (1.2 ppg, 2.4 PER in 1 season), Kostas Papanikolaou,Giorgos Printezis, cash and a 2016 2nd round draft pick. +1 July 16th, 2012: Traded Jon Diebler for Sasha Pavlovic (2.6 points, 6.2 PER in 1 season) 0 July 10th, 2013: Traded Kostas Papanikolau, Mirko Todorovic, and 2 second-round picks for Thomas Robinson (4.5 ppg. 13.2 PER in 2 seasons) 0 July 10th, 2013: Traded Jeff Withey, 2 second-round picks, and cast for Robin Lopez (10.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 17.1 PER in 2 seasons) +2 February 9th, 2015: Traded Will Barton, Victor Claver, Thomas Robinson, and a first-round pick (#19 in 2016 NBA Draft) for Arron Afflalo (10.6 ppg and 8.2 PER in 1 season) and Alonzo Gee (3.4 ppg and 9.7 PER in 1 season) -2 June 24th, 2015: Traded Nicolas Batum for Gerald Henderson (8.7 ppg, 12.9 PER in 1 season, ongoing) and Noah Vonleh (3.3 ppg, 8.6 PER in 1 season, ongoing) 0 June 25th, 2015: Traded Steve Blake and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for Mason Plumlee (9.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 17.2 PER in 1 season, ongoing) and Pat Connaughton (1.1 ppg, 4.6 PER in 1 season, ongoing) +1 July 14th, 2015: Traded a second-round pick for Maurice Harkless (6.4 ppg, 13.3 PER in 1 season, ongoing) +1 July 27th, 2015: Traded cash for Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller, and 2 second-round picks. 0 February 18th, 2016: Traded a second-round pick for Anderson Varejao and a 2018 first-round pick. +1 February 18th, 2016: Traded cash for Brian Roberts (2.9 ppg, 13.7 PER in 1 season, ongoing) and a second-round pick. 0 This is how I'd grade those....a net positive of +5.
People need to start realizing that it is in their best interest not to post anything remotely negative about the Blazers. They will just be ridiculed or called a troll. True or not true, just let the forum think the team can do no wrong and just move on.
And get blasted for it virtually every single time. Either they are wrong, or the reporter is garbage, or they don't know the game, or whatever. Maybe it's the extremes of the forum? Maybe if it were more of a discussion than an argument...both ways? Who knows, but it's been a constant forever.
If you have something to say in support of this article then please say it. Since the 2nd post in this thread you've wanted it to be a "shit storm." Now that it hasn't turned out like you wanted it to you claim that it's because people don't like to read bad things about the Blazers. Multiple posts here have gone into considerate detail demonstrating why the article is inaccurate or the argument is incomplete. If you agree with the article then say it. No one is going to bash you for it. Everyday there are 1000s of posts made, that wouldn't be the case if everyone agreed with each other.
