How about Olshey for GM of the year too? Nobody (nationally) thought he could put together a playoff team after losing 4 of 5 starters.
And Dame respects Neil enough to recognize that everything he does is for the betterment of the team.
How many teams would he start for? He has started for bad teams before, does he want that again.? I am guessing if he gets paid enough he will be happy to come off the bench for a contender. That is where I see the competition for Henderson's service to be with.
Not me - the moment LMA announced his decision I knew this would be the most enjoyable season since Zach's breakout against DAL!
So here are his recent stats: Over the last ten games he's averaging 11 ppg, 4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and he's shooting 47.7% from the field in 24.8 minutes per game. In February (5 games) he's averaging 13.8 ppg, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal while shooting 53% from the field in 28 minutes per game. Allen Crabbe is ALSO having himself a month. He's averaging 11.5 ppg, 2.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and he's shooting 56.7% in 27 minutes per game in February. So if people are wondering why we're winning games, it's because Crabbe and Hendo are collectively averaging 25 ppg off the bench while collectively shooting 54.85% from the field. When was the last time we had that kidn of bench production?
This philosophy is prevalent but bullshit, imho. In my job I've seen two different project teams get into trouble because Team A was doing their job and Team B was doing their job but neither bothered to work together and realize they were doing their job on the same piece of code. More communication is better, mutual respect of the on court and off court leaders is best.
To build on this, Dame is in the trenches with these guys. Everything I've heard leads me to believe that we have excellent chemistry, and that chemistry is a large part of why we're winning games. A trade could decimate that.
St Sure. I'm not telling dame to shut his mouth. But if dame wants to keep Chris kaman or Timmy Frazier just because, he needs to take a back seat and trust in his gm. I've seen organizations where they don't trust management and second guess everything and it's a cluster fuck of resentment. Olshey has done very well, and the players should have faith in him to do what's best for the team. They can voice their opinions, but Neil should ultimately do what's best for the team in providing them with the best talent to succeed.
Decimate what? That's silly imo. Decimate a team that is .500? We are outperforming expectations sure. And I don't think we should trade Cj, dame, etc. But if a guy super talented became available and we could grab him that would help the team, and he seemed like a cool dude, we would be morons not to look at that. Any reasonable person can look at the team and see that we aren't near championship material with the talent we have. The goal should be to acknowledge the chemistry, butimprove the talent on the roster too
Kevin Pelton picked us to possibly make the playoffs. He thought chances are we'd fall short; but we'd be much better than most think. I want to say Zach Lowe and a few others were intrigued by us but yeah we've certainly exceeded even the optimistic expectations. The craziest preseason predictions to me were people betting tens of thousands of dollars on the Lakers to win the title because they had such big odds. There isn't any universe that the Lakers could've competed for a title this year.
Well I don't think that's a similar situation; Dame is making a public statement about his teammates, now some are comparing that to Neil's decisions on the future of the roster. I want Dame to have full support of every teammate while they are here and that's what he's doing. He's making a bold endorsement now because the team is successful and that has to make all the players here who contributed to the success feel good. Neil's job may at times be the role of an asshole that cuts former teammates and gets rid of current teammates even if they are great people; but its necessary for the long term success of the team. Dame doesn't have that burden nor should he concern himself with it. Of course there should be communication between Dame and Neil; and every indication we have is that communication is great. Neil should take Dame's opinion into consideration; but Neil needs to use his ultimate judgement and its hard to argue with the results. Again I think we need to differentiate what Dame says in the media and in public with what Neil learns from Dame behind the scenes.
.500 for the season, but if you dont think they are playing better than .500 ball now, then im questioning your reasoning. Any reasonable person can look at this team and understand its impossible to judge the leveling off of this team currently. Too many players have made big jumps in 50 games. Are you going to sit here and say anyone reasonable should know that that's all they will make as far as improvement? Come on man... your being unreasonable now...
Nah, I'm just not living in homerville. As constructed, this team will not reach the spurs or golden state level. They need more talent.
Golden State is the only NBA team ever constructed that has reached their level, and this year's Spurs probably belong in the top-10 of all time conversation. As demonstrated in the Post-Christmas NBA thread, the Blazers are already playing at 5-seed level. If they continue to grow, gel and improve, who's to say that they can't become competitive with the Clippers and Thunder? They're not as far away as most think.
Its been what? One and a half months since Christmas? I'm not buying it. They have had a great run as of late and I'm happy for that. But "let the cake bake" is tired. Teams should always look to improve the talent. I'm not buying it until I see the growth continue. And please, every team, even golden state should be looking to improve talent on the team. If Kevin Durant wants to play for them, should they say no?
I didn't say they shouldn't try to improve. I'm just disputing the "they'll never be good enough as currently constructed" mantra. If they make no deals, they might actually become good enough. But if they make a deal to increase talent, that's obviously better still.
Neil said he would be active either at the Trade Deadline or Around the Draft. I honestly just don't think much of a slam dunk trade is out there right now so I'm assuming he'll stand pat.
