Drop the racist knee jerk reaction and look at the question purely on its merits. After we got burned by Oden for that very reason, can you blame Olshey if he did use that factor as a tie-breaker? You could probably throw Dame and CJ as 4-year college guys into a similar category, banking on education and maturity trumping the big market draw.
If NO sees it the same way, Doesn't this basically support the OP? "Hmmm... Drafted 19 year old rookie white guy and he has skills Draft a black conference player of the year out of college and I missed. Hmm I think Ill stick with the white kids." Not saying it is right or even happening, but..... Evan Turner tweeted begging more black people to move to Portland. It has been well documented that there is little to no nightlife for a young black male with money in this town. Again, I'm not saying it would be right, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit if it was at least a tiny factor.
I hesitate to even jump in this thread, but if I was to assign any shred of credulity to it, I'd think @Mediocre Man is closest. That said, if I'm wrong and we're targeting white dudes, can we at least get the good ones? I mean, the trade below works... We kinda suck this year with Hayward out and dropping from Dame to Rubio, so we get a high draft pick. If you think that the picks would be PHI's (LAL) pick coming to us (and the Jazz's and our 2020 going to BOS), we have 2 good lotto shots at Doncic (6'8" white PG). Doncic/Redick (could be Parsons as well)/Hayward/Saric (or Collins)/Nurk with Rubio (TJ McConnell), Patty Ice, Layman, Jerebko, Baynes, Leonard, Wolters on the bench. Either 2018-19 NBA Champions or Hi-Fivin' White Guys (caution: Seattle Appropriation) http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ydbkbskw
You mean, we shouldn't have taken the soft-spoken kid from suburban Indiana and we should've honked twice for the brash guy from inner-city DC who went to Oak Hill and was raised by his grandma? Because that better fit "Portland culture" and "PA preference?"
We have 16 players under contract. 5 of them are “white.” Is that a majority? No. Is that more than average? I don’t know. Does it matter? Nah.
I get the reference, but at the risk of being that guy (in a thread about how racist NO is in his player personnel decisions), let's try not to use that particular phraseology. It hits close to home for some members of our forum, and it's not in good taste.
I would say a black American player is a lot more used to Portland than a player from Bosnia, regardless of demographics.
True, the Turkish community here sucks. Not a souk to be found. At least there's a barbershop somewhere up in NE, or so I've heard.
Holy hell, I thought I was making a funny... https://www.bing.com/search?q=souk ...-13&sk=&cvid=0C6CFDE88E894C329F7AF60F8B2E37D1
Thinking a bit more seriously on this, would you say that where we've drafted, there haven't been many "sure things" (for instance, no matter how eloquent he is or leadership he exudes, we're not taking Dame if we could've taken Anthony Davis). Where we picked Pat and Layman was a place where guys with only one skill or significant weaknesses go (some teams totally punt on 2nds). In Pat and Jake, we got guys who are smart, good shooters and have hops. I would've loved (and I think NO would've also) to have the choice between Layman, and, say, Valentine or Malcolm Brogdon or DeJounte Murray (who also can shoot and seem like high BBIQ guys). Maybe Jake and Pat are around b/c other GMs bias towards not-the-white-guy if similar stats/experience/upside?
Olshey says he targets players who want to be here..and buy into the culture in Portland...that many are northerners isn't a surprise really...for some guy from Minnesota or Boston it's pretty mild here in the winter....we've done pretty well in the past with guys like Walton, Przybilla, Kleine, Schrempf, Purdue, Dudley, Sabonis, etc.....I don't think they were here because of ethnicity but because they wanted to be here as well. It's amazing to me how many international players are making rosters in the modern game compared to years past....
Fun fact. Did you guys know that last year the Plumlee's represented 7% of American born white players in the entire league. There are about 450 players in the NBA, so 7% of that is 31 players league wide, or barely over 1 American born white player per team. Portland has 4, Leonar_, Connaughton, Collins and Layman out of 14, or roughly 28.5% of it's roster. Probably coincidence, but who knows?
