Zombie Fire Olshey

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by Fez Hammersticks, Dec 26, 2016.

  1. sheed30

    sheed30 Well-Known Member

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    Wait wait, wasn’t Stotts gonna get canned after the Pelicans series and it was Dame who went to bat to keep him and supported him and wanted to run it back?

    and the following season we went to the Western Conference finals so Stotts job was safe after that and then the covid season after that where we have tons of injuries.

    I’m just saying, you guys like to put all the fault on Neil and I don’t think that should be the case here.
     
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  2. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    I hadn't though about that but I suppose there some similarities. Nance = Afflalo? Different timing of the trades but both gave up "undesired" asset(s) plus a 1st round pick. Both trades bring back average level 6th men that kind of look better than they are because the Blazers were so weak on the bench

    the 1st round pick Portland gave up was the 19th pick in the 2016 draft:

    19 Malik Beasley
    20 Caris LeVert
    27 Pascal Siakam
    29 Dejounte Murray
    36 Malcolm Brogdon

    that was one of the rare times that Olshey was under enormous pressure to upgrade the roster because of the the Aldridge situation. I'd think Paul Allen was pushing him too. Paul isn't around anymore, and I'd think it's pretty obvious that Jody Allen isn't pushing for anything except for maybe minimal luxury tax
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2021
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  3. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, then there was the weakest WCF run possible and then injuries but I'm pretty sure barely making the playoffs only to get gentlemens swept out by the Lakers should have been a final straw for Stotts... if Neil thought he was doing his own job well. The fact is that the playoff record that the Stotts/Olshey regime has put together is unacceptable and both should have been fired but Neil threw Stotts under the bus, said his roster wasn't the problem and as far as the starting lineup, it looks like he's ready to run it back. So even if I think giving a guy an entire decade as a GM with one questionably good playoff run is fucking stupid... here we are. I think his lack of major changes will result in another mediocre season and might even result in us missing the playoffs but I hope I'm wrong. If I'm not, it better be Neil gone at the end of this season and hopefully the city and Chauncey can keep Dame here with a new GM unafraid to take big swings.
     
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  4. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Aldridge changes what he wants on a whim. Last year he abruptly retired for good. Now he unretired and is playing again. He said one summer as a Blazer he wanted to be in the all time record books. Then months later he wanted to go to a new team close to home.

    He is just a fickle guy that, ya know, changes what he wants every few months. Maybe Neil should have expected that could happen and trade him. But it sure seemed likely to me and others back then Aldridge would continue to feel like the double 40 point playoff games hero in Portland, and set team records, and would've signed long term. He was a free agent right after the team fell apart and then the Spurs had a more enticing offer.

    If Aldridge always wanted to go to a Texas team why wouldn't he have just requested a trade months or years earlier and Neil accommodate? He would've gone back home immediately.

    Aldridge changes what he wants on a whim and it changed to leaving the Blazers when he's a free agent. It was a gamble Neil took, and he lost. Other teams like the Thunder gambled with Paul George and won. The Raptors gambled with Kawhi and won and lost. I'm fine with that gamble based off what we knew at the time. I believe that was a gamble that could have got the team closer to a title. Its funny some of the same people criticizing Neil for not taking risks now then go and criticize him for when he took a risk.
     
  5. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    It was definitely Neil's job to know LaMarcus and if he was so prone to making unpredictable decisions (not your job or any fan's, Neil's). So, Olshey should have mitigated our risk and traded him at the deadline. The fact is in a market like this you can not afford to let an all star walk for nothing and that is what Olshey did and he should have been fired for that. Then he followed it up with a spending spree on a bunch of nobodies. The fact that the dude isn't fired is absolutely crazy.
     
  6. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I disagree that Neil had to trade LaMarcus if he thought he might walk. If LaMarcus might walk, its a risk, and Neil's job was to evaluate the cost and benefit of such a risk. Neil shouldn't avoid all risks. Maybe your opinion and preference is to avoid all risks, others opinion can correctly differ greatly on that.

    The 2016 offseason I look at as a separate issue, I do think he should've been fired for the Meyers and Turner contracts, those were indefensible at the time and even worse as the years went on.
     
  7. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    the Crabbe contract was even worse. Not only did Portland pay Crabbe 36 million for one season of basketball with a PER under 12.0 and a BPM of -1.3, they also assumed a 2.45M stain on their salary cap for 7 years. They'd be under the tax line right now if they hadn't matched that idiot contract
     
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  8. tester551

    tester551 Well-Known Member

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    But PA 'made' him to it....
     
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  9. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Neil fucked up that risk reward evaluation and it was a huge failure that should have gotten him fired. If you're the Lakers GM, you can afford that risk but not here. Sorry. I'm about taking risks that have mitigated downsides. Like I would take the Simmons risk because once he's on a team that he isn't actively trying to leave, he'll recoup some of his value so even if we have to eventually flip him, it will be at a gain. The idea that you give Neil a pass on all of this shit is really weird to me but to each their own I guess.
     
  10. TBpup

    TBpup Writing Team

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    There was plenty out there. I was told by someone the season before (and before the trade deadline) that they were 95% sure he was gone based on some things they knew about him and his family situation. There just seems no way that the Blazer FO wasn't aware of this.
     
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  11. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    didn't an assistant coach get fired for essentially confirming that?
     
  12. TBpup

    TBpup Writing Team

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    Was that the Big Man coach? I remember he was fired for supposedly leaking something, but don't remember the specifics. The person who told me is a long-time Blazer player acquaintance who has had access to many of them for years. Have never doubted anything they have said and they were adamant about LA being gone.
     
  13. PtldPlatypus

    PtldPlatypus Let's go Baby Blazers! Staff Member Global Moderator Moderator

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    Ah, the Kim Hughes saga. Many would contend that was the event that prevented Meyers Leonard from becoming the consistently useful player the Grizzlies series hinted he might be developing into.
     
  14. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    When LaMarcus didn't sign an extension he was already moping around because it was becoming Dame's team. The writing was on the wall, clearly but I don't even care that it was. In our market if you don't have an all star signed on the dotted line for next season, you trade the dude at the deadline. You just can not afford to walk away empty handed. It was typical Olshey hubris plain and simple... it bites us a lot.

    We don't trade players we need to because once an Olshey guy always an Olshey guy. We sign preposterous extensions and bid against ourselves on restricted free agents. Everything a GM could do to hamstring a small market, Olshey has done besides trading Dame for something of lesser value but wait... that might be his next trick if he doesn't make this shit work.
     
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  15. Hoopguru

    Hoopguru Well-Known Member

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    Paul was influential in hoping they could re-sign LA, he and Neil even traveled to meet with him and possibly felt he wood stay?
     
  16. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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  17. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Yes Kim Hughes in June before free agency but many months after the Blazers could've traded Aldridge.
     
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  18. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    None of the all star players signed extensions at that time because they lost like 50 million dollars vs waiting 12 months to sign a new contract. The NBA changed the rules shortly after this.
     
  19. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Neil has built a roster with 5 starting quality players in addition to Dame.

    I know this is a fire Neil thread so maybe its the wrong place for me to support him....

    Like I said, the Meyers and Turner deals were horrific and I'd have been firing him over that.

    But I also IMO give Neil credit where its due or don't judge him unfairly as in the Aldridge situation.
     
  20. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    I think the bigger point is he knew well before Aldridge left and he was the Big man coach so stands to reason he was working pretty close to Aldridge.
    He also was in conversations with Stotts so it's fair to say Stotts knew. If Stotts knew you have to figure Olshey knew so essentially Olshey was trying to keep a lid on it and was willing to Fire Kim Hughes over the leak when by then there was pretty much no way they were keeping him.
    Seriously i watched video of the conversation at the time and Hughes was very matter of fact about it. He certainly didn't think it was that much of a secret.
     
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