Props for coming to that conclusion. Now if only another 20-30 more of our posters can come to that same realization..........
I was wrong about: Chauncey getting them to play this way this fast Overall good they would be CJs impact on the team (negative) Right about Sharpe Covington and Powell gross Eubanks being perfectly fine as the backup C (and to be honest he could start for my money)
I really should have added that to my list too. I didn't think Dame would buy into Billups' expectations, and wanted Dame dealt for youth and picks (though I couldn't identify a reasonable return package), and definitely didn't want him extended this summer. Given how wrong I've been about everything else, I have to assume that Dame's extension will end up being a good choice too.
Here is me determined to believe in the last era and the way it was constructed. This is what happened to me on Oct 24th against the Nuggets.... Here I am now......
I was one of the only ones who thought this would be a top 4 team in the West. Loved the roster composition from the start.
And doesn't all this show, once again, what a BS, charlatan, 2-bit talent Olshey was? With so much less to work with, Cronin (and Chauncey) have put together an entertaining winner. Imagine if Olshey had the balls to trade CJ in his prime, the potential haul we could have gotten. But, then again, in that case we would still have the preening Olshey around, so all's well that ends well.
Congrats. Your post will get a lot of likes. However, it's full of shit. The reason we aren't 2-10 right now is that an allstar player has forced his way to Portland - the first time this has happened to Portland, ever, and we got him on the cheap. The reason Grant did this was 1) Damian Lillard (is both on the team, and recruited him during the Olympics) 2) The Blazers didn't really have a PF 3) He has significant ties to Portland JoeCro has nothing to do with it. Olshey drafted Lillard, Nas, Ant, and got Nurk on the cheap. Olshey hired Billups, who is responsible for this "entertaining winner". Blazers are playing great. Just enjoy the winning while it's happening. /end rant
Yeah I'm really enjoying the team so far this season its been awesome to watch. But you can't say Olshey gets zero of the credit; as you say Lillard, Ant, Nurk, Nas, Watford, plus BILLUPS all were Olshey's guys. Hart, Grant, Winslow, GP2, Sharpe were Cronin's guys. Which group is more important? The majority of this team's success is from what Olshey built. Funny how so many posters are turning that around to blame Olshey and give Joe 100% of the credit. Don't get me wrong, plenty to complain and be upset with Olshey for over a deacade here. I think he should've been fired for that horrific 2016 offseason alone. But Cronin has only done tweaks to this roster, and drafted a very Neil Olshey type SG player in Sharpe, plus sat around while the star had surgery and got healthy. He didn't tear down and rebuild the whole team. Blazers have had a great culture for the last decade and that was Dame and even a bit of CJ. That wasn't Olshey or Cronin's or Stotts or Billups culture; that was Dame. Happy this season has gone well and hope the team can keep it up. Plenty to be happy with and we don't have to always rip on CJ/Stotts/Neil to enjoy new success now that they've moved on.
Joe re-signed or extended Dame, Ant, Nurk, and Nas. At minimum both Joe and Olshey should both get credit for having those 4 players on the team.
I was meh on the Trent for Powell trade. I didn't like the RoCo acquisition as I thought they gave up too much. I thought the Clippers deal was about ridding the team of bad contracts. Was glad to finally move on from CJ and though I thought they mismanaged him all along and should have got more back, but I did like adding Hart. I lobbied for adding Grant in many threads saying he would easily be the best forward they've had since Sheed. I didn't offer much of an opinion on Sharpe other then he looked to have great athleticism and perfect form on his J. I liked the Chauncey hire but not nearly as much as I loved the Olshey firing which I'd been hoping for since 2016. This team has exceeded my expectations thus far but I'm not done guessing and assuming and hope/expect you'll be back at it soon. STOMP
I'm confused for a couple reasons. Yes, Olshey did get his guys, but then he didn't know what to do with them. Then he would overpay. Cronin came in and traded olsheys guys, then tanked and worked around the edges of what he got in return for CJ, norm and RoCo. Olshey gets the credit for getting the guys Cronin could trade to make this roster today. Dunno why Cronin gets criticism for not doing anything last year when he facilitied both trades. Trading CJ for a starting caliber SF is a win alone not just for that but for doing something Olshey was too scared to do. Cronin righted most of the wrongs Olshey did in less than a year. Which pisses me off cause all of this could have been done after the NOLA series but Olshey was a fucking joke of a GM. Okay the last couple parts had little to do with my confusion and me just espousing lol.
