Is Portland the best team in the West?

Untrue. Portland does have the Bi-Annual exception for $4M that they can sign a player for.

Portland can use the RoCo TPE to bring back a player who's salary is <$6.5M. Or they can do a trade where the difference of outgoing/incoming salaries is <$6.7M

 

yeah, I was thinking Portland could use it because they'd used their MLE, but when I think about it they used the non-tax MLE so they could use the BAE.

 

Considering the lost revenue from the past two years it doesn't really make a lot of business sense to do that. It's not like we're actually contenders this year or anything.

 

You just typed that “Olshey constructed the roster according to what Terry wanted” You sir could not be more wrong if you tried. You actually believe this huh? WOW!

 

Guy is stuck in a narrative. It happens to the best of us. Don't get vaccinated, by the way.

 

When we went from defensive wings to guys who can shoot it tells you something. When we had defensive players like Nassir Little and Wenyen Gabriel and they couldn't sniff the court over guys like Tolliver and Hezonja, it tells you something. Terry valued shooting/spreading the floor more than defense.

 

He valued vets that could help immediately to inexperienced players who couldn’t. So did Dame.

 

Talk about kicking a dead horse… what in tarnation is goin on around here??

 

That's not true. Zach Collins as a rookie played more than Meyers Leonard that shot much better than him. He did not play as much as Ed Davis, a veteran that was ready to help night in, night out.

Little had injuries and was in and out during this rookie year. It is hard to justify giving time to a rookie that does not have any continuity on a team trying to compete - which the Blazers were a year after making the WCF.

Sorry man, but you are married to a narrative instead of the facts.

 

c'mon man...try and come up with better examples. All 4 of the players you mentioned are/were scrubs. Yeah, I know that will trigger Nas fans but I've been watching him on defense this year and he makes a lot of mistakes, and I'm sure he was even worse as a rookie. That season, Tolliver averaged 17 minutes, Hezonja 16, and Nas 12; so it's not like Nas sat while the others were primary in a rotation

frankly, thinking that the use of Gabriel tells you anything about a coach's tendencies is weird

I think Stotts was like a lot of coaches in that he'd value and reward players who can either play both ends of the floor or be really good on one end. Olshey rarely gave him either. Stotts had to deal with Olshey's imbalanced rosters and dumpster diving additions, year after year. That's not to say that Stotts was a great coach....he wasn't close to great, at all. But what I saw was that Stotts got hammered over and over for roster issues he had no control over. Playing Hezonja over Gabriel doesn't tell you anything except that Stotts had shitty options

 

I actually don't even agree with that take. Herzonja was brought in as an ET replacement, a forward that can handle the ball and distribute to ensure that when Dame and CJ are not on the court together, it is harder to double the only ball handler on the court. Comparing the play time of Herzonja with Gabriel or Little makes no sense at all. While they are all forwards, their roles in these rosters were completely different. Stotts played Herzonja as much as he did because he had to. This makes about as much sense as having to choose between Little and Winslow. Sure, they both are forwards, but one can run the offense and one does not.

 

that's fair, but it actually buttresses the point I made...that being that Hezonja playing more than Little had nothing to do with Stotts tendencies, but with roster construction

 

I agree with that. I just wanted to point that even questioning why Herzonja played over Little or Gabriel is not a question that needs to be asked at all. Anyone that is asking that is not actually thinking about the team context. I mean, Toliver over Little - there is a question that can be asked if Little was not injured, but Herzonja? Unrelated in that team.

 

Correct. We made the playoffs every season and didn’t develop young talent. Some are/were OK with that.

 

He also valued no accountability on defense and last in assists. He wasn't willing to think outside the box.

 

Nobody is saying Olshey did a sufficient job, but I believe he catered to what Terry wanted. All offense, no defense. Terry had defensive options that he parked on the bench in favor of guys who can stretch the floor.

 

Was CJ being developed before Matthews went down? Not so much.
Meyers got playing time but as the seasons went on, his game became more and more rudimentary. Stand at the 3 point line and wait for the ball. If Terry wanted Meyers to get back in the paint, he could have instructed him to do so. Meyers started off his career very promising and then veered off to just a stretch center.
Agreed that Zach played.
Nas being picked at #25 is still better than than Hezonja and Tolliver.
I thought I heard Simons allude to being critical of Terry's coaching once Chauncey arrived. Ant was pretty much instructed to dump the ball inside to Melo on the block once he came in.
Vonleh at times could have been better for us than Aminu and there were flashes, but again, Terry valued the guy who can stretch the floor in Aminu over Vonleh.

 

Fact is Mario and Tolliver were playing over Little. I don't care about continuity. Ant was instructed to dump the ball into Melo when he came in. Collins played, I give you that. Meyers had a promising start and began to drift to the three point line... just as Terry Stotts wanted.