OK, I'm having a little discussion with my buddy, Blazer Prophet (remember him??) and I'm of the opinion that Olshey has done a credible job in the drafting department. Meanwhile, he has his doubts. I responded to him in an e-mail: "As no GM is ever perfect in this area (drafting), I think Olshey has done very well over the years. Our current team is now producing some of those results. I'll give him a B+ That all said, he really handcuffed himself with all those poor 2016 signings. Fortunately, he "seems" to have been able to crawl out from some of that fallout. Even with cap money, though, Portland is still a relative undesirable landing spot for FA's. Hence, to be successful, ya better be able to draft well in this neck o' the woods." He responded with: "I think a B+ is OK. I might say B, but there isn’t much difference. For 2 reasons. To me, it’s a sin to whiff on a lottery pick. Leonard didn’t pan out and Collins is still a wait & see as he progressed very little last season and needs to get better. Also, aside from Will the thrill, he’s whiffed on every second round pick. I don’t expect a lot from second rounders, but only 1 in the years he’s been here seems like a sub par batting average." My quick response: "I wish I could come up with a list of whiffed lottery picks. I think you'd be amazed." His last response: "So? He’s 0-1 for sure and possibly 0-2." OK, so I'm curious from y'all how you'd rate Olshey's overall drafting abilities? Might you give him a B+ as I did? Higher? Lower? Also, if you'd like, please post up here some of the real GM lottery whiff jobs over the years. I'd love to see those. Thanks in advance!
No respect for this piece of writing... 0-1 on lotto picks? What about Dame and CJ? Those arent Ws? And the guy barely improved? His PER improved by 6. BPM by 3. TS% by 9, WS by 2.3. WS/48 by .070. Smh...
I'd say Collins has already been a success, he played effective playoff minutes in a team getting to the WCF. I suppose he could still fail though, so if you want to leave as incomplete that is fine but I cant see a way to judge that as a fail. Meyers is a fail, but Dame and CJ are success so that is 2-1 on lotto picks. He hit on Barton, Crabbe was a great second round pick. Drafting has probably been Neil's best strength. He is also good with cast off end of the bench trades. Neil has been a failure with large free agent offers, overpaying players he drafted, and a few trades (Afflalo)
I did find this, FWIW.... https://ripcityproject.com/2018/12/...rail-blazers-draft-picks-under-neil-olshey/3/
Whiffed on every 2nd round pick? Huh? Hes made 4: Will Barton, 40th, 2012 - Successful NBA Player. W. Allen Crabbe 31st, 2013 - A little better than your average 31st pick. W. Pat Connaughton, 41st, 2015 - Is in a rotation for a 60-win team. W. Jake Layman, 47th, 2016 - Most players drafted in that range never have as good of a season as Layman did last season, especially dor a playoff team. W. This dude sounds biased against Olshey.
Dame was, for all intents and purposes, a Blazer before Olshey was hired. Whiffed on Meyers Nailed CJ Jury is still out on Collins
Also disingenuous of Blazer Prophet to ignore Connaughton and Layman, who both developed into credible NBA players, which is really all one can ask from a second round pick.
Your buddy needs a bit more education. Olshey has had 3 lottery picks since he has been here. Lillard, Leonard and McCollum. Two of those he hit it out of the park and Leonard is at least still in the league. Also, if it's a sin to whiff at a lottery pick, then a lot of GM's have whiffed over the year as I bet in most drafts at least 2 or 3 almost every season have been "whiffs". I would rather whiff at #11 than like the Cavs when they whiffed at #1 like they did with Bennett.
And regarding Leonard, I still maintain that the biggest hit to his development was the firing of Kim Hughes. I don't think he would even be looked at as a "whiffed" lottery pick if the big-man coach on whom he so heavily relied had been kept around.
Thats the thing, Ive hated on Olshey a lot, but Ive felt that I've always been fair. I'm not going to ignore things or have bias towards him, like this writer apparently does.
Because I don't see an established correlation. It coincided with Meyers having a flash. Hes had many flashes.
This is a stupid statement. Dame was drafted after Neil was hired to manage all basketball operations. If Neil wanted to draft Drummond instead that may have happened. Neil certainly gets credit for drafting Dame. If Neil had got the team to draft someone else instead he'd rightfully get the blame.
His highest reb% and best dbpm were in years 2-3 of his career. With Hughes coaching him, he actually played like a big man. That dissipated almost immediately upon Hughes' dismissal.