Put me in the category of not being one of Olshey's biggest supporters, but this was a hell of an offseason and has put us right up there with a motivated Dame and some really nice depth. In my eyes, this puts a lot of pressure on Stotts to figure out this roster given the talent he now has. I know the west is deep, but barring injuries there is no reason we shouldn't get to at least to the second round and perhaps even further. Anything less is a massive failure and proves that Stotts time is up here.
I don't think the plan was to trade Nurkic for Cousins. Rather, it was simply to add Cousins to the roster in some kind of sign-and-trade. IIRC, this was after Cousins tore his Achilles and Olshey was trying to get a gifted big man (before his injury anyway) on the cheap. I believe the Blazers had a TPE of around 11M at the time from the Crabbe trade
Since basically everyone sung his praises in this thread it either means 1) it really was a great offseason and coaching fucked it up 2) this forum doesn’t know shit 3) both
When the next coach doesn't get any further with Dame than Stotts did (WCF), I think it will be fairly obvious that failing to add an all-star for 8 straight years (and counting) is what ultimately held us back. Just my opinion and I hope I'm wrong!
Some posters thought Zach was a great pick at 10 and Babbitt was a good pick at 16. Hard to dispute how good or bad the picks were before we got to see those players perform for a year or two and the gauge of off-season additions is the season that follows, not the opinions of fans before a single game has been played and frankly, if Olshey didn't know how Stotts would coach his this new roster after 8 seasons, and the coaching is fucking things up, that's a giant black mark on Olshey's off-season too. He needs to build a roster that fits Stotts, or get a coach that fits the roster. Stotts isn't the architect, Olshey is.
I've been on the trade CJ bandwagon since...fucking forever really. Within the constraint of keeping CJ, I thought we had an outstanding offseason. My gripes about Olshey really boil down to CJ being untouchable. CJ hasn't been the ruin of this season, but you do have to wonder what we could've done if we'd traded him at his high water mark early in this season. Just getting rid of an extra defensive sieve could be such a difference-maker, especially if we picked up a useful forward in the process. I probably didn't take into my judgement of this roster any personal commitments we made to Melo to be "caretakers of his legacy." He was clearly promised minutes, and that was a big mistake. That's on Neil. However, I do feel like the current disaster falls mainly on the shoulders of Stotts. We weren't contenders with the roster he was handed, but we certainly were a better playoff team. A team with Nurk, Roco, Jones and Powell shouldn't be 29th in the league in defense.
How does Olshey always get a pass from you on Stotts? It's completely unreasonable. Stotts is the guy that Olshey pegged to get this roster that you herald as being so good to contention. Stotts hasn't done that, the entire time Olshey has been here and Olshey has not corrected it. Olshey should be fired on that alone. Now the fact that both you and Olshey mistakenly think that Dame and CJ are a good match is another issue all together.
I’m not Olsheys biggest fan but I do think he’s done his job better than Stotts has done his. But ultimately Stotts is Olsheys responsibility as well. And Olshey had a pretty major fuckup this offseason when he thought Kanter and Melo would be a good fits for the defensive scheme they originally wanted to run. I look at it like Stotts has to go 100%. Olshey? He can stay or go, don’t really care.
I'm not mad at the acquisition of Kanter or Melo. You need guys who can score off the bench. I'm mad at the way Stotts uses them. Melo should not be getting 25+ minutes a game. Look, he and Kanter have played on other teams and those other teams weren't last in defense. Stotts is a uniquely inept coach when it comes to defense. We still have plenty of defensive players on this team that get short changed on minutes. Olshey DEFINITELY is responsible for Stotts' tenure and is the biggest stain on his legacy. Olshey is much much better at his job than Stotts is at his and his peers think so too.
Neil and Terry both need to go, but nothing will change as long as Jody is the owner. She has no desire to own the team, except to make money, and doesn't care about basketball. She will run the organization much like Weinberg did back in the early 80's - not spend the money to try and make the team successful.
I feel like this team is cursed by timing. Maybe Neil was looking to deal CJ and then the injury happened. It's highly unlikely, but all that early season value evaporated when he hurt his foot. Neil does seem convinced, for some strange reason, that the Dame/CJ pairing is enough star power to win a championship. CJ is massively overpaid. It's going to be interesting to see what kinds of deals Trent and Norm get this offseason.
Agree, knowing at D was an area that needed urgently addressed he re-signs 2 players that dont fit the criteria. He must of though RoCo and DJ would offset?
