I have no confidence that Olshey can build a real contender. He's good at salvaging bad situations and making them good (Clippers, Last Year's Blazers), but he can't turn a team from good into a contender.
I'm pretty salty right now so excuse me if I go off the rails but what a failure of an offseason. The hype was built. This summer. Moves will be made. First off chandler parsons ditches us for Memphis?! Is he out of his mind?! What is it about Portland that people hate? Everything I see is a good chemistry team with high character guys who are young and hungry. They just got to the second round and were competitive with the Warriors. Dame is our point guard, top 10 player in the league. Cj will be an all star one day. Our fans are the best. I just don't understand. Then to make it worse we give Evan turner a fucking contract? Word?! I'm not hyped on him at all. Now what? I swear to god if Neil lets crabbe or harkless go. Can't wait to hear Neil's bullshit later about how this really was a great deal. No, it's not. You can't sell me like you sold me on aminu and Davis because those are guys I could look at myself and be excited for. Evan turner is a joke. It's not like this team got worse, got a tiny bit better but chandler would of made a difference. Fuck him also because that decision makes no sense. Make dame waste his time on your ass. Ridiculous
I said we have no cap space now because of Turner. I was told that we could if we renounce free agents (which I already knew.. I know more about cap rules then most on here). Thing is if we renounced them, it'd be like chosing Turner over them which is bad. If we resign them we won't be able to sign an important free agent. Either way it's a lose-lose.
to bring back a KP phrase (that went nowhere), if we just stand pat (or get a <10M FA or so), we're ripe for "Consolidation Trade. If you talk to, say, SAC, and say "anyone but Dame is on the table, pick two and a draft pick" for Boogie, we're not a bare cupboard afterwards. If you talk to a 2017/18 FA in a S&T, and say "we can sign and trade for you to make salaries match and still have an awesome team going forward" that works as well. Chess, not checkers. I mean, look at the potential depth chart. You have Dame at the 1, Plumlee at the 5 and almost everyone else can play 2 or more positions. Go big, go small, go bombs away, go uptempo, go "long"...the only thing we don't have is a banger big man. And is the NBA really going there?
Neil doesn't take risks and when he does they are rushed IMO. Barton/1st for Afflalo $70m for Turner Turner is a solid player but at that price? The norm is we have to overpay mid-tier FA to come here.
Which is worse? Losing out to Memphis this year or losing out to Milwaukee with Monroe last summer? Forget how it worked out and that Monroe may still get moved. Portland is losing out to those two cities which I really thought we could beat out. It's not like we lost out to a Championship team or a glitzy market.....it's MIL and MEM for goodness sake.
Turner is a replacement for Henderson. Of the Blazers renounce him, they get $9 mil of cap space back. It was going to cost close to what Turner got to retain Henderson so there's not much of a difference.
The way I can make sense of this... Last year, Milwaukee had a better future, Monroe picked the better team This year, Parsons picked Memphis because they have no SF, and Blazers have a ton. Memphis has no three point shooters or ball handlers (outside of conley) in pdx he'd have to compete with lillard and cj
I know salaries are way out of wack this summer but I'll still be surprised if Henderson gets lost to what Turner just signed for.
So? LA and NY are missing out on big names as well. Big f'ing deal. Besides, Memphis with their players has a better track record the past few years than Portland does with its current roster. There's no guarantee a healthy Portland is better than a healthy Memphis.
Yeah we have known that for while. So why worry so much about it. Over paying them has seldom come back to bite us in the ass. How many free agents have we lost or how many of our own players have we lost due to no cap space? Not many, so why worry so much about over paying him. The worst case scenario is we lose out on another solid, but not great, FA. Turner is a solid player, is really the key part of your post.
Yeah....that wasn't the point. If NY and LA were good, I could understand losing out to them....but they are horrible so no one wants to go there. I get Dwight going to ATL vs POR. It's his hometown, it is much more of a multi-cultural city and they are just as good recently as Portland. Milwaukee is historically terrible and Memphis outside of a healthy season or two of Ground and Pound, really haven't done anything either. They have the ability to be better but always seem to have someone hurt. If Portland is going to lose out to teams like Milwaukee, Memphis, Utah, Charlotte....teams of that stature, that is what is tough to take.
Turner doesn't ft the system to me. We already have an issue with harkless, and aminu making threes, even though aminu has come along a little in that department. Having turner chuck threes doesn't interest me and not saying that will be his role but in a stotts offense, you basically have to shoot threes. I have never been high on turner. I just don't get what olshey is doing. I bought his bullshit last year because to me it was impressive with what he could do so quick after Lamarcus left. If all we have to speak for is turner this summer then I lost all faith in this dude. It's not his fault for chandler signing at Memphis but the Evan turner decision is just a really weird one to me