The veterans of this little Trail Blazers community know its coming. If Olshey cant pull off at least one lopsided trade in our favor there will be a flood of Neil bashing. If he cant trade Meyers and a draft pick for Paul George or Ezeli and a draft pick for Okafor, Neil will be the worst GM in Blazers history. Because it's always our GM's fault that other GM's wont help us out and take our trash for their treasure. Let the unrealistic bashing begin!
You just figured out that someone will be held responsible for his actions the previous summer? Have you ever held a job?
No matter what NO does it coudl be worse, we could be the kings and give away our franchise talent for a kick in the nuts and a donut.
'All of you will be hunted down for your hate and lack of faith. We are only 6 points from being a playoff team.....or was that 3 points from being the #1 seed. It doesn't matter. My math is faultless and I am smarter than you!'
I can bash him for this summers signings but to his credit he already made a very nice little trade for us this deadline with the Nurk deal
I would be happy if he could unload Crabbe today without bringing much salary back, trade for a decent draft pick or a good young player. The other thing that would make me happy is if Butler is not traded today; that would mean to me that Portland still had a chance to get him, but at draft time, not now.
so are U sayin Neil is has passed his "shelf life" and should be remover from the shelf like a grocery store item?
Every customer gets to make that decision for themselves. Some products remain tasty for years after their pull date. Others can make you sick. People just start getting all nervous as that date approaches.
Having watched the Bulls for all those years, I've seen my share of incompetent GMs, and downright bad people. Compared to those guys, NO is incredible. He just made a mid-season trade, something the Bulls have done on very rare occasion. Given all the cap space in the world, none of the top FAs signed here. It wasn't for lack of money. It wasn't for lack of as good a sales pitch as anyone here could make. It is what it is. Big name FAs didn't sign in Chicago, either. NO also gets to meet these players we only know as trading cards or see on TV. He has to judge how much of a cancer the guys are, how their paychecks would affect the attitude of the guys on our roster, how losing guys on our roster affect morale, etc. What I did learn from watching the Bulls operate is how you build a winning team (they had lots of winning records). Luck into a DRose (we have Dame, who's actually about the same, and we have CJ). Keep your draft picks and keep signing those guys except for the guys that utterly fail (see Marquis Teague or Tony Snell). I also learned how you maneuver under the CBA rules, avoiding the LT. I wish NO could snap his fingers and trade our 2nd round draft pick for a superstar who won't destroy the team morale, but I'm a realist. Every single move he's made has been text book. About the only thing to do at this point is to change coaches. A new coach who will get the guys playing defense. If you don't have the talent to win based on talent, you will win if you play elite defense.
Honestly I think most intelligent vets here will wait and see what happens this summer. Nurk was a very good get, or so it appears. It sure looks like the smart move now is to hold until this summer when you have more flexibility with the existing contracts and other teams might loosen up on their players. From all accounts it looks like NO is set with some nice pieces to trade this summer. However, my disappointment with NO relates to his inability to lure FAs, which was supposed to be one of his strengths. But he proved that one last year so it is old news now.
I'm not to mad at NO for the signings this summer. He did that with a multy year plan in place, no one who saw the signings nor the reports that came out at the end of the summer indicated that this year we expected huge things, of course we didn't expect to suck donky balls either, but the signings and contracts given out were expected to pay off not in one year but two or three years down the line. The league is full of contracts that were paid with expected potential in mind and the first year those contracts looked ugly but ended up being great by the end.
NO has been very good in the "Asset Collection" phase. It's clear this deadline that HE thinks we're still in it.
This trade season has already been a success. I couldn't be happier with the outcome of dumping Plumlee's impending contract (plus lux tax penalties), or else losing him for nothing. We got back exactly the type of big young post player this team needs, plus a first round draft pick. Olshey did great. Anything else he does before noon today is just gravy. But I do like gravy! And sausage.
