In fairness….in that new book about Giannis and the Bucks..it says only two GMs wanted Giannis and it was the bucks and Masai
The point is Ainge goes for it and makes big trades. Kyrie did not work out, but he went for it. More than Olshey can say.
14 other GMs missed on Giannis. 26 missed on Gobert. I'm not defending the guy, but if you could get a player as productive as CJ out of every lotto pick you'd be the best GM in the league. You'd tank for 3 or 4 years then make deep playoff runs for 10-15 years.
For sure. I forgot about Leonard. Probably deliberately... I don't consider CJ a draw. 2 wins 2 losses. And Collins injury couldn't have been predicted. I'm not saying Olshey should have kept his job. He should have had a replacement for Olshey ready once the decision to let Terry go was made.
The Oshley Era is finally over. I hope we aren't waiting for the end of the season to find a replacement though that basically means this season is a wash. Brent Berry or Prince sound great.
Because it became public. Look at Activision Blizzard they had years of misconduct that the higher ups knew about but didn't do anything until it was public. Higher ups unfortunately in business don't care about that sort of thing anywhere only money.
I find it weird they would want to come to Portland when already working in much larger markets in New York and Chicago.
To be fair, he said Ainge's name was certain to "surface," not that he would be seriously considered or hired. I also expect lots of people to link Ainge to the long-term GM job in Portland. I, too, hope he's not seriously considered. I think he has strengths as a GM, but his weaknesses make replicating even his successes in Boston quite unlikely IMO.
To an extent--I thought his downfall as a GM was how tentative he was about trading all the fabled draft assets he acquired during the break-up of the Garnett/Pierce/Allen team and beyond that. As he and many analysts noted, he had the "war chest" to go after multiple big fish to put alongside Tatum and Brown. Instead, that all kind of fizzled out and the Celtics, a team many thought Ainge had set up for greatness, has never really turned into a serious contender.
For sure. He had his faults. But gosh, so many times I was Jealous of their set up with those picks and players. Kyrie trade was looked at as good at the time, but it became bad. He went for it. I'd take some of that right now over Olshey. I'm more interested in a Presti type at this point though.
It was reported not long ago, forget who it was but it wasn’t some random reporter, that the blazers didn’t get a single complaint about Olshey until now, not even on their anonymous tip line.
After Olshey, an aggressive-minded GM would be an interesting change, at least. In the end, either way works--Popovich and Buford built a long-time contender and title-winner through a slow and steady method that just focused on making good decisions over and over. I would say that Masai Ujiri is in the same style, though the trade for Kawhi Leonard was certainly a lightning bolt. Ainge built a title contender though being aggressive. The important thing is to have a GM with vision and who can stack good decisions through smart process, even if they are not always right.
Even if that were true (and I don't necessarily buy that), official complaints are not the only thing that determine a person's behavior. I don't escalate poor behavior of my bosses when I see it, but people generally if a certain person is prickly or not. I just don't believe that Jody and Bert were not aware of Olshey's certain "tendencies" before this. And if they were, thats akin to being asleep at the wheel. It's even more telling of our shitty ownership.
Being an asshole isn’t really enough to fire somebody though. My guess is he hovered along a line his whole tenure and then crossed it recently. Quick also wrote this last month
Didn't he also get a meeting with LeBron during free agency, showing that LAC was finally being taken seriously? I recall the story being something like, they knew they had no chance, but just getting an audience was a huge sign of respect.
Its just curious why they play the asshole card now. They could have done that at any time and try to remove him. Maybe the performance of the team and attendance really do have something to do with it.
