I blame God. Thanks God, real nice. It seems a little reactionary to need to blame anyone at this point. As bad as many think they've underperformed so far (like me) they're still somehow in the playoffs if they were to begin today. Lots of time left to find their groove, plus that whole trade deadline thing. They lost a game they shouldn't have, it will happen again. It's not the end of the world.
Stotts. Olshey's job is still a work in progress. But we've seen enough from Stotts to know that he doesn't have the chops.
There is a difference between assessing deficiencies and placing blame. This thread appears to be focused on the latter.
Olshey has only overpaid two players, and while I'm not thrilled with them, neither Turner nor Crabbe are scrubs. Scrubs are the players we lost to last night.
So Stotts gets blamed for not encouraging Layman/Vonleh when they makes shots and apparently destroying their confidence. But when he apparently says the same to Rouq to build up his confidence last night, everyone loses their shit. You guys need to stay at least consistent with your blaming narrative.
Aminu's confidence doesn't need to be built up, it needs to be torn down. He has WAY too much belief in himself given his utter lack of skills. On offense he should play the same role Davis does - hustle, garbage, clean-up. If he stuck to that he could be a great role player. But this nonsense trying to turn him and Turner into 3-point shooters has got to stop.
If we play the blame game now against Stotts and/or Olshey, who are we going to praise if the Blazer turn things around and start playing like they were last spring?
Dude everyone under the sun knows that the moves made this summer were not necessarily to build the team, as much as it was to fill the roster with trade chips. We know it's flawed and unbalanced. Stotts knows it. Neil knows it. Neil paid AC, Meyers, Moe, etc to retain assets. He has said as much on multiple occasions. In this environment when even mediocre FAs need to be overpaid to come here, it's best if we retain what he have on contract, and then see if they can be moved later on to actually build the team. It's so premature to play this blame game now. Wait til the trade deadline when restrictions on trades pass and we have a better idea of whom to keep and whom to move. Our roster on day 1 of the playoffs will be better defined than it clearly is now. Patience is tough when you have high expectations, but now is the time for it. As long as we are hovering around .500 come February, we'll be golden with our easy schedule to finish the season.
Our unexpected success last season has really warped some people's sense of timeline. Nobody would have been pissed if this team was sitting at .500 a year ago. We exceeded expectations last year and now some people were expecting an elite team this season. You are 100% right. This past summer was all about retaining and acquiring trade chips. Even if Evan Turner doesn't work out, he's on a reasonable contract and he has value around the league. We had the cap space and we had to use it or it would have gone away. Crabbe, Harkless, and Leonard are all young and possess desirable skill sets. I believe it's not a matter of "if" there will be a trade, but "when" there will be a trade.
Still, I get the frustration. There are three games I can remember that we literally gave away at PHX, at NOP, and last night. We should be 15-9. But these things usually have a way of balancing out. MEM is not gonna be perfect in games decided by 5 pts or less by the end of the season.
We need a big... desperately. Gasol torched us. Neil knows this. I'm hopeful something will get done, but it might not be during the season. It might be next summer when some people become more tradeable.
