This is not good / How do we fix it / Why does god hate us?

didn't want to create a new thread for this but did anyone else catch the last sentence of Henry Abbott's piece on the billups hire? https://www.truehoop.com/p/shenanigans

Maybe the best news to emerge from all this, from a source who knows Allen: She doesn’t want to do anything that would hurt the value of the team, because one of these days she’s going to sell it.

 

I speculated that this was highly likely based on some off-hand comments by @SlyPokerDog lol.

In that case, she's incentivized to keep Dame happy in the short term. The value of the team is going to tank for a bit if we are in full rebuild and no Dame is on the roster.

 

i really hope she does. clearly, she is highly underqualified to be governor. Her selling is truly the only fix to all this. how is it that in almost three years since PA passed, she has yet to give a single media appearance?

I really want someone more engaged and involved. She's letting Neil run wild, and that's good for no one.

 

I don’t want to come off like I’m defending Neil here, but how exactly is she letting Neil “run wild”? And how exactly would that look anyways?

 

Yeah it's not really "run wild." It's more like he's pulling a costanza.

 

It just feels like Neil has a lot of autonomy and is making unilateral decisions without much accountability. I was all on the Fire Terry bandwagon since last year, but to not accept ANY responsibility for the shortcomings of the roster construction was a terrible look.

And the blowback and the PR disaster of the Billups hire (however warranted or otherwise) is also indicative of it.

If PA were still here, would Neil have a job in Portland this season?

 

as in incompetent, or intentionally trying to get fired by doing egregious shit?

 

I want Dame here but right before the Sonics sold they were in a complete rebuild.

 

I think he would. He’s got a huge contract that he negotiated from that WCF run. I know PA was dead by then, but he probably gets that from PA as well.

Most of the blowback for Neil has come in the last two years, where we can finally evaluate his failures from 14-17. But he’s still got that huge contract for a few more years, so it’s hard to fire him.

hopefully they do though. Weren’t you the one that said McGowan followed an exec hunting firm? Maybe they are looking right now and preparing for inevitable.

 

Different eras. Look at the value of sports teams and how much they’ve appreciated in the last few years.

 

Right, I don't think roster personnel factors very much at all into franchise value.

 

Go look at comparisons like the Bucks, or Clippers. Your opinion isn’t backed by the numbers.

 

https://www.prodigysearch.net/clients.html

 

Both.

 

I don't think he's ACTIVELY trying to get fired. Rather, I think he's trying desperately to save his job.

Historically, the writing on the wall for GMs that are on the hot seat is when they start making risky, unilateral, short term moves without vision to the future. Like SVG taking on an injured Blake Griffin on a massive deal. Or Morey trading away any player above 6'9 and going all in on small ball, etc.

Kinda feels like this Billups move was of the same ilk.

 

The fuck are we talking about? Those franchises sold for so much for the very reason you just stated that every franchise that sells sets a new high water mark. Look at what the lowly Wolves just sold for. If we traded Dame we'd still have talent. We might actually have younger talent at either the same price or lower.

 

They had Ray Allen on the team, as a 30 year old, the year before they were sold.
I don't think it changes the valuation of the franchise much, but they weren't in complete tear down rebuild, or they wouldn't have held on to Allen and Lewis.

 

you don't need a teardown to sell the team. Look at what just happened with Utah. Or the Clips.

 

I'm not arguing that you need one, at all. I'm arguing that it just doesn't matter.