The Summer of 2016 Without getting too much into how good or bad Neil is as a GM, especially when it comes to offering or signing FAs, I wanted to look back at the complete fallout and butterfly effect of that Summer where the Blazers spent a fortune on players that, well, to be honest, haven't worked out very well. Allen Crabbe - Signed for 4 years/$76,000,000. The following year was traded for Andrew Nicholson and a large TPE. The Blazers will be paying for Nicholson's 'stretched salary till 2024. Evan Turner - Signed for 4 years/$70,000,000. Played for the Blazers for 3 years before being traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Kent Bazemore. Bazemore was subsequently traded for Ariza. (assuming the smaller parts were traded for each other) Ariza is nearing 35 years old and has a non-guaranteed salary of $12,800,000 for next year. Maurice Harkless - Signed for 4 years/$40,000,000 after Blazers had already signed Turner and Crabbe. Meyers Leonard - Signed for 4 years/$41,000,000. Later combined with Maurice Harkless to acquire Hassan Whiteside. So in total, Crabbe, Turner, Harkless and Leonard were signed for a grand total of $227,000,000. In addition, they will be paying Andrew Nicholson's contract at a rate of $2,844,429 for the next 5 years. To be fair, they were able to unload Crabbe for basically nothing at the cost of paying off Nicholson. So some money was saved there but still a waste of that money to begin with. Out of all of that money spent, Portland is left with a nearing 35 year old Trevor Ariza and Hassan Whiteside. Ariza is a nice piece but isn't in anyone's long term plans, and it remains to be seen if Portland can resign Whiteside to a much lower amount that he is currently making or S&T him this Summer for another asset. They could possibly just let him go which would give Portland a little cap room this Summer.....but we've seen how that Cap Room money works out in the past. In the meantime, this roster has ben Cap-strapped with the consequences of those contracts while Dame's prime years have been passing by. Injuries hurt this year, but those were terrible contracts to marginal players to begin with and Portland is still left dealing with the fallout.
you forgot Ezeli and you forgot CJ's extension essentially, Olshey spent 340M dollars and not an all-star in sight, and 230M was spent on 2nd string players
Didn't forget, just didn't include Ezeli because it was a 1-year contract and his ghost never suited up. But at least it was a 1-year deal. Who put a gun to Neil's head signing all of those scrubs for the full 4 years? How about staggering them out so you have an ending contract every year for years '18,'19'and '20? CJ was the natural extension of a rookie contract. That was fine. It was the next one that is the bigger issue. Dame/CJ will be over $85,000,000 in the final year of their contracts. Holy Boat Anchor!!
There are fans who are calling for sweeping changes. Do you think the roster needs tweaking or significant changes? “The same people that wanted sweeping changes last year?” (Questioner responds: I don't know. I don't know them personally. I just hear from them all the time) "Right. Great. Well, last year was going to take sweeping changes because we got swept by Golden State in the first round and all the alarmists overreacted. . . . "But this idea that (we need) sweeping changes. Where were all these people that wanted sweeping changes 10 days ago? Where were they? They were the ones bouncing off the walls in the Moda Center when we got the third seed . . . . Relative to people back in December who were complaining that we weren't going to make the playoffs and we were in purgatory because we weren't going to make the playoffs and we weren't going to pick high enough. Right? That was the rallying cry. Then it was, 'Oh my God. They're going to blow the third seed because they're going to lose all these games. They're not even going to get home court advantage.' They overreacted to that.” Man, the disdain this guy has for the fans in Portland. He thinks we are all beneath him. I will never forget that exit interview.
Fast forward to 2030 and Neil Olshey is gone and tbpup starts a thread rehashing what happened back in 2016. Some people just need to learn to move forward instead of always looking over their shoulder.
I think you are mixing up "opinion" and "facts". But I'm the foreigner here, I must just be misunderstanding the words
huh? How am I mixing up opinion and fact? How is me asking who Torey Jones is either an opinion or a fact?
Precisely. Fact is, the real-dollar amount saved by shipping Skal off to ATL is less than the real-dollar tax cost for this season alone of acquiring the pick 5 years ago that eventually resulted in Skal's presence on the roster in the first place.
Yeah alright. I guess I won't talk with about about a topic involving Bones because I know you hate him with a passion and become insufferable in any discussion remotely involving him (Or sometime you even just bring him up out of nowhere because apparently he lives in your head)