I will begin by saying I am glad there is no downvote button here as there is on Reddit, because, well, you know. Is the team where we want it to be? No, of course not. But here's why I think Cronin has played the shitty hand he was dealt about as good as can be expected: 1. Olshey whiffed it. We can all agree that Neil Olshey squandered an incredible opportunity by lucking into drafting Dame and then wasting his prime years surrounding him with the likes of Mo Harkless and AlFarouk Aminu. And he never traded his best asset, CJ. And he left Cronin with a financial shithole to dig out of to boot. 2. Dame asked to be traded. Given that, Cronin did the unthinkable, traded our Dame, but got plenty in return to begin a long-term, OKC-type rebuild. 3. The vets don't need to be traded, yet. Dame wanted Jerami re-signed, he was, and he is a fine asset to trade, likely this season. Ayton was a great get in the Dame trade, and is only expendable now because Cronin looks like he knocked it out of the park with the Clingan pick. Same thing for Ant. He's tradable, but only now because Shaeden, and very likely Scoot, are going to pan out. But there is no need to rush a trade for any of the three vets because this season means nothing anyway. Better to save the assets for the big trade to come ("Trade coming soon!") 4. The core going forward is promising. Personally, I love Shaeden and thinks he's going to be a monster. Scoot will be better than we see now. Clingan, wow, and already discussed. Camara is a find. And Dani too is a nice fit. Cronin assembled all of that. So, while it's fun to rag on him (as we do with all our GMs), he righted the ship and its slowly heading in the right direction. (Now, if you want to kvetch about Jody, I'm all in! )
Neil was hot garbage. I don't know how he got to keep his job so long. He didn't draft Dame. He let LMA walk away. He held onto CJ too long. He wasted draft capital. He honestly might be the worst GM in team history.
If only we had valet parking. He might have given an honest effort. The Blazers organization should be harassed for not having valet parking provided for him wherever he traversed in town.
I don't agree with all of this, but if you're going to criticize Olshey, shame on you for not mentioning the Biebs/Evan Turnover/Crabbe offseason....
Olshey thought the Lillard and CJ combo just needed peripheral pieces to reach greatness. Olshey doubled down by treating the Lillard/Simons combo the same way. I blame Cronin because he has a roster that is running on two different timelines. You either get rid of the high paid, in their prime vets or you build around them (which would be stupid). Simons, Grant and Ayton have no business being on this roster if you’re serious about a rebuild. You look at it as addition by subtraction. To me he hasn’t got rid of these guys because he wants to save face and buy time. He knows if he gets canned from this job, he’ll never get another GM job
He struck out on ever FA he tried to get, what's more, those free agents went on to be disappointments by the teams that signed them. Hibbert, Monroe, Turkaglu, Parsons... Then he threw a huge contract at Evan Turner and gave Myers 10 million, then we couldn't afford to keep Seth Curry or Kanter, which were two key role players on the best roster we've assembled since 2000. And how many draft picks did he waste trading for guys like Afflalo, Covington, Nance... He also reportedly had a chance to get Jimmy Butler but didn't want to trade CJ. That could have cost us a championship. And all the while we had to listen to his smug arrogant face lecture us on how smart he is and how dumb fans are...
Sam vecenie reiterated on his pod recently that he hears Portland’s management overvalues their players and is difficult to trade with because they have unrealistic expectations in packages, which is one reason that players who have been available for awhile like Grant and Simons haven’t been moved. I do think that Simons has less value than 1-2 seasons ago and that is Cronins fault. No qualms on the scouting though, that has been solid. Deni trade makes no sense for where this team is today and I would ding him for sending away 2 firsts.
I don't keep track of which blogger or sportswriter covers which teams. Googling Vecenie he appears to be east coast. Doesn't mean the Laker FO doesn't have his ear though unconvinced it was the Lakers putting it out there that Cronin was demanding two 1st's for Grant. That sure seemed to be coming from Blazer-centric media. And if true, that demand was dumb. Grant isn't worth two 1st's; and Simons & Ayton are not worth one first unless they are heavily protected; even then, doubtful. Simons maybe; Ayton nope there's enough circumstantial 'evidence' to suspect that Vecenie may be correct in saying Cronin is asking for unrealistic returns on the vets. Maybe he'll come down in his asks after Dec 15 and as the trade deadline approaches. That would not be uncommon for a GM
I was on Cronin's side at his first trade deadline. I approved of him finally beginning the dismantling of Olshey's last idiotic roster and sending CJ-Powell-Nance-RoCo out of town. Maybe I was just so relieved Olshey was kaput as the Blazer GM I was giving Cronin too much credit. I do believe the Vulcans were peering over his shoulder at that deadline demanding salary and cap relief and I thought the way he built the TPE that fit Grant's salary was smart. And then getting Grant was smart too, considering the situation but since then, at very best Cronin has had a mixed bag of transactions with a couple of good ones. But realistically, it hasn't been positive * the Payton signing was purely stupid; it made no sense on any level * I believe he engineered Dame into demanding a trade. Dame obviously believes Cronin lied to him and if Cronin was saying the same things privately to Dame he said in public, Dame would be right * After all of Portland's history with injury prone big men, he still brought in Timelord instead of moving him to another team * he apparently coveted Ayton for two years before making him the centerpiece of the return for trading Dame. That's a huge blunder * he matched the stupid offer sheet to Thybulle which has cornered the Blazers into struggles with the tax line * because of those tax struggles, he has allowed three TPE's of around 8.7M to expire. Currently, the Blazer have a 6M TPE that will likely expire too * biggest fuckup of all is that he maneuvered the team into tanking into the worst draft in years last season. But by keeping Simons-Ayton-Grant-Timelord on the team he's harming Portland's lottery chances in the best draft in years I like Avdija and I like that he's a Blazer. But Cronin paid a steep price for him (could very well be two of the three 1st round picks from the Dame trade). I think Freshtown may be right in saying that the timing of landing a player like Avdija is premature considering Portland's situation. He may be best suited as a player you add to a playoff level core instead of to a team in the early part of a full rebuild with no established core players. I like that after years of Olshey's dwarf rosters, Cronin has built length into the roster. But obviously, that length is generally worse on offense, so it needs adjustments
