Blazers offseason worse than the Rockets and Heat

[Draco]

These national writers are ridiculous

on.nba.com/1pTX6Xr

29) PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
2013-14 RECORD: 54-28, lost in second round

ADDED: C Chris Kaman (two years, $9.8 million); G Steve Blake (two years, $4.2 million)
LOST: G Mo Williams (signed with Minnesota)
RETAINED: None
THE KEY MAN: C Meyers Leonard. Damian Lillard was so electric and dynamic as Rookie of the Year in 2012 that Leonard, the 11th pick overall that year, has been able to come along slower without inviting much public or national scrutiny. The Blazers said when they drafted him that Leonard's ability to run the floor would get him into the rotation, but that hasn't happened yet. There isn't a ton of pressure on Leonard to produce with Robin Lopez established in the hole, and Kaman now backing him up, but at some point soon, Leonard's going to have to earn his keep in a meaningful spot.
THE SKINNY: I'm not being critical here; Portland didn't do anything really wrong. But the Blazers just didn't do much at all. Portland didn't delve too deeply into free agency, with a solid rotation, a lot of guaranteed contracts going forward for at least this coming season and a need to prepare for 2015, when Cousin LaMarcus will likely opt out and become a free agent. He's said he'll do so only to sign a bigger deal and wants to stay in Portland, but this coming season's results could certainly impact that decision. Blake replaces Williams as Lillard's backup, and Kaman comes in after struggling at Dallas and with the Lakers to stay in the regular rotation. He won't be starting here, which should help. The Blazers are also looking for internal improvement from the likes of second-year guards C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe, or third-year man Will Barton.

Can the 2014-15 Blazers be more of a national surprise than the 2013-14 Blazers?

Last year at the start of the 2013-14 season the national media largely picked the Blazers to miss the playoffs. They were ranked behind the Utah Jazz in betting odds. Then national media was flabbergasted that we were leading the conference a quarter of the way through the season and contending for a top3 seed. But many knowledgeable fans here who follow the team expected the playoffs and were not surprised as our starters had been at the top of the NBA during the 33 win season. The teams core players were all under 30 which historically leads to improvements. Blazer management had made the bench deliberately bad the previous year when it was one of the worst in NBA history; improvement would be nearly certain as even one of the leagues weakest benches with replacement level players would be a huge improvement.

Well now we are entering another offseason and national analysts are at it again. They rank the Rockets and Heat offseason as more productive than the Blazers! Ridiculous. If this team was in New York or Los Angeles it would probably be ranked in the top5 for retaining a second round playoff core of all under 30 players. Can any other team in the league say that? I’m starting to enjoy our role as underdog’s. It’ll be interesting to hear all the national writers become so shocked again when the Blazers have success.

 

[illmatic99]

Don't really see anything egregious with what he said. The ranking is a bit questionable, but he clearly says what we all have said this offseason, which is- nothing to write home about as we had very little to work with.

 

[BBert]

THE KEY MAN: C Meyers Leonard.

LOL No wonder he ranked us low.

Idiot.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

We were either the worst team or the luckiest team ever to make the second round of the playoffs. Next I'm sure one of the national experts will say we never would have made the playoffs if we were in the Eastern Conference.

 

[Boise Blazer]

With the money that we had available and knowing what is coming up next summer Im not sure what type of splash they expected us to make

 

[Minstrel]

If you're grading absolutely (i.e. point blank, how much did a team improve or regress), then Portland's off-season wasn't very good, as they didn't add much. If you're grading relatively (i.e. what did they do relative to what they had available to work with), then Portland's off-season was probably fine...they didn't have much cap/exception space but they utilized a small amount of space reasonably well.

Skimming Aldridge's article, it seems he was going the absolute route.

 

[oldmangrouch]

I think Minstrel nailed it.

There may have been valid reasons - but the team did have a passive off-season.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

But look at Pelton's article from a couple of days ago, ranking off-season additions/losses based on WARP. We came in fifth--and that's also an "absolute" rather than relative ranking.

Nobody knows anything until we see how the season plays out, so this is all just stuff and nonsense anyway.

 

[Natebishop3]

The reason why I don't give much credence to these kinds of articles is that they don't understand the chemistry factor.

A lot of people didn't predict us to do that well last season. I knew we were going to see a significant jump because we already had an excellent starting five, we just needed a bench. We had arguably a top five in the west starting unit. The problem was that they were playing too many minutes and they had to virtually win games by themselves. They had no help whatsoever from the second unit. Last summer we added Mo, Dorell, TRob, and CJ. Right there, that's a huge improvement to our bench, and I expected us to win 50ish games and place 4th or 5th because our starters would finally be able to lighten their load a bit.

This summer, it's all about fine tuning that second unit. Letting guys develop. I'm not projecting a marked improvement because it's hard enough to win 50+ games in the west. I do think, however, that we will see a sustainable level of play that we lacked last season. We relied too much on guys like Mo, Wes, and Nic to have good games, while all three of them aren't especially consistent on offense. So when we were good, we were really really good. Especially during that stretch when Wes couldn't miss. That's when we played our best basketball of the season, but it wasn't sustainable. So this season I think Neil was focused on trying to setup the second unit to be able to actually provide consistent relief to our starters.

Blake might not be as talented as Mo, but he's more consistent.

Kaman, while not glamorous, should be able to give consistent scoring off the bench (if he stays healthy.)

TRob and CJ should be able to contribute more consistently this year. I thought both looked really good during summer league. Barton is still an enigma. I think he plays better in a structured environment. When he's given too much freedom, he tends to force it too much and that hurts the team.

I really like our second unit of Blake, CJ, Robinson, and Kaman. I'm on the fence about Barton and Dorell. Either one might be able to provide scoring off the bench. I tend to lean more towards Dorell because he has a longer track record, and I'm hoping last season was an anomaly.

 

[RoyToy]

Steve Blake SUCKS

 

[RoyToy]

Steve Blake basically didn't even play in the playoffs for the Warriors last year

 

[Natebishop3]

Steve Blake basically didn't even play in the playoffs for the Warriors last year

You do realize that you don't have to create a new post every time you start a new sentence, right?

 

[Strenuus]

Steve Blake SUCKS

There's 14 other players on the team, don't be so myopic.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

There's 14 other players on the team, don't be so myopic.

Aldridge is not a true superstar.
Batum is inconsistent.
CJ is too short.
Lopez is slow.
Matthews can't dribble.
Lillard is weak at the rim.
Kaman is frail.
TRob is undisciplined.
Barton is wild.
Leonard is useless.
Claver can't shoot.
Crabbe is mentally weak.
Wright is one-dimensional.
Freeland is unathletic.

Better?

 

[Natebishop3]

Aldridge is not a true superstar.
Batum is inconsistent.
CJ is too short.
Lopez is slow.
Matthews can't dribble.
Lillard is weak at the rim.
Kaman is frail.
TRob is undisciplined.
Barton is wild.
Leonard is useless.
Claver can't shoot.
Crabbe is mentally weak.
Wright is one-dimensional.
Freeland is unathletic.

Better?

Plus, Terry Stotts can't coach defense!

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Damn, forgot the coaches!!

Oh, and Olshey is lazy and uncreative.

 

[Strenuus]

Aldridge is not a true superstar.
Batum is inconsistent.
CJ is too short.
Lopez is slow.
Matthews can't dribble.
Lillard is weak at the rim.
Kaman is frail.
TRob is undisciplined.
Barton is wild.
Leonard is useless.
Claver can't shoot.
Crabbe is mentally weak.
Wright is one-dimensional.
Freeland is unathletic.

Better?

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to PtldPlatypus again

 

[Strenuus]

Damn, forgot the coaches!!

Oh, and Olshey is lazy and uncreative.

Those waterboys don't know how to hydrate the players properly!!

 

[Natebishop3]

Damn, forgot the coaches!!

Oh, and Olshey is lazy and uncreative.

No no, Olshey is too Hollywood, and he'll eventually leave us.

 

[riverman]

Basically we got Blake and Kaman for Mo and Earl, Freeland is healthy, Barton, CJ and Robinson should be better. Wright, Crabbe and Claver need to step up and I don't see any falling off of bench talent. We have more bench scoring, we're bigger and we have a lot of options. It's all good. I don't take NBA journalists predictions seriously anyway. Blazers are almost always underrated before the season starts. I think it's a motivating thing for the team. We got better this offseason without overpaying guys or losing talent. Golden State paid a lot of money for Iggy last season and it didn't really push them forward that much. Trust Olshey!

 

[NewsSource]

LOL No wonder he ranked us low.

Idiot.

Yep. Meyers is such a "key" that the Blazers spent the entire MLE to ensure he is even lower in the rotation than he was last year.

 

[NewsSource]

Damn, forgot the coaches!!

Oh, and Olshey is lazy and uncreative.

Also, Bert Kolde is always breathing over the shoulder of any Blazer GM.

 

[Natebishop3]

Also, Bert Kolde is always breathing over the shoulder of any Blazer GM.

Is old Bert still hanging around?

 

[NewsSource]

Is old Bert still hanging around?

He's Paul Allen's version of the cicada. Except instead of appearing every 17 years, he shows up every 4 years to annoy everyone and make a mess of things, gets a coach or GM fired, then goes back into hibernation until things are looking up for the Blazers again.

 

[cmeese47]

Steve Blake SUCKS

Repped

 

[The_Lillard_King]

THE SKINNY: I'm not being critical here; Portland didn't do anything really wrong. But the Blazers just didn't do much at all. Portland didn't delve too deeply into free agency, with a solid rotation, a lot of guaranteed contracts going forward for at least this coming season and a need to prepare for 2015, when Cousin LaMarcus will likely opt out and become a free agent. He's said he'll do so only to sign a bigger deal and wants to stay in Portland, but this coming season's results could certainly impact that decision. Blake replaces Williams as Lillard's backup, and Kaman comes in after struggling at Dallas and with the Lakers to stay in the regular rotation. He won't be starting here, which should help. The Blazers are also looking for internal improvement from the likes of second-year guards C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe, or third-year man Will Barton.

I think that is dead on.

I agree with the notion we really don't know the moves will play out until we see it in action. Kaman and Blake at their best will help Ptd greatly, at their worst will add nothing to Ptd and we will probably get something in between.

I don't buy into the notion these were the only moves the Blazers could make. Olshey decided to keep the starting 5 together and not seek any big trade and didn't try to create cap room to go after free agents the way other teams did. Not saying it was the wrong decision, but Olshey decided not to break things up and only utilize MLE and BLE to help bolster the bench. Other teams show that you don't need cap space going into the summer to make a trade or go after free agents. Also I don't think Olshey really tried hard to keep Mo. Let's see how it all works out . . .

 

[e_blazer]

THE SKINNY: I'm not being critical here; Portland didn't do anything really wrong. But the Blazers just didn't do much at all. Portland didn't delve too deeply into free agency, with a solid rotation, a lot of guaranteed contracts going forward for at least this coming season and a need to prepare for 2015, when Cousin LaMarcus will likely opt out and become a free agent. He's said he'll do so only to sign a bigger deal and wants to stay in Portland, but this coming season's results could certainly impact that decision. Blake replaces Williams as Lillard's backup, and Kaman comes in after struggling at Dallas and with the Lakers to stay in the regular rotation. He won't be starting here, which should help. The Blazers are also looking for internal improvement from the likes of second-year guards C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe, or third-year man Will Barton.

I think that is dead on.

I agree with the notion we really don't know the moves will play out until we see it in action. Kaman and Blake at their best will help Ptd greatly, at their worst will add nothing to Ptd and we will probably get something in between.

I don't buy into the notion these were the only moves the Blazers could make. Olshey decided to keep the starting 5 together and not seek any big trade and didn't try to create cap room to go after free agents the way other teams did. Not saying it was the wrong decision, but Olshey decided not to break things up and only utilize MLE and BLE to help bolster the bench. Other teams show that you don't need cap space going into the summer to make a trade or go after free agents. Also I don't think Olshey really tried hard to keep Mo. Let's see how it all works out . . .

I don't think that Olshey tried to keep Mo at all. I think he helped him pack his bags, gave him a nice, "Thanks for the season and best of luck to you," and didn't think about him again all summer. Olshey made the decision to add a couple of journeymen to fortify the second unit. The intent was to put a couple of guys in there who would provide some stability and then let the young guys have the opportunity to provide some improvement. He clearly values the cap room that he can create next summer above trying to add the bits and pieces that he could have made a run at this summer with the limited resources he had available. The way I look at it, if the second unit can simply improve an average of say 2-3 points on offense and 2-3 points on defense, that will be enough to propel the Blazers into the upper echelon of the league. If it doesn't work, then Olshey has the opportunity to really shake things up next summer.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

I don't think that Olshey tried to keep Mo at all. I think he helped him pack his bags, gave him a nice, "Thanks for the season and best of luck to you," and didn't think about him again all summer. Olshey made the decision to add a couple of journeymen to fortify the second unit. The intent was to put a couple of guys in there who would provide some stability and then let the young guys have the opportunity to provide some improvement. He clearly values the cap room that he can create next summer above trying to add the bits and pieces that he could have made a run at this summer with the limited resources he had available. The way I look at it, if the second unit can simply improve an average of say 2-3 points on offense and 2-3 points on defense, that will be enough to propel the Blazers into the upper echelon of the league. If it doesn't work, then Olshey has the opportunity to really shake things up next summer.

There was one rumor that NO offered the same deal Blake got to Mo first and Mo declined. But I agree it didn't seem like the Blazers were real interested in keep Mo.

I guess deciding not to keep Mo was my point. The feeling I was reading was the Blazers did all they could with what they had. I don't see it that way. GMs are creative and NO could have done more if he wanted to (like keeping Mo as one example or looking to make a trade or locking someone more high profile down for 4 yrs using the MLE). But NO has a plan and that plan was to not break up the starting 5, add to the bench using the MLE and BAE, and when Hawes didn't work out, keep flexibility for next year and having a roster that allows the young players time to develop. Might be a good plan (makes sense in my book, although didn't like Kaman for 5 million) . . . but we will see.

But to say NO did the most he could with what he had, I don't think is accurate. He could do more, but decided that isn't the best route to take at this time.

 

[e_blazer]

There was one rumor that NO offered the same deal Blake got to Mo first and Mo declined. But I agree it didn't seem like the Blazers were real interested in keep Mo.

I guess deciding not to keep Mo was my point. The feeling I was reading was the Blazers did all they could with what they had. I don't see it that way. GMs are creative and NO could have done more if he wanted to (like keeping Mo as one example or looking to make a trade or locking someone more high profile down for 4 yrs using the MLE). But NO has a plan and that plan was to not break up the starting 5, add to the bench using the MLE and BAE, and when Hawes didn't work out, keep flexibility for next year and having a roster that allows the young players time to develop. Might be a good plan (makes sense in my book, although didn't like Kaman for 5 million) . . . but we will see.

But to say NO did the most he could with what he had, I don't think is accurate. He could do more, but decided that isn't the best route to take at this time.

Some around here see Mo's departure as addition by subtraction. I'm not quite of that opinion, but I do think that Blake's 3-point shooting and more secure ball distribution will fit better with what Stotts is trying to do than Mo did. Hard to say what Kaman will do. I think that he has the talent to be a significant upgrade over Freeland or Leonard. His attitude is probably the most important thing. It seems like he kind of tends to shut down a bit when he doesn't like the way that a coach is using him...at least that's my read on his stints in LA and NO. He seems excited to be here and he has an established relationship with both Olshey and big man coach Kim Hughes, so I'm hopeful all of that carries over to a good year.

 

[Strenuus]

I think Olshey looks at more subtle things than "OMG HAVE TO HAVE BEST PLAYER EVER! IF NOT YOU STUPID GM GET OUT!".

and stuff.