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https://www.forbes.com/sites/miketo...they-overtinker-with-the-roster/#4aef83454888
The Portland Trail Blazers are about to officially go back to work with training camp starting Tuesday, Oct. 1. Ahead of the Sept. 30 media session that serves as the kickoff for the 2019-20 season, we’ll ponder a few questions that face the 50th anniversary version of the team, staring with:
Did the Blazers overtinker?
Portland is coming off a season in which it reached the Western Conference Finals, its deepest playoff run in 19 years. If you go back 20 years, you see a Blazers team that foreshadowed the way the current iteration was put together.
In 1998-99 – a season reduced to 50 games because of a lockout – the Blazers reached the Western Conference Finals. Like the 2018-19 Blazers who lost all four games in the conference finals to Golden State, the 1998-99 team was swept in the conference finals, by San Antonio.
General manger Bob Whitsitt kept such core pieces such as Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire and Arvydas Sabonis, but he made some major roster changes around them, adding established veterans in Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith and Detlef Shrempf . The formula seemed to pay off as the Blazers won 59 games, which remains tied for the second most regular-season victories in the franchise’s 49 seasons, and seemed about to reach the NBA Finals, with a 15-point fourth-quarter lead over the Lakers in Game 7 of the conference finals. Portland famously blew that lead, opening the door for the first of three consecutive championships won by Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal version of the Lakers.
There’s reasonable debate about whether the changes Whitsitt made were worth the effort, whether getting to a seventh game in the conference final is a significant enough step forward from being swept in the same round, especially since the franchise quickly went backwards after that season, going the next 13 years without winning a playoff series.
The 2019-20 team has had a roster turnover on par with that 1999-2000 team, with possibly five new players who will be part of the regular rotation, but with an intact core of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic (once he returns from injury).
The Blazers added veterans in Kent Bazemore, Hassan Whiteside, Pau Gasol and Anthony Tolliver, all of whom are on the final years (or only year) of contracts, creating flexibility to put together a multi-year run at a title. In some ways the Blazers are following the model of San Antonio, which kept in tact a core of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, and added players around them, some for short-term help, and at least one (Kawhi Leonard) turning into superstar.
Portland GM Neil Olshey is by no means going full-blown Trader Bob with his team (Whitsitt aggressively made win-now trades with seemingly no long-term or developmental plans). Olshey continues a strong draft-and-develop program through which McCollum became a star, and Zach Collins and Anfernee Simons could blossom. They might not be at the Kawhi Leonard level, but both could become foundational players for years to come.
Certainly, Olshey tinkered a lot in the offseason, but he also got significant value for his three most challenging contracts from 2018-19 in Evan Turner (trading him for Bazemore), Meyers Leonard and Maurice Harkless (who were used in a four-team trade that landed Whiteside). And re-signing Rodney Hood – who figures to give Portland more offensive punch than it got from Harkless as the starting small forward — for well under market value is a major testament to the culture Olshey, coach Terry Stotts and Lillard and McCollum have established.
Did the Blazers overtinker? The real answer will come in May – or even June – when we see if this team is a step better than last season’s.
Did the Blazers overtinker?
Portland is coming off a season in which it reached the Western Conference Finals, its deepest playoff run in 19 years. If you go back 20 years, you see a Blazers team that foreshadowed the way the current iteration was put together.
In 1998-99 – a season reduced to 50 games because of a lockout – the Blazers reached the Western Conference Finals. Like the 2018-19 Blazers who lost all four games in the conference finals to Golden State, the 1998-99 team was swept in the conference finals, by San Antonio.
General manger Bob Whitsitt kept such core pieces such as Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire and Arvydas Sabonis, but he made some major roster changes around them, adding established veterans in Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith and Detlef Shrempf . The formula seemed to pay off as the Blazers won 59 games, which remains tied for the second most regular-season victories in the franchise’s 49 seasons, and seemed about to reach the NBA Finals, with a 15-point fourth-quarter lead over the Lakers in Game 7 of the conference finals. Portland famously blew that lead, opening the door for the first of three consecutive championships won by Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal version of the Lakers.
There’s reasonable debate about whether the changes Whitsitt made were worth the effort, whether getting to a seventh game in the conference final is a significant enough step forward from being swept in the same round, especially since the franchise quickly went backwards after that season, going the next 13 years without winning a playoff series.
The 2019-20 team has had a roster turnover on par with that 1999-2000 team, with possibly five new players who will be part of the regular rotation, but with an intact core of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic (once he returns from injury).
The Blazers added veterans in Kent Bazemore, Hassan Whiteside, Pau Gasol and Anthony Tolliver, all of whom are on the final years (or only year) of contracts, creating flexibility to put together a multi-year run at a title. In some ways the Blazers are following the model of San Antonio, which kept in tact a core of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, and added players around them, some for short-term help, and at least one (Kawhi Leonard) turning into superstar.
Portland GM Neil Olshey is by no means going full-blown Trader Bob with his team (Whitsitt aggressively made win-now trades with seemingly no long-term or developmental plans). Olshey continues a strong draft-and-develop program through which McCollum became a star, and Zach Collins and Anfernee Simons could blossom. They might not be at the Kawhi Leonard level, but both could become foundational players for years to come.
Certainly, Olshey tinkered a lot in the offseason, but he also got significant value for his three most challenging contracts from 2018-19 in Evan Turner (trading him for Bazemore), Meyers Leonard and Maurice Harkless (who were used in a four-team trade that landed Whiteside). And re-signing Rodney Hood – who figures to give Portland more offensive punch than it got from Harkless as the starting small forward — for well under market value is a major testament to the culture Olshey, coach Terry Stotts and Lillard and McCollum have established.
Did the Blazers overtinker? The real answer will come in May – or even June – when we see if this team is a step better than last season’s.
