Neil comments on the deadline

[illmatic99]

https://theathletic.com/2477983/202...to-shake-things-up/?source=emp_shared_article

I'll just pull out the quotes.

“We had to shake things up,” Olshey said. “Things were starting to look stale.”

“Our job is to make our team better,” Olshey said. “We think our team got better.”

“We don’t take any step back offensively, and I think he will infuse the defense with more energy,” Olshey said of the 6-foot-3 Powell. “To have a shot creator, as well as a catch-and-shoot guy who can defend the one-through-three … it’s going to be a big addition for us.”

“I couldn’t rely on Nurk’s return to kick us into gear,” Olshey said. “We have too much invested into this season.”

“We know with our owner, she will do whatever it takes to win,” Olshey said. “Finances will never impede our ability to compete, and we will be aggressive in the summer. But we felt we needed to shake things up now.”

Olshey also noted that Powell isn’t just a shooter. He attacks the rim and draws fouls, a skill that wasn’t a strength of Trent. Powell this season is 141-of-163 (86.5 percent) at the free throw line; Trent has attempted 75 free throws, making 58 (77.3 percent).

“That’s the three-guard lineup on steroids,” Olshey said.

“He’s a really good two-way player, kind of what we need,” Stotts said. “His shooting numbers speak for themselves, but what he can do defensively on the perimeter is something that we really need and value. He is going to have a major role with our team.”

The hope is that Powell is exactly what the team needs and falls in love with Portland and the culture, where playing basketball takes precedent over nightlife and weather. If not, and they lose him?

“We’ll find a way to work around it,” Olshey said.

And on the buyout market:

The trade leaves the Blazers with two open roster spots, and the team is expected to be active on the buyout front, which will likely start to happen in a week or 10 days. The Blazers will most likely look for a wing or a guard who is willing to accept a role as the ninth or 10th player in the rotation. The Blazers are $2.7 below the tax and will be able to outbid other teams by paying more than the minimum $2.5 million contract.

 

[Scalma]

He definitely reads what fans are saying. The quote about “can’t rely on just Nurk” lolol

 

[illmatic99]

I don't buy this narrative that Powell is a two way player. I think he's a better player on both ends than Trent, but marginally on defense.

 

[illmatic99]

He definitely reads what fans are saying. The quote about “can’t rely on just Nurk” lolol

That is verbatim what i predicted earlier that he would say. he's on the forum, isn't he?

 

[Scalma]

That is verbatim what i predicted earlier that he would say. he's on the forum, isn't he?

no way a guy with that ego isn’t reading what people are saying about him.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

So no Aldridge. And no full roster. Leaving one spot open.

 

[Scalma]

Not sure an extra 100k or whatever is gonna make the difference in a guy signing in Portland, but it can’t hurt I guess. I think Harkless is a lock if he gets bought out.

 

[B-Roy]

It's actually not a bad move considering the constraints he was dealing with. This deal saves money while making us slightly better in the short run.

But god, the selling. It just reeks of used car salesman.

 

[Scalma]

I don't buy this narrative that Powell is a two way player. I think he's a better player on both ends than Trent, but marginally on defense.

idk, he had a good rep in Toronto. He at least takes it seriously.
—
For the most part, Powell's sales pitch always revolved around his defense. And that may still hold true. He blends intensity and anticipationwith quick feet and hands to apply on-ball pressure and off-ball activity.

"Ever since I've been [at UCLA], I've been a lockdown defender," Powell told CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie. "The guy who guards the best player. I always have a chip on my shoulder no matter who is in front of me. To lock them down and take them out of what they want to do. I take a lot of pride in my defense."

 

[Drttimmy]

That's probably the best Olshey excerpt I've read or heard since he's come here. Almost comes off...honest? No belittling tone and no shots at the fanbase or media. Are we sure this came from Olshey?

I like the move on paper. Trent was likely to leave this off-season and Olshey apparently learned from his dealing with Aldridge. It would be harder to swallow if Trent was still clipping around 45% from three, but he's not that guy yet. There was a recent post on the forum about what the team needed most. Three point shooting imo. We live and die by it, so the more good shooters we have the better. Powell appears to be an upgrade there, at least for the immediate. If he can handle the ball and attack the hoop, that could help with the Dame doubling. But it sounds like he can consistently hit the kick-out threes, and that's my main concern. If we can use him to defend hot perimeter players, even better. On paper, this looks like a good move and I'll give Olshey due credit on this one. Doesn't move his overall needle that much, but it's better than the way it's been pointing.

 

[illmatic99]

It's actually not a bad move considering the constraints he was dealing with. This deal saves money while making us slightly better in the short run.

But god, the selling. It just reeks of used car salesman.

not as much as usual

 

[Darkwebs]

That is verbatim what i predicted earlier that he would say. he's on the forum, isn't he?

Olshey be like

 

[B-Roy]

Is there a link to Neil's video presser?

 

[blazerkor]

They had to fucking shake things up and so they made a two for one deal that got us a minor bench upgrade? This is typical Olshey. The guy acts like he makes big changes if he makes any because he's fucking allergic to actually changing things. Also him talking about next season already is such bullshit. The guy should be fired right now for that. You just had a chance to make this season the best it can be and you're talking about ownership giving you funds to make us better next fucking season. Not impressed, ever, with this bad used car salesman.

 

[Scalma]

They had to fucking shake things up and so they made a two for one deal that got us a minor bench upgrade? This is typical Olshey. The guy acts like he makes big changes if he makes any because he's fucking allergic to actually changing things. Also him talking about next season already is such bullshit. The guy should be fired right now for that. You just had a chance to make this season the best it can be and you're talking about ownership giving you funds to make us better next fucking season. Not impressed, ever, with this bad used car salesman.

cry.

 

[MickZagger]

They had to fucking shake things up and so they made a two for one deal that got us a minor bench upgrade? This is typical Olshey. The guy acts like he makes big changes if he makes any because he's fucking allergic to actually changing things. Also him talking about next season already is such bullshit. The guy should be fired right now for that. You just had a chance to make this season the best it can be and you're talking about ownership giving you funds to make us better next fucking season. Not impressed, ever, with this bad used car salesman.

I’m not a big a Olshey fan but in fairness, he got us the best player out there on the trade market (outside maybe Vucevic). A great wing defender, a better 3 shooter than the wildly inconsistent Trent. I think Powell will help us out more than Gordon who I never understood the hype on.

 

[blazerkor]

I’m not a big a Olshey fan but in fairness, he got us the best player out there on the trade market (outside maybe Vucevic). A great wing defender, a better 3 shooter than the wildly inconsistent Trent. I think Powell will help us out more than Gordon who I never understood the hype on.

I completely disagree, Gordon is a much better player. My complaint is not the move though. My complaint is that this move to upgrade our bench is Olshey's version of shaking things up. My other complaint is that Olshey seems to think and maybe does have a lifetime pass. He just gets to say "next season" whenever he wants.

For a GM that isn't saying he's in a rebuild, next season should never be what he's talking about. Thinking about, of course but today was your day to have an effect on this season... you got a guy who will be unrestricted in the off season so today you didn't do anything for next season... so why are we talking about it? It's because Olshey is habitually passing the buck or kicking the can down the road or without metaphor trying to distract from what he hasn't done with promises of what he will do.

 

[blazerkor]

cry.

Did this move get us closer to a championship?

 

[42N8Bounce]

Interesting note about being $2.7 under the tax line and able to outbid other teams that only have the $2.5M player minimum to offer.

What exception would the Blazers use to offer more than the $2.5M minimum? The two trade exceptions the Blazers have are too small. That leaves using part of the bi-annual exception ($3.6M). I guess the only draw back to using the bi-annual exception is that we would lose the ability to use the full amount next year.

I guess we'll see if that additional $0.2M is able to entice a 'top tier' buy-out candidate, rather than just using the $2.5M minimum to put an extra body at the end of the bench.

 

[blazerkor]

Interesting note about being $2.7 under the tax line and able to outbid other teams that only have the $2.5M player minimum to offer.

What exception would the Blazers use to offer more than the $2.5M minimum? The two trade exceptions the Blazers have are too small. That leaves using part of the bi-annual exception ($3.6M). I guess the only draw back to using the bi-annual exception is that we would lose the ability to use the full amount next year.

I guess we'll see if that additional $0.2M is able to entice a 'top tier' buy-out candidate, rather than just using the $2.5M minimum to put an extra body at the end of the bench.

View attachment 37773

Buyout players don't care about the money. It's my understanding that unless the new money exceeds the old money they don't see any of it. That's why they never seem to care about it, not because they're all of a sudden not about the money but because it actually doesn't matter financially.

 

[42N8Bounce]

Buyout players don't care about the money. It's my understanding that unless the new money exceeds the old money they don't see any of it. That's why they never seem to care about it, not because they're all of a sudden not about the money but because it actually doesn't matter financially.

Interesting. Here's a bit from CBAFAQs:

If another team signs a player who has cleared waivers, the player's original team is allowed to reduce the amount of money it still owes the player (and lower its team salary) by a commensurate amount. This is called the right of set-off. This is true if the player signs with any professional team -- it does not have to be an NBA team. The amount the original team gets to set off is limited to one-half the difference between the player's new salary and the minimum salary for a one-year veteran during the season in which the player is waived (if the player is a rookie, then the rookie minimum is used instead).

For example, suppose a fifth-year player is waived with one guaranteed season remaining on his contract for $5 million. If this player signs a $2 million contract with another team for the 2017-18 season, his original team gets to set off $2 million minus $1,312,611 (the minimum salary for a one-year veteran in 2017-18), divided by two, or $343,694. The team is still responsible for paying $4,656,306 of the original $5 million. Note that between his prior team and new team the player will earn a combined $6,656,306, which was more than he earned prior to being waived.

I'm not even going to pretend to understand 10% of that quote. But it since a buy out is essentially a team re-negotiating the guaranteed amount (down), then waving a player, it sounds like the contract with the new team does financially impact the player. (???)

 

[julius]

Did this move get us closer to a championship?

No one thought that Nurk was going to be the player he ended up being once the Blazers traded for him (well, I'm sure some people did, but most people didn't). So to act like we *know* that Powell won't end up being a key figure in an extended run is pointless (conversely, the same is true of Gordon. We didn't know how much of an impact he'd have, good or bad).

Also, I'm not sure that Gordon is a "much" better player than Powell is. Besides that they don't play the same position or have the same role, I think Gordon is overrated by Blazer fans (we love to do that).

I don't know if Powell will transfer his production (or a pro-rated value). but what I do know is that it appears that Powell isn't just a 3 point shooter. You could make the argument that Trent, if he's not hitting 3 pointers, really doesn't provide much else.

Powell goes to the FT line at a higher clip (3 more per game) and shoots a significantly higher % from the floor than Trent does. Trent averaged 4 points *fewer* a night, on .7 shots fewer per game.

That's not really a compelling argument.

I think Gary could end up being a better player than Powell, and I wish he had been able to stay in Portland, but I think Powell is a better player now, and a more complete player. Wish he had more combo skills though.

 

[blazerkor]

Interesting. Here's a bit from CBAFAQs:

I'm not even going to pretend to understand 10% of that quote. But it since a buy out is essentially a team re-negotiating the guaranteed amount (down), then waving a player, it sounds like the contract with the new team does financially impact the player. (???)

Just from my understanding listening to the cap experts on ESPN and reading the CBA, the negotiated buyout is still considered guaranteed money so the knew salary would still have to exceed the amount of the agreed to buyout. So they don't get extra money. Otherwise why wouldn't they all be jockeying for the over ten million that the Knicks could give them. That will tell us a lot. If anyone in the buyout market gets more than the minimum I'm obviously wrong.

 

[BlazerBeav]

I completely disagree, Gordon is a much better player. My complaint is not the move though. My complaint is that this move to upgrade our bench is Olshey's version of shaking things up. My other complaint is that Olshey seems to think and maybe does have a lifetime pass. He just gets to say "next season" whenever he wants.

Gordon is way overvalued. Orlando, with a legitimate all-star in Vucevic, is continually mediocre at best with Gordon playing next to him. Gordon hasn't improved his game at all in the last few years.

 

[blazerkor]

No one thought that Nurk was going to be the player he ended up being once the Blazers traded for him (well, I'm sure some people did, but most people didn't). So to act like we *know* that Powell won't end up being a key figure in an extended run is pointless (conversely, the same is true of Gordon. We didn't know how much of an impact he'd have, good or bad).

Also, I'm not sure that Gordon is a "much" better player than Powell is. Besides that they don't play the same position or have the same role, I think Gordon is overrated by Blazer fans (we love to do that).

I don't know if Powell will transfer his production (or a pro-rated value). but what I do know is that it appears that Powell isn't just a 3 point shooter. You could make the argument that Trent, if he's not hitting 3 pointers, really doesn't provide much else.

Powell goes to the FT line at a higher clip (3 more per game) and shoots a significantly higher % from the floor than Trent does. Trent averaged 4 points *fewer* a night, on .7 shots fewer per game.

That's not really a compelling argument.

I think Gary could end up being a better player than Powell, and I wish he had been able to stay in Portland, but I think Powell is a better player now, and a more complete player. Wish he had more combo skills though.

I'm with you on everything you said except our obvious difference in the way we evaluate Aaron Gordon. My question was does getting Powell make us a legitimate contender? I don't think it does. So the next question I have is, can Powell walk away no matter what we want him to do, at the end of the season? That answer is binary and is yes. So my worst fear in regards to Gary coming into this season has been realized. We attained zero future value in return for what I perceive to be a ton of future value that Gary has. Sure we might re-sign Powell and yeah the Bird rights can help with that but that isn't the kind of value going forward I was hoping to get for Gary or the kind of value I think he would have given us going forward if we retained him going forward.

If Powell does re-sign and is a big part of a championship run then all of this is just philosophical and not practical but the philosophy behind it does matter. We had a guaranteed current and future commodity in Gary, we upgraded that commodity's current value but relinquished the guarantee on future returns. If we don't currently have the potential to attain our ultimate goal during the guaranteed time we have the commodity, that renders it void of value in relationship to our ultimate goal.

 

[blazerkor]

Gordon is way overvalued. Orlando, with a legitimate all-star in Vucevic, is continually mediocre at best with Gordon playing next to him. Gordon hasn't improved his game at all in the last few years.

Gordon next to Vucevic might be similar to CJ next to Dame. They might not have had complementary games. Go ahead and say that Gordon is overrated and that I overrate him. I obviously think that you underrate him. That's fine. Since we didn't get him, I hope you are right.

 

[julius]

I'm with you on everything you said except our obvious difference in the way we evaluate Aaron Gordon. My question was does getting Powell make us a legitimate contender? I don't think it does. So the next question I have is, can Powell walk away no matter what we want him to do, at the end of the season? That answer is binary and is yes. So my worst fear in regards to Gary coming into this season has been realized. We attained zero future value in return for what I perceive to be a ton of future value that Gary has. Sure we might re-sign Powell and yeah the Bird rights can help with that but that isn't the kind of value going forward I was hoping to get for Gary or the kind of value I think he would have given us going forward if we retained him going forward.

If Powell does re-sign and is a big part of a championship run then all of this is just philosophical and not practical but the philosophy behind it does matter. We had a guaranteed current and future commodity in Gary, we upgraded that commodity's current value but relinquished the guarantee on future returns. If we don't currently have the potential to attain our ultimate goal during the guaranteed time we have the commodity, that renders it void of value in relationship to our ultimate goal.

to that I say, I don't think getting Gordon would have made the Blazers a legit contender either. But I think considering the team is lacking a consistent shooter from the back court (Dames current slump not withstanding, he's been consistent). Trent isn't consistent, and Powells game provides more stability and flexibility on the offensive end, and I think is defense is better than Trents. But also, Gordon isn't exactly lighting up the court on the offensive end (yes, the team needs help defensively, but Im not sure that Gordon (or Powell) would provide that needed boost).

 

[Scalma]

Did this move get us closer to a championship?

idk. Did it make us better? 100%. Trent and Powell aren’t on the same level.

 

[1 Eye Jack]

They had to fucking shake things up and so they made a two for one deal that got us a minor bench upgrade? This is typical Olshey. The guy acts like he makes big changes if he makes any because he's fucking allergic to actually changing things. Also him talking about next season already is such bullshit. The guy should be fired right now for that. You just had a chance to make this season the best it can be and you're talking about ownership giving you funds to make us better next fucking season. Not impressed, ever, with this bad used car salesman.

we got a better more consistent playoff version of Gary Trent. Powell has played in championship games and won and knows what it takes to win. Trent at times seemed to be looking for his own if you want to win championships everyone has to know their role

 

[Natebishop3]

we got a better more consistent playoff version of Gary Trent. Powell has played in championship games and won and knows what it takes to win. Trent at times seemed to be looking for his own if you want to win championships everyone has to know their role

For a few months and then we potentially have nothing.