Not picking on you Denny, I appreciate your input, but want to expand on your Clippers topic.
I was very impressed with NO’s press conference, on every level except for his referring back to his time with the Clippers. He did it several times. This was a big no-no on several levels. You never brag about what you did on the last job and how you are going to do the same thing on the new job. Reason, the issues and resources are not the same from job to job, so results will vary.
Example: NO got very lucky to trade for CP3. He implied that he was going to eventually make a similar trade here. Good luck trading a franchise player to Portland, especially if he keeps pissing off other GMs the way he tried to last week with Presti.
Also, we have not had the same success rate at signing quality FAs as large markets teams such as teams in LA have had.
My point is, Olshey will have a much more difficult job to rebuild the Blazers than it was to rebuild the Clippers. He should never compare the two; it is faulty reasoning. If Olshey thinks he will have the same results he had with the Clippers, he is fooling himself and misleading the fans. His best hope now is for a high lottery draft pick, and then wait the 3-5 years when everyone has developed enough to compete in the playoffs.
The 3-5 year wait to compete in the playoffs is why I am upset with the problems LMA has caused.
This has proven to be false lately, has it not? Lakers have struck out on NUMEROUS FA's, Dwight left, DeAndre
almost left, and Greg Monroe shot down the Knicks for a
young Milwaukie team that I'd say we are attempting to emulate.
Agree that we will not get a CP3 level player, but, we already have our superstar in Dame (hopefully). We need our 2nd and 3rd pillars. I think he tries to trade for one of them, rather than a top 3 player at the time. (DeRozan for instance, not saying him, but similarly quality. A true #3 guy or #2 guy, while we wait for Vonleh, Meyers or McCollum to develop into - something).
Disagree that it'll be more difficult to rebuild the Blazers than the Clippers - the Clippers were the laughing stock of the entire league when he rebuilt them. We have youth, talent, and now plenty of assets to make a trade if something unbelievable comes along. Refer to the amount of lotto talent we have on this team: the odds say we are likely to have SOMEONE pan out. As a matter of fact, I think I've seen articles posted in this forum saying how the Blazers are in a GREAT Position to rebuild and it won't take nearly as long some think.
Truly, if one of our young guys pan out and we hit gold in the FA market (unlikely, I'll give you that. But say we overachieve, win a decent amount of games, someone think sthey are the missing piece for our team next year in FA, ala monroe and the Bucks?) we could be back in the playoffs relatively soon.
As I run through it, I agree with you - he shouldn't compare the two because it is faulty reasoning - but I differ from you in that this rebuild will be
easier than the Clippers because we already have a point guard. Sure they got lucky getting there PG, but they still haven't gotten out of the second round, either. And its much easier to trade/sign a 3rd fiddle than it is to trade for or sign
the guy. We already have our guy,
and thats
Damian Fucking Lillard. 
