Olshey goes contrarian by going big

[mook]

https://hoopshabit.com/2015/09/07/portland-trail-blazers-neil-olshey-goes-contrarian/

For the sake of the basketball offseason, Portland Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey acted as steeply contrarian thinker is correspondence to the rest of the league. Allow me to explain.

Remember when the 2014 Spurs annihilated the Heat in the Finals and the next season every team began to adopt similar “pace and space” principles? The same thing is beginning to take shape now, except with the Warriors instead of the Spurs.

Because of Golden State’s vast array of flexible wings (andDraymond Green), they can act as a Swiss Army knife on defense, switching between every pick imaginable while still corralling the ball handler. Since this practice lead the Warriors to a championship this past season, many executives are scheming to replicate their own version of that and hopefully strike big in the postseason as well.

Milwaukee is a great example of a team constructing itself similarly with their deep rotation of long, athletic wings that can reign terror on defense. However unfortunately for the Bucks, their wings cannot shoot like the Splash Brothers.

Teams around the league are craving (in some cases even overpaying) for the so-called “3-and-D” wing that can spread the floor and rotate through the 2-4 slots in the lineup. If you look closely, I am pretty sure you can see DeMarre Carroll andWesley Matthews nodding their heads solemnly at that statement.

Portland is an interesting case because this offseason they elected to stock up on young, fair-priced big men (a seemingly out of touch commodity at this point) after realizing that their chances of retaining LaMarcus Aldridge were slim to none. While the rest of the league was drooling at the idea of replicating what is happening in Golden State, Olshey and his staff went the other direction. They were in a contrarian state of mind and I respect the hell out of that.​

The article continues. It's all pretty bad writing, but a pretty good observation. When the league seems to be highly valuing the versatile swingman, guys like Ed Davis and Plumlee and Vonleh, who would be garnering sizable contracts and trades in past eras, are snatched up by Portland at a bargain rate.

I think when the Spurs mow through the league like a buzz saw with Aldridge and Duncan, a lot of teams are going to be looking around for promising young bigs. And Olshey will probably look much wiser than he does right now.

 

[BBert]

Olshey has been snatching up value acquisitions across the board. I'm always happy to stock up on promising bigs.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

There are no rules that say NBA players have to be human, if Olshey was really an outside of the box thinker he would look into seeing if a drone can dribble a basketball.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Another thing that I don't think gets mentioned often enough. Every move Olshey made before LaMarcus made his decision would have fit both scenarios: LaMarcus stays and we go for it all, or go young.

 

[Reep]

He lost me when he said this:

They still got two guys in Aminu and Harkless who could fill the role of a useful “3-and-D” guy (Henderson is just a “D” guy), they just happened to pay a fairly insignificant price for those players.

Hendo is just a "D" guy, but Aminu and Harkless have the "3"?

 

[Mediocre Man]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

 

[RR7]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

Or, it's not overpaying for someone else's past success, and seeing if you could be the next team that everyone emulates. This does always happen in the NBA. A team has success with a small SG, everyone goes that way. Twin towers, everyone hunts for a twin towers. A "Big 3"(god I'm sick of that fucking term) and everyone says it's impossible to win without a big 3. yadda yadda yadda. What you notice is the thing everyone else is chasing, is always changing. A good team will find success, and a lot of the crappier teams will look and say oh, we need to do that!

It reminds me of a joke about Hollywood, and how, when Titanic came out it was a huge box office success. And what people could have seen was hey if we use innovative special effects and great casting and a good story, blah blah blah, maybe we can be successful as well. But what Hollywood saw was...People want shipwreck movies!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

You mean, like the GM of the Grizzlies?

 

[Mediocre Man]

You mean, like the GM of the Grizzlies?

And all their championships

 

[Rastapopoulos]

And all their championships

Oh, okay: let's copy Golden State! Now, where shall we get another Stephen Curry?

 

[dviss1]

There are no rules that say NBA players have to be human, if Olshey was really an outside of the box thinker he would look into seeing if a drone can dribble a basketball.

Monstars bro. Monstars...

 

[BigGameDamian]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

To me thats more like a Bob Whitsitt or Mark Cuban type. I think Paul has gotten more of a play it safe type of Owner and that always carry's over to your GM.

 

[dviss1]

Oh, okay: let's copy Golden State! Now, where shall we get another Stephen Curry?

We got a poor man's Steph already. As much as I love Dame and he is his own player (much more athletic than Curry) IMHO this is the truth.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

We got a poor man's Steph already. As much as I love Dame and he is his own player (much more athletic than Curry) IMHO this is the truth.

We're #2! At least at PG. Now we need a poor man's Klay, Iguodala, Draymond Green and Bogut, and we have a chance of losing in the Western Conference Finals.

Oh, except the Spurs, Clippers, Rockets, Thunder and, of course, Grizzlies will still be better.

 

[Haakzilla]

He lost me when he said this:



Hendo is just a "D" guy, but Aminu and Harkless have the "3"?

...right?! Henderson is the "best" 3-pt shooter of them.

 

[Reep]

The other funny part to me was that he implies that Olshey is doing the opposite of Golden State, but if you look at the moves, there are more similarities than differences. Restocking with a bunch of athletic long guys who are interchangeable; you still have many three-point shooters; but maybe like Golden State with more emphasis on the rolling and rim than on the popping and outside shooting.

 

[KingSpeed]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

It changes every year. Olshey is thinking ahead.

 

[Mediocre Man]

It changes every year. Olshey is thinking ahead.

Which year is Olshey thinking of, Eric?

 

[BigGameDamian]

Which year is Olshey thinking of, Eric?

Most likely 2017.

 

[riverman]

We've not only gone big, we've gone tiny at the backup pt guard position. Frazier and Pressy are Mugsy Bogues and Spud Webb sized

 

[Orion Bailey]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

I wantto clarify, I liked your post because I thought it was funny, not because I agree.

 

[riverman]

There are no rules that say NBA players have to be human, if Olshey was really an outside of the box thinker he would look into seeing if a drone can dribble a basketball.

Speaking of change..why aren't you the team mascot by now? Blaze can be replaced

 

[Orion Bailey]

Speaking of change..why aren't you the team mascot by now? Blaze can be replaced

Im pretty sure Portlandites would much prefer a Blazing Blazer who might toss joints into the crowd than a mutt that pisses on every leg of every chair in the 100 level.

 

[riverman]

Im pretty sure Portlandites would much prefer a Blazing Blazer who might toss joints into the crowd than a mutt that pisses on every leg of every chair in the 100 level.

Good answer! And there's the flea thing...

 

[Reep]

Im pretty sure Portlandites would much prefer a Blazing Blazer who might toss joints into the crowd than a mutt that pisses on every leg of every chair in the 100 level.

Wait . . . which one of these is Sly?

 

[BBert]

Hit 'em where they ain't.

We aren't going to out-GS GS. By the time we got close, there would be a new flavor of the month to chase. Then another.

Better instead to try to make our team a match-up nightmare for them, make them adjust to us.

Moreover, because big man stocks are out of favor is exactly the reason to stock up on value assets while we are in rebuilding mode. That goes for big men and potentially undervalued players at any position.

I'm in the 'it's going to be hard to draw a top free agent to Portland' camp. So, we need to tee up a lot of balls and see if any of them make it over the fence.

Or something.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Hit 'em where they ain't.

We aren't going to out-GS GS. By the time we got close, there would be a new flavor of the month to chase. Then another.

Better instead to try to make our team a match-up nightmare for them, make them adjust to us.

Moreover, because big man stocks are out of favor is exactly the reason to stock up on value assets while we are in rebuilding mode. That goes for big men and potentially undervalued players at any position.

I'm in the 'it's going to be hard to draw a top free agent to Portland' camp. So, we need to tee up a lot of balls and see if any of them make it over the fence.

Or something.

Wait, what sport are we talking about again?

 

[Boob-No-More]

I love a GM who looks at the successful teams and says "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful"

Gimmicks don't win championships, talent does. Trying to emulate the Warriors when you don't have the same type/level of talent is foolish. Assemble the best talent you can, however you can, and try to develop it.

If there was no salary cap, Paul Allen would just go out and buy up all the best players and we'd be set. Given that there is a salary cap and limited opportunities to improve your talent through the draft, trades and free agent signings, Olshey is buying low. He's accumulating young lottery-level talent on cheap contracts. In the process, that will most likely lead to better draft picks for the next couple years while that young talent develops. Aren't you one of the "blow it up, tank, the only way to build a contender is through high lottery picks" kind of guys? If you are, you should be ecstatic about Olshey's direction.

While going big may be bucking the trend of the most recent championship, the most successful franchise over the last 20 years just went big by signing LaMarcus Aldridge to play beside Tim Duncan. So, in spite of the author's assertion, maybe going big isn't actually saying "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful".

BNM

 

[riverman]

We have this special one year window before teams have any clue how to game plan for us. When they do, Stotts just changes the lineup and frustrates them again. I think our bench will be a tough matchup for a lot of teams

 

[Mediocre Man]

Gimmicks don't win championships, talent does. Trying to emulate the Warriors when you don't have the same type/level of talent is foolish. Assemble the best talent you can, however you can, and try to develop it.

If there was no salary cap, Paul Allen would just go out and buy up all the best players and we'd be set. Given that there is a salary cap and limited opportunities to improve your talent through the draft, trades and free agent signings, Olshey is buying low. He's accumulating young lottery-level talent on cheap contracts. In the process, that will most likely lead to better draft picks for the next couple years while that young talent develops. Aren't you one of the "blow it up, tank, the only way to build a contender is through high lottery picks" kind of guys? If you are, you should be ecstatic about Olshey's direction.

While going big may be bucking the trend of the most recent championship, the most successful franchise over the last 20 years just went big by signing LaMarcus Aldridge to play beside Tim Duncan. So, in spite of the author's assertion, maybe going big isn't actually saying "Fuck it, let's do the opposite of successful".

BNM

Or maybe it is. The rules have made this a perimeter gaurd and wing league.

But it is nice to know you are right there with a comment to, in your opinion, correct one of my posts