Olshey press confernce

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

If Olshey (or Blazer fans) think this franshise is dramatically changing direction with just a change of coach or swapping out the middle to back rows of the roster seats, they are all drinking from the same water bottle.
 
Neil spoke a lot about 'accountability'.....yet didn't seem to apply much of that to himself with the ~'it's not the roster' reference.
i mean, it's understandable, no? he unequivocally improved the roster last summer and our defense got worse. And he's very clearly also on the hot seat in the seasons upcoming so he's fighting for his job. Perhaps he threw Terry under the bus too much, but hell, I agreed with nearly everything he said about how terrible Stotts was.
 
"we have to have more impact defenders off our bench, moreso than just scorers."

bye, melo
I hope that's true. I notice he never mentioned the re-signing of Melo as one of his accomplishments.
 
If Olshey (or Blazer fans) think this franshise is dramatically changing direction with just a change of coach or swapping out the middle to back rows of the roster seats, they are all drinking from the same water bottle.
he never said anything like that.
 
he never said anything like that.

No where do I say that is what he said. However, if we look at history, he was extremely slow to change the coach (then ran the bus over him several times....while complimenting him) and even slower to change major pieces of the roster.
 
Am I alone in thinking he was spot-on that this roster underachieved, especially defensively? And that we had a ton of pieces to have more depth in the playoffs than the 7 man rotation Stotts was using. Keeping Jones/Little parked on the bench while our lineups got destroyed on the boards while getting carved up defensively was infuriating.
I actually think this is one of his better pressers.
1) Flat out told the media, stop BS’ing, let’s talk about the second star talk and all that stuff. Led to a conversation about how most are predetermined.
2) Essentially called out the media saying “CJ and Dame backcourt, still untouchable?” And responded by saying “look, this is a business, we will do anything to make the team better but we won’t announce it to the world. Said the media has run with the narrative that he would never break up the backcourt and it’s essentially not true (for the right deal, which he may believe is CJ for LBJ or something.)
3) Accurately pointed out that teams that were not trying to win and clearly were rebuilding somehow played better defense than us.
4) Finally acknowledge that we need accountability on both sides of the court.
5) Also, I was intrigued by the “we don’t play our draft picks anyway” comment. Makes me feel like that may have been another issue with Terry.
 
hardly inevitable. we had possibly the 3rd or 4th best roster in the conference.

Okay, so you think coaching and I think roster. I'm firmly on board with Stotts going. Firmly. But that isn't our only and again, IMO, biggest problem.

We'll see what happens next season. Because IMO if we have the same starting 5 we're not winning the title.
 
to me, that's the biggest problem, and it's so fucking obvious

the number of players in chairs 3-15 that Olshey has cycled thru since he went all in on the Dame/CJ team is a couple of dozen. He's always rearranging the deck chairs in the 2nd and 3rd rows. And it doesn't make one goddam bit of difference. Same treadmill, year after year

and it's just about guaranteed he's going to try the same shit again. mess around and bring in a couple of different role players. And I would not be surprised at all if he brings back Melo. Portland problems aren't who is sitting in the chairs in that 2nd row. Portland's problem starts with who is sitting in the chair next to Dame's, and how the cost of that chair, in dollars and opportunities, restricts what happens every where else
One thing that was interesting to me is he talked up his move for Norm so much. If he doesn't trade CJ and is able to retain Norm... it's not like I'll be happy because that undersized lineup is fucking stupid but I will be impressed that he was able to sell Norm. Most likely if he doesn't move CJ, Norm will go elsewhere and that will be a disaster for Neil. That along with him talking up Norm and showing for the first time ever a hesitance to commit to CJ gives me hope that we'll move him... especially after every defensive minded head coach candidate comes in and tells the front office that they can make the defense way better than the worst but there is no way of having an elite defense with Dame and CJ playing the most minutes.
 
I actually think this is one of his better pressers.
1) Flat out told the media, stop BS’ing, let’s talk about the second star talk and all that stuff. Led to a conversation about how most are predetermined.
2) Essentially called out the media saying “CJ and Dame backcourt, still untouchable?” And responded by saying “look, this is a business, we will do anything to make the team better but we won’t announce it to the world. Said the media has run with the narrative that he would never break up the backcourt and it’s essentially not true (for the right deal, which he may believe is CJ for LBJ or something.)
3) Accurately pointed out that teams that were not trying to win and clearly were rebuilding somehow played better defense than us.
4) Finally acknowledge that we need accountability on both sides of the court.
5) Also, I was intrigued by the “we don’t play our draft picks anyway” comment. Makes me feel like that may have been another issue with Terry.
that draft picks comment was a throwaway but very clearly indicative of his thoughts on the treatment of our young guys. he similarly forced stotts' hand a few years back with Collins when he let Ed Davis walk and suggested we should have learned from keeping CJ chained up when Afflalo/Matthews were ahead of him. Terry clearly didn't get the memo (that clearly didn't work out because of Zach's injuries, but the point remains). Nas was as impactful as Melo this year on many fronts, and it would have been great to get him game reps, but that was clearly not a priority for Stotts.
 
Okay, so you think coaching and I think roster. I'm firmly on board with Stotts going. Firmly. But that isn't our only and again, IMO, biggest problem.

We'll see what happens next season. Because IMO if we have the same starting 5 we're not winning the title.
who said anything about title? i said 3rd or 4th best roster in the conference-- we underachieved even those expectations because our coach was clueless.
 
I didn't hear that. Did I miss it?
It was the first time that when asked about trading CJ he didn't say that he wouldn't. He lumped CJ in with the rest of the roster, saying everyone is on the table but out of respect for the players and not tipping his hand he's never going to discuss names.

To give us a point of reference when asked if he'd consider trading Dame he gave the camera a dirty look for a long time and said he wouldn't even answer that question.
 
who said anything about title? i said 3rd or 4th best roster in the conference-- we underachieved even those expectations because our coach was clueless.

Because right now with Lillard the focus should be title or bust.
 
It was the first time that when asked about trading CJ he didn't say that he wouldn't. He lumped CJ in with the rest of the roster, saying everyone is on the table but out of respect for the players and not tipping his hand he's never going to discuss names.

To give us a point of reference when asked if he'd consider trading Dame he gave the camera a dirty look for a long time and said he would even answer that question.
Thanks, I guess I did miss it; trying to listen while on a job. :) I still think he will try to trade CJ; it's just so obvious that it needs to be done.
 
72505872.jpg


*Watching Neil’s smugness*
 
Am I alone in thinking he was spot-on that this roster underachieved, especially defensively?

You're definitely not alone, as many people on this forum think this is one of the best rosters in the NBA, turned mediocre by a single person, Stotts.

I think that people just want a simple answer--having to solve major structural issues with the roster is hard and means being far from a championship. Having one of the most talented rosters with just the worst coach in NBA history means you can win the title with one move.

This roster is massively flawed and not that talented. As it turns out, CJ was just playing over his head for a short time before his injury and has since shown he's a one-dimensional scorer who's pretty mediocre overall. Nurkic has talent in a vacuum, but his defensive strengths are mismatched for this era--you can pillory Stotts all you want for playing drop coverages, but he was protecting Nurkic--having Nurkic switch or even hedge would lead to equally terrible results and make Nurkic look inept. And those are, by far, Portland's two best players after Lillard. This is not a highly talented roster.

Let's not even get into Olshey rostering Melo "for the legacy." Maybe this team hemorrhages points because players like Melo had to play a bunch of minutes based on the roster construction. Maybe this team shouldn't have been 29th on defense based purely on personnel, but it should have been in the 20s.
 
The timeframe for turning CJ into a better player has passed, IMO. The league already knows what he is.

I'm hoping we can break CJ down into more important parts, but that's also unlikely.
 
72505872.jpg


*Watching Neil’s smugness*
Yep... ten fucking years of this shit but when he talked about firing Terry and the roster in general and being willing to make big moves, it's the first time ever that Neil didn't give us a run of excuses and said things had to change. That is the closest we'll ever get to hearing Olshey say that he was wrong and it was an admission that he didn't do a good enough job. That could lead to good moves.
 
You're definitely not alone, as many people on this forum think this is one of the best rosters in the NBA, turned mediocre by a single person, Stotts.

I think that people just want a simple answer--having to solve major structural issues with the roster is hard and means being far from a championship. Having one of the most talented rosters with just the worst coach in NBA history means you can win the title with one move.

This roster is massively flawed and not that talented. As it turns out, CJ was just playing over his head for a short time before his injury and has since shown he's a one-dimensional scorer who's pretty mediocre overall. Nurkic has talent in a vacuum, but his defensive strengths are mismatched for this era--you can pillory Stotts all you want for playing drop coverages, but he was protecting Nurkic--having Nurkic switch or even hedge would lead to equally terrible results and make Nurkic look inept. And those are, by far, Portland's two best players after Lillard. This is not a highly talented roster.

Let's not even get into Olshey rostering Melo "for the legacy." Maybe this team hemorrhages points because players like Melo had to play a bunch of minutes based on the roster construction. Maybe this team shouldn't have been 29th on defense based purely on personnel, but it should have been in the 20s.

I seriously don't get why people are giving Olshey props for realizing that the roster underachieved defensively. Yeah, no shit. But who was also the person that signed a bunch of turnstiles and kept a coach that never prioritized defense? Like of course Kanter/Melo played too much. Everyone saw in pre-season how that pairing was never going to work and we played it all the way down to the last game of the season. Isn't it part of Olshey's job to do talent evaluation and not provide these options to the coach that was predictably going to play them a ton? Maybe this team underachieved defensively because a lot of the defensive role players that Olshey brought in never saw the floor. But that is as much Olshey's problem as it was Stotts.
 
Don’t make me like Olshey. Fentress is easily the worst “reporter” in Portland.

But seriously, no, I don’t. He’s just a typical New Yorker. I don’t think he’s singling out Fentress, he just happens to be the guy asking the most stupid questions.

I seriously think some of you guys underestimate how easy it is to not be a dick.
 
I seriously don't get why people are giving Olshey props for realizing that the roster underachieved defensively. Yeah, no shit. But who was also the person that signed a bunch of turnstiles and kept a coach that never prioritized defense? Like of course Kanter/Melo played too much. Everyone saw in pre-season how that pairing was never going to work and we played it all the way down to the last game of the season. Isn't it part of Olshey's job to do talent evaluation and not provide these options to the coach that was predictably going to play them a ton? Maybe this team underachieved defensively because a lot of the defensive role players that Olshey brought in never saw the floor. But that is as much Olshey's problem as it was Stotts.

If I were to boil my opinion down, it would be this: Olshey gave Stotts a very poor choice of options and while Stotts probably didn't optimally utilize those options, I don't think there was a series of buttons to push that lead to tremendous success.
 
hardly inevitable. we had possibly the 3rd or 4th best roster in the conference.

No roster that plays Melo and Kanter together has a chance of succeeding. Maybe in collective talent, but cohesively there is no chance we had the 3rd or 4th best roster in the conference.
 
if he didn't think Paul George or James Harden were the right pieces, what players would be right?
Maybe Houston wanted CJ and nurkic and Trent? At the time CJ was balling but nevertheless i don’t know if Dame personally wanted a dominant ball handle and scorer of hardens level on his team. I sense that Lillard wants a great player on different positions not someone that might be his equal or better than him, and I would not blame him. Kyrie took huge hit with harden arrival no matter how much he scores he will be 2nd fiddle to Harden and best defenders guard harden not irving.(Dame obviously better than kyre But you get the point.) Dame wants to be the main alpha at his position and he always knows no mater how great CJ plays he will never be on his level. A player like Jru hollyday would be perfect fit next to him not a elite playmaker and scorer like harden.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top