Round reaction to the Lopez trade

[magnifier661]

http://www.blazersedge.com/2013/7/5...-blazers-trade-agreement-for-pelicans-c-robin

Round-Up: Reaction To The Blazers' Trade Agreement For Pelicans C Robin Lopez

Various reactions from around the league regarding this trade...

 

[tlongII]

I see that Dwight Jaynes is still an idiot.

 

[Boise Blazer]

I see that Dwight Jaynes is still an idiot.

Typical Dwight bullshit. Here is what my conversation with him looked like:

Dwight Jaynes ‏@dwightjaynes 4h
When you found out Portland would have all that cap space this summer, is THIS what you expected from it?

@BoiseBlazer: Its easy to be a backseat driver. What would you have tried to do?

Dwight Jaynes ‏@dwightjaynes 2h
First, give me the million bucks a year to be GM! RT

 

[THE HCP]

I know him and can tell you he is an absolute douchebag! Him and Quick.

 

[mook]

Portland?!?!

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Typical Dwight bullshit. Here is what my conversation with him looked like:

Dwight Jaynes ‏@dwightjaynes 4h
When you found out Portland would have all that cap space this summer, is THIS what you expected from it?

My response to his rhetorical question: No--I expected them to try to overpay for a free-agent, and either have the offer sheet matched, or have the FA choose to sign somewhere else. I'm thrilled that they used their cap-space in a much more responsible manner than we've seen in the past.

 

[ABM]

David MacKay of RipCityProject.com writes...

Lopez isn't much for defense either. While he does a passable job down low, he gets absolutely abused in the pick and roll. Even stopping spot up shooters is a struggle for him.

or, perhaps...

Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com writes...

Lopez, an above-average shot blocker who also defends the pick-and-roll well, will help what was by far its biggest need.

 

[magnifier661]

or, perhaps...

Well one only follows the blazers and the other follows the entire nba. I wonder which one has a better niche for understanding players other than blazers

 

[Natebishop3]

I don't even know who Rip City project is.....

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Listening to Golliver on 1080 right now. Didn't realize it was him at first, and was thinking "who IS this tool?!" Various opinions he's sharing:

• Olshey's not delivering on what he's promised
• Aldridge is as good as gone
• Olshey's going to get fired within the next couple years if he doesn't make a major move
• Olshey has basically burned all his assets
• Picking up Lopez is "not a total disaster" (but that's the best thing he said about it)

Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[magnifier661]

Listening to Golliver on 1080 right now. Didn't realize it was him at first, and was thinking "who IS this tool?!" Various opinions he's sharing:

• Olshey's not delivering on what he's promised
• Aldridge is as good as gone
• Olshey's going to get fired within the next couple years if he doesn't make a major move
• Olshey has basically burned all his assets
• Picking up Lopez is "not a total disaster" (but that's the best thing he said about it)

Absolutely ridiculous.

And nik thought I was jumping to conclusions... Pretty obvious that soup kitchen comment was derogatory

 

[KeepOnRollin]

First, I want everyone to know that I am a fan of Lopez and our picks.

And I think Olshey did the best he could this off-season. Problem is it isn't really what we needed/should have done. Probably should have sat on the cap space for next year if you can't get things that move the needle (and by move the needle I don't mean just getting to playoffs. I mean winning a series and no, I don't think we upset a top 4 seed from our 7th position).

So I think he gets a solid B but for the future he gets a C- at best. If LMA leaves and we don't get a nice haul for him then that goes to a F and he does get fired.

 

[magnifier661]

First, I want everyone to know that I am a fan of Lopez and our picks.

And I think Olshey did the best he could this off-season. Problem is it isn't really what we needed/should have done. Probably should have sat on the cap space for next year if you can't get things that move the needle (and by move the needle I don't mean just getting to playoffs. I mean winning a series and no, I don't think we upset a top 4 seed from our 7th position).

So I think he gets a solid B but for the future he gets a C- at best. If LMA leaves and we don't get a nice haul for him then that goes to a F and he does get fired.

Cap space can be had next summer if the project doesn't work. All you need to do is trade Aldridge or/and batum and be well on your tank fest way

 

[BigGameDamian]

I see that Dwight Jaynes is still an idiot.

But at a certain point, you have to ask if you've moved the needle while filling up your salary cap. This was a poor defensive team last season and not much has been done to correct that so far this off-season. Lopez? Well, he's a better defender than JJ Hickson, for sure. But his New Orleans team last year was one of the few in the league even worse on defense than Portland. It would be unfair to hold him responsible for a big Portland improvement. Robinson? Nope, at least not at this point of his career.

The bench was historically weak last season and hasn't gotten a lot better so far, either. It's gotten a year older, in the case of Victor Claver, Joel Freeland and Will Barton -- but we've yet to see how much improvement that will bring. C.J. McCollum? Perhaps... but let's not forget all rookies don't turn out like Damian Lillard.

What makes Jaynes an idiot in this article? Everything he says is true isn't it or do you just want to think better of out rookies like they will be stars?

 

[magnifier661]

Bgd; Lopez had an 18.9 per with better defense than hickson. He's an obvious upgrade. CJ is the best player available; so that's a good pick. Then you look at Robinson; who has tremendous upside. He was even rumored to be a top 3 pick last season.

You need to understand that we are definitely not finished and so far so good.

 

[RR7]

Yeah, I trust Kevin Pelton a lot more than I do...whoever the other guy is on RObin's PnR defense. Synergy has him at 7th in the NBA in defending it. As for Ben's comments on 1080...
Not delivering what he promised? He promised to be active, and that he wanted a defensive presence at C. He also didn't want to make any short term sort of moves that hurt you later on. Let's see. Added what looks to be a very solid combo guard at #10 in the draft. Found us our scoring 6th man there, it'd seem. Most national pundits seem to love the move. Was active in adding Thomas Robinson, last year's 5th pick, and new backup PF for cap space and 2nd rounders, and adding Lopez, solid starting C, for 2nd rounders and cap space. No short term Kaman type of move. Lopez is 25, and not an expiring like Gortat. RObinson and McCollum are obviously young. As far as "burning through his assets"? 2nd rounders. Really? He came into this season with shit. The latest 3 additions, 4 with Crabbe, added 4 better actual trade assets than anything else had had to move, outside of our core 4 players. All are on reasonable contracts, where you an actually piece together a deal with them. WTF is he talking about?

 

[magnifier661]

Yeah, I trust Kevin Pelton a lot more than I do...whoever the other guy is on RObin's PnR defense. Synergy has him at 7th in the NBA in defending it. As for Ben's comments on 1080...
Not delivering what he promised? He promised to be active, and that he wanted a defensive presence at C. He also didn't want to make any short term sort of moves that hurt you later on. Let's see. Added what looks to be a very solid combo guard at #10 in the draft. Found us our scoring 6th man there, it'd seem. Most national pundits seem to love the move. Was active in adding Thomas Robinson, last year's 5th pick, and new backup PF for cap space and 2nd rounders, and adding Lopez, solid starting C, for 2nd rounders and cap space. No short term Kaman type of move. Lopez is 25, and not an expiring like Gortat. RObinson and McCollum are obviously young. As far as "burning through his assets"? 2nd rounders. Really? He came into this season with shit. The latest 3 additions, 4 with Crabbe, added 4 better actual trade assets than anything else had had to move, outside of our core 4 players. All are on reasonable contracts, where you an actually piece together a deal with them. WTF is he talking about?

Preach it!

 

[crandc]

What I find interesting is the national sports media, ESPN, SI, etc. were all favorable, at least somewhat favorable. I would surmise they probably know more than bloggers.

 

[Blaze01]

Fuck, some of you are major homers

Skepticism\Criticism is warranted, Olshey promised big and has delivered small to date....

Trying to trump Lopez as anything more than a questionable? Upgrade to what Hickson provided is a stretch, he'll Withey could be the better player 1-2 years from now for all we know.

 

[tlongII]

But at a certain point, you have to ask if you've moved the needle while filling up your salary cap. This was a poor defensive team last season and not much has been done to correct that so far this off-season. Lopez? Well, he's a better defender than JJ Hickson, for sure. But his New Orleans team last year was one of the few in the league even worse on defense than Portland. It would be unfair to hold him responsible for a big Portland improvement. Robinson? Nope, at least not at this point of his career.

The bench was historically weak last season and hasn't gotten a lot better so far, either. It's gotten a year older, in the case of Victor Claver, Joel Freeland and Will Barton -- but we've yet to see how much improvement that will bring. C.J. McCollum? Perhaps... but let's not forget all rookies don't turn out like Damian Lillard.

What makes Jaynes an idiot in this article? Everything he says is true isn't it or do you just want to think better of out rookies like they will be stars?

Just about everything he said is false.

 

[RR7]

Fuck, some of you are major homers

Skepticism\Criticism is warranted, Olshey promised big and has delivered small to date....

Trying to trump Lopez as anything more than a questionable? Upgrade to what Hickson provided is a stretch, he'll Withey could be the better player 1-2 years from now for all we know.

promised big?

 

[Sinobas]

Sports talk media is kinda stupid. The guys commenting have no more in depth knowledge than anyone here, aside from the fact that they get to interview gms and players. But they don't know how anything is going to work out.

Olshey TRIED to get Hibbert, Gortat, Aski, Noah etc...the other teams didn't want what we had to offer, so what do you want him to do? Go into next season with Hickson as our center?

 

[magnifier661]

Sports talk media is kinda stupid. The guys commenting have no more in depth knowledge than anyone here, aside from the fact that they get to interview gms and players. But they don't know how anything is going to work out.

Olshey TRIED to get Hibbert, Gortat, Aski, Noah etc...the other teams didn't want what we had to offer, so what do you want him to do? Go into next season with Hickson as our center?

Oh fuck no!

 

[BrianFromWA]

Damn, y'all gonna make me start repeating myself.
The assets we had this summer were #10, a bunch of 2nds, 11.9M in cap space and obtw our pick next year goes to CHA.

From a team that started out 21-18 before injuries to Batum (and later, Wes, and later, LMA), Olshey kept the Core 4 starters, upgraded from Hickson to Robin Lopez at C, brought in McCollum to be 6th man, Robinson and Leonard to be 7/8 in some order, and made it so that Freeland and Claver may never see the floor. We still have ~3.5M in cap space, a 2.6M room exception, and all of our future firsts (aside from the aforementioned CHA one).

We didn't have enough for Splitter. We didn't have enough for Jefferson. We may have had enough for Millsap. We didn't have enough for Tyreke, and though we had enough for JJ Redick, who's to say he would've chosen us over playing with CP3 and Griffin? We could've taken Biedrins with our cap space, but had no other upgrades. Asik may still be a pipe dream, and Horford never was even that.

At this point we have a defined 8-man rotation, some wiggle room left under the cap, our room exception, and still the chance to trade LMA and remain a playoff team.

 

[Boob-No-More]

WTF is up with sports writers these days? Do they all just want to pan every move in the hope that someone will notice their outrageous indignation? You know it's bad when (and it makes me cringe to type this) John Canzano (of all people) is the voice of reason:

Olshey's moves haven't been splashy. They've been calculated, wise, and --- good. The moves on draft day alone caused one Portland basketball operations staffer to say, "We're already a better team than last year and free agency hasn't even started." There's training camp, and things happen, but the Blazers already see McCollum with important minutes, and Crabbe as an upgrade on their bench from last season, and Lopez as a solid starter. At the very least, power forward LaMarcus Aldridge won't have to play center, and Lopez takes the pressure off second-year man Meyers Leonard. Yes, Olshey got that for two second-round picks and some lettuce.

Again, the 100-level honks will be unimpressed. They wanted Dwight Howard. But the 300-level fan knows that Olshey arrived last summer to find a deserted roster, and he's trying now to make magic without any pixie dust on his wand.

Olshey's added depth with Lopez, McCollum, Crabbe and Robinson. In getting those players he's given up Withey, Kostas Papanikolau, Marko Todorovic', four future second-round draft picks, and cash. It's not sexy stufff, it's not going to make anyone rush to buy season tickets, but what happening here is that the Blazers are in a walk toward legitimacy with Olshey leading the way.

Seriously, for the first time ever, Canzano is the ONE writer I agree with on the current state of the Trail Blazers.

I need to go vomit now...

BNM

 

[magnifier661]

WTF is up with sports writers these days? Do they all just want to pan every move in the hope that someone will notice their outrageous indignation? You know it's bad when (and it makes me cringe to type this) John Canzano (of all peopla) is the voice of reason:



Seriously, for the first time ever, Canzano is the ONE write I agree with on the current state of the Trail Blazers.

I need to go vomit now...

BNM

Holy shit! That was a good read!

 

[mook]

WTF is up with sports writers these days? Do they all just want to pan every move in the hope that someone will notice their outrageous indignation? You know it's bad when (and it makes me cringe to type this) John Canzano (of all people) is the voice of reason:



Seriously, for the first time ever, Canzano is the ONE writer I agree with on the current state of the Trail Blazers.

I need to go vomit now...

BNM

Great. I was really please with these moves and now I have to change my mind.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Great. I was really please with these moves and now I have to change my mind.

I know what you mean. It made me feel icky twice: once when I read it and actually agreed with him and a second time when I quoted him and admitted it publicly.

I think I'll go take a shower - in Lysol - to wash away the stench of my shame.

BNM

 

[illmatic99]

Listening to Golliver on 1080 right now. Didn't realize it was him at first, and was thinking "who IS this tool?!" Various opinions he's sharing:

• Olshey's not delivering on what he's promised
• Aldridge is as good as gone
• Olshey's going to get fired within the next couple years if he doesn't make a major move
• Olshey has basically burned all his assets
• Picking up Lopez is "not a total disaster" (but that's the best thing he said about it)

Absolutely ridiculous.

Ever since he got that SI/CBS gig, Ben has been awful. Dude's a tool for sure. You should read Dave's dumbass report on BEdge on why picking up assets for cheap is a bad move. God these fools are being sensationalists to drive up hits, and it's an awful look

 

[santeesioux]

If only Casey still ran that place.