To answer MM's questions:
1.) Yes. Olshey has been fending off his bosses and critics for years playing the injury and cohesion cards. He can no longer play it, so something will have to give.
2.) I expect Stotts to be fired, as that's the last ace card Olshey can play. You know, it was the coach, that's all. Sometimes, a team needs a fresh look, blah blah. Apparently, overlooking that the front office can benefit from said fresh look. Yes, I'll be upset if Olshey remains, just like the last 2 offseasons.
3.) Olshey has got to go. I'm not one who believes coaching is all that important in the NBA. The handful of elite coaches, sure, yes, they can elevate a team in culture, focus, BBIQ. The remaining 95% of them get passing grades from me if the team consistently play hard, disciplined, and competes. That's been a little spotty the last few years with the Blazers, especially the discipline part, but I really believe that's more a function of the deficiency in talent/veteran experience on this team than the coach's influence. Generally, a HC will bench a guy for not playing team basketball or playing hard. I think Stotts did that at times in his tenure, but option 2 was often opening a different pandoras box. In the end, Stotts had a 7 man rotation. Benching wasn't really an option.
We're being held back by talent and mix. Olshey, inher...hrm...acquired the franchise player in year one of his reign. He's had his entire tenure to add a couple core pieces to ride with Lillard. In those 8 years he added an ideal 6th man to play Robin and the all important 3rd option would be the worst starter on a championship team. How much more evidence do we need that he isn't capable of building a contending team around Lillard? In the end (if this is the end), the team identity is to be 3 point centric and try to outscore everyone. Okay, not my choice, but if you're going to go that path, shouldn't you have at least 2 elite three point shooters in your lineup and two elite rebounders to surround Lillard? Off the top of my head, Lillard's only played with one elite 3 point shooter. It lasted one season and the team made the WFC finals. Coincidence or correlation?
4.) I think a Lillard/CJ led team could make some noise with an able cast. If the 3rd option was close to CJ in scoring ability and talent, that could make things interesting. The pairing isn't ideal though and it's choosing the harder path. If he's really asking should we finally break them up, I'd say yes. CJ appears to have peaked.
