We’re a third-tier team

[Natebishop3]

Everybody said that last year. Every team's getting better, our division is murder, etc, and we ended up with 3 seed.

And swept right out of the first round. Completely embarrassed by a team that most other teams would have destroyed.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

And swept right out of the first round. Completely embarrassed by a team that most other teams would have destroyed.

Serious question: do you think last year was a step backwards?

 

[Natebishop3]

Serious question: do you think last year was a step backwards?

I think every year that we waste Dame's prime is a step backwards.

I think drafting a couple of rookies that wouldn't/couldn't contribute right away was a bad move. I think we're doing the same thing this year.

I have supported Neil, but it's becoming more and more obvious that 2016 fucked us for four years, and there's nothing we can do about it, short of trading Dame or CJ - and Neil won't do that. Someone needs to be held accountable for what 2016 did to this team. The way he negotiated with Turner, and then the contract for Leonard was a horrible horrible horrible move. Harkless was probably fine. $10 million for a starting small forward is okay. But the ramifications of those decisions have pretty much hamstrung this team for most of Dame's prime. Short of hitting a grand slam in the draft, what are we going to do to actually contend?

 

[Orion Bailey]

I used to have a sense of humor. Of course, back in the old days you and I always got along. OTOH, many of the people who told me I was no longer welcome here were folks I thought I got along with - so I am a poor judge.

All good. Like wiz said, just do you. Remember innocent until proven guilty.

Heck with other people.

You do you, and you do grumpy consistently well!

 

[Hobbesarable]

I used to have a sense of humor. Of course, back in the old days you and I always got along. OTOH, many of the people who told me I was no longer welcome here were folks I thought I got along with - so I am a poor judge.

@oldmangrouch , you are respectful in your posts, buddy. Those who said you're no longer welcome here need to seriously check their ego at the door.

 

[oldmangrouch]

@oldmangrouch , you are respectful in your posts, buddy. Those who said you're no longer welcome here need to seriously check their ego at the door.

Thank you.

 

[chzbrgr]

Serious question: do you think last year was a step backwards?

Wait.... do you seriously not?

 

[SlyPokerDog]

many of the people who told me I was no longer welcome here were folks I thought I got along with

You too? I get told that weekly. Just today I was told that all I do is spread hatred around here.

 

[Lanny]

Yes it is, I just don’t understand it

Neither do I.

 

[BonesJones]

By decision, basically. We have had many opportunities to make big moves over the last two years but refused.

We could have got Paul George last season if we had been brave enough to offer CJ. Indiana would not have rejected that deal, instead we offered a bunch of mid and late first picks and asked them to choose whichever bad contracts they would like to absorb (because we told them they’d not be getting Dame, CJ or Nurkic). We didn’t think we would be able to get him to re-sign after that year and guess what, OKC did not have that fear and now they have him long-term.

We handed over some obscene contracts two years ago while biddding against ourselves. Nobody was meeting with Leonard. Nobody was calling Turner. Even those guys were surprised to be getting those deals and we happily handed them.

Our front office doesn’t want more. They seem to not want the pressure of trying to win and are instead perfectly happy recycling the same lines about having a young team that is still growing, despite the fact that we maybe have two players who seem like they are actually capable of getting significantly better. We are average and happy to be.

Protest outside of the practice facility during Gary Trent's and/or Nik Stauskas' introductory news conference.

 

[BonesJones]

Sorry, Orion, but I have to disagree with you. NBA general managers get paid a lot of money to do nothing except think about basketball. It’s their job to make the team better, not ours. We don’t talk to other GMs on a daily basis, and we don’t know the intricacies of the salary cap, etc. All that stuff is on them. Most of the trades the Blazers have made in their history have taken me by surprise, simply because I didn’t know such-and-such a player was available, or that his team had to let go off him for financial reasons, etc., etc. It’s not the job of the average fan to come up with a great trade, a great draft, or a great free-agent signing. That’s the GM’s job.

We don't....?

 

[BonesJones]

ok, let me explain to you again: team failed miserably, getting swept. Neil basically attacks fans at exit interview saying we should be greatful. No flexibility because he overpaid scrubs. He refuses to trade CJ which is the only asset with value to change team. I expect effort as a fan, not just accept it because it is what it is. There was no accountability after sweep... coach, GM kept jobs... CJ still here... gets rid of Ed instead... what more do you need

Effort as a fan would be organizing a legitimate protest instead of repeating yourself ad nauseam over an internet forum.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Wait.... do you seriously not?

We went from 41 wins/8th seed to 49 wins/ 3rd seed.

 

[oldmangrouch]

You too? I get told that weekly. Just today I was told that all I do is spread hatred around here.

The day you replaced the golden retriever avatar you lost all credibility!

 

[BlayZa]

maybe we could entice prospective players with a full kit out of ML gear - so they can look as 8 Mile as this.

 

[Orion Bailey]

You too? I get told that weekly. Just today I was told that all I do is spread hatred around here.

Do you find it better than Nutella? I’m a fan of that spread.

 

[oldmangrouch]

We went from 41 wins/8th seed to 49 wins/ 3rd seed.

Fair point. IMHO, the issue is how you allocate credit between Dame's great season, NO's roster building, and the coaching staff's ability to get the most out of the hand they were dealt. I would argue that NO was the weak link.

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Protest outside of the practice facility during Gary Trent's and/or Nik Stauskas' introductory news conference.

It’s not really fair to Gary Trent Jr and Stauskas, it’s not their fault NO’s the gm...

 

[BonesJones]

It’s not really fair to Gary Trent Jr and Stauskas, it’s not their fault NO’s the gm...

It's not a protest to them... It's a protest to Olshey, and that's when he'll be there.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Fair point. IMHO, the issue is how you allocate credit between Dame's great season, NO's roster building, and the coaching staff's ability to get the most out of the hand they were dealt. I would argue that NO was the weak link.

We went from 41 to 49 wins, that's improvement - there is no "weak link"..... unless you count the playoffs.

If you want to include our miserable playoff record, then in addition to attacking Olshey, you HAVE to attack Dame. He absolutely sucked in the playoffs. If playoff success is what one cares about, you have to call for Dame to be traded. Strangely, no one has done that. In fact, pretty much all of those that cite our playoff failure as their reason for wanting Olshey out, wanted him out even before the playoffs began! They just got louder about it.

 

[calvin natt]

As long as we are pointing fingers..

I have not liked a single move Chris McGowan has made. He fired a lot of good people, from stadium workers to upper management.

Everything Chris has done was to either cut costs, or increase revenues. Some of it may have been necesary, but not all of it.

From a business view, I understand why he did it. But he went too far.

I do not like what the Blazers are becoming as a franchise.

This is important.
The blazers weren’t considered “cheap”...ever. McGowan came in and it was fire employees, cut costs, etc (although no jersey sponsor which is weird). Neil comes in same time. He gets to spend on free agents one summer but outside that it’s been pretty bare bones - find young first rounders on the cheap and kickstart their careers.
As I said before numerous times, ownership makes/breaks so many deals that it’s almost impossible to judge a GM. Not totally impossible but let’s say Neil said “we can make a run at Evan Turner” and Paul said yes throw whatever you want at him. And maybe Neil said hey we can go after X player and Paul said no way. Happens all the time. What if Neil had a deal on the table for Blake Griffin and Allen vetoed it?

 

[BonesJones]

This is important.
The blazers weren’t considered “cheap”...ever. McGowan came in and it was fire employees, cut costs, etc (although no jersey sponsor which is weird). Neil comes in same time. He gets to spend on free agents one summer but outside that it’s been pretty bare bones - find young first rounders on the cheap and kickstart their careers.
As I said before numerous times, ownership makes/breaks so many deals that it’s almost impossible to judge a GM. Not totally impossible but let’s say Neil said “we can make a run at Evan Turner” and Paul said yes throw whatever you want at him. And maybe Neil said hey we can go after X player and Paul said no way. Happens all the time. What if Neil had a deal on the table for Blake Griffin and Allen vetoed it?

I don't know if I believe you, and I see that you're posting it as if you only think it's hypotheticals....

 

[tester551]

Not totally impossible but let’s say Neil said “we can make a run at Evan Turner” and Paul said yes throw whatever you want at him. And maybe Neil said hey we can go after X player and Paul said no way. Happens all the time. What if Neil had a deal on the table for Blake Griffin and Allen vetoed it?

Then Allen is a hell of a lot better GM than Olshey is

 

[chzbrgr]

We went from 41 wins/8th seed to 49 wins/ 3rd seed.

We went from swept by the one seed to swept by the six seed. Does that deserve celebration? Try as you might you can’t quite polish this turd enough to make people believe it’s value can you?

 

[Wizard Mentor]

We went from swept by the one seed to swept by the six seed. Does that deserve celebration? Try as you might you can’t quite polish this turd enough to make people believe it’s value can you?

So, you're in the dump Lillard camp? He went from fantastic playoff stats to crappy playoff stats. If that's your metric, man up, and call for Lillard's head. Stretch his ass, he's a "turd".

 

[chzbrgr]

So, you're in the dump Lillard camp? He went from fantastic playoff stats to crappy playoff stats. If that's your metric, man up, and call for Lillard's head. Stretch his ass, he's a "turd".

Oh man did I touch a nerve, no I do not want to trade dame. Calling for his head is not how you ‘man up’. I’m not in the dump dame camp at all but action needs to be taken before he simply has to be.

Yes waiting is the safe option if you think you can sign dame and cj to new contracts. What I’m telling you is, it won’t happen if we do nothing with a middling roster every year.

If the blazers really hope to keep dame around and maybe cj we gotta show them something. We gotta put a team together that can go on a real run. Time is running out. Next year is unrealistic maybe you could say in two or three years we could be playing meaningful playoff games? But any later and it’s too late we lost cj and very possibly dame because of our lack of movement to improve the team. If we stay in this perpetual three year cycle in which we find ourselves it’s going To be very hard to convince them to stay.

 

[blazerkor]

Hate to say it but maybe Dame isn’t the timeline we should be building around. He’s obviously disenchanted with the franchise. Maybe the frontcourt is what we should consider building around, imagine the young assets we could get for Dame and CJ to mesh with Nurk/Collins. By the time they were ready GS would be on the decline. Just a thought.

How is Dame "obviously disenchanted with the franchise"? Reading way too much into some tweets.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Oh man did I touch a nerve, no I do not want to trade dame. Calling for his head is not how you ‘man up’. I’m not in the dump dame camp at all but action needs to be taken before he simply has to be.

Yes waiting is the safe option if you think you can sign dame and cj to new contracts. What I’m telling you is, it won’t happen if we do nothing with a middling roster every year.

If the blazers really hope to keep dame around and maybe cj we gotta show them something. We gotta put a team together that can go on a real run. Time is running out. Next year is unrealistic maybe you could say in two or three years we could be playing meaningful playoff games? But any later and it’s too late we lost cj and very possibly dame because of our lack of movement to improve the team. If we stay in this perpetual three year cycle in which we find ourselves it’s going To be very hard to convince them to stay.

I don't think Dame and CJ will leave, but we do have some common ground. I too think that we need to be careful not to waste their primes. It would be much better to compete sooner than when Dame is 34. I also agree that we need more help, right now. I'm just more willing to wait until training camp until I panic.

 

[LayneStaley]

How is Dame "obviously disenchanted with the franchise"? Reading way too much into some tweets.

Most stars who request multiple meetings with ownership because they don’t see where the franchise is headed and then tweet out “heartbreak” and “peace out time” tweets aren’t what I’d call happy with the current state of affairs. If you think Dame isn’t upset with how the offseason is going you are kidding urself.

 

[LayneStaley]

Most stars who request multiple meetings with ownership because they don’t see where the franchise is headed and then tweet out “heartbreak” and “peace out time” tweets aren’t what I’d call happy with the current state of affairs. If you think Dame isn’t upset with how the offseason is going you are kidding urself.

And being disenchanted doesn’t mean he wants to leave....yet