I think Dame has shown that he can carry a team, at least a certain distance. So why is it that we so often look so bad, and are currently being embarrassed by the genuinely good teams? It's easy to say "the coach!" or "the GM!" - I want something more specific. And I'm going to say (as many have) that it's Olshey's love affair with CJ. CJ has rewarded him by being better in the NBA that perhaps could ever have been expected, even given Lehigh's historic defeat of Duke. And he's genuinely elite at creating (and making) his own shot for somebody who's a SG in a relatively unathletic PG's body. But YOU CAN'T HAVE TWO SMALL NON-DEFENDING GUARDS AS YOUR TWO BEST PLAYERS. It just has never been done (at least since the time when EVERY guard was a small non-defender). It's bad enough having to compensate for Dame's defensive problems, let alone Dame's AND CJ's.
Now, the optimist might look at the acquisition of Powell and say - Olshey has finally realized this, and is auditioning CJ's replacement. But is Powell that much better? He draws more fouls and he plays SLIGHTLY better defense, and he's more athletic, but on the down side, he's been more injury prone in his career, and he's gonna want a huge pay raise. And if CJ could keep up his performance from the beginning of the year, he's better than Powell even given Powell's D.
I think the best case Portland team, assuming Lillard remains our cornerstone, is something like the Larry Brown Sixers' team that reached the finals. It was built round a small, high volume scoring guard, who was actually a good deal less efficient than Dame. But it was defensively ELITE otherwise, and it's just enraging that we seem to ignore that. I really do believe that Stotts is a very good coach (oh look, I just lost everybody) who finds creative ways to maximize the DEEPLY FLAWED players he's given. I defy the best defensive coach in history to do much with this bunch. You'd have to completely bench Kanter and Carmelo, and then you'd probably be losing games 85-80 instead of 130-110. Better margin, but ugly, and still losing. And the "good defense" would probably just be incredibly slow pace to minimize errors.
So, the question remains - does Olshey have to go before CJ goes? And then: would Jody ever get rid of Olshey?
