Why is Neil Olshey sitting on his thumbs?

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OneLifeToLive said:
So I assume that you means you think we are ready to compete...

Alright.
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No I don't. But saying he should have traded LMA three years ago when he first came on board is like saying we should trade Dame now. Is keeping Dame setting back our next rebuild ?
 
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Pinwheel1 said:
No I don't. But saying he should have traded LMA three years when he first came on board is like saying we should trade Dame now. Is keeping Dame setting back our next rebuild ?
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LA has wanted out for years....Can we say that same thing for Dame? If you can, yes you might as well throw in the towel now
 
OneLifeToLive said:
LA has wanted out for years....Can we say that same thing for Dame? If you can, yes you might as well throw in the towel now
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Dame doesn't now, but players and circumstances change. Players, like fans, are fickle. Look at Kobe, remember how badly he wanted out of LA, only to change his mind a few months later. Our GM whoever it is, can not afford to only keep players who love Portland. We wouldn't field a team
 
Fez Hammersticks said:
I've been harping on this since it happened.

He has a lot of making up to do, especially for season ticket holders.
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Season ticket holders went nuts for Luke Babbit and Gerald Wallace. I don't see a drop off in that fanbase
 
OneLifeToLive said:
LA has wanted out for years....Can we say that same thing for Dame? If you can, yes you might as well throw in the towel now
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I love the revisionist history. Of course LA didn't say "improve the team OR trade me." Just said, "trade me, I'm never re-signing here, I hate Portland!" And then Olshey and Allen just laughed it off and thought he was joking, and LA laughed along with them, but then returned to a deadly serious expression once they turned their heads. I'm sure that's exactly how it happened, right?
 
magnifier661 said:
I think if he can field a playoff team, he would gladly give up the pick
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I don't know if that's true, I think he will only make a trade that gets us a player significantly better than anyone on the team, besides Lillard, and in the 24-26 age range. And I don't know that anyone like that is available. At this point I don't think he is interested in a team that just barely makes the playoffs, and to tell the truth, I am not either. (in fact you could argue that all my opinions about what Olshey is thinking are just projections of my own thinking)
 
GPC said:
Kanter, maybe McDaniels, or possible trade to get some offense, like DeRozan or any other young assets that can play SF and SG.
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I think that if all of the above happened, (depending on what we gave up to get DeRozan), we would be a playoff team, with a pretty bright future.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
I love the revisionist history. Of course LA didn't say "improve the team OR trade me." Just said, "trade me, I'm never re-signing here, I hate Portland!" And then Olshey and Allen just laughed it off and thought he was joking, and LA laughed along with them, but then returned to a deadly serious expression once they turned their heads. I'm sure that's exactly how it happened, right?
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Straight Up.
 
Do you guys realize the shit storm of calling for his head that would have ensued had Neil traded Lamarcus. This is tame by comparison, after all Lamarcus pledged to return and be the greatest blazer ever. People would have flat out freaked out.
 
Chrionex said:
People need to chill out about Olshey. He's done a damn fine job considering the mountains of misfortune that come with managing the perpetual train wreck that is the Portland Trail Blazers.

Adding Afflalo was a good move. In hindsight fuck that guy, but at the time it was setting us up for a deep run. There was no reason to trade LMA before that fateful March evening. He gave every indication of staying, including playing though that thumb injury. I was at the moda center the night he returned against the Wizards. Not a person in that stadium chanting "mvp!" that night would have ever dreamed he would leave. The team was looking golden, even with RoLo cast clapping in the corner.

Then with one achilles everything went to shit, and then that useless trade blew out his shoulder and that was all she wrote. The Ltrain turned into a derailed yellow line max faster than you could say first round exit.

Even with the fucktastrophe that has happened in rip city the past several months, I still trust NO to take us forward into the next era.

Patience is a virtue for a reason my friends.
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Guys, stop it with the Matthews injury already...we would have lost to Memphis even if Wes was healthy. We were too soft and beta on defense to handle teams like Memphis or GSW.

And LMA planned his backstabbing' months ago...
 
Blazers Roy said:
Guys, stop it with the Matthews injury already...we would have lost to Memphis even if Wes was healthy. We were too soft and beta on defense to handle teams like Memphis or GSW.

And LMA planned his backstabbing' months ago...
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Must be nice...
 
Schilly said:
Do you guys realize the shit storm of calling for his head that would have ensued had Neil traded Lamarcus. This is tame by comparison, after all Lamarcus pledged to return and be the greatest blazer ever. People would have flat out freaked out.
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That's a terrible reason to base your decisions on as a general manager. It's lonely at the top and these guys get paid to make the moves that feel will put the team on the best track for long-term success, not to let public image or fan outrage tie their hands. If they can't hack it then they ought to be removed from their job and replaced with somebody that can.

The only person Neil has to worry about is Paul Allen . . . but maybe there's your answer? Maybe he couldn't sell a LaMarcus trade to PA?
 
maybe hes sitting on his thumbs sacrificing them to the injury gods so we can have uninjured hands this year.
 
Blazers Roy said:
Guys, stop it with the Matthews injury already...we would have lost to Memphis even if Wes was healthy. We were too soft and beta on defense to handle teams like Memphis or GSW.

And LMA planned his backstabbing' months ago...
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There are quite a few flaws with your theory. First and foremost, there is a reason they play the games rather than just handing out trophies for roster compilation. Next is at the time of his injury we were the legit 4th seed and playing very well. Let's look at standings at time of Wes injury.

Warriors 48-12
Grizzlies 44-18
Rockets 42-20
Blazers 41-19 (5 game win streak)
Clippers 40-22
Mavericks 40-24
Spurs 38-23
Pelicans 33-29

At that time we wouldn't have even played the Grizzlies but would have had home court against the Clippers.

We had just acquired Afflalo to be our 6th man. And he was just starting to fit into that role.

It's really nice and frankly lazy to assume results would be the same with Wes as they were without. It's almost as accurate as saying Oren ould have been out of the league in 7 years even if he hadn't had injuries. For all we know we might have ended up the 2 seed facing Dallas.

Ohh yeah and at the time Wes went down we were the 4th best defensive team, we slipped to 10th in the remaining month.
 
Schilly said:
There are quite a few flaws with your theory. First and foremost, there is a reason they play the games rather than just handing out trophies for roster compilation. Next is at the time of his injury we were the legit 4th seed and playing very well. Let's look at standings at time of Wes injury.

Warriors 48-12
Grizzlies 44-18
Rockets 42-20
Blazers 41-19 (5 game win streak)
Clippers 40-22
Mavericks 40-24
Spurs 38-23
Pelicans 33-29

At that time we wouldn't have even played the Grizzlies but would have had home court against the Clippers.

We had just acquired Afflalo to be our 6th man. And he was just starting to fit into that role.

It's really nice and frankly lazy to assume results would be the same with Wes as they were without. It's almost as accurate as saying Oren ould have been out of the league in 7 years even if he hadn't had injuries. For all we know we might have ended up the 2 seed facing Dallas.

Ohh yeah and at the time Wes went down we were the 4th best defensive team, we slipped to 10th in the remaining month.
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Actually, we were third seed (based on win pct) and would have been matched up with the Mavs at the time.
 
Nikolokolus said:
That's a terrible reason to base your decisions on as a general manager. It's lonely at the top and these guys get paid to make the moves that feel will put the team on the best track for long-term success, not to let public image or fan outrage tie their hands. If they can't hack it then they ought to be removed from their job and replaced with somebody that can.

The only person Neil has to worry about is Paul Allen . . . but maybe there's your answer? Maybe he couldn't sell a LaMarcus trade to PA?
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I agree with you that's why I'm not basing decisions on a single move, in this case not being able to convince a player to stay... and in addition not trading said player. We don't have a single clue what things were said or discussed behind closed doors, so I personally can't fault him for what I think should have happened in hindsight. Clearly in hindsight trading him to Cleveland for Bennett and Wiggins last year would have been the best thing we could have done... but we had just come off a trip to the 2nd round and our all star pledging to stay.

My only point I was making is fans are pissed at Neil because Lamarcus left. They would have been even more pissed in the wake of last season had Neil traded Lamarcus, because even if Lamarcus had demanded a trade Neil would have failed in convincing Lamarcus to stay.

It's a lame vindictive mindset that a lot of people have that someone should suffer for their personal unhappiness... In the case of sports a GM should be fired. Clearly there are times when General Managers and coaches fail at there jobs and have to be relieved of their duties, but that is a larger overall body of work thing.
 
As somebody who has been bashing Olshey incessantly, I actually kind of agree that he could have been a lot worse. So far he hasn't made a desperation offer to a bad player. For example, I would be really mad if I were a Pistons fan and I saw that Reggie Jackson just got an $80 M contract. Or if I were a Clippers fan and I realized that Javale McGee was Plan B. But then again, of course, both those teams will still be better than us next season.

However, on the other hand the front office under Olshey seems a little unimaginative and unadventurous. Except for trading Batum for Vonleh and Henderson. I still don't see what Olshey sees in Vonleh. Here's hoping I'm proved wrong.
 
Schilly said:
There are quite a few flaws with your theory. First and foremost, there is a reason they play the games rather than just handing out trophies for roster compilation. Next is at the time of his injury we were the legit 4th seed and playing very well. Let's look at standings at time of Wes injury.

Warriors 48-12
Grizzlies 44-18
Rockets 42-20
Blazers 41-19 (5 game win streak)
Clippers 40-22
Mavericks 40-24
Spurs 38-23
Pelicans 33-29

At that time we wouldn't have even played the Grizzlies but would have had home court against the Clippers.

We had just acquired Afflalo to be our 6th man. And he was just starting to fit into that role.

It's really nice and frankly lazy to assume results would be the same with Wes as they were without. It's almost as accurate as saying Oren ould have been out of the league in 7 years even if he hadn't had injuries. For all we know we might have ended up the 2 seed facing Dallas.

Ohh yeah and at the time Wes went down we were the 4th best defensive team, we slipped to 10th in the remaining month.
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I watched every game last year and this is my educated opinion.
We can argue about how the seeding might have flipped and how we might have made it passed the the first round if we met the Rockets or the Mavs, but at the end of the day we had a bad match-up against Memphis and GSW and even against the Clippers and the Spurs we needed miracles in order to win.

I find it kinda relaxing you know? leave CouldaShouldaWoulda out of it all.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
I love the revisionist history. Of course LA didn't say "improve the team OR trade me." Just said, "trade me, I'm never re-signing here, I hate Portland!" And then Olshey and Allen just laughed it off and thought he was joking, and LA laughed along with them, but then returned to a deadly serious expression once they turned their heads. I'm sure that's exactly how it happened, right?
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Well obviously that's not what he said..... You left out about 20 ya'knows.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Unimaginative? What about the trade to get Lopez? Or the one to get Robinson that translated to Afflalo? I think the Frazier signing was very creative too. Granted he hasn't proven anything yet but getting him on a 2 year deal just to lock him up.

Neil has done a very very good job to date. Maybe he hasn't orchestrated out of nowhere 3-4 team deals, but his moves all are shrewd and don't leave us holding the bag saying hey what happened here.
 
Pardon me but how do you know he's sitting on his thumbs? Do you know he's not working phone/email? That the Blazers had no Plan B? Because I don't.
 
Schilly said:
Unimaginative? What about the trade to get Lopez? Or the one to get Robinson that translated to Afflalo? I think the Frazier signing was very creative too. Granted he hasn't proven anything yet but getting him on a 2 year deal just to lock him up.

Neil has done a very very good job to date. Maybe he hasn't orchestrated out of nowhere 3-4 team deals, but his moves all are shrewd and don't leave us holding the bag saying hey what happened here.
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I totally agree. Nothing in any of his deals scream desperation. Even if they don't pan out, you can cut the chord very easily.
 
Blazers Roy said:
I find it kinda relaxing you know? leave CouldaShouldaWoulda out of it all.
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I don't disagree. Things can't be different at the moment than they are. That's why hindsight is ugly and causes a lot of people stress, especially since a lot of hind sight is formative speculation with people thinking something different should have happened but didn't. But with that said people discussing the merits of an injury changing what may have happened doesn't bother me, but I don't rest laurels on relying on it to feel better about where we are now. Personally I know the team is gonna be pretty bad this year and I am okay with that. It's just part of being a fan, rebuilds are necessary evils.
 
Blazers Roy said:
And LMA planned his backstabbing' months ago...
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You would think if this was true, he would have elected to have his surgery around that time. That is the part that confuses me. Having the surgery done immediately was the wiser move for his long term future.
 
Blazers Roy said:
I watched every game last year and this is my educated opinion.
We can argue about how the seeding might have flipped and how we might have made it passed the the first round if we met the Rockets or the Mavs, but at the end of the day we had a bad match-up against Memphis and GSW and even against the Clippers and the Spurs we needed miracles in order to win.

I find it kinda relaxing you know? leave CouldaShouldaWoulda out of it all.
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So, how many games did you watch when both Matthews and Afflalo were healthy and playing together? Because that's the team that was performing like the best team in the league; that's the team that looked like a championship contender. Unfortunately, we didn't have that team long enough for anyone to be able to make an educated opinion on them.
 
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