Quick: Blazers GM Neil Olshey Concedes He Should Have Bolstered Bench Last Summer

Posted 01/20/2013 11:41 AM

I think this is foolish, just complete garbage, and to be honest as a fan I'm pretty pissed off that my GM is basically saying "hey, sorry, everyone, I had NO idea this could have happened."

First off, it wasn't the craziest idea to think we could have done well, secondly, as a GM you are supposed to put your team in the best postition to win. Was the idea to tank? It's shitty for Stotts and the starters to be put in this position. And everyone wonders why Aldridge doesn't seem too happy right now...

I mean, I would understand if he said "yeah we tried to sign some more people but nothing was working out for us" or "I just didn't want to sign anyone that wasn't going to fit into the style of the other players and we hadn't seen this group play together yet"

Or the only thing I would say makes sense that is kinda close to what he said, would be "I mean, I thought Damian would be great, but to expect him to do this right off the bet would have set the bar too high at the time." But he didn't

Posted 01/20/2013 12:57 PM

I don't think that's what he's expressing here knorton...he came into the season thinking the bench we had would produce and it hasn't panned out yet. GMs coaches etc don't make players give up big leads, not rotate on defense and brick shot after shot after shot. Neil had targeted Elliot Williams as the 6 man and he blew his achilles heel. Nolan Smith and Luke Babbit are not rookies and more was expected of them. You can't teach confidence on the court. I too expected much more from the rotation players. To me, Nolan, Luke and Elliot were the biggest disappointments. Freeland and Claver are rookies like Leonard and this was a learning curve season for them. Here we are in late January with a 500 record and a great core. I think Stotts is frustrated with the bench production and keeps looking for that spark but it never comes. So many rookies on the bench and they'll never develop fast enough for the fans knowing how good our starters are...Clippers didn't turn it on the first year they had major roster changes and look at them now. I'm sure Olshey is feeling what most fans are...we need a 6th man badly. It's not easy to see Jamal Crawford having a career year as that 6th man after we wasted his talents for a season trying to make him a pt guard.

Posted 01/20/2013 4:54 PM

 

I agree Norton.  Olshey was supposed to be this wonderus judge of talent.  He really did a piss poor job with the Blazers.

 

Lets be realistic, the only player on the Clips he was instrumental in getting was Chris Paul.  That was pretty much a no brainer when Sterling finally decided to spen money.  Most of all the key acquistions for the Clippers were by Dunleavy.

Posted 01/21/2013 1:07 AM

No way Olshey thought anyone would be a real spark spark of the bench!

Claver, Sasha, Babbit, Ronnie, Smith, Barton, Jeffries, Freeland, Leonard

Who here really would have just been able to put up BUCKETS when the starters sat????? 

Sasha, Ronnie and Jeffries are all veterans and have NEVER been a real scorers more just decent defenders and good veterans locker room guys.

Barton and Leonard are  rookies so you cant really expect much. 

Everyone and their mother know Nolan Smith is trash

Babbit cannot create his own shot

Freeland could have been better but he still isnt terrible

Claver hasn't dissappointed me either in the time that he has gotten

Cmon Olshey I know you didnt know we would be playing well but you cannot call that a bench!?!!

Posted 01/21/2013 2:41 AM

honestly I think he's talkin about mathews, batum, lillard, and hickson all soaring above expectations and doing far better then they were all expected to do 

Posted 01/21/2013 6:28 AM

Lets make some trades and get a sixth man, I hope He isn't suggesting this is how this whole season is going to go, awesome starting 5 and lousy bench, that is unacceptable. We can make the playoffs if we make some moves.

Posted 01/21/2013 6:35 AM

It's always "next summer" with this team, that mentality is getting old. Seriously The heat needed a rebounder and they went out and got one in birdman, we need a bench and our GM says wait til next summer, WEAK! That's the difference between winning attitudes and and losing attitudes. This team will continue to Go nowhere until the Ownership and Management have a win at all costs perspective, sadly I don't see the killer instinct in this Organization.

Posted 01/21/2013 8:56 AM

Posted By riverman on 01/20/2013 12:57 PM
I don't think that's what he's expressing here knorton...he came into the season thinking the bench we had would produce and it hasn't panned out yet. GMs coaches etc don't make players give up big leads, not rotate on defense and brick shot after shot after shot. Neil had targeted Elliot Williams as the 6 man and he blew his achilles heel. Nolan Smith and Luke Babbit are not rookies and more was expected of them. You can't teach confidence on the court. I too expected much more from the rotation players. To me, Nolan, Luke and Elliot were the biggest disappointments. Freeland and Claver are rookies like Leonard and this was a learning curve season for them. Here we are in late January with a 500 record and a great core. I think Stotts is frustrated with the bench production and keeps looking for that spark but it never comes. So many rookies on the bench and they'll never develop fast enough for the fans knowing how good our starters are...Clippers didn't turn it on the first year they had major roster changes and look at them now. I'm sure Olshey is feeling what most fans are...we need a 6th man badly. It's not easy to see Jamal Crawford having a career year as that 6th man after we wasted his talents for a season trying to make him a pt guard.

i agree with everything riverman just said. and don't blame olshey. everybody knew the plan was to see what we had this season and build assets and cap space to improve next season. this was a learning year. i believe what olshey is saying is that he would have done things differently if he would have known how good the starting 5 would be. there was no way to know. batum, wes, and jj are having terrific years so far and lillard exploded. who could see all of those variables coming together so quickly?

Posted 01/21/2013 9:28 AM

So Are we just going to wait til next season to do anything? Ok, GM you didn't foresee the starting five being this good, but now that you see they are contenders for an 8-6 spot in the playoffs do you not try and make that a certainty through getting a 6th man? It is irresponsible not to. Bottom line is the Playoffs are always better than not.

Posted 01/21/2013 9:32 AM

Posted By kenny c. on 01/21/2013 9:28 AM
So Are we just going to wait til next season to do anything? Ok, GM you didn't foresee the starting five being this good, but now that you see they are contenders for an 8-6 spot in the playoffs do you not try and make that a certainty through getting a 6th man? It is irresponsible not to. Bottom line is the Playoffs are always better than not.

and this is what we're all waiting to see. i do agree something needs to happen to give this team a chance, all im saying is not to blame olshey for not predicting the future.

Posted 01/21/2013 10:27 AM

Agree with Kenny C. COMPLETELY 

Posted 01/21/2013 11:53 AM

I think part of what Olshey is referring to is also how good Lillard turned out to be. No one predicted he'd be on this level.

Posted 01/21/2013 12:14 PM

I wouldn't blame O for his plans, I think they were well rounded and sensible, but now we have a pretty good idea of the reality of where we are as a team and he should make the adjustments, shoot, the whole business is about making the right aggressive adjustments. I just want to stop watching this team's starting five get it done night after night and the bench continue to waste the starters effort. That is the GM's Job, he needs to fix that Now.

If he doesn't our starters will quit playing so hard because they have nothing really to look forward to. It's just Human nature to let up a bit when you know it doesn't really matter. It could stay interesting for everyone if we could get just a little help. I'll have hope for this team making the Playoffs until the trade deadline, if we do nothing it will be yet another sad  viewing experience, which sucks for my mental health, I have good days when we win.

Posted 01/21/2013 12:34 PM

the "win or i eat a bullet" gambit. classy. but i agree

Posted 01/21/2013 1:04 PM

Posted By kenny c. on 01/21/2013 9:28 AM
So Are we just going to wait til next season to do anything? Ok, GM you didn't foresee the starting five being this good, but now that you see they are contenders for an 8-6 spot in the playoffs do you not try and make that a certainty through getting a 6th man? It is irresponsible not to. Bottom line is the Playoffs are always better than not.

I agree with this but what are gonna trade? our starting 5 is the only players that have trade value @ this point and the only player I would move is hickson but then we'd be without a productive center 

Posted 01/22/2013 2:50 AM

Well I know not to get on a boat with Olshey because by the time he throw me a lifesaver I would of already drown :) kidding but, it's the only thing I can think of when it comes to what's going on, this team needs a lifesaver right now and it's looking like Neil not gonna give them one until next year and with that our chances of making the playoffs and winning games are drowning, I'm with kenny c. it has been long enough to see what this team needs the starters don't deserve this lack of help I'm sure there are a few guys out there who can help this team on one year deals since Olshey is keen on keeping cap space flexibility.

Posted 01/23/2013 1:02 PM

we are looking for good bench player, so for me we have to give up our best bench player too, trade Freeland,Babbit,Sasha,Nolan and future draft pick for maybe two good bench player, and then we can sign a free agent who's being waived like Jeremy Pargo and Sam Young, i mean there must be a good trade scenario for us, i don't mind if we're loosing future draft pick in trade package, because i think we already have great young player like Lillard,Meyers,Barton,Claver and there's a few good bench player in free agency that we can sign..

Posted 01/26/2013 11:02 PM

I think it's crap that Olshey didn't know what to expect from the starting 5. Yes, most of the starting 5 have overachieved well above most of our expectations. Yet you look at what teams we need to beat out and I thought all along that if Batum and Wes stepped up their game then we would have at least a chance at the last spot in the west. Even if he didn't think the starting 5 would live up to what they are doing now, doesn't that kind of incriminate him even more so? If you really thought that Lillard was going to struggle quite a bit, why would you have Price as our back up? Even worse then that, if Batum or JJ were going to struggle, he wanted Luke and Leonard to step in and play ball? Wow...I know that we were expecting a rebuilding year but that is pathetic. It's kind of sad when I would start to think that acquiring Jimmer Freddette through a trade would be a good idea, which, in my mind, would still make sense. Sacramento doesn't like him and he hasn't received a whole lot of minutes of late. We could probably get him for next to nothing. Just saying. We still need help.