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Ok guys hear me out...

This is something that I have been thinking about for a while. We all felt and knew that Mike Dunleavy was a terrible coach/GM. And when he was fired, Clippernation was ready to move on.

However, by promoting the ASSISTANT TO Mike Dunleavy, it seems very plausible to me that nothing at the top has really changed. After all, Dunleavy was also the coach, so naturally he'd have to rely on his assistants more because he's in a duel capacity, and can't really scout younger players or talk trades with other teams while he's busy coaching. And based on acquisitions last summer, this theory seems more and more to be the case.

-Signing Brian Cook
-Signing Randy Foye
-Signing Ryan Gomes
-Trading a future 1st for Eric Bledsoe

All of these moves could very well be "Dunleavy" type moves, so maybe it wasn't Dunleavy THE GM that was really the problem (although he must accept full responsibilty as GM)

I really wish the Clippers would've started COMPLETELY FRESH, because it seems to me that if you're just going to promote the guy who had a ton of influence on Dunleavy the GM, you're really just spinning your wheels.

Thoughts?

As many other Clipper fans I wasn't very satisfied with this past offseason.
If we leave signing of VDN aside, plan A was to sign Lebron James. I'm glad we didn't get into a race for Rudy Gay or Joe Johnson.
So, Clippers needed some role players and although Gomes, Foye or Cook are not "significant signings" by any means they have small contract, they are also easily moveable simply for TPE. So we didn't lock up our future for 2nd tier players. we took our shot for the best and missed.
Eric Bledsoe turned out to be very good pick and has potential to be a very good PG, I just hope he doesn't "learn" from Davis. And the future 1st round pick is very heavily protected that I believe only becomes unprotected in 2016 which we "hope" Clippers wouldn't be a lottery team by then.
(Although Twolves thought same when they traded their pick to us 5 years ago to get Marco Jaric and that pick will be unprotected next year, and they still at the bottom of the league)

So, yes I believe Olshey is doing well as a GM, considering his boss is Donald Sterling.

donemilio21, first you say...

donemilio21 wrote: As many other Clipper fans I wasn't very satisfied with this past offseason.

Then you say...

donemilio21 wrote:So, yes I believe Olshey is doing well as a GM, considering his boss is Donald Sterling.

Huh? A little consistency please!

What did Donald Sterling have to do with this past offseason? Maybe the Clippers need to stop blaming Sterling for everything, and look at who is really responsible for these moves, and the day-to-day basketball operations... the GM!

Personally, I thought a lot of the roster moves the past two years have been pretty savvy. I chalk up the team's disappointment the past two seasons to bad coaching and Blake Griffin's injury (possibly kept LA from the playoffs last season, team could have developed more if he were healthy last year). The Clippers record this year is bad largely in part because of those two things as well as a lack of a third scoring option, which I believe Olshey will address in 2011.

The free agent signings your speak of have nothing to do with why the Clippers have a bad record, if anything, like what donemilio said, Olshey saved the Clippers from bad contracts when everyone was giving them out last summer and instead is looking ahead to when teams (in Olshey's vision) will be desperate to move big contracts for pennies on the dollar to adjust to what will be a new salary cap system in seven months from now. Olshey's hasn't had enough time in the front office to be compared to anybody IMO.

Also, the Clippers haven't traded one of their own 1st round picks since 2003, before Dunleavy was even part of the organization. So claiming that trading for Bledsoe is a Dunleavy move doesn't make a ton of sense.

Although I enjoyed reading your rant, I disagree with it.

I think Dunleavy was actually a good GM, just a poor coach- especially toward the end

So Gutta wrote:donemilio21, first you say...

donemilio21 wrote: As many other Clipper fans I wasn't very satisfied with this past offseason.

Then you say...

donemilio21 wrote:So, yes I believe Olshey is doing well as a GM, considering his boss is Donald Sterling.

Huh? A little consistency please!

We expected Lebron.

And yes we blame Sterling for mostly everything. He has been voted worst franchise owner in the history for a reason.
Rumor has it VDN got hired because he was willing to work for less money than other head coach caliber candidates.

I personally didn't mind Dunleavy as a GM. The jury is still out on Olshey. I felt that he drafted well (Bledsoe trade included), but we came up short in the coaching hire and in free agency. Olshey wanted Casey, who many Clipper fans wanted, and who many of the basketball analysts thought would be the better fit. They shared the same agent as well, but Sterling preferred the smooth talking Del Negro.

In free agency, we pretty much needed a small forward. LeBron took his talents to South Beach, Pierce kept his in Boston, Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson's talents were given offers they couldn't refuse. That left slim pickings for us in the free-agent market (players such as Childress, a Turkoglu trade, Outlaw and so on). Matthews wouldn't have been so bad imo. Some of those players were overpaid or given too long of contracts, so it's best that we steered clear of those types. We all expected more, but we also knew the risk of trying to enter into the LeBron sweepstakes. You're not even in the game if you don't try. So many teams had cash and there were only so many players to go around.

Butler & Smith both expirings.
Foye will be an expiring next season.
Gomes has definitely been underwhelming.
I'm not even mad at the Cook signing anymore. It would have been better if it was for only a year, but he's making the min. Most wanted Novak, but I'd personally rather have Cook over Novak. I would have never thought that either.

1.I blame whoever decided to sign Baron without having Judas in the bag already. Without Judas there was no reason to sign Baron. So the deal never should have gone through.

2.I love the trade for Bledsoe, I think he's a steal.

3.Cook has done pretty well for us, I'm surprised by him.

4.Gomes and Foye suck. If we picked them up for a mil or so then it wouldn't be so bad. Since they're both over 4 mil and multi-years, they are terrible deals.

I always thought Dunleavy was an ok/good GM. As bad as the baron signing has been, at the time it didn't seem bad at all. At least we were saved from brand re-signing with us, creating 2 albatross contracts.

As for this off-seasons moves, I thought we drafted well, but wasn't so sure why we got foye and gomes, and still don't think they were worth it. I was really skeptical about cook, but hes turned out to be a decent rotation guy so that gets a pass i guess.