Official: Olshey Fired

[GEE]

Or could they get at least a perennial all-star -- might be tough to get an all NBA player for him, unless you take a chance on someone disgruntled like Kyrie or Simmons.

Simmons +++ I would consider doing tomorrow for Dame, but Kyrie, PLEASE GOD NO! I personally have felt that it's coming eventually, and now Stephen A is chirping again. I expect another Chris Haynes update any hour now. Morey may win his slow play after all. I still feel the right Dame trade could quickly turn this franchises fortunes, but it would have to be, and would likely be a huge haul. I feel strongly that a "Blow Up" isn't at all needed, and certainly isn't a "Must Do", if Dame wants out.

As for N.O. I'm getting the feeling that there was a plan in play to reorganize the front office, that was developed some time ago, because candidates are already coming out. I've said Ainge before, but if we can get Perry for the long term, I think we should be solid. OKC/SEA ties, Scotty and Billups too, if I'm not mistaken.

[Pattycakes]

Simmons seems like the passive aggressive form of a team cancer. Give me an immanuel quickley plus toppin/etc package if were parting w dametime plz

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Simmons is good enough in the regular season and expensive enough that trading Dame for him would be another attempt to quickly rebuild and just become a 1st round exit team again. We have all speculated maybe that is all Vulcan cares about to remain profitable but I would be very opposed to it. A team built around Simmons as the best player is getting even less far than one built around Damian.


That is still assuming Simmons doesn't decide in a year or two that he rather move south and twist our arm to make an imbalanced trade to one of our rivals because he only has a year or two left on his deal and has proven he will sit out until he gets what he wants. Even if we cater to all his egocentric needs and he plays for us I am pretty certain he would still leave us in free agency with nothing because the guy has no loyalty or drive to win against the odds. If I were a betting man I would put a wager on him signing his next contract with the Lakers no matter who he is playing for, so I would never trade Lillard for him.


IMO it's a scenario where there are very few good outcomes for us and a ton of mediocre to bad outcomes.

[The Sebastian Express]

i like that he’s gone but i’m tired of cancel culture

Being held responsible for your actions isn't cancel culture, it's called living in a world where you affect other people. It's very stunning for many people who have never been held responsible before.

[monopoman]

Simmons is good enough in the regular season and expensive enough that trading Dame for him would be another attempt to quickly rebuild and just become a 1st round exit team again. We have all speculated maybe that is all Vulcan cares about to remain profitable but I would be very opposed to it. A team built around Simmons as the best player is getting even less far than one built around Damian.


That is still assuming Simmons doesn't decide in a year or two that he rather move south and twist our arm to make an imbalanced trade to one of our rivals because he only has a year or two left on his deal and has proven he will sit out until he gets what he wants. Even if we cater to all his egocentric needs and he plays for us I am pretty certain he would still leave us in free agency with nothing because the guy has no loyalty or drive to win against the odds. If I were a betting man I would put a wager on him signing his next contract with the Lakers no matter who he is playing for, so I would never trade Lillard for him.


IMO it's a scenario where there are very few good outcomes for us and a ton of mediocre to bad outcomes.

I agree, I think the only teams that can really use a guy like Simmons are a team that need that 3rd piece. They already have to have two great players on the team that will handle the scoring and can play off ball.

If Simmons was cheaper he would be an incredible bench player or a 4th or 5th best player on the team, but his salary and how people view him make him more than that.

[GEE]

The Knicks would have to be willing to part ways with their head coach, cause Dame's defense would make Thibs go nuts. I was just pointing to the Stephen A's garbage speculation mostly, and how I wouldn't want any part of Kyrie's crazy ass.

I wonder how the relationship between Dame and Chauncey is going. I can see Dame trying hard to learn from Chauncey: how to be more of a floor general-style PG first, and when to take the big shots and more of the scoring load. But this is new for Dame and it must be hard to take. I see this happening between the two. It is also frustrating I'm sure, for Chauncey, who is a legendary NBA pass-first PG with hardware. Shooting guards are wired to shoot, and to keep shooting good shots until the coach pulls you. Point guards are wired totally differently.

To this point, I feel Ben Simmons is largely misunderstood by so many for this very reason above. Ben Simmons is wired as a PG. Yes he's 6'11, which makes him a freak, but he is a pass first, second and third style of player that would rather set up a teammate with a sweet lob pass for a dunk, than get the dunk himself. He also has that nasty about him, like the Jordan, Garnett and Kobe's of the past, which also makes him unlikable amongst fans, especially if he's not on your team. Myself included. Hate playing against guys like him.

Selling Dame High, balancing the roster with Simmons/Drummond, while getting a solid haul of picks and swaps. I'd rather this than suffer another year of the same. Just hoping Dame wants and asks for it at this point. The Blazers are just painful to watch right now. This 9-Man rotation excites me and gives me some hope.

CJ / Simons
Powell
ROCO / Little
Simmons / Nance
Nurkic / Drummond

[Matt800]

i like that he’s gone but i’m tired of cancel culture

Being held responsible for your actions isn't cancel culture, it's called living in a world where you affect other people. It's very stunning for many people who have never been held responsible before.

Yeah this seemed to be handled well by the Blazers organization as far as we know. They investigated misconduct and terminated him based on him not following the employee code of conduct for the organization.

I'm not sure I liked how the media made stories about this before the investigation though. Maybe those media persons knew definitively that Olshey was terrible and they were helping to get him held accountable, that seems good. But if they were just making loose accusations that threatened his reputation and career without substantial proof, that is pretty trashy.

I think its probably a middle ground where the media did feel confident in the accusation, but also they would rather tell the story for the views than let it be handled by the trail blazers formally. Because the story got out it put more strain on the trail blazers organization and that's unfortunate. If Olshey could have been privately investigated and then had the story come out once a decision was made that would have been better.

[DusterBuster]

The Knicks would have to be willing to part ways with their head coach, cause Dame's defense would make Thibs go nuts. I was just pointing to the Stephen A's garbage speculation mostly, and how I wouldn't want any part of Kyrie's crazy ass.

I wonder how the relationship between Dame and Chauncey is going. I can see Dame trying hard to learn from Chauncey: how to be more of a floor general-style PG first, and when to take the big shots and more of the scoring load. But this is new for Dame and it must be hard to take. I see this happening between the two. It is also frustrating I'm sure, for Chauncey, who is a legendary NBA pass-first PG with hardware. Shooting guards are wired to shoot, and to keep shooting good shots until the coach pulls you. Point guards are wired totally differently.

To this point, I feel Ben Simmons is largely misunderstood by so many for this very reason above. Ben Simmons is wired as a PG. Yes he's 6'11, which makes him a freak, but he is a pass first, second and third style of player that would rather set up a teammate with a sweet lob pass for a dunk, than get the dunk himself. He also has that nasty about him, like the Jordan, Garnett and Kobe's of the past, which also makes him unlikable amongst fans, especially if he's not on your team. Myself included. Hate playing against guys like him.

Selling Dame High, balancing the roster with Simmons/Drummond, while getting a solid haul of picks and swaps. I'd rather this than suffer another year of the same. Just hoping Dame wants and asks for it at this point. The Blazers are just painful to watch right now. This 9-Man rotation excites me and gives me some hope.

CJ / Simons
Powell
ROCO / Little
Simmons / Nance
Nurkic / Drummond

I could be talked into a Dame for Simmons deal of some sort if I could be convinced Simmons would ever actually play for the Blazers. Unfortunately, I can’t be convinced of that. All signs point to Simmons’ holdout baggage taking the same flight to Portland with him.

[Case2012]

You don’t trade Dame. You trade everyone except Dame and swing for the fences to get him help. We have to get a GM with the guts to go all in and we need to do it FAST. Based on how long it took to fire Neil, I’m pretty pessimistic about that happening.

[DusterBuster]

You don’t trade Dame. You trade everyone except Dame and swing for the fences to get him help. We have to get a GM with the guts to go all in and we need to do it FAST. Based on how long it took to fire Neil, I’m pretty pessimistic about that happening.

I think Dame is gonna ask for the trade, and the team will accommodate him. If not by the deadline, next summer he will do it.

[DusterBuster]

NY gm and memphis gm are front runners. If one of those i prefer memphis but they both seem like ***Yawn***

Seems like we need a “finisher” gm. I think Ainge excites me and i think we need to aim high. If we offer gm + president to the new gm i think that role is enough for someone special to jump on it fairly quickly

Assistant GM's, and it sounds like Tayshawn Prince (Memphis) is out of the running or not in consideration at the moment.

[Case2012]

I don’t think Dame is going to ask for a trade. I think you have to hand Dame the keys to the GM hire and let whoever that is get a chance to make changes to the roster. One thing I never understood about Neil, is that Dame is one of the most liked players in the league, and there are a lot of players that would take minimum or smaller deals to play with him I would bet. Harden was down to play here FFS but Neil chose to keep CJ.

[DusterBuster]

I don’t think Dame is going to ask for a trade. I think you have to hand Dame the keys to the GM hire and let whoever that is get a chance to make changes to the roster. One thing I never understood about Neil, is that Dame is one of the most liked players in the league, and there are a lot of players that would take minimum or smaller deals to play with him I would bet. Harden was down to play here FFS but Neil chose to keep CJ.

Not sure Dame would be much more inclined to trade CJ than NO was.

[Norm2953]

Is Dame going to morph into Lebron, which is to be the defacto GM?

[Case2012]

I don’t think Dame is going to ask for a trade. I think you have to hand Dame the keys to the GM hire and let whoever that is get a chance to make changes to the roster. One thing I never understood about Neil, is that Dame is one of the most liked players in the league, and there are a lot of veteran players that would take minimum or smaller deals to play with him I would bet. Harden was down to play here FFS but Neil chose to keep CJ.

Not sure Dame would be much more inclined to trade CJ than NO was.

You missed a really good blazer fan q&a the other night with Chris Haynes. He was surprisingly candid about Neil, Dame, etc. Basically Dame is all in on Portland and wants to win here even if that means trading CJ, nurk, whoever. He alluded to Neil having lots of opportunities to snag a star but ultimately not wanting to swing for the fences for fear it wouldn't work out and he'd get the blame. But the point is, he thinks Dame would rather we radically change the team to get another star to compete in Portland than get traded to another team.

[Dame Lizard]

I don’t think Dame is going to ask for a trade. I think you have to hand Dame the keys to the GM hire and let whoever that is get a chance to make changes to the roster. One thing I never understood about Neil, is that Dame is one of the most liked players in the league, and there are a lot of veteran players that would take minimum or smaller deals to play with him I would bet. Harden was down to play here FFS but Neil chose to keep CJ.

Not sure Dame would be much more inclined to trade CJ than NO was.

You missed a really good blazer fan q&a the other night with Chris Haynes. He was surprisingly candid about Neil, Dame, etc. Basically Dame is all in on Portland and wants to win here even if that means trading CJ, nurk, whoever. He alluded to Neil having lots of opportunities to snag a star but ultimately not wanting to swing for the fences for fear it wouldn't work out and he'd get the blame. But the point is, he thinks Dame would rather we radically change the team to get another star to compete in Portland than get traded to another team.

That's really encouraging to hear. Albeit trading our 2022 1st round draft pick isn't going to help. I think we'll need all the extra pieces we can get to make a CJ+ trade look attractive enough.

In terms of Simmons, it helps that his trade value is in tatters currently.

[Case2012]

I think our best strategy would be to shut down Dame for the year to heal, tank the season to retain our pick and attach it in the off season to CJ as part of the package for a star player like Simmons. I'd also try to clear as much salary this summer as possible for picks to trade for vets on low to mid level deals. I'm also positive some older vets would take the minimum to play with Dame if he recruited them ala Melo.

[DusterBuster]

I don’t think Dame is going to ask for a trade. I think you have to hand Dame the keys to the GM hire and let whoever that is get a chance to make changes to the roster. One thing I never understood about Neil, is that Dame is one of the most liked players in the league, and there are a lot of veteran players that would take minimum or smaller deals to play with him I would bet. Harden was down to play here FFS but Neil chose to keep CJ.

Not sure Dame would be much more inclined to trade CJ than NO was.

You missed a really good blazer fan q&a the other night with Chris Haynes. He was surprisingly candid about Neil, Dame, etc. Basically Dame is all in on Portland and wants to win here even if that means trading CJ, nurk, whoever. He alluded to Neil having lots of opportunities to snag a star but ultimately not wanting to swing for the fences for fear it wouldn't work out and he'd get the blame. But the point is, he thinks Dame would rather we radically change the team to get another star to compete in Portland than get traded to another team.

Oh damn, yeah, I definitely missed that. If you have the link, I’d like to listen.

[DusterBuster]

Not sure Dame would be much more inclined to trade CJ than NO was.

You missed a really good blazer fan q&a the other night with Chris Haynes. He was surprisingly candid about Neil, Dame, etc. Basically Dame is all in on Portland and wants to win here even if that means trading CJ, nurk, whoever. He alluded to Neil having lots of opportunities to snag a star but ultimately not wanting to swing for the fences for fear it wouldn't work out and he'd get the blame. But the point is, he thinks Dame would rather we radically change the team to get another star to compete in Portland than get traded to another team.

That's really encouraging to hear. Albeit trading our 2022 1st round draft pick isn't going to help. I think we'll need all the extra pieces we can get to make a CJ+ trade look attractive enough.

In terms of Simmons, it helps that his trade value is in tatters currently.

The team probably needs to trade multiple picks (like what Morey wanted) to get Simmons (if he’s willing to play here).

[GEE]

Is Dame going to morph into Lebron, which is to be the defacto GM?

This is what I see, Dame continuing to put the LBJ playbook to work. The Blazers have a history of this unfortunately; I'm thinking BROY, ZBO, etc. Paul Allen seemed to have more of an open door policy toward some players back in the day, which cripples a GMs power, and ability to control a team. Basically what the military's Chain of Command is built on. Player to ownership relations without proper respect to the levels between is jumping the Chain, creating a break in said Chain, potentially affecting operations. Lebron's in Miami is a great example of this, but it took Pat Riley's leadership to keep the ship steady, by choosing to not fire the coach.

Biggest problem with all of this is... Dames BBIQ just isn't that high... At least not high enough for him to think he can run ****. Dame is hands down, one of the greatest shooters I've ever seen... but count the rings. Go ahead and try making that Lebron-like money with commercials, shoes, endorsements, social media or whatever... Dame has been really good at that, but leave the Team operations to those assigned to do it.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you necessarily should.