Did NeO miss out....

[Epicurus]

Sorry I don’t buy that, seems like excuses.

Some see excuses; others see reasons. Do you disagree with the factual claims in my post? Please share.

[Blazers20]

They traded a bunch of role players away. Role players don’t win championships superstars win championships. Blazers were outmatched and showed no fight.

[Epicurus]

Good role players ( guys who don't have a primary scoring responsibility, but do the other needed things primary) are needed by any team wishing to do well. There are good role players and there are not so good role players.

I always think it would be fun to go into an NBA locker area and tell the team they showed no fight.

[Blazers20]

Blazers need big changes as Dame gets older and no real young prospects to hand the team over to.

[Blazer2334]

You guys are rough. Talk about accentuating the negative. Like any GM Olshey has made his share of mistakes but he has also done a lot of fantastic things:

1. Culture - The Trailblazers have one of the best cultures in the NBA
2. Diamonds in the rough - Having the balls to trust his staff and select small school guys like Lillard and CJ. Identifying Nurkic and developing him into a top 10 center. The Blazers scouts have also done a very good job of developing 2nd round wing players such as Barton, Trent, Crabbe and Layman who all overperformed relative to draft position.
3. Playoffs - we're not a treadmill team.

the negative

1. too in love with his guys - values continuity and reinforcing his biases over making gutsy moves which would give us a bigger shot at winning a championship. A lot of great players have been available in trade and you would think we could have been in the running for both PG13 and Kawhi, just to name the two most glaring examples
2. play style - I get wanting to have to creators but why do both of them have to be PG sized? We aren't exactly innovators in terms of getting ahead of other teams tactically
3. not able to fill in the roster gaps well enough. Hezonja, etc? WTF?

Agree with most of what you said but:

Didn’t PG13 refuse to resign here if he were traded here? Would have been lots to give up for a guy who wouldn’t have put us over the hump nor stayed long term.

As to Kawaii, I don’t know if we had what it would have taken to get him, without using CJ+. Blazers last year plus Kawaii and minus CJ for the play-offs, I’m not certain we win it all. And Kawaii would have left us in the off season for LA.

Portland isn’t a free agent destination, nor is it a destination that stars want to be traded to. It’s unfortunate, it sucks, and I don’t fully understand it but it is what it is.

I think we try more than most think.