Wizenheimer wrote:it used to be that a game thread would have 8-15 pages. The last game thread had 4 replies and they were about porn
I hate those "good luck babes" that are posted. I can't believe that is still going after all these years. The dedication to posts those every game, 82 games a year for several years now.
Wizenheimer wrote:there were lively discussions about players. teams, contracts, coaches, GM's, owners etc, and an hour rarely passed without at least one comment. But now, days can pass with nada
so who killed this forum? Me? DusterBuster, D-train? member maturity?
IT WAS YOU!!!
For me, it's been a combination of things. Mostly in my personal life. Until this season, I rarely have posted on here for years. I think there has been point I didn't even open this webpage for well over a year.
Life happens. I got divorced in 2018 after 14 years of marriage. My ex left me to raise our autistic daughter all on my and while she went back to Phoenix, Arizona. I've had to step up my game as a parent even though I would define my job with her as more of a caretaker than a parent. My daughter is 13, but has a mind of a 4-year-old. So I have to do or help her with things that you normally don't do for a teenager. Like help her change her pad when she's on her period for example. It's very exhausting.
Wizenheimer wrote:I'd argue it all started with the hiring of Neil Olshey...or rather with hiring Olshey and his blind ego. He built boring, dysfunctional, length-deprived rosters of players allergic to, and incapable of, good defense. And he was allowed to reboot his roster failures, year after year. He ridiculously overvalued a few players (CJ says hi) and ridiculously undervalued 1st round draft picks, trading many away for low-level role players. And he couldn't properly evaluate a big man at all
I was calling for Olshey to be fired in 2015; predicting exactly the kinds of teams that idiot would build. I was all alone on the Fire Olshey wagon (and given lots of crap about it). 6 years later I couldn't turn around on the wagon because it was so crowded. A year after that, finally, mercifully, he was fired. But the massive damage had already been done
Yeah, I used to argue with you about Olshey with you. I may have been right about some thing we argued about, but this one you got me on. I've learned about some things from behind the scenes with Olshey that pissed me off.
Wizenheimer wrote:and he was aided and abetted by Paul Allen until PA died. And Jody Allen and the Vulcans are a disaster ownership focused on the Blazers as a cash cow who don't care at all if the Blazers win
Amazing that Olshey survived never been fired by Paul.
Wizenheimer wrote:Cronin hasn't helped the situation much either. He was the guy who effectively chased Lillard out of town and set the course that will potentially see years of lottery and play-in mediocrity ahead.
At you recognize that this just a coaching problem. There are several here and all over social media that think if we just got a new coach, we're all of a sudden going to be a playoff team. Now, our roster is going to take time before that happens. No Hall of Fame caliber coach could have gotten this team to the playoffs this year.
Wizenheimer wrote:He seems determined on Portland going ahead with their bargain-basement version of a big-3 in Ant-Ayton-Grant...and as 3rd options masquerading as first options, those 3 players are boring with a capital B. If they weren't, this place would not be as dead as it is
This is also a hard market to win in. It's not like great players are banging down the door to come play here. Small market teams on the west coast have a hard time breaking through because of the lack of demand to play here.
Let's face it, Dame moving to Milwaukee all of a sudden helped him get enough votes to finally start an all-star game. Had Dame played in New York, Chicago or LA, he would have had several all-star starts. And before someone misinterprets what I said, I'll again clarify that small markets "on the west coast". We haven't had an all-star get enough votes to start since Clyde Drexler and he never got close that chance until the Blazers made the Finals 2 out of 3 seasons. We haven't had an all-star starter voted in since Clyde. And before anyone says otherwise, LaMarcus Aldridge starting the 2015 all-star game was the result of him being an injury replacement.
Sacramento also suffers from that too. You can argue that Milwaukee (where Dame is now) is a small market, but it's not on the west coast. With the vast majority of the US population on the eastern side of the country, it's tough for them to see west coast players play because of the time zone. But playing in the Eastern and Central time zones help out when you play in small markets.
The point is the Blazers have to overpay and settle for talent like Ayton and Grant because of the market.
Wizenheimer wrote:it used to be rare for me to miss a Blazer game, even thru the jailblazer days. But this season, especially over the last couple of months, it's rare I watch a Blazer game. Last season, at least I had Dame and Sharpe to watch, for different reasons. This season Sharpe has been hurt, Scoot has been a disappointment, and I don't care about watching Ant/Ayton take half the shots on offense and play musical chairs on defense
I would think maybe that's just my personal bias....but again, there were only 4 replies to the last game thread....so it isn't just me
I still watch all the games no matter what.
Scoot has been a disappointment. But that's because of the hype he had. He was advertised as way more NBA ready than he was. The hype was so big that Charlotte Hornets fans booed at their draft party when Brandon Miller was taken over him. So many people in the media criticized that choice. Michael Jordan took a lot of heat from it.
I do know it's going to take a few seasons before this team becomes a playoff team again. The last time OKC had a good team was the year Dame hit the walk-off over Paul George that sent them into a rebuild. That was 5 years ago. Just saying.
With Sharpe and Scoot missing several games this year via injury, that will slow down development of those two.