Portland's new GM Neil Olshey. Photo courtesy of the LA Times

I was kind of aimlessly watching television the other day, just kind of flipping around, and I landed on Pulp Fiction playing on HBO. I came in right at the start of The Bonnie Situation. If you know the movie, you know the part I’m talking about.

Although I’ve seen Pulp Fiction about a hundred times, this time I was particularly taken with the following conversation between Jules Winnfield and Marsellus Wallace:

Jules: I don’t want to hear ‘bout no **EXPLETIVE** ifs. All I wanna hear from your **EXPLETIVE** is, “You ain’t go no problem Jules. I’m on the **EXPLETIVE**. Go back inside, chill them **EXPLETIVE**s out and wait for the cavalry, which should be coming directly.”

Marsellus: You ain’t go no problem Jules. I’m on the **EXPLETIVE**. Go back inside, chill them **EXPLETIVE**s out and wait for The Wolf, who should be coming directly.

Jules: You sending The Wolf?

Marsellus: Oh, you feel better now, **EXPLETIVE**?

Why exactly do I bring up this seminal scene from classic American cinema? Think of it like this. If the Portland Trail Blazers’ universe were Pulp Fiction as represented in that scene, the frantic Jules Winnfield is the team’s fan base and the cool and confident Marsellus Wallace is an amalgamation of Blazers’ billionaire recluse owner Paul Allen and Portland’s born to stonewall President Larry Miller.

Marvin, the low level thug who suffered an unfortunate pistol shot to face starting the series of events that is The Bonnie Situation, is the team itself, at one point living and breathing and now dead and in desperate need of cleaning up. Jimmie, the owner of the house in the valley where Jules and his partner Vincent Vega have ended up with a car full of blood and brains, is the city of Portland: ready to help, but also a half inch from just totally losing it should anything at all go incorrectly in even the slightest.

Which brings me to…The Wolf.

Coming in to save the day and doing it in a way that is at once slick, calculated, and carried off as if the positive end result were never in question, The Wolf is Portland’s newest General Manager Neil Olshey.

Or at least that was the impression we were all supposed to get when Olshey was formally introduced to the media Tuesday afternoon at the Rose Garden as the Blazers’ GM.

And as far as I’m concerned, the organization succeeded in making us believe that help had finally arrived. If I could use one word to describe Olshey after spending nearly a half an hour listening to him talk and field questions, it would be “polished.”

This guy was ready. The Portland media isn’t the New York or LA media, but there are questions to be answered, and now there’s a guy to answer them. And answer them Mr. Neil Olshey did.

Using words like “deal flow,” and “long term,” and “no quick fixes,” and “Western Conference Championships,” Olshey laid out a generalized plan of attack to resurrect a franchise that took a step backwards in 2011-12.

It wasn’t all softballs and home runs of prognostication though. Olshey answered a few tough questions about Chad Buchanan, Kaleb Canales, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, drafting, and potential free agents.

His answers were concise and clear: Buchanan is part of the staff for now and he and Olshey will talk about the future when not working together to decide which former college players get to be drafted by the Blazers; other people are welcome to come knocking for Portland’s available head coaching job but they’ll have to prove they are better than Coach K; Nic and LA are Portland’s Blake Griffin and Chris Paul; the Blazers are going to work hard on the 2012 NBA Draft, and will not go all out to land big name free agents (Steve Nash) that aren’t going to be around seven seasons from now.

Certainly some of what Olshey said came off as lip service, but given a choice, I would take a guy with a sunny façade that ends up being not quite the truth than a guy that can’t or doesn’t answer the more difficult questions because he chooses not to be dishonest.

The big question though on everybody’s mind Tuesday was Olshey’s reaction to the disarray that has gone hand-in-hand with the Blazers’ General Manager position over the last five-plus seasons. Olshey handled questions of this nature by saying what everyone would expect him to say: he and Paul Allen are on the same page, and they share a vision of what Portland should strive to look like in the future. Let’s see how long all that lasts.

I expect Allen to extend his new GM as long a leash as he needs, but there’s always a chance yet another GM/owner relationship can turn sour at a moments notice.

My primary takeaway from Olshey’s first press conference, apart from his natural ability to schmooze like a champ, is that his main goal as General Manager of the Blazers is to make his team into winners, and not just winners next season, but winners period end of sentence.

He brought up that his former team, the LA Clippers, traveled with a deep tissue message therapist, and that everything he and the rest of the front office staff does and will do is and will be done to better serve the players, the ones who actually do the work on the court.

In the NBA, winning is the only thing that really matters. The city of Portland, the fans, the team, the ownership, all of it will take care of itself as long as the Blazers are winning. And ultimately, that’s why Olshey is here.

In Pulp Fiction, The Wolf does his job; The Bonnie Situation is handled. Jules and Vincent go get breakfast dressed as a couple of dorks.

The first step in handling any situation, The Bonnie Situation and The Blazer Situation alike, is to prove that the right person has been brought in to do the job.

In what he described as his favorite press conference ever, Larry Miller introduced Olshey as that right man for this job. Now, like The Wolf, it’s up to Olshey to make good.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

From left to right, Jules Winnfield, Vincent Vega, and The Wolf

Former Clippers GM Neil Olshey has been named General Manager of the Portland Trail Blazers. Photo courtesy of SB Nation Los Angeles.

It might not go down as one of the most important dates in franchise history, but June 4th 2012 will certainly be a day for Blazer fans to remember. On that day, the Portland Trail Blazers finally found themselves a new General Manger.

Per the team’s official press release (read the whole thing here):

The Portland Trail Blazers have named Neil Olshey as the team’s general manager. The 10th general manager in Trail Blazers history, Olshey comes to Portland from the Los Angeles Clippers, where he served as the team’s Vice President of Basketball Operations for the past two seasons. Placing third in votes for the 2011-12 NBA Executive of the Year Award, Olshey was responsible for all facets of basketball operations and player personnel moves while with the Clippers, and will hold the same responsibilities as General Manager of the Trail Blazers.

If memory serves, Olshey was one of the many names bandied about in the last few months, as Portland worked diligently to fill the GM seat vacated by Rich Cho well over a year ago. In his capacity as Interim General Manager, Chad Buchanan orchestrated a few blockbuster deals. Some for the better (cutting the sort of dead or at least under-producing weight of Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace and setting the table for Portland to have one of the more enviable positions in the upcoming draft), and some for the worse (Raymond Felton coming in; Andre Miller going out). Buchanan also oversaw one of the most trying seasons in Blazer history, a season that included the premature retirement of Brandon Roy and the parting of ways with former number one overall draft pick Greg Oden.

Buchanan’s parting gifts are unknown at this time. His future position with the franchise was not even alluded to in the press release. I imagine that something about his status will be made public at some point.

Olshey has his work cut out for him right from the jump in Portland. He will be responsible for managing the aforementioned Draft, in which Portland has four picks, two in the first round and two in the second. And he will also be heading any and all efforts to bring big time free agents to the Rose City.

For now, though, I think it might be a good idea for all Blazer fans to breath a sigh of relief and take a moment to really reflect on what having a General Manager means. It means that for all its faults, the Blazers are once again a real basketball team, fully staffed, and ready to pull itself out of the morass that was 2011-12. That’s got to be a positive.

Now all the team needs is a coach, and to sign Nicolas Batum to a long-term deal, and to make sure LaMarcus Aldridge lives through the off season, and to find a serviceable center, and to find a league-leading Rajon Rondo-esque point guard, and to make the second round of the Playoffs…

Oh well. One step at a time I guess.

email me: mike.acker1@gmail.com

Twitter: @mikeacker | @ripcityproject

And we do not throw out the word “perfect” all willy nilly.

First off, Cho is a Northwest guy. Public relations will spin that every which way to rebuild the community bridge that was nearly felled by the recent half year for the organizations, but that’s not why Cho’s roots are important. It’s important because, as long as Paul Allen is willing to spend the appropriate money, Cho is probably where he wants to be. If successful, he probably won’t be trying to parlay this job into one with another team. I use probably because there’s no way to predict personalities and emotions in the future, but if you’re playing the odds, they favor Cho’s long-term desire to stay in Portland should he find success.

Personality might be the key here, though. It’s not fair to Cho to personify him as a nerd, but by most accounts he’s a cerebral guy and, more importantly, isn’t an athlete. Allen, and those people around him, can connect with that much better than they likely could the more gregarious personality of Kevin Pritchard. Cho just had his first press conference for crying out loud. You think any media members are going to label him a braggart or surround him with a golden aura? Cho certainly knew where to place his thanks during his presser, and as we’ve learned, small things like that are important in the Rose Garden hallways.

But all that’s important to Cho’s ability to maintain his newfound position and survive. What’s immediately crucial is whether or not he will find success to make the long-term a factor.

I could not be more confident in that success.

You have to measure what that means to you, naturally. If success is Chris Paul and/or a title and Chris Paul and/or a title only, Cho has a steep hill to climb in your mind. But if success is finding the best solution to every problem, to see problems coming, to be as informed as possible and smart enough to digest that information to make a confident decision but to also make calculated risks, you’ve got your guy. And if you’re worried about Cho’s rolodex not being up to snuff for a big move in the near future, rest those concerns. Smart people respond to smart people. And bad executives get taken advantage of by smart people.

What the hiring signals, after a never ending stream of mishandled situations, there are still intelligent people are the head of this organization. They identified the right candidate and got him. That’s all you want from a Team President and Owner. Efficient and effective. Well done by Allen and Larry Miller, for not only finding Cho, but for keeping the Blazers at the front of the league in terms of foward-thinking front offices. The Blazers will still have a presence in analytical circles like SLOAN, they will still do their due diligence with thorough scouting around the world and they will listen to progressive voices. And it doesn’t have to be a lateral move. Cho could be better than what the Blazers had and have.

It’s a coup, really, not only for the team, but for fans of the game. You’re seeing non-athletes break into the upper echelon, people who have proven themselves in every way but name recognition and box score resumes. Proof that intelligence comes in many forms, and that you don’t need coaches to pound ideas into your head over your entire life to understand a game. It’s an example of the American dream, corny as that sounds. Working hard can make you as good or better than the privileged incumbents. Cho did that, and whether he’s a smash or a failure, it was the right move by Portland to bring a new name into the arena.