Stagnant Summer: What it means for the Blazers in the West
By Minh Dao
Free Agency
This is the vehicle that Olshey receives the most criticism, especially for last summer.
Starting from the beginning in the summer of 2012, Olshey hired Terry Stotts to be their head coach. Stotts remains with the Blazers as the reliable presence throughout the past half-decade.
That is about the most free agent success PDX has seen lately.
Portland has never been able to attract free agents for a variety of reasons: lifestyle, distance, weather, fewer endorsements, small-market, etc. This trend has not changed under Olshey.
The most notable free agents include: Ronnie Price, Dorell Wright, Mo Williams, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ed Davis, Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli.
Nothing that blows you away. How about the other column?
Notable free agents that got away: Roy Hibbert, Greg Monroe, Hassan Whiteside, Chandler Parsons and Pau Gasol. Additionally, remember that time Hedo Turkoglu did a complete 180 on the Blazers?
There is a reason why even guys like Turkoglu spurn Portland. For whatever reason you believe, they just don’t come here.
In fact, who was the last “major” Blazer signing? 33 year old Andre Miller? Kenny Anderson in 1996? The point is that there is very little precedent to show there is stock worth buying in terms of the Blazers luring a marquee player.
Keeping players becomes the norm
This is where player retention becomes integral for Portland’s success.
This did not occur in 2015 due to the change in franchise direction when Aldridge left — little did they know how advanced Lillard was on the learning curve.
This involved Matthews (injury risk, payday, peaked) and Lopez (payday) departing as the Blazers went young and youthful led by Lillard.
Aminu and Davis were then locked up on front-loaded (bargain) contracts in prediction of the salary cap spike. Those resourceful moves led to what occurred the year after.