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Fansided

Should Terry Stotts or Neil Olshey shoulder the blame?

By Nate Mann

PORTLAND, OR - JULY 7: General Manager Neil Olshey, Evan Turner, and Head Coach Terry Stotts of the Portland Trail Blazers pose for a photo during Turner's media introduction July 7, 2016 at the Trail Blazer Practice Facility in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - JULY 7: General Manager Neil Olshey, Evan Turner, and Head Coach Terry Stotts of the Portland Trail Blazers pose for a photo during Turner's media introduction July 7, 2016 at the Trail Blazer Practice Facility in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Brandon Goldner

This shouldn’t even be a question! It’s Olshey, and it’s Olshey by a mile. Stotts has over-achieved given the roster construction nearly every year he’s been in Portland. The one season the Blazers had their positional needs balanced, Stotts made them look like a Conference Finals contender before Wesley Matthews tore his Achilles. The year after, with the entire NBA leaving them for dead, Stotts somehow willed Portland to the second round of the playoffs.

Missed opportunities for acquisitions

Meanwhile, Olshey has had multiple years of post-LaMarcus trade deadlines and offseasons to give Stotts more to work with. With the Blazers’ biggest need in the middle, Olshey went ahead and spent $220,000,000 on role players.

It cost the Blazers a year and millions of dollars stretched over multiple seasons to erase the Crabbe mistake. And there’s very little chance they can flip any of Turner, Leonard, or Harkless without giving away an asset. The Nurkić trade was pure luck, and something that Olshey admittedly didn’t see working out as it has so far.

With three first-round draft picks, the Blazers we’re unable to land a disgruntled star like Jimmy Butler or Paul George as reinforcements for Dame and CJ. Instead two of them became Zach Collins and he spent the other on Caleb Swanigan… when the Blazers already had their future starting center in a 23-year-old Nurkić.

This is not on Stotts. Given a decent lineup, Stotts has proven he can guide an elite NBA team. That the Blazers continue to be among the NBA’s top defenses this year despite their personnel should also get him a medal.

So Neil Olshey: grab an ice pack, because your seat should be getting rather toasty. Stotts should be left out of these kinds of conversations altogether.