Neil Olshey said the trade market was less than advertised and is satisfied with how the Blazers did.
NBC Sports Northwest’s Dwight Jaynes interviewed Neil Olshey shortly after the trade deadline passed. (The quotes in this article are from Blazers Edge’s transcription of Jaynes and Olshey’s interview.)
The general manager’s stance on a few topics were very noteworthy, including the sparse player availability, aggressive Zach Collins interest, and more.
Let’s dig in.
Over-advertised trade market
The Blazers initially planned to alleviate cap space and acquire a rental player who fit well with the current rotation – this is what nearly every Blazers fan hoped would come out of the trade deadline.
Instead, Olshey settled with a purely financial move. He swapped Noah Vonleh and cash for a 32 year-old overseas player. The trade got Portland under the luxury tax, saving Paul Allen over $4 million and avoiding the league’s repeater tax from starting.
Neil Olshey blames the seller market for the light move:
"“So across the board it was a sellers market. The sellers were asking ridiculous prices. Everybody moved on and will compete as they are. I feel good about the Western Conference didn’t change. The guys we’re competing against have the same roster today they did yesterday.”"
He doesn’t seemed too flustered about keeping the same core. He maintains faith in his players, who have Portland up to 5th in the Western Conference.
Olshey is also positive about the state of his team going forward, saying,
"“With one of the youngest rosters in the NBA second or third best back court in the league. Young players that are developing. We have the draft picks. We still have an aggressive owner. We’ve got Two trade exceptions now.”"
Zach Collins inquiries
Maurice Harkless, Ed Davis and Shabazz Napier were the most likely to be moved for the trade deadline. However, Neil Olshey revealed rookie Zach Collins as the most asked about player.
After playing very little to start the season, Collins has developed into a solid backup. He and Davis form an athletic, hard-working big man tandem averaging a combined double-double in under 20 minutes.
Teams around the league recognize his potential, which Olshey describes with, “we think he’ll be a big time player.”
Each conversation resulted in inquiries about Collins. The GM wondered how aggressive teams would’ve been if the rookie was on the trade market.
Breaking up Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum
There was a lot of speculation about trades involving CJ McCollum. He was thrown into numerous packages for players like Kevin Love and Khris Middleton, but most fans were against the idea.
Most importantly, Neil Olshey was against the idea of splitting up the backcourt. His reasoning:
"“First of all our backcourt has nothing to do with the defensive rating, they’re one of the most explosive backcourts in the league, they’re both high character guys they play off each other well. They’re best friends off the floor. They’re in their prime or entering their prime everybody creates this…we don’t have to do anything.”"
Sure, we all know Damian Lillard and McCollum lack a little defensively. Their offseason improvement has put this narrative mostly to rest, though.
Olshey is certainly right about both hitting their primes, but believes the group he’s surrounded them with works. Based on the 31-25 record, maybe they could have better teammates.
Noah Vonleh trade
After striking out on the impact player market, Neil Olshey shifted his focus to getting under the luxury tax. That, combined with wanting Vonleh to showcase his skills somewhere before becoming a free agent encouraged Portland to pull the trigger on this trade.
He had this to say about Vonleh’s situation with the Blazers:
"“He had a chance here and performed well at times. He’s been beaten out this is the young guy we care about that will be a free agent. And you don’t want to watch a guy die on a vine on the roster and enter a really tough market. Having not played for the last five months.”"
Of course, the return for Vonleh did not matter – avoiding the repeater tax was the intent. The Blazers recevied Milocan Rakovich from Chicago because, “It seemed silly for them to send us cash when we’re sending them cash.”
Still, Olshey hopes to visit Rakovic in Switzerland. He does admit that Rakovich will likely never suit up for the Blazers.
Next: Lillard drops 50 in win over Kings
Overall, Rip City is slightly disappointed in Neil Olshey for not making a blockbuster trade that vaulted Portland into championship contention.
Nonetheless, avoiding the repeater tax is key for the Blazers looking forward. Let’s just hope Olshey’s confidence in this group’s future wears off on us…and works out of course.