Neil Olshey, Terry Stotts, and Damian Lillard all started with the Portland Trail Blazers around the same time. Olshey was hired in June 2012, drafted Dame in July, and then hired Stotts in August. Olshey will always be recognized as the guy who drafted Dame with the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. This was a masterstroke and meant the Blazers have been a perennial playoff team for the best part of a decade.
Stotts deserves a massive amount of credit for helping develop Dame into one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. Come 2013, drafting and developing CJ McCollum was also a masterstroke. McCollum was a four-year shooting guard out of a small division one program, and was plucked late lottery before turning into one of the best shot creators and shooters in the NBA.
Portland Trail Blazers: Is this Neil Olshey’ and Terry Stotts last season?
Olshey and Stotts have presided over one of the most consistent eras in Blazers history, in a time when the Western Conference is at its most competitive. But, they have also failed to put the right pieces next to guys like Dame and CJ.
The summer of 2016 was a bad one for many NBA front offices. With a massive rise in the salary cap, many teams overspent on free agents, impacting their teams for years. The Blazers were one of those teams, with Olshey seriously overspending on role players Evan Turner and Allen Crabbe.
Though Olshey has always done well when you look at players drafted in the second round and how they have been developed, his overspending in 2016 on role players, meant that this team never got the defense, or the complimentary forward to Dame that could take them to the next level.
Stotts is a great developmental coach, but his inabilities on the defensive end have meant that when this team should be competing for home court in the playoffs, they are instead sitting 29th in defensive rating as one of the worst defensive teams in NBA History. Unless there is some massive turnaround in their fortunes to finish the season, they are likely to be seven or eight seeds.
Having a bad defense is one thing; having one of the worst defenses of all time, is unacceptable.
Blazer fans, and some media, seem to have a problem accepting that Olshey and Stotts may have passed their use-by date in these roles. This doesn’t mean that they haven’t done a great job getting the team to this point. It just means that they need new personnel to push the team to a championship level.
Having players like Carmelo Anthony are great for the fans and a bit of heat-up quick offense from time to time, but Melo’s lack of defense means that he isn’t a piece who can help a team trying to contend for a championship. On a team with defensive-minded players all around, maybe he fits better. But next to Dame and CJ, he is a bad fit.
Enes Kanter is a great energy guy, who like Melo, has had some massive moments on offense this year. Both players have won the Blazers a game or two on offense, but have cost this team on the other end because of their poor defense.
Stotts is unable to put together a defense that can win in the playoffs. But, he has also not always been given the personnel to best complete this task.
It could be time for a change.
Damian Lillard probably has two more years after this year, where he will be playing at a superstar level. Though it seemed like signing Derrick Jones Jr to assist this team defensively was a great move, he has recently fallen out of the rotation, and doesn’t seem to be used as the lob threat or defensive ace that this team needs. It’s hard to tell if this is on Olshey or Stotts, but using the Blazers’ precious mid-level exception on a defensive guy, and then not playing him when the team is ranked 29th on that end, is sacrilege.
It’s time for Jody Allen and Blazers ownership to step in and right the ship. Olshey and Stotts have done a great job up until this point, and will have the rest of the season to show if they can get this team to a strong seeding or past the first round of the playoffs.
Another first-round exit just isn’t good enough when you have one of the best players in the league in Lillard. If this is the case come playoff time, this may be the last season we see Olshey or Stotts working for this team.