Hindsight is always 20/20 in everything that we do. Whether it is buying/selling stocks, the kind of car you buy, even whether or not you should’ve eaten that gas station sushi. As a General Manager for a sports team, every move you make can and is brought up and reassessed constantly. Is it always fair? No, but it is part of the job.
Many lauded the move of Terry Stotts being removed as the Portland Trail Blazers coach and understandably so. I certainly had my frustrations with the lack of ball movement and sets on offense and poor defensive schemes. While those are fair criticisms of Stott’s system, I vehemently push back that the failures of this team can be placed squarely on his shoulders. The problems of this roster come from the man who put it together, Neil Olshey.
It is time to assess the job that he has done since the franchise seemingly went in a new direction after the 2015 offseason. A quick refresher on that offseason, LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Wes Matthews all moved on from the organization seemingly marking the end of the old regime and marking the beginning of the Lillard/McCollum era.
Portland Trail Blazers: Grading Neil Olshey’s Past 5 Seasons
As I said, hindsight is 20/20, some moves seem like home runs when they are made and turn into disasters and vice versa. As a GM you are constantly judged on your successes and your failures and in the last 5 years, Neil Olshey has had a lot more failures.