Portland Trail Blazers: Grading Neil Olshey’s past 5 Seasons

Portland Trail Blazers 2018 season

Re-signings:
Jusuf Nurkic – 4 Years 48 Million
 
Players Lost:
Ed Davis – 1 Year 4.5 Million
Pat Connaughton – 3 Years 16 Million
Shabazz Napier
CJ Wilcox
Georgios Papagiannis

Additions:
Seth Curry – 2 Years 5.6 Million – 2nd Year Player Option
Nik Stauskas – Minimum
Enes Kanter – Mid season signing after being waived
 
Trades:
Nik Stauskas/Wade Baldwin IV/two 2nds to Cleveland for Rodney Hood

Draft:
Anfernee Simons (No. 24)
Gary Trent Jr. (No. 37)

One of the smartest seasons of Olshey’s tenure. The Nurkic extension was of tremendous value, the Seth Curry, Enes Kanter, Rodney Hood moves were all cheap/low-risk moves that helped produce a Western Conference Finals roster. The only thing I don’t like is letting a good shooter like Connaughton walk. I will never understand Olshey willing to pay Allen Crabbe 19 million a year then scoffing at 5 million a year for Connaughton, but I digress.

Looking at the draft Simons goes No. 24; I remember watching on the edge of my seat hoping for Aaron Holiday to fall to us, but he was plucked at No. 23. The next picks were as follows, No. 25 Moe Wagner, No. 26 Landry Shamet, No. 27 Robert Williams.

Second-round picks are usually pretty tough to evaluate but scooping up Gary Trent Jr. at No. 37 was an absolute steal.

Olshey knocked every part of this season out of the park, and it led to a surprise playoff run.

Grade: A-

Nurkic extension, Curry deal, Hood trade, picking up Kanter in the season, great job. This would be an even A if he would’ve kept Connaughton around.