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

Summary

We were all quick to blame Terry Stotts for all of the problems with the roster, but Olshey is the one that really has failed Damian Lillard by continually not supporting him with players that complement his skill set. Dame is a small guard that needs to be surrounded by big athletic wings that can shoot ie what Atlanta has done with Trae Young but obviously, Olshey does not see that.

Biggest W’s: Nurkic Trade/Extensions, Dame Extension, CJ Contracts, Rodney Hood initial trade, Seth Curry Signing, Gary Trent Jr. pick, Enes Kanter signing

Biggest L’s: Afflalo Aftermath (Trading Barton losing Malik Beasley in draft), Allen Crabbe deal, Evan Turner deal, choosing Hood over Curry, losing two firsts for Covington, 2017 draft

When looking back on Olshey’s wins it can be credited more towards Dame’s effect on keeping Nurkic and CJ around and beyond that, it can basically all can be moved into the 2018 season when the team made the conference finals because Dame had a roster that he could pack there.

His losses are egregious, and, in my eyes, he absolutely should have been fired before Stotts, he never successfully put the right team around Dame and he has only had one good season in the last 5!

As I said, hindsight is always going to be 20/20 and it is tough to look back but that is the job and Neil Olshey has not been doing that job well enough.