Portland Trail Blazers: Neil Olshey should accept some blame
Teresa Powe
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Are the players fed up?
Everywhere I look, I see that the “Blazers are the winningest team. They make the playoffs almost every year.” That’s true; the last time Portland missed the playoffs was in 2013. A nice streak, but it doesn’t mean much considering they made it out of the first round only three times.
Is it worse for a player not to make the playoffs at all or to continually go home after the first round? A third, fourth or fifth seed team going home in the first round on a regular would be pretty disheartening.
Terry Stotts, in my opinion, was wrong for not challenging that three-shot foul call in the first half of Game 5. One of his best players, his center, pleaded with him to do so. Could that be why Nurkic is now pondering his future with the team?
Within hours of Stotts getting terminated, Dame said that he wanted Jason Kidd as his next coach in no uncertain terms. Kidd politely declined. Lucky for Portland, Dame signed a five-year $139,888,445 “Larry Bird” contract. Not many teams can handle such a heavy load. There is one, but I don’t believe they’re back in the habit of selling off the store for a 30-year-old superstar.
Lillard can’t get the coach he wants, his star center is considering leaving, and his team needs some defensive weapons. And the Blazers have no draft picks in 2022. That sounds like Olshey made a horrible mess of things in Rip City.