Portland Trail Blazers firing Neil Olshey is too little, too late
By Luke Duffy
Why the Portland Trail Blazers fired Neil Olshey: Financial and draft issues
The Trail Blazers are as far away from contention as they have ever been. This is because the best teams in the Western Conference have set a… trailblazing pace (sorry) through the years, with the likes of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers constantly reloading in some form.
The superhuman play of Lillard used to be enough to tick off some big regular-season wins and a ticket to the postseason. That is no longer guaranteed.
Lillard needs help, and a lot of it, but the Trail Blazers have backed themselves into a corner financially. If you look at the money the franchise is spending this year, it is right up there with the contenders. The only issue is, the Trail Blazers are most certainly not that.
As things stand, the money owed to players is only going to get worse next season. They still have a number of first-round draft picks at their disposal, but for two reasons, this isn’t as exciting as it should be.
The first is that the Trail Blazers are stuck in the dreaded position of being too good to be truly bad, meaning these picks are highly likely to fall outside the lottery.
The second is that, and it is part of the reason Olshey is now gone, the franchise hasn’t done much with these picks since drafting Lillard in 2012. Outside of taking C.J. McCollum the following year, the list is grim. About as good as it has gotten has been taking Anfernee Simons in 2018, who continues to look one year away from being one year away from making a difference.