Portland Trail Blazers firing Neil Olshey is too little, too late
By Luke Duffy
Why the Portland Trail Blazers fired Neil Olshey: Poor roster construction
If the inability to draft quality players wasn’t bad enough, taking a look at the current roster only amplifies the issues in Portland even more. Jusuf Nurkic is a good player, but he always seems to be injured.
Norman Powell is also solid, but the team gave up the equally good Gary Trent Jr. to acquire him from the Toronto Raptors. A kind of sideways move.
Robert Covington has lost what made him special since joining, and somehow both Ben McLemore and Dennis Smith Jr. are on the payroll. Beyond that, getting Larry Nance Jr. in a three-team deal over the summer did look like a steal, and if nothing else, he will have trade value if the Trail Blazers now decide to blow this thing up.
At 11-12, they’re going nowhere fast, have an in-his-prime star who needs to win now, and a lot of money committed to a considerable amount of meh. Free agents aren’t queueing up to sign there.
Factor in firing previous head coach Terry Stotts (if nothing else, a consistent presence), and the wheels have been coming off for a while now.