Blazers’ Olshey: I didn’t come here for quick fixes
Published 12:00 am Monday, July 9, 2012
- Recently drafted Meyers Leonard (left) and Will Barton take part in a press conference Monday at the Portland Children's Museum.
Here is some of what I learned on “Great Day to be a Trail Blazer” Monday at the Portland Children’s Museum:
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• The museum received a $25,000 grant from the Blazers’ “Make it Better” Foundation, taking to $160,000 its charitable gifts this year. Sometimes we take for granted what the good people in the organization do for the community. Thanks to them, and to owner Paul Allen, for that.
• The coaching search is in full swing. General manager Neil Olshey said candidates have been identified and “vetted” (that word, along with “brand,” is chic in NBA circles these days). Olshey said he would make the names public “by the end of the week.” The candidates, he said, will be interviewed next week during the Las Vegas Summer League.
“It’s the atmosphere most conducive to a search,” he said. “Almost all the (candidates) are currently on staffs, so we can bang through it quickly and efficiently.”
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It would seem, then, that most of the candidates are assistant coaches. Orlando, also searching for a head coach, Orlando, also searching for a head coach, is reportedly interviewing Brian Shaw (Indiana), Michael Malone (Golden State), Jeff Hornacek (Utah) and Jacque Vaughn (San Antonio). Olshey has interest in at least Shaw and Malone.
It’s unclear where this leaves interim head coach Kaleb Canales, present but quiet and in the background Monday as all the festivities were happening at the Children’s Museum. I’m left with the feeling Canales will be on the Portland coaching staff next season, but not as the head man.
• Canales will serve as head coach of the Portland entry in the Las Vegas Summer League. Dan Dickau and Hersey Hawkins will be his assistants.
• With Indiana evidently set to match Portland’s four-year, $59-million offer sheet to center Roy Hibbert (take that, Kevin Pritchard), it doesn’t sound as if there is much of a Plan B.
“We were going to go after one major guy, push all our chips in to get him,” Olshey said. “We thought he was a big-time piece now and in the future. If another opportunity like that comes up, we’re totally prepared from a financial standpoint and cap flexibility to be really aggressive in the market.
“I don’t see it right now. I don’t see the guys fitting the criteria we’re looking for — the same age range, an all-star caliber player, a guy who can move the needle immediately in terms of wins and losses. That would have to be created through the trade market. It’s not a free-agent decision.”
Javale McGee, a restricted free agent, is 24 and freaky athletic but a risk as a person because he might not fit into the Blazers’ “culture” (another trendy NBA term). Chris Kaman is accomplished but is 30, and Olshey traded him away when the Blazer executive was with the Clippers.
“The big thing we’ve talked about is fluidity and flexibility,” Olshey said. “What I’m not going to do is hamstring the organization with $7 (million)- to $8-million contracts on guys who don’t move the needle in wins or losses. It’s counterproductive. I’m not going to do it.”
The Blazers, more than $16 million under the salary cap if they can get something done prior to dealing with Nicolas Batum’s restricted free agency, could accept a player in a trade from a team trying to unload some salary. I’ll be surprised if that happens. Olshey went for the home run with Hibbert. If he doesn’t get it, the Blazer exec won’t be looking to play small ball with a series of singles or ground-rule doubles.
“I didn’t come here for quick fixes,” he said, then asking the assembled media, “How did it work out the last time we did that?”
Olshey’s reference was to last season, when the Blazers stumbled home 28-38, in no small part because of trade-deadline deals that sent away veterans Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace.
“When you try to put your thumb in a bunch of areas in a dike that has holes in it, very rarely does it hold,” Olshey said. “We’re looking for long-term solutions to our challenges. If we can find them this offseason, I would love to do that. If it’s going to take the trade market, (or) the fall (or) the trade deadline (next season) to secure the right pieces going forward, that’s what we’re going to do.”
• Olshey played dumb when asked about media reports that Batum’s agent, Bouma N’Diaye, says his client will sign a four-year offer sheet worth $45 million to $50 million with Minnesota and doesn’t want to play with the Blazers.
“Why wouldn’t Nic want to come back?” Olshey asked. “The guy has had great success. He was drafted here. He has developed.”
Olshey then launched into a primer on restricted free agency, which he termed “a nightmare.”
“It’s tough on the player and the organization because of the uncertainty,” he said. “It’s just one of the tools we have in the league. … Every team that has a high-level restricted free agency is dealing with this. When decisions have to be made (with the Blazers), they’ll be done for the long-term best interest of the franchise.”
• If the Blazers don’t get Hibbert, that won’t impact their decision to match (or not match) Minnesota’s offer for Batum, Olshey said.
“How we handle everything is in a vacuum,” he said. “Within that vacuum, it’s how does it affect LaMarcus (Aldridge), Wesley (Matthews), Damian (Lillard), Meyers (Leonard), Nolan (Smith) — the core of young guys we have.
“That’s the bubble we’re working within. You have to make decisions independent of one another. When you start making contingencies based on who you may or may not have, you run into problems. You either over or undervalue guys relative to what the aggregate would be with the other player involved.”
• Olshey introduced draft picks Lillard, Leonard and Will Barton. Judging by the GM’s comments, an NBA championship is coming to Portland real soon.
Lillard, Olshey said (echoing his refrain on draft night), “is going to be the franchise point guard.”
“I compare him to Chauncey Billups,” Olshey said of Lillard, the No. 6 pick in the draft out of Weber State.
The 7-1 Leonard, Olshey gushed, “has a chance to be a franchise center in this league. His talent level is off the charts … he’s going to be a major impact guy on the defensive end of the floor.”
As for Barton, who expected to be taken in the first round but was finally selected with the 40th pick in the second round by Portland, Olshey said this:
“I have no idea how Will got to 40. Paul Allen started asking us to trade up at about 22 to get him. We kept running into headstrong teams that wouldn’t move their picks. He was a gift. I still can’t believe we got a guy who should have gone in the mid- to late-first round in terms of talent. He’s going to be an impact guy on our roster. … Will has a chance to eventually be a starter in this league.”
• There has not been a bigger, smoother talker than Olshey in the Trail Blazer organization since coach P.J. Carlesimo in the 1990s.
Olshey doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Asked by a reporter about the search to replace Larry Miller as president, Olshey responded, “That’s not my call. Rarely are subordinates in charge of job searches for their bosses.”
Fair enough. Asked about his interest in the job, Olshey smiled and delivered a little quick wit.
“I’m going to worry about doing this job before I worry about another job,” he said. “I was an English major. I couldn’t do an Excel sheet. I have no idea what presidents do. I just find players.”