The Portland Trail Blazers are due for a shakedown in the next month after a seemingly playoff-ready roster crumbled in the postseason and was swept out of the first round by the New Orleans Pelicans.
General manager Neil Olshey, who appeared on the latest edition of ESPN's NBA Draft: On The Clock, noted the team will be aggressive this summer after being exposed by the Pelicans, this time around focusing on players that can perform in the postseason and give their All-Star backcourt some much-needed help.
“I think it’s time now to realize, we’re going to be a consistent playoff team and now we need to make decisions based on having players on the roster able to perform at a high level come April and May and not just continue to backfill the roster that was devoid of some talent, relative to the exodus that we had when we lost L.A. And we decided to kind of build on a career arc around Dame and C.J.,” said Olshey, per Peter Sampson of Blazers Edge.
“We’re not going to lose sight of finishing third in the West, winning the Northwest Division in a year that was hyper-competitive. But we’re also going to realize that we need to kind of view our future this summer through the lens of how with are we going to be more impactful and play at a higher level come playoff time next year.”
Asked by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski of how he plans to add such talent, Olshey explained that he will take the support from an aggressive owner in Paul Allen and seek trades based on their two trade exceptions, stemming from the Allen Crabbe ($13 million) and Noah Vonleh ($3.5 million) to absorb other contracts that can help the team moving forward.
Portland hasn't had a great history of luring free agents, but trading their way to a bolstered roster could prove the answer to their woes, so long as they fit a backcourt-led lineup with plenty of ambition.
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