Portland Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey gave his end-of-season press conference on Monday, and it turned into a bizarre session of bus-tossing and a total lack of accountability from the man in charge of the Damian Lillard-led roster. If Lillard was paying any attention, he shouldn't be happy with what came out of Olshey's mouth on Monday.
Olshey essentially called out Lillard for going to the media with his preferences for head coach, and then the GM totally absolved himself of any blame for the Blazers' failures by saying the first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets didn't have anything to do with roster construction. Olshey also made sure to point out that the Nuggets were without Jamal Murray and other key pieces, further burying former head coach Terry Stotts under the bus.
Defense was a problem all season for Portland, but apparently none of that is on Neil Olshey. Don't mind that Enes Kanter was the backup center, Carmelo Anthony played significant minutes and there was a small guard rotation in place that struggled to guard at the point of attack. While Terry Stotts certainly deserves some of the blame for the defense, as does Damian Lillard, Neil Olshey refusing to take any responsibility for how he has built the roster around Dame is ludicrous and insulting.
Olshey even tried to use the small guards thing as a strange attack line on the media:
This was one of several references in the presser to “the media” and “narratives you guys push” from Olshey, who makes himself available to reporters twice a year if that.
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 7, 2021
Furthermore, Olshey tried to talk up the Blazers' streak of playoff appearances in a small market and complained about not getting enough credit for that:
Neil Olshey: "One of the things that's getting lost in this is we've made the playoffs eight years in a row. We're one of the winningest small-market franchises in the league. … In the free-agent market, market usually beats team in those instances."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) June 7, 2021
This reads like Olshey saying he has done everything possible to keep the Blazers competitive despite small-market constraints and that he should be commended for it.
Of course, while Olshey has made some good moves as general manager, he has handed out plenty of bad money over the years (remember 2016?) and should be willing to admit mistakes. The fact that he's not should be a red flag for Damian Lillard, who has remained loyal to this organization for a long time.
That loyalty could be tested soon, though, and there are trade rumors starting to pick up around Dame. While there's no sign yet that he could ask for a trade, he should be putting a lot of pressure on the front office to improve. He started to do that a bit more throughout this season, and it should only continue after Olshey's bizarre performance on Monday, especially after lines like this one:
“For anyone (prospective coaches) to advance in the process they’re going to have to prove they can do that (improve defensively) without a ton of roster changes.” -Olshey
— Danny Marang (@DannyMarang) June 7, 2021
Yikes.