Trailing for too long

Neil Olshey was not the guy who won with the Clippers, nobody’s ever won with the Clippers, yet we treated Olshey like he done, done it. The second round isn’t even second place, and for too many years we fêted Olshey as if he’d turned the corner in Los Angeles, as if he traveled north with some strain of insight.

Olshey did well in Portland, there were some plucks and his team made the 2019 Western finals. Never a championship contender, only around to hope the plucks led to plucky and that Dame would nail a 32-footer at the buzzer to win the Blazers another round. Olshey isn’t out on his ear because he traded for Robert Covington (Isaiah Stewart, big deal), he’s out because extras aren’t supposed to chew out the scenery.

Olshey is correct: Lillard’s next contract extension will act a millstone, especially if Portland’s ownership situation take ages to settle. Blindsiding any head coach with the Ben Simmons Project is a pill move, four first-round picks are too much to give up for someone that isn’t Anthony Davis. Portland’s been hurt before by creaking knees and stressful fractures, you have to tread lightly.

Counterpoint: lame.