To me this reads like a shortsighted misconstruing of a situation with more nuance than the article lets on. But there are a couple valid criticisms in here. Quick might still be a little bummed Olshey got fired.
by Jambihar
@Portland Trail Blazers
27 Comments
Quick has no sources
The opening line tells you all you need to know. This isnāt journalism, this isnāt an evaluation of the trade deadline, itās just a hit piece. Dude is willfully ignoring the context of the season.
Wasn’t expecting Quick to lean that much into being a doomer.
Oh look, another bitter Jason Quick hit piece. Heās had no real sources in the org for years.
Quick is a quack. No reason to even post this. No one cares what he thinks.
What a scathing article. Wow. The real asset usage that was acquired form the dame trade will start to take effect and fill some holes (first round gsw pick for example). But really rough summation of the players on the team, from scoot Ayton ant grant on down. I think this is way overly pessimistic.
Holy crap wow I have never disagreed with a Quick article more.
āBut I would have liked something bold. A trade of Deandre Ayton, for starters. Although his play has spiked for the better in the past month, his first months in Portland were defined by tardiness and tantrums according to team sources. And there has been an eerie resemblance to Hassan Whiteside, the former Blazersā center whose statistics looked nice, but had little to no impact on a game. The quicker the Blazers can move off Ayton, the sooner I will believe this franchise is headed in the right direction.ā
Jesus Christ. How can you compare Ayton to Whiteside? Has Quick even been watching the games recently? Thereās a lot to criticize about Aytons game, but saying he resembles Whiteside is a hyperbolic comparison that not even the biggest haters on this sub would make.
Quick is seriously coming off as sour grapes here, completely ignoring that Cronin had to tear this roster down to the studs due to Olsheys failures. I think itās totally fair to criticize Cronin, but to ignore the context of why our roster is like this now is completely ignoring the FUCKED roster decisions from 2018-2021 that closed the window on Dames prime.
This guy is turning back into Jason Quack status FAST.
Oh look, Jason Quick muckraking. I’m shocked! Definitely not the same tired, pot stirring hackery he’s been up to for 20 years.
Oh wow, I have never seen Jason Quick write such a doomer narrative on the prior manager that wasted the prime of a top 75 player of all time.
Jesus, this is an embarrassing fall from grace from Quick.
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We are a spoiled fanbase in terms of basketball quality. This is only the second true stint we’ve been truly terrible in the last 50(?) years. Some fans are not handling it well at all.
Jason Quick lol. Dude needs some Xanax, complete clown.
YIKES QUICK WENT OFF ON EVERYONE
I do think Quick brings up a fair point that Cronin didn’t do a great job of building excitement to the fanbase. I appreciate that Cronin wanted to be visible and check in after the deadline even though there weren’t any moves made. But I think he regrets now not conveying his excitement and vision better yesterday.
If you weren’t going to make a big splash by selling high on the veterans and leaning more into future capital to be able to fully sell the youth movement, then I think Cronin should have emphasized the challenges that we have this season way more.
Sure, we are 5-8 in our last 13 games which is better than 10-24 we were before. But it’s not like we are starting to dominate teams now, its just that our guys our playing better. Which is great for the draft odds, but Cronin should have conveyed that.
“We have very solid young guys with upside and are looking to build upon that and we think keeping the veterans will assist in that and we are planning to continue building a championship caliber team one day. The injuries and lack of cohesion this year has really slowed down everyone ability to build chemistry but we think keeping everyone here will help us in the long term and we want to one day winning a ton of games because that is how much we believe in Scoot/Sharpe” I mean SOMETHING to give the folks that hate losing some hope lol.
Quick is definitely crazy about his take on Ayton. But Iāll leave this quote here:
āBut Thursday was another red-letter day on the NBA calendar that passed, leaving the Blazers selling that things will get better down the road, all while neglecting to make things better. Nobody was expecting the Blazers to pull off a blockbuster, franchise-changing deal. But it was also a little unsettling to hear an āeverything is great, weāre doing fineā delivery amid a third straight season of heavy losses. One of my concerns during Croninās era is that organizationally, losing has become tolerated.ā
I donāt think losing has just become tolerated. Itās become even celebrated or desired to a good amount of the fan base. And thatās what starts us in our slippery slope to become a franchise like the Pistons or the Rockets.
We keep coming back every year to ring the bell of hope, when weāve done very little meaningful change to improve our own situation.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it at least dozen times (literally, I have the comment history to prove it): Quick is a good writer but he’s a shit-stirrer. Always has been, always will be.
What a hatchet job from Quick. He accuses Cronin of lacking depth than tosses out flippant takes the entire article.
Quick being shortsighted and misconstruing quotes? I for one am shocked.
I agree with Quick that this franchise seems to constantly be fine with the status quo ever since they drafted Roy. The belief to just stand pat and any day now Travis Outlaw or Jerryd Bayless will FINALLY turn the corner and we’re off to the Finals. Maybe Rudy will become an All-Star! This franchise has been obsessed with swapping mediocre vets for other mediocre vets forever now.
What I disagree with Quick on is the direction he wants the franchise to go. Who the fuck are the Blazers going to trade for and get better? Quentin Grimes? What the fuck??? To win three more games this season?
I know a lot of people disagree with me but if you put a gun to my head, I’d say the Blazers have yet to draft a true franchise cornerstone they can build around. A guy who can be the best player on AT LEAST a conference finals team.
I agree with Quick. Maybe not about Ayton, but about Cronin.
More of you will come around as time goes on.
jason quick is really making me defend deandre ayton for FREE man
I don’t know why this sub wants to bend over backwards for Cronin. Dude has been sub-par as a GM and shouldn’t have this job. If he faced any competition for the job, he wouldn’t have it.
I donāt believe Iām paying for this garbage!
Quick hasnāt put out a proper substantive article since Dame left – so many new faces and characters to cover, and not a singe story? Remember GTJ training in the pool for his deceased friend, an unsettled Nurk quickly warming up to Dame and being an uncle to the kids – between Duop Reath, Scoot, Camara, Sharpe, Murray, Rupert there has got to be one good fucking story there at least.
Cronin has done as good a job as he could imo, and weāre a much better team when Ayton is in the game – he doesnāt deserve whatever this crap is.
This wreaks of insecurity. Make new connections my man and stop putting out shitty opinion pieces that tell nothing of the actual inside story.
No one here should be supporting the Athletic after last seasons deadline where Shams and Quick just put out a bunch of BS.
Quick is awful, but so are the Blazers.
I trust joeb
This is wild. The difference was whiteside was brought in on a team trying to compete. Were ass. Grant dropped almost 50 points, in a loss to one of the worst teams of all time. Ant hasnāt done much to make us competitive, but quick doesnāt say that.
If youāre gonna complain about āempty statsā that applies to everyone when weāre ass.
Austin will be good, I think. Chauncey comes from s town in the NBA where tough love was the way it was. Itās not that way anymore. Players are motivated by people who know how work with them. Chauncey canāt do that when he gets out coached by Monty Williams who didnāt even want the job
This article is in conflict with itself in a desire to hit all the negative notes. It complains about getting too comfortable with losing and also not making any trades at the deadline. By not making any trades, it raises the floor of this roster sooner than almost any other reasonable option. If we did what most wanted (trade vets for more upside or draft capital) we would be worse in the short term. Did he want us to trade away upside for better players? wtf?
I mean, I guess Iām kind of sort of a little bit in agreement with him I guess? I also was hopeful we did more to embrace the youth movement, but at this point I trust Croninās ability to get value back for our outgoing assets.
This article feels very very angry and spiteful. It honestly makes me question Quicks ability to write about this team.