Jay Allen: Olshey says Paul Allen wants the best team on the floor & wants to retain most talent possible. Says the economics rarely figure into it.
Paul Allen Rumors
Jay Allen: Olshey says Paul Allen always puts the roster, team, & organization before the checkbook. @Portland Trail Blazers #RipCity
The Feb. 23 trade deadline is fast approaching and, naturally, fans are curious if there will be more movies. Can you speak to that? Olshey: Well, we’re active. You know I think this roster was always going to be a work in progress. We have the benefit of having Paul Allen as an owner. He let us retain all of our players. It wasn’t realistic to think we could manage that cap going forward. But what it did do is it put us in a position to keep as much as possible, put us in a position to compete, but knowing at some point we’re going to have to make some moves. I think Mason is an example of that. It’s not a player we wanted to lose. But the reality is from a cap standpoint we needed to go average down the salary but maintain our ability to compete, you know, now and in the future with not losing someone at that position. I can’t speak to any specifics, but what I can tell you is the league is very active right now.
Nearly a week into free agency, Portland was still without a shot-blocking center. And then there was the matter of the four-year, $75 million offer sheet Brooklyn handed Crabbe. Sources told ESPN that Blazers owner Paul Allen never thought twice about matching. There was no dialogue, no consultation. Crabbe was being retained.
Paul Allen: RIP @carrieffisher the wisest, sharpest, funniest & most resilient Princess of a person & good friend to those who knew her. Gone too soon.
How would you describe the job Stotts has done? Paul Allen: “I think he’s done an excellent job. I think it’s pretty unique to see a coach adjust to the talent he has and maximize the abilities of the players he has and help them keep growing. You have to realize, we’re a very, very young team. I was kidding Neil earlier, I said, ‘Well, there’s other teams that seem to try to perfect the art of using older players to their maximum, whereas our approach is to bring in young talent, in some cases unproven talent, and try to take that talent to another level.’ And I think you saw that in terms of player development last year. So both in terms of development and execution, obviously, and making it out of the first round last year and giving Golden State a real run for their money, that was all extremely encouraging.”
What’s your opinion about the advertising patches that are going to be added to the uniforms next year? Paul Allen: “I’m a member of the committee that reviewed those things for the league. I think that additional revenue makes the league healthier. So the challenge for us, depending on the size of the market, is to sell those patches to somebody that’s going to also well represent the team and those sorts of things. So I think you’ll see that evolve over the next few years. You already see it in other sports, whether it’s soccer or basketball in other places. So I think we’ll all get very used to it quickly.” You don’t think it’ll be weird to see an ad on a Blazers jersey? Paul Allen: “Well it’s definitely going to be a change. But, again, I think additional revenues help teams and so we’ll all get used to it in the end.”
