My job at Blazer’s Edge is to be the “in-depth” analysis guy. That’s not easy task right now because the Trail Blazers personnel strategy right now is opaque, at best, and bifurcated, at worst.
At the best of times it’s tough to read through General Manager Neil Olshey’s dissembling — he often sells move in isolation, encouraging/demanding that observers inspect the merits of individual transactions primarily and the “big picture” direction secondarily.
For example, in isolation Allen Crabbe’s deal was justifiable (“can’t let an asset walk for nothing!”), Evan Turner’s deal was justifiable (“we had to use the money on someone!