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Holdahl: GM Neil Olshey Sees Blazers In "Asset Acquisition Phase"

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Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com has posted a transcript of Portland Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey's Monday night Courtside interview, in which he stressed the importance of building the team's talent pool. ---------------------------- I think that the point that this organization is at right now is an asset acquisition phase. We've got to rebuild our assets and at that point, either guys are going to make your team and contribute because they were drafted or you're going to be able to use those assets to generate a deal to bring players in from the outside from other organizations to rebuild the roster. But I think the roster is a work in progress at this point. I think we've got a lot of raw materials and we do have some building blocks with guys like Wes (Matthews) and Nic (Batum) and LaMarcus (Aldridge) and some young players who are yet to develop to their potential yet, and we're going to get in the gym and work with them. But, you know, I think everyone has to look at the draft as a player acquisition vehicle and the more assets you can acquire in this league, the more flexibility you have to build the roster and accelerate the growth to become more successful quicker. We were on one path with the Los Angeles Clippers a year ago, building through the draft, building with youth and when an opportunity came in to go after a franchise-level player, we had the assets to do it. So that's really what the draft is about. It's not about filling needs. ---------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter