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D. Aldridge: Blazers Had A "Bottom 10" Offseason

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David Aldridge of NBA.com writes that the Portland Trail Blazers had a "bottom 10" offseason, ranking them No. 23 out of 30. ---------------------------- It took new general manager Neil Olshey a few years with the Clippers, and not a small amount of luck, winning the lottery when Blake Griffin was the prize, to amass enough assets to be able to make a credible trade offer to the Hornets last December for Chris Paul. Olshey is about where he was in 2008 in Los Angeles with Portland. The first step was getting rid of Felton and giving the ball to the talented Lillard, who'll start at the point. Leonard isn't quite ready to take over in the middle, but he's the very definition of potential. Olshey tried to give Leonard some help by dropping a $56 million offer sheet on Roy Hibbert, but the Pacers wasted little time before matching. Until then, Portland could use some help from Freeland, the '06 first-rounder who's been in Europe and who is playing for Great Britain's Olympic team. Batum gets the expectations of his new deal thrust upon him at small forward. Meanwhile, Olshey has to hire a coach, having pared his candidates down to finalists Kaleb Canales, the current interim head coach, and Mavericks assistant Terry Stotts, who's had previous head coach stints in Milwaukee and Atlanta. No matter who gets the job, this is a long-term deal. Pass the coffee and granola. This is going to take a while. ---------------------------- ed: text edited, bumped to front page