Holdahl: Blazers Owner Paul Allen Praises GM Neil Olshey

In an interview with Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com, Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen gives his assessment of the team's 2013 offseason and the job done by GM Neil Olshey

How important was it for you to have the team improve going into next season after seeing how well the team performed at times last season? Some people might have assumed that the team would want to take a step back, but it seems like you've wanted to reload and make the playoffs.

Allen: "Any time you can get into the playoffs, it's a positive thing. Sometimes you have to say, 'Okay, we're rebuilding. We're blowing it up.' But that's not what we've decided to do, obviously, in this offseason.

"I think last year, you have to remember, was Neil's first year coming in and he had to find out about some of the players we had rights to like Victor (Claver) and Joel (Freeland) and (Luke) Babbitt and Nolan Smith. I mean, a lot of guys. It was a learning process to see how much they could contribute or where we needed to upgrade in the offseason, so we've really focused on trying to do that this offseason.

"We had the tenth pick in the draft and a significant amount of cap space to work with, so I think Neil's done an excellent job maximizing our opportunity. But then you have to see, as I said before the beginning of last year, how it plays out when the lights go on and the season starts and these guys are trying to win real games that count. Then you see the fruits of the offseason workouts with the coaches and all the time doing individual drills and all that stuff, you see whether that pays off. So that's always exciting."

Allen also conducted a video interview with Dwight Jaynes of CSNNW.com.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter