Steve Patterson and His Executive Wisdom
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July 3, 2012, 10:33 am
Steve Patterson is the former President and General Manager of the Portland Trailblazers and he is currently overseeing all things sports as the Athletic Director for Arizona State University. He joined Chad Tuesday on The Morning Sports Page to give his take on the news and notes in the NBA and weigh in on the new playoff system in college football.
Patterson maintained that this year’s draft was one of the most straightforward drafts in recent memory. For the previous three months, NBA reporters filled the newswire with stories of teams trying to trade their picks, acquire more picks, get into the lottery, etc…and nothing happened. The big news of the day was Tyler Zeller getting sent to Cleveland for a late first and two second-round picks. Not exactly a blockbuster acquisition.He also suggests that he thinks the Blazers made a nice hire by going out and getting Neil Olshey from the Clippers. Patterson said that he has worked with Olshey before and he’s a smart, well spoken guy. And if he was able to turn around the Clippers – one of the most poorly managed franchises in sports – he should be able to do some great things with a young Blazers roster.
With the news that Portland has offered Indiana Pacers Center Roy Hibbert a max contract, Chad made sure to get Patterson’s executive expertise to identify whether the Pacers will match the offer or not. Patterson asserts that there are a lot of decisions that go into matching an offer – especially a max level offer. Indy must figure out how an offer will affect its own salary cap. It must determine what level of commitment it has to its other players. It must decide whether it’s worth it to pay the luxury tax…And he acknowledges that in most cases, teams tend to hold on to their young assets.
Patterson also claims that he is a big supporter of the decision to bring a four-team playoff to football. He asserts that it is a fairer gauge of strength of schedule. He also illustrates that the decision to have a committee pick the four teams is probably the fairest way to determine the top four teams because it forces voters to pay attention to teams on the East coast and teams on the West coast – something he feels may not be happening every week.
