Zombie Damian Lillard to request trade in coming days (nope, he's not.)

Okay you make a point there

 

I guess because if he doesn't, he may as well go ahead and ask for a trade now. Norm is going to get plenty of offers and, IMO, he's pretty unlikely to return here to a rebuilding situation. If he doesn't know that Dame is committed to being here, he's gone. No, Norm isn't the missing puzzle piece, but him being here makes CJ available as a trade piece that, hopefully, can be packaged to get that additional piece.

 

airing issues out to the public doesn’t help. If you’re in a bad marriage do you decide to tell everyone to try to improve the situation at home?

 

You shut your mouth and keep sleeping with the nanny!

 

hahaha she’s hot

 

No because there is no possible advantage to that for your marriage because the outside parties you're airing your grievances to can't possibly make the marriage better. However, in professional sports, there are outside parties that can make the situation better so making a demand public after years of those demands falling on deaf ears... just might get the ball rolling.

I understand that it seemingly puts your GM behind the proverbial eight ball but in fact it doesn't. They still have the same assets and the teams out there still have the same needs. It just makes it so everyone knows your GM is open for business. Neil should love every time he gets a call about Dame because he can say that we're not ever trading Dame but we do have a guy in CJ that does a lot of the things Dame can do.

Dame just made Neil's life busier but I don't think he made it harder. He greased the wheels for change.

 

I get that but I don't think that should be Dame's concern. Yes, Norm leaving would hurt the Blazers, but him staying doesn't make Portland a better team than last year. And last year wasn't good enough. Dame did not create the bind of Norm being UFA, that was Olshey

I think Dame really wants to stay in Portland but right now he's disillusioned with Seattle and doesn't believe a word Olshey says. The only lever he has to compel a roster upgrade is a threat to demand a trade. If he gives up that lever just to get Norm re-signed, I think he's convinced Olshey would do nothing more

 

Dame never had to go over Neil's head to talk directly with Paul Allen...he didn't need an appointment at all..they talked all the time and Paul even lent Dame his recording studio in Los Angeles and had him on his yacht....I think the idea that Dame needs a chain of command to talk to anyone involved with the team is nonsense....they all talk directly and sure...Neil isn't always there when they do...nothing burger in that narrative from my view.....nobody should be shocked Dame met with Paul...they had a relationship...Dame went to bat for Terry Stotts and don't think his getting fired didn't add to Dame's frustration..it did. He said the day after Stotts was fired that he loved Terry and missed him already.....enter the Jason Kidd drama shortly after....people around here didn't like Stotts much but Dame clearly did as did most of his teammates....they had a really close working relationship and are actually friends.

 

I also think Dame is an incredibly ethical guy and unlike Olshey, Dame won't give his word unless he knows it can be counted on. So he can't tell Norm that he's going to be here when he knows that it might result in Norm being here without him.

 

I have no problem with Dame using the leverage provided by the threat of looking for an exit if the team isn't improved. I just think that by doing it in such a public way it actually reduces the chances Olshey can accomplish it. Dame is a pretty effective communicator. I'd be willing to bet that he made his position pretty damned clear to Olshey behind closed doors. I get that you really dislike Olshey, but I doubt that Neil is so obtuse that he would ignore Dame saying flat out, "improve the team or you're going to get to experience a Harden situation right here in Portland." Dame was really upset, and rightfully so, by the Blazers' inability to get by a wounded Denver team. I think he let it impact his judgement (which is usually stellar) about how to handle this situation. Now Olshey has to convince Norm and probably at least one other significant FA to sign here and he has to do it with a cloud of the team's best player threatening to push for a trade if things don't go right. That likely makes Olshey's job not just difficult, but impossible unless Dame is willing to make commitments to these guys.

 

Not an issue then. Norm won't be here.

 

okay that makes a lot of sense actually. Thank you for making me feel better about the situation lol.

 

Dame got trashed because he commented on the Blazer list of coaches that Olshey compiled

Dame is getting trashed because he finally went public with his unhappiness about the rosters Olshey has been trotting out

and if Powell signs elsewhere it will be Dame's fault for not spending another off-season pleading, behind closed doors, for Olshey to build a contender....not because Powell doesn't want to be a full-time SF or CJ's backup

got it

 

If CJ is here because Neil doesn't have the ability to get a better fit than him that adds value to the team and we don't re-sign Norm... all of that shit is on Neil and the blame falls nowhere close to Dame. Also I think at that point whether it's in three weeks, at the trade deadline or draft day next year, Dame will be gone and we will get less value for him because people will know that we have no chance of keeping him here and happy.

 

Your first point has nothing to do with what we were discussing. Dame got trashed by some pinheads on the coaching hire because some pinheads will trash him no matter what when there's an issue like Billups was involved with.

I'm not aware of anyone "trashing" Dame for going public. I'd say that the overall public comment has been about the same as when food is tossed into the trout ponds at the fish farm...unabashed excitement about luring him elsewhere.

My point (and I think it's pretty much just a simple assessment of what should be perfectly plain to anyone), is that in choosing to go public, not only with making his case for "urgency" in improving the team, but also saying that he hasn't made up his mind yet about what he's going to do, Dame has made it exponentially harder to get free agents to come here. All else being equal to a FA, Dame's the attraction for playing in Portland vs signing elsewhere. If you don't know if he's going to be here, that attraction is gone.

 

CJ is here because, up until his gigantic wet fizzle in the Denver series, Neil and Dame were both on record as believing that they could contend with CJ as one of a Big 3. Pretty sure that that line of thinking has been rocked pretty severely in Blazers circles.

I'm not looking to blame Dame or to excuse some crappy mismanagement by Olshey. I'm just saying that Dame's public comments may well be the final nail in the coffin. I think the only way out is if Olshey is able to pull off a trade that moves CJ and brings in an exciting player almost immediately, before Norm has to make a decision. I don't think that's likely to happen, but the dynamic would change immediately and that might be enough to convince both Norm and Dame that there are prospects for contending here in Portland.

 

this is basically your argument, and logically, you are saying that Dame should never say anything other than I'm a Blazer for life in public and private comments

there's a disconnect to what you're saying. That being if Dame is unsure of what he's going to do, but doesn't say that publicly, only in private, he'd say that to Powell as well. That's Dame. So then, it's irrelevant if Dame made it public or kept it behind closed doors. he'd still say the same thing to Powell and that's "I'm unsure"

 

I agree. Neil has to make a trade moving CJ and whatever else for a player that makes us quite a bit better before Monday afternoon. That's how I've felt at least. I guess there could be a chance that Norm re-signs with CJ still here and gives us longer to make a move but I wouldn't do that if I was Norm.

Oh and Neil put himself in this situation. You don't trust your star player to make personnel moves or tell you who not to trade, you make your team better and if the star player doesn't want to play on a better team, you move him too.

 

Henry is currently tripling down.

wtf, dude. stop.