Lillard wants major trade this summer

I'd wonder if that extension was, in part, ownership admitting to Dame they probably couldn't build a contender but they'd pay him anyway...please don't rock the boat

not sure Dame will cooperate for the full 5 years, or even past this summer, but they gave him 122 million reasons to cooperate

 

The article is clickbait and has no content that confirms any Lillard demands on the front office...it says nothing he hasn't said for years and is worded to make it sound like he's threatening to leave which he hasn't done at all...all he's said is he's close to Joe and understands Joe's plans ......today Lillard said the team as constructed could reach the 5th seed before the playoffs. Dame is a guy who holds himself accountable as much as any other team members.

 

You have to actually HAVE talent to make a major trade though right?

 

or draft picks and friendly or expiring contracts, youth,,,,,Ant will fetch you talent coming back.

 

You have to look at the individual players and how complimentary they are to building around them. KAT, for example, plays no defense and is a contractual anchor by any measure. Dame is a similar problem, where the team is constantly trying to find the right pieces to fit his strengths and cover his weaknesses, patching holes in the ship with duct tape. This team is a reflection of Dame, both good and bad.

From a team-building perspective, Dame is half the impact of Embiid. Barring injury considerations, of course.

There's also the issue of how teams arrive at the massive contracts, in the context of winning before the big raises kick in (GS, Phoenix, Milwaukee, etc.), and helping management justify paying more to keep things afloat.

If you're going to factor in the coming extensions of Booker and those guys, then you need to redo the math on how many guys match Dame's percentage of the cap when his top dollar numbers also kick in.

I think I've taken the boating metaphors as far as they can go...

 

dame lillard doesnt care about the future of this franchise, he cares about himself (nothing wrong with it), so hed be willing to give up as many picks and ant & sharpe for someone who could improve the team

he wants to win the chip, thats fine, but theres no realistic scenario in which portland trail blazers can become a contender and im simply not willing to trade sharpe (ant less so) and picks for a player like siakam or og anunoby etc

for kevin durant (when he was at brooklyn), sure, lets go for it, but these other guys are just not good enough

if its between our future & dame lillard leaving, im willing to let dame leave, im not giving up on our future for an unrealistic goal of a one man

 

I completely agree with this except I don't think Embiid is even a slight possibility. If he were to hit the market there is no chance the Blazers can outbid OKC.

 

that's all reasonable and I don't really have any major "yeah, but...."

I would dispute Embiid having twice the impact:



he plays on a better, more complete team, and that drives a lot of those numbers

he's a more impactful player than Dame, but the gap isn't nearly as big as you claim, IMO. Dame's biggest limitation was a decade of Olshey...and now maybe Cronin & the Vulcans

 

If the Timberwolves are going to trade Towns this summer, should we be interested? I think it would be a good risk. Dame might be exactly what Towns needs.

 

Yeah the youth and ball handling/creating opportunities of Simons could really entice a team that feels he could grow into being a primary scoring guard. Like CJ his value will be at its highest before he’s really a proven commodity.

 

...idk, KAT seems to have weak mentals and plays softer than Lamarshmallow ever did

 

Cronin has had 1 fucking off-season, and while he’s been a tad underwhelming, brought us one of the higher rated players we’ve gotten.

He’s not talking about Cronin

 

This off season the Blazer bashing side of sports media is going to rumor Dame deals all day long trying to pry him loose from here. Hopefully he will just shut out the noise because in the end thar's all it is. I still think talent will want to play with Dame in Portland once their super teams fail to get rings in big markets which is going to happen to at least 4 teams this season. This can only happen if the front office is willing to go into the tax to build a deep talented team.

 

Well, that's the issue isn't it? Will Jody and The Vulcans be able to stick a crowbar in their wallet......if we keep hearing whimpering about staying out of the tax we may as well get comfortable as the new Kings.

 

All we need in that case is a G league team called the Eugene Edibles and I'll be a season ticket holder!

 

What future? Portland hasn’t had a future in a long time. It’s been years of mediocrity, with an ever-revolving door of ho-hum players. I would give up any amount of draft picks to get a legitimate shot at a title with Lillard. I don’t care if Portland sucks for a long time after they win their title: they’ve been sucking for a long time anyway.

 

You have to take that risk.