Dame all but demanding vet roster

So you gauge the market for picks 2-9 once you know which one you have, you attach it to the salaries to get back a high impact player and you pull the trigger... or you trade Dame on draft night because that's when the most will be available for him in terms of a youth rebuild.

I think with what will in all likelihood will be a top 7 pick, the 23rd pick, three future FRPs if 23 isn't moved to Chicago to make that four future FRPs, Ant, Nurk and even Nas plus a TPE big enough to bring in a real contributor... we have the pieces to put an extremely competitive team around Dame, Shae and Jerami along with bench pieces in Matisse and Trendon who I think could be big minute contributors on a contender.

I will probably type this out more than 32 more times but... we will have a clearer picture of our assets on May 16th until then we're just wildly guessing at what we have to offer. The second pick is a far more valuable trade chip than the eighth and knowing we will be drafting Wemby is a far different scenario than all of the more likely scenarios. In other words it's just too soon to tell.

 

I don't even think he will ask for a trade, what he has obviously already done because he wouldn't discuss it with the media if he hadn't already with the team, is said to the team that they are either choosing to go younger and move him or get high impact proven help for Dame to win now. Dame wants to stay but I agree with you that he has earned the right to say that the team has to be making the moves to help him win the most he can or they have to choose to move him.

 

I didn't watch the video so I don't know what he said exactly or the context of why he was saying it.

 

I find it interesting that there appears to be a group of fans who are upset that Dame is pushing for actions to be taken to give this franchise a chance to win a championship. I have yet to see him say that the franchise should be wreckless or make bad moves.

I do not want Cronin to make a wreckless all-in move. I also don't want Cronin to trade Dame for a discount. I hope he looks at all options and takes the best path, whatever that may be.

 

No one really knows that. TBH, I'd argue that if all we're trying to do is duplicate a player who in 2 years would do what a player we could get with the MLE would do, I'd draft them because the MLE player probably is who they are and the drafted player still has a few years to improve their game.

It's more about what you could get in trade for that pick. If you're trading it to get an Aaron Gordon, I think that's short-sighted when you could draft Jarace Walker who is a similar player that scouts think is plug and play and wouldn't cost as much. And Walker has the potential to develop into more of a Draymond Green down the road, so why do I want a guy that's just another RoCo to keep treading water and then leaving the team to drown down the river a bit?

 

I don't think Dame is a superior player to Steph. I think that Dame has some strengths that are better than areas where Steph isn't as strong but Steph is obviously the more elite shooter which is the area of the game where both guys have the greatest impact. Steph is most likely better than Dame and it's probably not too close but Dame has never played for a coach as good as Kerr or on a roster as good as those that Steph has won titles with. Again Steph is most likely better than Dame by a margin that makes that hard to dispute even when factoring in the different environments that they have played in.

As to your second point, of course there is a ton of risk in trading away all of the future picks we could trade away (it's not all of our future picks because of the Stepien rule). It would be a huge gamble but if it would yield a second superstar who makes sense with Dame, Shae and Jerami I think it would be a gamble worth taking. I'd also love it if we could get Wemby and then trade 4 of those picks along with players to match the incoming salary of a solid all star.

 

Because from my perspective the only options that can give this team a chance to win a championship are reckless, bad moves. Primarily because there aren’t any trades that would make us a championship contender in my eyes.

 

The certainty you speak with makes me feel like you have insider information that the rest of us would love to have access to... hell it seems like insider information that Joe Cronin would love to have access to. In other words unless you know exactly what's going on in every front office of every team with players that could make us contenders then you are speaking in absolutes that really water down the credibility of your perspective.

 

He's not going to come out and say he wants them to be reckless and make bad moves, of course. Why would he say that? Why would he want that?

And sure, he's pushing for the team to win a championship. The problem is his idea of how to accomplish that might be pushing the team farther from a championship.

The issue is that he has a bias or preference that eliminates a potential avenue to what he wants, and, like most prejudices, there's just nothing factually to support eliminating that player pool from helping Dame and the Blazers to get to a championship.

I think of it a bit like baseball with the Negro Leagues. We know they have great players but we're not signing them because of skin color. It's not rational to say "I don't want to draft 19-year-olds" when we drafted a 19-year-old this year who looks like he can help the Blazers to their goal and that we drafted the guy running in the backcourt with him now as a 19-year-old.

It really should be Player A vs. Player B. That's it.

If Dame has a preference and it's going to be a distraction ... and he's got people here and nationally talking about his comment, so it's definitely a distraction ... then I think it's fine to let him go.

 

You literally said this:

 

There was nothing different in this interview than what Dame has said in the past. The ones in here who want Dame gone, are the ones who are making more out of this. Dame wants to compete. What's he supposed to say, "Golly gee willakers, i don't care if we ever do anything". Cronin should be doing all he can. Dame's a generational talent. We all hope Sharpe is as well, but it's not a given. And this, ooh ,now GM's are gonna hold out on us crap. Phoenix didn't and got Durant. It wasn't a low ball offer either because the Durant demanded a trade. Dame knows the plan. He knows Wemby is a game changer. But a lot of teams are in change mode. And many of those teams have players we could use. I'm excited about this offseason. I hope we get Wemby and he's the cat's meow. But i want difference makers through trades. They're out there for the taking.

 

So I think the question is how you'd fill out the team using the MLE, other trades, and the Chicago pick.

Lillard/Sharpe/?/Grant/Bam
with Thybulle, Nas (injured again), and Watford off the bench.

Desperately needs more playmaking and we still have the hole at 3.

 

Emotional day. On a personality level I can't stand Steph, so sometimes my frustration that his childish punk ass has had so many opportunities that Dame has been denied gets to me. Steph is better than Dame and everyone else who has ever played at the thing that is best about Dame (shooting), Steph is also just as good of a passer if not better, both guys aren't great defenders. Steph is most likely better than Dame and it probably isn't even as close as I'd like to think it is. I just don't like Steph and really love Dame so especially when Steph is aggravating me my judgment is cloudy.

 

Dame's a better passer, Period!

 

Collin Kapernick and Lamar Jackson say hello.

 

Dame Shae Mikal Jerami Bam

 

When did good judgement (Jackson's case) become collusion? It would be insane to offer him that much guaranteed money for that many years? Just because a couple of idiot owners did it with Watson and Murray doesn't mean the rest of the owners have to be as clueless.

 

That would be a really good lineup....but I don't believe we have nearly the assets to pull it off.

I hope Dame gets a title. Since I don't see that happening here, I hope he can go somewhere that he can get one like Clyde and Jerome did. Hopefully the resulting assets from that if it were to happen would make us better for the future than a paltry average of #7 for a decade. That's fine for a team like the Kings who Kang'd it for nearly 2 decades, but at some point, there needs to be improvement or you need to reset and go again.

#Life

 

I have absolute confidence in my perspective, correct.

And my perspective is that there isn’t a single move that the Blazers could make that would make them a contender.

Now, if you think more than one front office is willing to give us a superstar for pennies on the dollar, sure.

I’m talking we need Bam + Giannis.

Giannis alone won’t turn this shit heap into a contender.

People act like we are one move away. We aren’t. We probably aren’t even two or three moves away.

 

You been following the story? He cant even get an interview.
regardless of bis desires, he is an mvp player being shut out of talks by every other team because he doesn't have an agent. He cant get a meeting even.
Id say the reference is valid but if not, explain Colin.