It's no longer a matter of if, but when. I'm guessing he's going to stay one year with Scoot playing behind him learning a thing or two. But year two, Scoot needs to start. A future backcourt of Scoot/Sharpe/Ant is so obvious that it's not fathomable to imagine anything different. I say he's traded in spring of next year. I love Dame. Hopefully he gets one more good year of love from Blazerland and the team sends him to a good situation that helps us too.
Lillard trapped himself in Portland with his massive contract. He's just gonna have to suck it up and play with these kids. Unless somebody buys him out?
It's likely he is on the way out. Writing is on the wall with no trades in the draft. He can't be happy. Maybe the Blazers convinced him otherwise. I truly hope so.
David Robinson won late in his career when he was no longer the alpha dog, on the only team he played for.
I think Portland adds vet free agents and trades at least Ant for a proven vet forward. Portland finishes 4-6 seed and loses in the first round and Dame gets traded next summer Or none of that
With the Trail Blazers drafting Scoot Henderson No. 3 overall, what does Damian Lillard's future in Portland look like? Borzello: Whatever it was before the draft. Portland couldn't pass up on a talent such as Henderson, regardless of Lillard's decision. If Lillard leaves, Henderson is a player for Portland to build around. If Lillard stays, the Trail Blazers will balance trying to be competitive with Lillard and keeping an eye on the future with Anfernee Simons and their other young players. Bontemps: Uncertain. Henderson has massive upside. I love the pick for Portland and think taking -- and keeping -- Henderson always made the most sense moving forward. It remains to be seen how Lillard will react to the Blazers not using the third pick to land an impact veteran player to help the franchise move more quickly toward contention. Givony: Exactly the same as yesterday. Lillard was a full participant in Portland's pre-draft process, attending workouts for both Henderson and Miller, as well as other top prospects, and he knew better than anyone how unlikely it was the Trail Blazers would end up trading this pick. Woo: Probably the same. I do think both sides might eventually land on a decision to part ways, but the timeline on that doesn't seem imminent, and the Blazers appear ready to rebuild on the fly. It's hard to trade your franchise player, especially one making as much as Lillard is making, and sometimes it's also hard for those guys to decide to move on. McMenamin: Hazy. Credit Henderson for already pitching Lillard on their pairing, telling NBA TV shortly after he was drafted, "If we combine our games, it will be over [for the rest of the NBA]." Confidence is the secret sauce that can turn a prospect into an immediate-impact pro, after all. But after 11 years in the league and with his 33rd birthday coming next month, no one could blame Lillard for hoping to play with more experienced teammates at this stage of his career.
Has anyone heard from Dame himself? Until then... This was the best we could have hoped for long term with the team. And we needed to do that. I'm one of dames biggest defenders and supporters but we're also a team and had to look at post-dame life too.
It’s Ant that should be traded 100%, the question is if anyone would want him on the contract he just signed. Dame is potentially more tradable, but not so sure that we could trade him somewhere that helps both parties. Plus, that’s loser mentality… We literally just got better and deeper. And are you really saying Ant is a better fit for a hybrid guard role than Dame?!? Whatever you are on is definitely not de-criminalized in Oregon.
Hmmmm..... interesting question. I think Ant would accept a hybrid role before Dame would. I think Simons has a better contract to be a hybrid. If Dame goes, and the starting lineup is Scoot/Sharpe, I think Simons would make sense coming off the bench as the backup to both positions.
Trades were not made because Portland didn't have enough contracts or valuable players to trade. What other teams wanted for their stars was more than Portland was willing to give up. It wasn't for a lack of conversation, but that was the reality of the market. There are things that can be addressed that weren't addressed last year regardless of whether another star is brought in or not. Size - of almost any size. Nurk being the only rotation player over 6'8" last year was borderline incompetent. Forward depth - As of now, it's Grant/Watford. That leaves a lot of spots to be filled by other than rookie/minimum contract types. Not sure who they can get in FA'cy, but it won't be making the Blazers a contender anytime soon.
Dame > Simons It’s not close and it doesn’t matter what position or role they are playing. Only reason you don’t trade Ant is if nobody is willing to take him without giving up Sharpe.
That's my fear. If we thought teams were gouging us before, I can only imagine the shitty offers for Simons now.
For any of the three really. Because they know what a logjam in the backcourt we have now. I haven’t looked and thought about what teams work well for both of us. You see people saying “Trade _____” but where are the trade examples that actually make sense? This is kind of a tricky situation. I don’t see how you would ever shop Dame before Ant
We aren't shopping Dame. That has been abundantly clear. What could happen is Dame requesting a trade and then we start listening to offers. We won't shop him.
I don't know if I want the team to convince him of more lies. They've convinced him for a while now that they would do what it takes to put a winner around him and then done the opposite. I wanted Dame to play every game of his career here I just think what the team did last night was borderline disrespectful to him and I don't see a path without trading Scoot which obviously Joe isn't going to do, to making this team relevant around Dame. I think it's time to move on and while that's sad, we can get excited about a young team with a lot of promise and Dame can be traded to a team with a lot clearer path to contention.
