not counting this year's new rookies, Cronin has had 41 different players put on a Blazers jersey and run shifts under Coach Billups. While variety can have intriguing moments, stability takes a hit when players lack chemistry with each other.
This very obviously has been a shit show. Whether you want to blame Neil because he did the things he did or Joe for breaking down the team every time he said he would build them up doesn't really matter. This has been a team that has tanked two seasons in a row and has only added Jerami Grant while subtracting other players who could play a significant role on a playoff team without adding other players who could immediately contribute in the playoffs.
Or Dame for signing a supermax so he got his money and asked out as soon as he could All Joe has really done was shed pieces that were proven to be bad fits next to Dame Neil hired an inexperienced head coach Neil refused to trade CJ Neil thought status quo was just fine Neil drafted 2 WABC in the fucking lottery. TRADING UP TO GET ONE Neil thought the NBA was a 6’9” and under league
Not Dame anyway. If Dame came out and said Joe had not been truthful with him I'd believe that. To this point he has not. Joe on the other hand has said "He failed". That I believe.
So you are saying this is a combination of Olshey, Lillard, Cronin, and Billups's fault? Well Yeah. Might be easier to just say Organization.
I just want to make this really clear, other teams would have offered Dame a supermax extension. He would have been available for it two years after he was traded to another team. So if Dame really just wanted to bounce and have his supermax contract too, he would have done it after the Nuggets loss. When he was obviously very seriously thinking about leaving in the summer of 2020 he could have and still signed the same extension that he did in the summer of 2022 with any team he was traded to. I think when people in here stop acting like jilted lovers and start using some logical thought process about Dame, everyone will admit that Dame did want to be here his whole career, he did want to do what Dirk did. It's obvious that he wanted the front office to live up to what they said they would do and he gave them a very long time to show him that they would. Being mad at Dame for the "Miami or bust" bullshit is logical, trying to start twisting this into him only staying here as long as he did because of max money is ludicrous. Maybe you agree with all of that. You're right Joe has really only shed pieces that were bad fits next to Dame and probably more importantly hasn't bothered to replace them with pieces that were good fits with the exception of Jerami. So Joe catches blame for this, Neil did the most to make Dame leave but Joe really put the final touches on this whole situation. Dame just did what he said he would do and I do not think for one second that Dame thought he would have to.
