I'm a big fan of Dame but I'm a bigger fan of the team and it's not just Dame that management has been jerking around since LaMarcus left, it's us too. We all know it. A front office led by Olshey with Cronin second in command told us the big moves were coming and they never did, they pissed away some of Dame's best years. Now we have Cronin who kept talking about pushing in all of his chips to get this team to contender status around Dame and every time he's told us he'd do it he's done the opposite. So I'm not so much defending Dame because the "Miami or bust" bullshit is not only uncool towards the team, it's fucking idiotic because it makes this an unmanageable situation for Cronin, who was already going to have a hard time managing it. That being said, Dame obviously got sick of being jerked around, whether that was him being lied to or just let down by ineptitude and he understandably chose a defiant path, it's just not a productive one. So I'm not pissed at Dame for being uncool and idiotic, I wish he would wise up and expand that list but I think he has justifiable reasons for being stubborn right now. Unfortunately that doesn't serve our team's best interests and it probably serves Dame's even less.
There are things from the past, that led to this situation as well. It wasn't last year or last three years. In my view everyone had his part on why this team was rotten. Olshey, we all know why. Stotts, for spoiling both, Dame and CJ, because he couldn't hold Dame accountable and then CJ followed. And there is Dame himself. I love how Dame brings new weapons after every single offseason. Could he address his defense issues earlier, instead of half court 3pointers? I wish he could pay more attention to that in the past instead of have this ISO shootarounds with CJ and Melo. Happy times (for them). And it is funny how Dame says, that's on the FO to build the roster now, like he was never involved in this. Like he wanted his friends getting paid. Like he wanted another spoiled ISO star in Melo here. I don't know if Blevins couldn't really be hired in Blazers on other position if Dame rally cared about contending? It feels like Dame growed up after Stotts was gone. But he was still chasing stats and wanted to be in scoring champion run and all nba in tanking season. And chasing stats is not something I like personally. Thing is, Cronin couldn't built a contender, even if he traded #3. We sailed too far into ocean of happy culture, to be contender all of sudden. Olshey has his money, Stotts has his, Jody has her, Lillard has his and his friends have it as well. This failure is on everybody.
Again, do we know Cronin had a trade(s) he turned down that would have made us a contender? I can’t think of even one rumor besides getting fleeced for OG and he’s not a top 10 player that would change our trajectory. We didn’t have the assets to outbid PHX for KD and what other game changer was out there? Olshey was arguably the worst GM of my lifetime (Nash maybe worse or whoever assembled the Jail Blazers, I think it was Nash) and he did pass up at least two and maybe three trades of that caliber Butler, PG13 and arguably Kawhi. Can you name one guy on their level Cronin passed up? I’d love to see a citation if you got one. If not, I don’t think we can blame Cronin. Olshey, Kolde and arguably Jody yes. Also, has Goodwin sued Abbot yet for defamation? If not we gotta give that story a fairly high probability of being true. If you run with the thought exercise it’s true that sure puts a different spin on the situation. Namely that Dame wanted the extra year and higher yearly and didn’t want to risk the ultra max by asking for a no-trade clause which would have raided antennas. When you boil it all down, I think Dame’s position is pretty indefensible. Ask for a trade sure. I was fine with that. Demanding only ONE team and then going scorched Earth with Goodwin and the Miami media poisoning the well was a bridge way too far. Yet Dame continues to employ Goodwin and hasn’t disavowed his pernicious tactics. Naw, Dame can pound sand.
Again, I don't care if it's lies or ineptitude, Joe didn't get done what he said he would. To be honest with you, I still think Joe could pull off the right trades and have Dame recommit to the team but he won't. Rebuilding is a much easier path. I just hope Joe doesn't fuck up the Dame trade. It's funny that you mention rumors because most great trades aren't rumored before happening. The only thing we as fans know is that shit just doesn't get done on our team. Yeah, we hired a draft expert and since then we've drafted well, so the fuck what? That didn't keep us from losing the commitment of our best player in franchise history. What lost our best Blazers player ever was an inability to create trades that made this team relevant despite huge assets in pick 7 in the 2022 draft and pick 3 in the three player 2024 draft plus salaries (Ant and Nurk among others) to match just about any all star or superstar in the game. Joe is either not a competent enough negotiator, not imaginative enough, ambitious enough, was just straight up lying or some combination of these. For me that's not on Dame. If I were Dame's friend or family member and didn't grow up worshipping this team I would have told him not to take that meeting after the draft and just demand a trade, I'd also have told him not to name just one team. So in short, Joe either couldn't get it done or his plan all along was to rebuild and use Dame as a springboard into that rebuild and a PR patsy that a lot of people are buying into. It sucks that Dame has thrown a wrench into the rebuild but if he views it the second way, I would understand why he would make this hard on Joe.
Sharpe + Scoot>>>>> OG and nobody else was available. Your phantom theoretical trades are just that. Might as well be mad Joe didn’t trade Simons for Luka straight across. Dame is gone and the smart thing to do is force him to publicly and authentically open up his list by making him wait.
Just a side note. I don't care if Joe was lying or inept. I just want the dude to execute the best Dame trade possible to propel our rebuild. I don't mind the waiting. I don't really give a fuck about what our front office has done wrong until now. I want the best outcome for our team. Let's hope the best deal for Dame happens and it's a great deal for us.
The certainty with which people on here with no sources declare definitively who was or was not available for whom is nonsense. So OG was the only player available for Sharpe + Scoot and salary??? That wasn't even rumored. The rumor was that was the offer for Zion and we don't even have a report for a counter offer, not OG and there are more than two players in the league.
The Blazers also didn’t have to offer him that coming off his injury plagued season, they did and he would be dumb to turn that down. The only part I agree with and not happy about is the one team, Miami or nothing else part about his trade request. That part is bs. But I disagree with the rest.
You know, this isn't much different than if someone were to say Dame lied because he didn't win a championship in Portland after saying he wanted to. How some people continue to equate the Blazers choosing not to make bad, knee-jerk moves because they promised Dame they'd do everything they could to build a winner around him with lying is just waaaay out there.
Husband: "Honey, I'm home." Wife: "Did you get the milk like you said?" Husband: "Oh, I'm sorry, baby. The store was all out of skim. I'll get some in the morning." Wife: "LIAR! That's not good enough! You promised! (starts sobbing uncontrollably). I'm leaving you, Harold. I'm going to stay with my mother." That's the Cronin-lied-or-was-inept-because-he-didn't-make-a-bad-deal-or-one-that-wasn't-on-the-table-let's-all-worship-King-Dame argument in a nutshell.
Joe is a super nice guy, and he’s transparent somewhat. He said he failed Dame but would continue to build around him. The guy is learning on the job and getting #3 gave him a life rope to re-engineer around youth. I think he would still say he wants to build around Dame.
A Christmas tree her first husband (Olshey), whom she divorced, had bought last Christmas and she had always had to take it out herself in August, and then he ran up her credit card bills, cleaned out her bank accounts, and still ended up homeless.
