Then Cronin should've said as much when he was preaching transparency. I've seen Dame drag pretty mediocre supporting casts to playoff wins. Even if it was likely to fall short, I wanted to take a swing because even a rebuild is likely to fall short. It's not easy.
Giving up trading a pick days to weeks before the draft without seriously taking calls on draft night when they were likely going to get their best offers says to me there weren't serious about being aggressive in building around Dame this off-season. I highly doubt teams just weren't interested in Scoot Henderson... Reporting was to the contrary.
How about the idea Cronin told interested GM's to have their best offer in 48 hours prior to the draft so he and the Vulcans could formulate their draft plan? I can see that as a strong possibility. I often put a timeline on vendors submitting bids to me.
Joe said he failed Dame. He wasn't making that shit up. He needs to surround Scoot and Shae with balanced deep team without going into another 2-3 tank mode. In fact tank mode should be done, imo.
Most teams that have the 3rd pick don't have a player as good as Dame. It was a unique position to be in.
Sure, but if he wanted to build a winner around Dame, why wouldn't he at least listen to calls leading up to the selection and even right after selecting Scoot in case a team got desperate and gave him the type of deal he supposedly wanted? I'd guess there's logistical reasons why you have a timeline on vendors submitting bids in whatever you do that wouldn't exist for sports.
Anybody who thought Cronin was going to win free agent battles here in Portland wasn't living in reality.
We shouldn't assume everything available was only what was rumored, or that rumored packages is the most other teams would give up. But even if it was as bad as it sounded, they had other assets and moves at their disposal and did absolutely nothing.
Yup. That statement was either extremely misguided or him lying out his ass. Considering he admitted later that free agency wasn't in his plans, I'd lean towards the latter.
Cronin said "building a contender", build a championship level roster around Lillard. Pushing all the chips in. Damian never said anything about championships. He's not leaving because the Blazers aren't championship level. Dame wants out because the Blazers lied to him and built a stinky draft team, with much more intended stank on the horizon until they get better. People are taking Cronin's own words, and using them to shower Lillard in mud. The "what would you do differently?" is on a loop. The Blazers have already drafted Scoot, and going backwards to build a better team around Lillard would miss out on Scoot. It's a debate that goes nowhere.
Wiggins for Love, is the most recent example I can find. Of course, they got Love for WEiggins and a future 1st. Didn't seem with most rumors we were getting anyone for anything short of Ant or Sharpe with the #3, or both, which skews the value.
For Scoot? Everything leading up to the draft was that he wasn't seriously taking calls. There was a report from someone reputable (might've been Shams?) right around the time of the pick that New Orleans tried calling Portland about #3/Scoot and Portland rebuffed them. The 23rd pick. Opening up future 1sts. Anfernee Simons (his trade market seems sub-optimal for what it's worth). The Full MLE. In two years, the only win-now upgrade to build around Dame that he made was a guy that Dame got him.
