A lot of you guys overvalue Dame. He's a great scorer (and he's clutch) but that's it. This trade is good. -Jrue is the perfect mentor/backup for Scoot for the next couple years (I'm not convinced they plan to trade him right away). Jrue also improves our defense by 4 points. -Ayton isn't perfect but he's an upgrade over Nurk defensively and can still provide equal or greater scoring/rebounding than Nurk, and he's 25 and fits in our window. Nurk has been going through the motions for two or three years now. Bye Nurk it's been real. -Little is easily replaceable with Kris Murray. -We only have to replace Dame's scoring but with Scoot, Shaedon, Ant, and even Grant and Ayton we got this. Plus we get draft capital from the Bucks in the future when their current run is done and are likely to suck. I'm tired of being a weak pathetic shitty defense forever now, this trade helps remedy some of that. At least we wont have a point that will be a seive on defense. Thanks for the memories Dame. Sincerely.
Hey, maybe if his dumbass agent hadn't said that he was only interested in the Heat, he would've gotten there quicker or maybe it would've given the other teams a chance to come together and make a good deal instead of submarining Damians reputation in the process.
Terrible Terrible take. Dame stretched the offense and facilitated opportunities for his teammates at the highest level. You minimizing his greatness is a weak move on this day. Also Jrue shouldn't spend a day as an active player on this roster. He's still too good to just mentor. He was just the floor general and point of attack defender on the team who had the best record in the East, we need to cash that in for more value that will help this rebuild.
Cool, all that spacing led to what? A trip to the lottery. Spacing is a priority sure, but it doesn't mean shit if you can't get into the postseason.
The funny thing is, we basically traded Nurk for Ayton and Damian for Holiday and a pick. I I really think the Blazers were trying to accomodate Dame with this trade. If the trade were just straight up Holiday and a pick for Lillard this would look like a punt basically. Because the real value for Lillard will be revealed in what we get for Holiday. (unless the plan is to keep Holiday, but I have to believe the Blazers are going to be looking to aid their young core for the future rather than having a $40 million dollar backup). Getting Holiday was really brilliant in a way, because he got a player with similar value to Dame but that is actually going to want to go to a number of playoff teams.
Yeah, Dame lead this team into the playoffs six straight times after LaMarcus left. So his spacing, shooting, passing, driving and finishing did get us into the post season. He could have gotten us to the post season both this last season and the season before too but he was asked to stay sitting in 2022 and asked to sit down in the middle of his best season, after we traded away winning pieces, so we could get a better pick. I think very easily we could be at ten straight playoff appearances with Dame at point guard but theoretically to help build a contender and not just a team that gets into the post season, Dame was asked to sit. We didn't build him a contender and we won't see the post season for at least a couple of seasons.
Athletic gives Blazers B+, Milwaukee A Blazers acquire Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, 2029 first and pick swap with Bucks The Blazers were adamant they didn’t need to give in to Lillard’s and Miami’s wishes for a partnership. Many scoffed. Many rallied around them taking a stand in today’s player empowerment environment. Many just waited for them to give in to the reported offer of Tyler Herro, picks and role players. Instead, Portland gets a good, young center in Ayton to help in the rebuilding process with Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe. The Blazers also get some potential draft help down the road, and they acquire another big-time asset to flip. Holiday, 33, is unlikely to stick with Portland. Trading him to a contender or hopeful contender is a lot more enticing than convincing someone that Herro and his $120 million owed are a sure bet. Herro has a lot of potential and substance, but he’s not the difference-maker Holiday is. This is a great initial move with another trade to help acquire more future help potentially right around the corner. General manager Joe Cronin has struggled in a lot of these deals in reshaping the roster and moving to a new era in his short time running the Portland front office. I don’t want to guarantee he’ll make a great move with Holiday, but this has potential. Grade: B+ Not behind paywall for some reason https://theathletic.com/4906187/2023/09/27/damian-lillard-trade-grades-bucks-suns-blazers/
https://twitter.com/BoutDameTime someone should check on this guy, it seems like hes having a mental breakdown
