How's everyone feel about Smokin' Joe Cronin now?

This isn't FoxNews and CNN. Give me a break. It's just Dame's narrative.

What's more likely: that the seemingly weaselly GM is actual that way or a guy who has been the same for 10 years is telling the truth?

 

This place sometimes. You're right, certain aspects of some things are sometimes pretty close to black and white. Good work.

 

Rather than more hit piece quotes Dame should fire Goodwin ASAP -- that would do more to repair his tarnished image than continuing his typical teenage girl social media style drama

 

Do you know Dame personally?

You're basing your opinion on a public persona.

 

I partially agree. Unfortunately for him, part of Miami's strategy--which they have executed before--was to use the disgruntled player to lower the trade value given in return. I'm not sure Miami was ever willing to pay retail for Dame. Other teams were at least willing to pay $.80 on the dollar (which is about the most you can hope when trading for a superstar and not a completely moronic Minnesota FO).

 

Superstars rarely make great GMs. Larry Bird and Jerry West were the exceptions to the rule, and largely because they were grinders.

Magic Johnson was a TERRIBLE coach because he saw the floor differently than other players. He could see guys would be open before everyone else, and coached that way. His players couldn't see it. MJ was awful because no one was more competitive. Superstars have something 99% of the players in the league don't. Give me the crappy role players. They make awesome GMs.

 

I'm curious here....what is the other side of the story on some of these points?

* Dame said that if the Miami trade was off the table, he'd like to rescind his trade request. Cronin told him it was too late for that. That seems pretty credible. Watching Dame for 11 years we can see how Dame would have wanted to backtrack to Portland. And watching what transpired in this situation since Dame asked to be traded, we see the reasons for Cronin to say no. Things has simply gone too far. There doesn't seem to be room for another side there unless Dame is lying

* apparently, this part of the article has some people up in arms:

"According to sources, Portland had asked Lillard to sit out the final 10 games of the 2022-23 regular season to help the franchise improve its lottery odds. He was told the higher the draft pick, the better chance they had at using the pick to facilitate a trade for a proven veteran player. He reluctantly acquiesced to being shut down, citing a "calf injury."

Portland went 1-9 to finish the season and would go on to win the No. 3 pick and select Scoot Henderson, a promising young point guard the team planned to keep."

first of all: the tanking. Every single poster in this forum absolutely knew what the Blazers were doing. Every Blazer fan knew what they were doing. It was to the point that when the Blazers won that game at Minny, people were going nuts because of how that might hurt Portland's lottery odds. And by the way, every single person in the NBA front office knew what Portland was doing just as they knew what Houston, San Antonio, Detroit, and Charlotte were doing: buying tickets in the Wemby Sweepstakes and tickets were selling for one loss each. And the NBA front office didn't care about it. There is no two sides about that and it was the Blazers who announced that Dame had a hamstring issue. And Dame was having the best season of his career so it's pretty easy to imagine he would have been reluctant to stop playing

the notion that somehow Dame was letting some big secret cat out of the bag seems a bit crazy

the other part, the one about Portland telling Dame that a higher pick would increase the chances of trading for a better player...does anybody really doubt they told him that? That's the exact type of thing that Cronin had been saying publicly for months. Does anybody believe the Blazers specifically told Dame before the lottery if they could get Scoot they were keeping him? That's not to say that Dame shouldn't have allowed for the possibility. He'd been in the NBA for 11 years and that was the 12th lottery and draft he'd seen in his 11 seasons

obviously, Haynes has been a hack-o-matic in the past. And just as obviously when writing about Dame he's about 95% invested in Dame's POV. That article was from Dame's POV, but I really don't see anything so egregiously slanted to believe that the other side of the story would reveal a different set of facts. But maybe I'm missing obvious nuance

 

I think it was the part that Cronin didn't have enough respect for Dame to even talk to him at the Blazer facility is what some had an issue with.
It seems childish for Joe to do that, but I personally think there was more to it than Joe just being a dick.

 

Like perhaps Joe was negotiating for his life and didn't want any distractions.
Or the fact that he'd already told Dame at his house there's no coming back.

 

I just wonder how bad things were with Goodwin because I would love to know what the grievance was about.

 

From a business perspective that makes sense. If personnel decisions are needed, dragging them out isn't a good idea.

 

We’ve made it this far without patronizing one another. I’d prefer to keep it that way.

Interestingly, the persona argument is what I argued with @blazerkor about. I apologize @blazerkor. But as to me falling for the persona: I mean, yes and no. Yes, Dame has a crafted persona. Of course, he's essentially a celebrity. But the consistency has been there. I doubted it for a bit there, but this just makes the most sense. Remember @SlyPokerDog said this in the beginning of everything and @BonesJones has been ringing this bell too. You can make fun of people saying they have sources, but their account besides Haynes is pretty damning. Unless, they are part of the bias media too?

Interestingly, a friend of mine was at a recent charity event. In attendance was none other than Damian Lillard and Joe Cronin. He remarked that Joe wouldn't even make eye contact with Dame and essentially behaved as if magnetically repelled. This is proof of nothing, but also nestles into this perspective.

But listen, if a decade of Dame, Dame's own words in the Haynes story, the insider info preceding this article, and so forth doesn't convince you or whoever, it sort of seems like one of those things that people are just not going to see the same. So it goes, I suppose.

 

Why can’t Joes feelings also be hurt at the initial demand?

I love Dame but why is Joe the Dick and not allowed to be floored with the “Miami only” demand.

 

could be

but it also could be accurate in that Cronin may be a person who decides there's nothing further to say, so doesn't. He certainly decided sometime in July he had no reason to talk to Pat Riley any more...and reportedly didn't (thankfully). And he decided there was not one damn reason to talk to Dame's scumbag agent, and didn't until the NBA front office intervened

Dame showing up at the practice facility was after the meeting on the 5th and my hunch is that meeting ended on bad terms, but it was the kind of terms that wouldn't have been changed by idle chatter. It was two guys pissed of at each other and pissed off about the situation. One guy was working on his game and the other was working on trading the guy working on his game. "nice weather, isn't it" was probably pointless

 

I think Cronin should be fired for how he handled Dame NOT that he traded him but how he handled this whole situation with Dame and how he lied to Dame and even to the fans. It blows my mind that a good majority of you believe the line of BS coming from Cronin like it was said by god himself or something. You do realize he learned under NeO who most believe was a scumbag who was a fake as a 3 dollar bill and could not be trusted as far as you could throw him. However Cronin on the other hand comes off the exact opposite like he is someone that could live next to ya and you might invite over for a BBQ or a beer or something when in reality he is an even bigger scumbag then NeO . I was not a fan of NeO but damn he never would have treated Dame like he was just a cockroach he wanted to remove just cause Dame wanted to win and get in the way of his master rebuild plan.

When this team was a complete joke ( jailblazers ) most of the fans would not believe the line of BS Vulcan and the front office would spew cause things were going bad. However cause things look decent in the coming years ( Scoot and Sharpe ) most of you do not care HOW he treated Dame the greatest player in team's history and told him to screw off and your not wanted anymore. It pisses me off that he has divided this fan base to the point where I know I dislike most of you who side with Joe and truth is I has lost respect for the fans who believe this crap. I do hope one day that you will see the light but until that day I will not be around as much cause I cannot stand reading this crap anymore. I used to enjoy coming to this forum and reading opinions and debating fans but now it's just 80 to 90 percent Cronin kiss asses. Also TB you and me have had a semi long history starting on the O-Live forums when we would butt heads then we got to a decent place but now seeing you sell out kind of makes me sad and I really thought you were smarter then this but I guess even smart people fall for shit -- I wish you the best and hope you see the truth and get away from Nate he is a bad influence on ya. -- LOL

This is to the fans who still believe in Dame and know the truth -- I wish you the best and Go Blazers and Joe -- got 2 middle fingers for ya and hope you get what you deserve -- Ripcity4life -- OUT

 

It probably did get personal for Joe to some point because Riley and Miami shills were constantly attacking Joe. He said nothing. Lillard did the one team demand, he talked down Portlands leverage in trading the third pick. I'm sure there is more i've omitted. My hope is that Joe was so busy burning up the phones that he had no idea Lillard was even in the building. So i would say Lillard and his acolytes were gunning for Cronin at such a frentic pace, trying to put him out of a job for the most part, it was probably best Joe stay away from Dame and only talk to Dames representation. Just a thought.

 

Maybe because they kept telling Dame (and us) over and over that they were committed to building around him, but their actions didn't indicate that. Dame had his feelings hurt first when he lost trust in the organization.

 

Yes, I mean that guy.

I mean the guy that [insert all of the hundreds of accolades Dame deserves, all the feats of strength and surreal moments], who did grind with shitty rosters that actually got shittier and shittier. That guy.

The guy that was told one thing and shown another. Repeatedly. What was he supposed to do? Joe Cronin started a rebuild while saying he would build a contender (whether or not that was realistic isn't the point). Again what was Dame supposed to do? Not ask to play with his friends? Or at the age of 33 go to another lottery team? Or was he just supposed to ignore the veritable lies and keep quiet? Just consider what a weird position Dame was in. I'm tired of the word gaslight but that's what Joe did.

 

If trust is that broken, you don’t “Rescind”