Dame mad about Barton trade for years

As long as we’re laying our pet peeves ou there, I have a problem with the “inaction by the GM” line. Or the “Olshey won’t trade CJ” dogma. I think that there’s a whole lot of supposition around here about him, perhaps based on prior trade discussions that didn’t happen, that if we knew what really happened behind the scenes are simply wrong. Olshey traded Eric Gordon for Chris Paul. I have little doubt he’d trade CJ for Giannis or any other certified star who would make the Blazers better.

 

Damn you sound scorned. What the hell did Chris Haynes do? He was great here as a beat reporter. Never had drama pieces. Kept it real as can be. What’s your beef with Haynes?

 

No, sorry, not you, but plenty do.

 

Neil not trading CJ has more to do with Neil loving CJ, not necessarily Dame pulling strings.

 

ok...understood and I agree.

even though I dislike Olshey and his management, and believe his inaction is a problem, or at least the inaction with the top of the rotation, I can't be positive what the reasons are.

what I will say is that if Olshey is not making logical moves because of a fear of how Dame will react, he's not doing his job very well.

 

well we had reporting that when PG13 was available, Olshey was 'engaged' in the trade discussions but holding CJ untouchable in those trade talks:

“All three of their first-round picks along with Pritchard's choice of any player off the current roster other than their Big-3.”

https://www.blazersedge.com/2017/7/...l-george-trail-blazers-offer-2017-draft-picks

pretty laughable in 2017 to be calling Dame/CJ/Nurkic a "big 3" Lebron, DWade, & Bosh were a big 3. Duncan, Manu, and Parker were a big 3. Magic, Kareem, and Worthy were a big 3. Bird, McHale, and Parish were a big 3. But Dame-CJ-Nurk?....c'mon

so then, if Olshey was truly talking trade, it had to be something like Evan Turner + Meyers + three non-lottery firsts. Or Meyers + Harkless + Vonleh + those three 1sts. So yeah, it wasn't a serious offer. Jason Quick had his head up his ass for saying the Blazer offer was better than OKC's offer

 

Yes, I know the reporting, but we don't know what the realities of the behind-the-scenes negotiations were. KP could have simply been unwilling to make a deal with the Blazers. Olshey could have been thinking that putting that much into what almost certainly would have been a one year rental of PG wasn't worth trading CJ. Would that have been a wrong decision? Would PG really have put the Blazers into a position to have won a title that year? Just saying that there's whole lot more involved than would warrant a simple, "Olshey will never trade CJ" conclusion from what happened in that trade discussion.

 

Oh god please tell me how you know he doesn’t try to trade cj? Lol because he says he won’t? GMs ALWAYS say that to their current players.

Did you ever think maybe he does try to trade him but nobody wants him? Lol

 

Gotta admit that the Clippers being on the list is fun. Makes me giggle to think of Paul George being traded to Minnie for Giannis.

 

Minniewaukee?

 

I think he wants to win with his friends.

 

Don't pick on me. I’m old.

 

Close. Dame has decided he would rather WIN with his friends than win because of an overhaul. I’m similar. I wouldn’t trade Dame/CJ for Kawhi/PG13, for instance. I’d rather win with Dame than win with Kawhi. It’s not just about the uniforms for me.

 

CJ and Nurk would maybe be All Stars on separate teams in the East. If you then brought all 3 players together, they’d be a Big 3. It’s all context.

 

c'mon now. That's a stretch that breaks before it gets very far thru the exercise. That's not context, that's homeristic fantasy

Khris Middleton
Kyle Lowry
Jaylen Brown
Jayson Tatum
Kemba Walker
Malcolm Brogdon
Jimmy Butler
Ben Simmons
Kyrie Irving
Bradley Beal
Trae Young

Eric Bledsoe
Duncan Robinson
Devonte Graham
Zach Lavine
Colin Sexton

all CJ has to do is beat out 7 of those guys on the first list (and I count 8-9 who are almost certainly better) while holding off the 5 guys in the 2nd group. That's pretty damn unlikely. The perpetual assumption around here that CJ would definitely be an all-star in the east never withstands scrutiny

as for Nurkic, he'd be competing with Embiid, Adebayo, Vucevic, Sabonis, and Drummond. Might be an easier path than CJ has, but still a really tall order

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but besides that, I gave examples of past real big three's:

Lebron
DWade
Bosh
Duncan
Manu
Tony Parker
Magic
Kareem
Worthy
Bird
McHale
Parish

Dame

I think every player above is in the HOF or will be in the HOF. Those are big-3 candidates

but Nurkic & CJ? No

Portland doesn't have a big-3 with their three guys any more that Denver has a big 3 with Jokic, Murray, & Harris; or Utah with Mitchell, Gobert, and Bogdonovic. Blazers even have big-2 problems competing with Kawhi & PG13 or Lebron and AD or Harden & Westbrook or Doncic and Porzingis

 

Except CJ and Dame are the opposite of being complimentary players. Nurk fits next to either of them but our back court does not fit together. Dame and CJ are like if Harry Potter and Tom Riddle were friends... it still comes down to the fact that neither can live while the other survives.

 

I was totally with you until you put Bosh in the Hall of Fame. I don't think so. He got turned down this year in his first year of eligibility and unlike the baseball hall of fame, it's not very common for guys to be second or third ballot hall of famers or beyond in the NBA because there is always the next class of great players waiting next year. He might end up in there just because he was an eleven time all-star but he shouldn't have been an all-star that many times... seriously his numbers don't hold up and those Heat teams were more like a big 2 1/2.