heres today interview with nurk whos back in bosnia & herzegovina: he also said that dame plans to visit bosnia & herzegovina this year or the next...
Not good to hear that he was told nobody will be traded (assuming that referred to starting players).
Well... We've always said that CJ would thrive as the lead player on team... Maybe we trade Dame and Nurk this offseason, tank with CJ achieving career highs (and thus elevating his stock) next season and move him after that? Dark joke, but...
Why do we have to tank? We could actually construct a very good roster with the haul from Dame/CJ trades. I’d rather get proven younger players than go the Draft route, it’s such a crapshoot.
There's some stuff in that interview that raised some eyebrows... What? A team like Portland? Fuck. That. Shit.
An actual translation. Reading the tea leaves, but this may be what Dame's biggest gripe is. Neil told him they weren't going to make any changes to the roster and just run it back. If I'm Dame, I'm thinking: "we just ran this group and got trounced in 6 games to an injured team even though I played the best I possibly could. How can you possibly think this group is contender level?" Everything we've heard from the "Dame may want out" sources have also said mentioned Dame's reservations of us being able to field a championship roster. I follow all the players on social media and Dame has been much less active with his teammates since we got eliminated, especially with CJ and Nurk, at least compared to seasons prior. Of course this is all speculation and could mean absolutely nothing, but I just thought it was interesting how detached he was from the team. Belief has always been one of Dame's strong traits. He's always believed we could win a title even during the dominant Warriors years (just listen to him when we made the conference finals). It's no secret he's upset to some degree, and may even feel a little guilty that his feelings have shifted and he doesn't have that belief that this current group (with CJ/Nurk et al.) can make a championship run anymore. Again, all speculation, and I'm aware how ridiculous it sounds. Crucify me, but just my thoughts.
Didn't Neil famously tell Eric Bledsoe he wasn't going to trade him and then did that summer or something?
It doesn't matter what Neil said to Dame or the rest of the team after the loss. Like someone mentioned above, Bledsoe (and also Eric Gordon) holds a grudge against Neil for telling them he wouldn't get traded and then Neil shipped them off when a deal was on the table. In Gordon's case, the deal was for Paul and too good to pass up. I don't doubt he would do something similar here if something similar was on the table. Neil traded two firsts last year for Covington. He never trades firsts for current players. Sources around the league even thought that was unusual by Neil's standards. Maybe he overpaid for the wrong player, but that's not the point. At the beginning of last season Dame said something like "the front office did their job, now we gotta do ours". He was referring to the fact that he gave a few names to the front office and they went and got them (DJJ and Covington I'm pretty sure were the guys). So I can also see some of Neil's frustrations. "We got you these guys you wanted and it didn't work. I'm not blaming you so I'm firing the coach and we can try again with THESE GUYS you wanted." Either way, it's been said in multiple reports that "Dame is waiting to see what happens" before he makes any commitments. That's basically him telling the front office to upgrade the roster or you will lose me. End of the day the most consistent gripe we've heard from his camp is that he doesn't believe in the roster. I think Neil is hesitant on trading multiple firsts but he may have to. Otherwise, might as well trade Dame and blow it up. But yeah, I somewhat think that if we just roll into next season with the same roster (even with Norm), that Dame will privately ask for a trade. Maybe he will wait a few months to see if the team is playing well. If not, deuces.
If nobody is traded Olshey needs to be fired and then Jody Allen uses a Billion to pay Space X to launch him into the Sun. Remember, there is ZERO impact to the salary cap for launching a General Manager directly into the white-hot stellar plasma surface of the Sun, but it DOES send a message.
If there's no big moves this off-season and we don't make a championship run next season, I guarantee you Olshey will get kicked to the curb. But his replacement's first job will be to trade Dame Lillard.
CJ mentioned on his pod that he checks in with Dame at least every other day if not more frequently. They both were boxing at the same gym with Rodney Hood last week. Dame might want moves to be made yes, but he's not gonna ghost CJ lmao
