Zombie Damian Lillard to request trade in coming days (nope, he's not.)

Interesting that everyone's take is essentially that this was a thinly veiled comment from Dame at Neil... I'm not so sure it wasn't directed at the Vulcans telling them to find his replacement... One can hope!

 

I guarantee that Dame told somebody if the Blazers don't get their shit together I'm about to request a trade. I would bet that got telephone gamed into what Abbott reported.

Dame just told the world that if the team doesn't put things together better he would demand a trade.

 

I feel like the problem is that it's too late for that. Dame wants a contending roster in training camp. If he doesn't see one when he's done with the Olympics he'll demand a trade. So there's not time to replace Neil because the best time to get what Dame wants is draft time.

 

Milwaukee was in the same situation last offseason. Up against the cap and no room to sign impactful free agents. Yet they were able to trade for Jrue Holiday and was close to getting Bojan Bogdanovic (Sign and trade was agreed between teams, but Bogdanovic didn’t want to go there).

 

You've said that multiple times in this thread, based on nothing. Less than nothing, in fact -- Dame said he saw himself playing as a Blazer this year. Dame is very clearly a level-headed, thoughtful person who understands how this industry works (ie. the opposite of fans) -- you can't give an ultimatum like he did today and expect it to happen satisfactorily AND overnight. He'll give Neil -- or the next GM -- until next offseason.

 

Yup. In 2-3 years we’ll say this was the summer we should have done it

 

Neil has a top 5 player in the league, a top 5 player in a small market who actually wants to win in that market, an owner who is clueless and doesn’t care about luxury tax and it’s come to Lillard saying “look my clock is ticking, let’s do something serious or I want to go somewhere who is serious” for him to finally try and swing for the fences.

Should have been happening a long time ago. You gotta swing for the fences. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. But at least you fucking tried.

 

If Olshey targets a Jrue level player, he better land the Bogdan level player too (Bojan is the one on the Jazz).

 

We have always been aligned on one thing though. Olshey has done an awful job with the roster. Time to watch him try to clean up his mess!

 

quick was trying to dig for that.

 

This CJ/Lillard experiment should have ended 3 years ago. It wasn’t hard to figure out it’s too small and repetitive of a back court.

Look, CJ is a good player, extremely personable, a great ambassador of Portland etc….

But he’s a god damn glorified 6th man!!

 

https://www.nba.com/blazers/forward...rd-speaking-himself-and-his-relationship-fans

Do you feel like the fact that you allow your thoughts and feeling to be out there that that vulnerability is sometimes used against you?

Damian Lillard: I’m very upfront. My thoughts are well known, I say it. Sometimes (it’s used against me) because people don’t like the truth. They don’t like when people are direct. Sometimes it’s like ‘Dame shouldn’t have said that. He’d have been better off not saying nothing.’ So it’s a gift and a curse. Some people gonna love it because they know they’re going to get the real from me and some people gonna be like ‘Why did he have to say that? Now it’s gonna open up this or that.’ But for me, the reason I’m that way is because I’m going to always stand on what’s real and I’m gonna always stand on what is genuine. I’m not gonna say one thing and try to make you believe something else. I’m not gonna do roundabout things. I’m gonna say what it is and whatever happens after that, I’m prepared to deal with it. That’s why I was like, I haven’t said that. If I say something, then alright. But if I haven’t said it, stop talking, stop just making up shit.

What do you feel like your relationship is with the fans right now? Not what you think they think of you, just what you think?

Damian Lillard: I think our relationship is great. I don’t see why our relationship would be any different than it’s always been. Obviously when we hired Chauncey a lot of things came out and people was like ‘Dame wanted him, this was Dame’s hire’ and it’s like, once again, I know that’s not true. I know that that’s not my job to hire a coach. And I know that I didn’t come out and say ‘I want him to be my coach,’ that wasn’t the process. When I first mentioned him and Jason Kidd, I was asked ‘There’s being names floated out there since Terry got fired, who would you see being your coach?’ I said ‘Of the people I’ve heard, I like Jason Kidd and I like Chauncey Billups.’ That was that, it wasn’t like no deep thought into it or knowing of anything. That was that, but like I said, I would assume our relationship is as it’s always been because I’ve done nothing different than I always do.

 

You weren't watching the same thing as I was. Dame thought for a second after asked if he saw himself in a Blazers uniform next season. I would guarantee you that the thought was that he can get Neil to do the right thing. He talked about urgency so much. To think he's going to wait around after everything he just said is crazy. He obviously wants this shit to happen this off season, Neil isn't going to get to put things off.

I mean we'll have to wait and see but I thought it was very clear that he wasn't talking about giving it this summer and next. Why would he even talk about it then?

 

Nobody is seeing the elephant in the room....Dame just told Neil Olshey how he'll be fired if things don't move a fucking needle this time....I don't think we'll see another Pau Gasol in a suit next season

 

We are not out of the woods yet. Neil still needs to do a better job this off-season than he's had his entire career, with limited resources. That's a tall task.

 

Well, you better hope some other team thinks otherwise.

 

Brent Barry is ready to take over if he doesn't