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

"If you build a winner, Dame will stay." Nuff Said.

 

He’ll be 33-34 at that point so at that point he can leave

 

This should ease some tension.

 

True - until you realize that everything is riding in this guy's hands.

 

Reading all this, he's not threatening divorce. But he's threatening to threaten divorce if the team doesn't finally get its shit together.

I think he's putting pressure on the franchise to win soon or he's out.

If he's still here in two years it's fantastic news. We're a contender and he's still committed.

But I think it's more likely the team isn't very good and he's forcing himself out by next summer.

 

dame lillard is a bit of attention whore

he enjoys it and i dont give a fuck, unless it has to do with his future with our team, which directly affects us fans

 

Last season (and season before) half of Blazers games were lazy, no effort performances from most players. It was Stotts fault, but it was on Lillard and CJ fault as well as they expected rest of the team play defense for them, while they were playing hero ball with Melo. I don't know how Lillard doesn't see it. And I can forgive Lillard, but obviously CJ horse vision needs to change. They can be great team. Lillard should put some pressure on players and himself, not only blame organization. Jody Allen is not responsible for lack of ball movement and selfishness that destroy chemistry and effect with lazy effort on the court. Team play.

 

I got an off topic question.
You don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable.
I understand you are involved in the video process for games.
Do you ever get a really bad video look at a player and get to hold them hostage just for fun? You know like picking their nose or something? Funny stuff?
I could see them wanting to stay on your good side? It is show business in a way. I’m sure your job includes trying to keep them looking good.

 

I found this encouraging. I found recent Norm's and CJ's quotes encouraging as well. (Not to mention, as an aside, I am encouraged by what I've seen from Billups in regards to demeanor and message. He seems to have something.) When you look at the entirety of the portrait, it becomes clear that this is a front office problem all the way: do what you are supposed to do and all will be well, don't and you've essentially chosen a middling GM over arguably the best player in franchise history.

These quotes among other things lead me to follow up with the dude who knows Houston Lillard. He stands firm, but since he hasn't seen Houston much since right after the Denver loss, I'm skeptical that it wasn't a case of temporary frustration. Dude is earnest, but I mean, come on, Dame is Portland royalty. It's crazy to think he'd give that up.

So maybe it's what we all hope is: the lighting of a torch under Olshey.

 

Haven't listened to this yet...

 

"And the media used that as clickbait to run with the story."

 

Let it go, the man is gone. Or so says some infamous poster… #BAM

 

I'm likely being naive but I still think there is a possibility that Olshey is taking this seriously and has a move up his sleeve before training camp starts. I realize that none of Olshey's past behavior should make me think he's capable of or willing to pull off the kind of move that would satisfy Dame but he's never had this kind of motivation. If it's clear that Dame is not going to be traded until the deadline at the soonest and maybe not until next off season then that may make CJ appealing to teams that were holding out for Dame.

I still think that it's most likely that Neil somehow believes he's constructed a contending roster because he said that the roster wasn't the problem and in that case we can expect a very tumultuous season. I really hope Neil surprises us and we end up getting the upgrade(s) needed to contend and keep Dame.

 

If Jody told Neil to do whatever it takes NOW, and here's my checkbook, he would do it.

 

There definitely is a lot of truth in what you say. Dame and CJ have been in a comfort zone of not really pushing themselves on defence for, well, forever.

I haven't been thrilled with the controversy of the Billups signing, but I am happy to have a coach who played Dame's position and is universally regarded as one of the better defenders at PG (if not best) when he was in his prime.

If Dame scored 10 fewer points per game but also gave up 5-8 fewer points per game from crappy defence, he'd basically be Chauncey Billups 2.0. Shoot-first 6'3 point guards who love taking the big shot that are decent though not brilliant passers and are quintessential team leaders. (Of course, Chauncey could never shoot from the logo, so there's a gravity Dame has that Billups never had on his best day.)

I think the real lesson I've taken away from the Stotts era is that Larry Bird was mostly right. You need to change coaches every 3 years or so. Guys get lazy and entitled, and somebody needs to come in and shake up bad habits, like the ones you mentioned.

Definitely true if you don't have an elite tier coach. I think one reason for Popovich's sustained greatness was that he was smart about bringing in assistant coaches who could do that for him.

 

Put on your GM cap and let's pretend you are Neil. Forgot about what he has done in the past, we are talking the current roster and the current state of the team.

If you do want to trade CJ and upgrade the team but aren't getting back equal value, what do you do? You don't make a bad trade that's for sure, we are trying to improve. And if the reports from a month ago was correct, that teams were only offering draft picks in return for CJ we are stuck at the point. I don't want to trade for Simmons, but it seems like the reports there is that Morey doesn't want to trade for CJ and wants to wait for Dame to become available. Sikam seems like he is staying with the Raptors.

So what do you if you were him? And once again don't go back and say Neil put us in this situation with the large contracts for Dame and CJ, I want to know what do you do right now in this moment if you are Neil and there is no equal value back in trading CJ?

To me it's one of two, run it back and hope Billups can light a spark under these guys like Stotts never did or you just blow it up. Blowing it up is unlikely when you have a superstar like Dame.

 

But you know… facts!

 

Not every fan around here is pissed at the Blazers front office or predicting failure....I like our team...I like the coaching hire and the loyalty shown to our best players. Neil's biggest moves are trade deadline moves usually like the Norm move...see what we have and maybe build some trade value with players we're not attached too...I look forward to the season....I look forward to seeing if the new staff can make us a top two way team and keep us consistent. Also want to see what we look like with Ant, Nas and Brown in the mix...see if we play the younger guys off the bench more.