Rumor Damian Lillard Would Like Blazers To Acquire Deandre Ayton

Joe has given himself a lot of hypothetical ways that he might make up for two trades in which he gave up talent for flexibility as a small market GM. If he makes some of those hypotheticals real or even one good enough hypothetical a reality that this team is better than it was season before last then no he's not a bad GM and the rest of us didn't have the vision he did.

If he comes away from this off season with the a player we take at 7 and players we already had on the roster re-signed along with an injured Ingles then he's a shitty GM and if he comes away with that scenario but just switching out the seventh pick for Grant he's even fucking shittier.

I'm really hopeful that he had vision that those of us that criticized him didn't and that we'll come out of this off season better than we would have been last season with a healthy Dame and some minor tweaks but that's not our reality at the moment and will take some deals that take the steps forward after the step backwards that Joe talked about after the February trades.

 

Why do we have to include Hart and Crowder? Do you think they would prefer Hart to Crowder?

 

Without doing that the trade doesn't work under the CBA because of BYC shit. We can't take back Gobert's 30M for Nurk's 17M because we don't have the cap space to do that... unless we just let Hart walk, Ingles walk and all we do in the draft is pick and keep the 7th pick. We would also lose 13M of our big TPE because a lopsided trade eats into the biggest TPE you have just like signing new free agents does.

So if Nurk a future first, a future second, Hart and Ingles (without a way to replace them) and the TPE are worth Ayton, then we could definitely do that.

To answer your second question, I'm not sure they would prefer Hart to Crowder but he's younger and there isn't a huge talent discrepancy. The difference that I see is that Crowder can float between SF and small ball PF while Hart is an SG/SF that isn't probably as effective as a small ball PF.

 

One thing I'm constantly reminded of when I read the "Dame wants an athletic center" or "Dame wants to play with Ayton" is the underlying idea that Dame doesn't want to play with Nurk. If he has made his wishes that clear, I'm not sure how Nurk will react if he's back as the starting center next year.

 

Pretty sure every team in the league would rather have Hart than Crowder.

 

Just yesterday the local talker was saying the Suns think they can play center by committee (McGee, Biyombo, Saric). No talk about Nurk, who I have inferred the Suns have zero interest in. Hart, believe it or not, would be highly coveted. They want to find another ball handler that can also get minutes at the 2. They are not happy with Cam Payne or Landry Shamet and would probably try to unload one of them in an Ayton deal. They are not looking for a player the draft, but have held workouts despite not having a pick in case of an Ayton deal. It is being reported a future asset or two would be preferred. Again, this is just off of the local talker here.

 

And the painfully obvious point to be had, if there is truth to this rumor, is that some players/coaches value centers that can be dominating. Ayton, in Portland, would be incredible. Of course they would have to get the video game/lack of sleep worked out.

 

Wow.....
You are almost being reasonable with Mr. C here.
Just remember, it takes two to tango. Just if it doesn't happen, doesn't mean he didn't try or want it to.
Can't praise or criticize a hypothetical, right?
Right.

 

Dame just wants the Blazers to do something more then get a bum like Bledsoe and small pieces that will help him get a ring. I think at this point he would take anyone with a pulse who has talent and HE thinks can fit with him so that list of names is way longer then that but these are just names that MIGHT be available for the right price.

 

Kind of seems like you have gone so far into "Joe sucks" that you are fishing for ways to get out of the bog. Seriously how can all those Hypothetically Speaking statements fit into the same paragraph?

Edit- I would make this green. But i think you know i'm jabbing fun at you?

 

I never do predictions, but I am willing to say, there will be a lot in here fishing for ways to get out of the "Joe Sucks" bag.
Unfortunately for them, I will remember.
Hypothetically speaking, of course.

 

I'm just trying to make some room for hope that all of us should be able to endulge in at this moment in time while reserving my right to return to not only being dissappointed if Joe doesn't pull off some big things this summer but also pile it onto the dissappointment I still have from February. I think we all love a redemption story though and that's what I want. I want to have egg on my face and for all of Joe's words he spoke after the February trades to ring true or at least obviously be trending in that direction by the end of next month.

I definitely don't discount the possibility that Joe is a lot smarter and more imaginative than I am and can guarantee that he's more knowledgeable about the things he's tasked with.

I can't praise or criticize hypotheticals but with Dame's limited window I can definitely praise or criticize how close Joe gets to his stated goals after the February trades once the chips have fallen this month and next. I can also be absolutely wrong at any time... I think I've proven that. As far as the tango goes it does take two but that's all it takes and there are a lot of dance partners out there for Joe to try and get to dance with him, so if relatively nothing happens this off season, I won't take that idiom as an excuse.

 

It should be really simple. I want him not to suck, so I'm in line to say I was wrong. However, I'm just not buying the ticket to that show until I see who the cast is.

A lot of hope but still a lot of skepticism.

 

nate jones has been one the most vocal fans of Ayton in nba twitter.



he has about a 100 other tweets singing his praises just from this playoffs alone.

 

...one thing that everybody should be reminded of when they read "Dame wants" or "Dame says" or "Dame thinks" is that none of it is true unless you hear it from Dame himself. Nobody else. He's proven this time and time again. All of this nonsense above is pure speculation and conjecture.

 

@Strenuus here's one more for ya.



This is about as close "dame's camp" as you get. (mind you, I don't think this means much)

Other that Fischer has mentioned in the past as guys Dame has always wanted to add to the team: Aaron Gordon, Jaylen Brown, Jerami Grant, Draymond Green.