I'm not down on the team. I'm realistic about our chances of contending with this roster. I think we have some really nice pieces for the future, but if the ultimate goal is to win a championship, this team is currently straddling two paths. That might change. Free agency starts tomorrow and we still might make some trades. I might feel differently in the fall, but right now we're still a long way from being one of the top teams.
That's not all what is being said. Steph is on a team that just won the freakin championship. Dame is on a team that just had the 7th pick in the draft. Some people, myself included, think we should trade Dame while he is still special and just start the rebuild around Ant/Little/Sharpe/etc. We feel this way because we don't see a realistic path to building a contender around Dame while he is still special.
I'd agree with most of that. I don't think the team is straddling two paths, although the drafting of Sharpe kind of looks that way. I think Cronin just views Sharpe as the best asset he could obtain with the 7 pick. I certainly don't think that the Blazers are likely to compete for a title this year, but I think it's possible within a 2-3 year time period if things break right for Cronin.
Dame staying is not a guaranty of a champion. But Rebuilding, sure as hell ain't a guaranty either. And who's to say if Sharpe does end up being all that, he doesn't say adios as soon as he achieves that level. I'm riding with Dame.
At the end of his career Duncan signed for less to keep Manu Ginobli....which is an awesome franchise player move...neither Dirk nor Duncan did that at 33 years of age though...Duncan was in his late 30s when he did it and until Dame is Melo's age, we won't know what he'd do to keep talent on the roster. Also Dame like Duncan and Dirk invests his money in the Portland community. That's a franchise player. Walton, BRoy nor Clyde did any of that.
good to hear....that's not how old Dame is now so I don't get the comparison...I said both Duncan and he were older when they took paycuts and they were. I think Dirk, Tim and Dame are all 3 cut from the same cloth
Hello, Can you please describe awful? From just reviewing his stats, he was close to his averages in most categories for most of those three years of his extension: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bryanko01.html Far from awful in my opinion.
If each team could pay “max money” to two players (similar to the provisions of how max is calculated, today) apart from the cap, tax, team salary … then have team salary numbers for the cap calculated from the other 13 … and have an escape clause for unwanted top 2 players paying off the contract and freeing up a slot … then the supermax is whether a player deserves it, not a matter of other guys WILL get less. [Players should make out on the division of the spoils.] Just spitballing, here. There’s plenty of room for argument and ripping this idea to shreds. Otherwise, it takes a Duncan taking less to improve or extend the run with a changing of the guard. Since the above isn’t the case … and since the team is unfinished and MAY not work when the season begins, then waiting on giving the supermax is better if/when Lillard want out and if/when the Blazers decide to re-build around youth. The timing (and the conditions on the team surrounding such) of an extension should be understood and communicated between Cronin and Lillard. Player and team have options. If that’s understood between them, then I don’t need to know the details.
Because Dame can't take a pay cut now, so obviously nobody's talking about him taking a pay cut now. The question is all about whether we pay him 50+M in the 25-26 and 26-27 seasons, when Dame is going to be 35 & 36, precisely in the same age range that Dirk and Duncan were when they took pay cuts to help their teams.
There is this precedent now in the league that basically every player that is "all that" spends the first 8 seasons of their career with the team that drafted them if it's in the first round, just because they make more money that way. So I don't think there's much of a chance at all that Sharpe blows up and then we somehow just lose him... that doesn't make any sense. I guess we might have to trade him for a declining superstar in his sixth year ala Ben Simmons if we treat him like shit and he's got fragile self confidence but that situation is the outlier. We will have Shaedon under contract for the next four seasons and complete control over his following contract. If he blows up we're going to reap the benefits.
c'mon man... both Duncan & Dirk re-signed for "less than the max" when they were 36. Dame is 31 so, an extension takes Dame till age 36. As you say, it was at age 36 that Duncan and Dirk Dirk took their pay cuts AFTER spending a decade on their time's versions of super-max deals. So then, at the same age as Duncan & Dirk, Dame will have the opportunity to take a pay-cut
32 in 2 weeks. 37 after the extension. The extension straddles the line. It'll be up to Dame what his priority is going to be. But personally, I don't see a team built around a declining defensively-challenged 35/36-yo PG making 50M+/year being able to contend. We shall see.
Correct. But a lot of people here seem like they care more about rewarding Dame and legacy vs. contention.
His current contract if he gets the two year extension. At 36 Dame will be one year younger than CP3 is now.
You talk about control, sure. But if a player wants out, he can get out. And as we've seen, the return is never of the same value. In many cases it's draft comp. from top teams which end up being end of the 1st round .
I'm wondering if those people who seem convinced that an extension for Dame would be franchise crippling have paid any attention to the discussions about the next round of media-right deals the NBA is already talking about? I've seen projections that in 2025, the NBA salary cap could jump 35-50% from the previous season. If the 2024-25 cap is at 140M (quite possible), then in 2025 the cap could be somewhere in the 190-210M range. Coincidentally, that would be the first season of Dame's extension. Dame currently makes about 35% of the salary cap. If he signs a 100M extension, a 50M salary would be 26% of a 190M cap. 50M would not even be 35% of a 150M cap. it's entirely possible that Dame's extension will take a smaller share of the cap than it currently does. Now, I know it's possible that his extension might have a mechanism for 'grabbing' a larger share of the pie if the cap goes way up, but the number that's being thrown around is 2-year/100M. ******************************************************************************************* https://nba.nbcsports.com/2021/09/1...ng-deal-could-lead-to-175-million-salary-cap/ ***************************************** " This leads us to the present, where the NBA is looking into signing a new broadcasting contract, taking effect in 2025. Only, this time the amount is projected to be substantially larger than what they fetched in 2014. According to a report from Jabari Young of CNBC back in March, the NBA is looking at almost tripling the number of the current deal, aiming for over $75 billion that will compensate the league with $8.3 billion annually. Needless to say, jumping $5.7 billion in TV-income annually will have a severe impact of the NBA's salary cap, which is calculated off the league’s Basketball-Related Income (BRI). Working under the assumption that the players' union will once again prefer a major spike, a one-year increase of over $50 million isn't out of the realm of possibility. According to a league source, projections indicate that a $171 million salary cap is possible, assuming no cap smoothing, by 2025." https://www.forbes.com/sites/morten...ould-spend-big-on-extensions/?sh=3793e383e851 ******************************************************************************** I think this season clearly proved one thing considering that with Dame struggling, by the trade deadline the rest of the roster could only generate a record that was 13 games below .500 meaning that the 35% of the cap going to Dame over the last couple of seasons wasn't the problem. It was the 63% of the cap going to CJ-Powell-RoCo-Nance/Jones that last article was written almost a year ago before a 1 year jump pf the salary cap of nearly 10%. Even taking the lower projection of 175M for the 2025 cap, a 50M salary for Dame would be 29% of the cap rather than it's current 35%
