Happy about his extension actually. but don't see anyway we can build a contender around him any time soon. we definitely aren't close at the moment.
That's not Dame's fault. He dragged those teams as far as they got. Further than anybody ever expected them to go. Year after year. Dame would have titles if he'd had the same supporting cast as Curry.
If Lillard gets us to the finals next season I say we give him a super super max extension. $70 million a season until he's 40!
Correct me if i am wrong please, but my thought isn't about having more money in fa. Im saying more money locked up in other players so trade values match better. Keep that 20 mill aNd in a year, determine what other players we can get and then those players could potentially be more assets in trades to nail the guys we want? I do know the variables are massive so nothin is for sure. But thats kinda my point. Locking up the money provides zero flexibility to do anything at all if the opportunity arises. I would prefer to have that flexibility. Say we trade Nurk in two years and his salary was 5 mill more per. Gives us a higher salary to match or whatever. lets say we need to resign grant because he is fitting in good and someone else can offer more because we dont have that extra spending flexibility? So he signs elsewhere? If Dame wants to win, I do not see him getting any closer taking this money, but he gives himself a chance to get closer by allowing the team to shift the funds into other areas of improvement. And lets be real about what he deserves. Vs what he has. He has money. Plenty. One of the richest dudes in the nba already. is a little more really worth more than a chip? priorities. Fame and stature? Or Championship ring? (hint: the ring comes with the fame aNd so does endorsement money as well)
when has a star gone from 40-60 mill? hard to say no one has taken less when this type of money has never been doled out in the past. Who knows in that scenario. But michael jordan took less for years. Before and after 32. Again, your focus is only in fa and not trade options, which im thinking more in lines of tradable salary. 20 more spent in salary on others means 20 more in tradable salary, does it not? Of course this means roster changes but we all know we need more of that to get better anyhow. I am not a cba or salary guy, so there could very well be rules negating my thoughts. If there are, let me know and i will take your word for it. Otherwise, i just see this as limiting future flexibility and I fail to see how it wouldn't matter.
Given? Who knows. He's had a lot more to work with from a quality of Draft standpoint than say Drexler who led a team of 2nd rounders and a trade for Buck Williams (high lottery pick) to 3 conference finals in a row and 2 Finals. Did Clyde make them better, or where Terry, Buck, Duck, Jerome, Cliff, etc the best group of 2nd rounders in the history of the NBA? I would submit it was some of both. Dame, by contrast has had multiple Lottery picks added to him via the Draft or trades. But no matter who has been added, the team hasn't really improved. Chris Paul for example went to a perennially crappy OKC team and immediately took them to the #5 spot in the Playoffs....while we finished at #8. Paul left the team, and they have been dog doodoo ever since. Olshey certainly has his hand in the responsibility quotient, but if Dame gets some of the credit for being the best Blazer ever, then some of the blame for a career 22-40 playoff record also seems fair.
again with him taking 40M less. He's not going to do that and no player his age would. He's making 40M with a 112M cap; so he'd take 40M with a 167M cap?...c'mon, be reasonable. Dame isn't going to agree to that kind of give back when guys like Curry, Jokic, Beal are signing massive extensions. Beal will be 34 and making 57M the same year Dame at 36 is making 62M. Which player, right now, is worth more? I guarantee you that the season Dame is making over 60M there will be a bunch of other players making over 60M too as for signing other players with the, maybe, 10M LESS, nothing is preventing that but ownership. That's not on Dame's extension. Besides that, having "more" money to pay other players didn't add trade chips when the 'more-money' was used to sign Allen Crabbe and Evan Turner and Meyers Leonard. The more-money theory didn't make CJ or Norm Powell or RoCo any more trade-valuable the key isn't having an extra 10M or so to pay supporting players...the key is spending the money you have on supporting players worth the money. That has been the Blazer failure
Terry, Buck, Duck, Jerome, and Cliff were all All Stars. It doesn't matter where they were picked (aside from management doing an awesome job). Drexler didn't make them All Stars. If you give Dame 5 or 6 All Stars he would win some titles.
Dame even said it in the press conference. This is money that can change the lives of generations of his family. He’s not walking away from that, no matter how much he wants to win.
Jerome was never an allstar. Buck was an all star when he was 25 half a decade before he was traded to Portland. Terry, Duck, and Cliff had one or two all star selections; but the league was weaker then. They were more at the CJ McCollum level of player.
Give Dame 5 or 6 CJ caliber players with the size and athleticism of those guys and he'd have brought home some titles by now.
wut? yeah right....the difference between Klay/Draymond & CJ/Meyers is on Dame...lol. also...how did you come up with Chris Paul turning around a "perennial crappy" OKC team? They had a 49-33 record the year before CP3 arrived; 44-28 with him. OKC had been in the playoffs in 9 of the 10 seasons before CP3, and the one season they didn't they had a 45-37 record. as for Dame's part in the Blazer playoff record, it's pretty interesting that the one season he essentially missed, the Blazers had the 6th worst record in the league. Dame is the only reason why Portland was in the playoffs for 6 straight years after Olshey allowed the Dame/Aldridge team to fall apart
technically accurate but missing massive context. I'd argue that Porter, Buck, Kersey, and Robinson were all better than CJ in that they were actually 2 way players. They could play defense. Porter would have been twice the back court partner for Dame than CJ ever was Buck wasn't an all-star in Portland but he was a 3-time member of the NBA all-defensive team while averaging 12 rebounds/game when Portland was contending. also...no, the league was not weaker then
