Several factors have coalesced to convince me in January we'll be in full tank mode, with Dame shipping out for a haul of draft picks: Dame deserves a chance to win a title. Dame is my all-time favorite Blazer, and my favorite current player after LeBron. But watching that video just drove home how much he deserves to win. It's like Garnett in Minnesota--we had our chance to build around him and we just didn't get it done. Let the man compete, really compete, for a title somewhere else. The West will be a bloodbath. Our best case scenario right now is probably winning in the play-in tournament. Based on what I've seen in the preseason, and what everyone seems to be picking, even that seems a stretch. Billups will get fired. Nothing seems to have got better this year with the team's defense. I can't point to a single thing he's improved over Stotts. I really don't see a lot of reason to keep him around, especially with guys like Quin Snyder and Frank Vogel out there. Portland has a history of long leashes with coaches (Stotts 10 yrs, McMillan 7 years), so maybe I'm just underestimating patience. But if we start slow I don't see why we'd stick to an unproven coach very long who just hasn't shown much in his time here. Once he's canned all bets are off on team direction. But there's a pretty good chance whomever we bring in will come with the understanding he's developing youth. Ant and Sharpe. I think both guys have real star potential, but they just don't have it on Dame's timeline. And they both probably stand their best chance of reaching that potential with Ant at the PG with Sharpe at SG. After all the Dame/CJ years, I'm just tired of having an undersized back court with poorly defined roles. It's time to move on to the next chapter. The Wembanyama/Scoot draft. There's a chance for us to replace Dame with a generational talent. Portland never gets free agents, so drafts like this are so critical for acquiring talent. Bill Simmons commented recently that Doncic probably adds $500m to the value of the Mavs. If they do decide to sell the franchise, it may have more perceived value if it lucks into one of those top two picks than if it hangs on to an aging Dame.
A couple things to consider: 1) Simons, Little, Watford all greatly improved under Billups. Keon was someone I had 0 interest in trading for, Billups has turned him into someone worth at least looking at. If Dame wants to be shipped out, I see Chauncey’s chances of staying only increase if we are going full youth movement. 2) Yeah this year, I see almost no way of losing enough to get #1 or #2, especially when there will be 6+ teams starting in October lol. Advocating for Scoot after saying you’re tired of the undersized backcourt is a little contradictory. If we get #2, wouldn’t it be better to trade down and get one of the 6’7+ guys in addition to at least another lotto pick like in the Doncic/Young deal? 3) The future looked bleak before Dame re-committing and extending his contract. I was fully convinced he was completely fine with having a comfortable lifestyle with his entire family here. Could be demand a trade if we’re losing? Sure. But I seriously doubt it. If a player gets traded, I think it will be Ant and Hart.
no offense meant but that that seems a conflicted bunch of nonsense. People who just want Dame traded in order to 'start over' seem to use the " get Dame a title" as a shield. I'm extremely skeptical about anybody advocating trading Dame because of them wanting the best for him. I just don't believe it, but maybe that's unfair but just think about the glaring disconnect: if the goal is to get Dame a title, then he'd be traded to a contender. And not only would a contender have shitty draft picks for a few years, in most cases those teams have already mortgaged a bunch of future picks. The fevered dreams of a bunch of great draft picks coming back for Dame is total nonsense, IMO. And, there has to be salary matching so chances are pretty high that Portland will be receiving a shit contract or two the only real chance that the Blazers would get and top-5 picks from trading Dame is if they were so bad they would suck for a few years, and suck badly. Which means that not only would Dame have to be traded, so would Simons, Grant, Nurkic, & Hart ******************************************************* another thing, Dame's contract: I just don't believe any team well enough managed to be a contender will sign up for paying a 37 years old PG 63M; not when they don't have the history that Portland & Dame have. I don't think Dame is stupid; and I don't believe Cronin is. That extension just about locked the door on any future Dame trade and I believe both Dame & Cronin knew that I guess it's possible but I don't see it OR....trade Simons instead and move Hart/Sharpe into the SG rotation. If Simons has enough star power to make it acceptable to clear Dame out in front of him, then he should bring back quite a haul because, obviously, the rest of the NBA would see that
You could be right about this, but I honestly think a trade with NY would be entirely possible if there was mutual interest between Dame/POR/NYK. They were the sucker at the poker table to Melo, I fully would expect them to be interested in Dame. 1) it isn’t a stretch to think Dame will still be around this good at 37 and 2) NY values cap space and $63m at 37 just means $63m off the books eventually. The NY hubris “once we get that one star, other stars will want to come” attitude is a huge reason I would do this. This is a team I could see giving up several picks including unprotected in addition to Barrett for Dame. And at this point, I’d rather trade Barrett to a team like OKC for even more picks than to keep him.
but the Knicks aren't anything close to a contender, with or without Dame. and I was talking about trading Dame to a contender which is the only way to get him a ring...which is what people pretend is the reason they want to trade him trading him to the Knicks would be slapping him in the face. Portland won't do that
I just don't know what to think of Chauncey. He says all the right things and his demeanor in press conferences is terrific. His notes of adjustments and his pulse on the roster are usually in perfect alignment with my thinking. But the results speak for themselves. His message is either falling on deaf ears or he's preaching something vastly different in practices than what he talks about in interviews. And his lack of emotion in front of the mic might not be what a young team needs on the sidelines. That said, we have built the roster this summer full of "Billups' guys" so firing him early on is highly unlikely. That and his 4 yrs remaining on the contract with a cheap owner makes it even less likely. But...Quin Snyder would be an amazing coup.
I remembered a tweet from when I was in early college where Dame said UTA GSW and NYK were three teams he’d play for. But I just googled and saw a report saying Dame was more interested in NY in 2021 and prior. So guess you’re right. I was assuming Dame still wanted to be a NYK. Well that just makes it almost impossible for us to get equal value for Dame, at which point I hope Ant can get a substantial return and that Hart be traded for an upgrade at SF. Ideally, Sharpe is the perfect fit next to Dame by as soon as next season.
If the Blazers trade Simons without giving him a season at point guard to run the show, that would be idiotic. I don't know what people are thinking. Let's keep our 32 year old point guard who played 29 games last season and makes $42 million and dump our 23 year old point guard who makes about half of that?
I agree that trading Simons makes the most sense if the goal is to field a contending backcourt. The Blazers have multiple guys who can play the 2 spot. Simons can’t be traded until January, right? We need him to put up numbers that will make teams willing to part with a pure 3 in exchange for Ant.
