I don't like so many guys blaming the youth. The young guys at least played hard. Nurk and Jerami in particular were very inconsistent in their effort. Ant was a sieve on defense. We also had zero big man depth. Joe can talk a big game but he built this roster. He chose to sign an injured GP without doing the due diligence. He chose to trade away the one guy who consistently brought the effort because his owner did not want a bigger tax burden this upcoming season. He chose to dismiss getting another big at the deadline and in the buyout market. This pivot into tanking was 100% clear with the moves at the deadline. That too was a choice. We could have easily ended up in the 8th or 9th spot had we wanted to. Instead, blaming the youth and injuries (which every team has) seems to be the excuse du jour. And Chauncey did not improve whatsoever. His defense got scouted and he had no counters. And his in-game adjustments were nonexistent. He also didn't really hold everyone accountable like he had been preaching. His offense when we needed wins was simply Stottsfense 2.0 with giving Dame the ball and telling him to cook. He was simply incompetent. I have 0 confidence in Jody/Joe/Chauncey to dig us out of this mud.
Then don't let the door hit you on the way out. Sorry, Dame, you've done a lot of great things here, but if your attitude is bringing in established slightly above-average players like Jeremi Grant would better your chances to win a championship AND be better for the longterm health of this organization than drafting Wemby, Scoot or Miller, that's incredibly short-sighted and that's not MY route. Utter dumbness. We might not have been 2-3 years away if we weren't wasting resources on Robert Covington and Norman Powell and Larry Nance and Gary Payton and Jeremi Grant to tread water and instead used those resources on drafting and developing young players with upside who'd be blossoming NOW. This also looks like the national talking heads were right and Dame wasn't entirely honest about his POV to the retool over the last couple of years, signing a super-max extension before letting Blazer Nation know it. In my mind, this makes it A LOT easier for me to part with Dame. I don't need this wishy-washy fakeness when we're already losing. The fact is Dame is a common denominator in this team's struggles despite his individual greatness, and perhaps he needs to investigate that facet of the situation more thoroughly.
And there lies the issue with Joe. He's an inexperienced, likable guy. He has given no other GM reason to take him seriously. Why should they start now?
I noticed he said he was surprised when Joe and Billups came to him to ask what players he woud like for them to try to acquire, It felt like he found it awkward. So do I.
I think it was pretty obvious Hart wouldn't have signed here. If he walked for nothing in the offseason, you'd probably be bitching about how he let a free agent walk for nothing. He got a 1st round pick for a guy who was going to leave. Had nothing to do with the tax.
Because basketball's a team game and because he's a great individual player trying to dictate to the organization how to proceed through the lens of what is best for him. I explained this above. His comments don't indicate someone trying to handle this situation best and most efficiently. It indicates that he wants to win here ... but we have to win here his way. That doesn't work, I don't care if you're the all-time leading scorer in franchise history and great in the community. If the Blazers could somehow trade this year's lottery pick, maybe Ant and assorted pieces for Jaylen Brown, that makes sense for the organization. If we're trading Wemby or Scoot for a player like Siakam, then we're not really any closer to being a true contender than we were before and after adding Jerami Grant.
An interview he gave saying his wife doesn't like to fly, and how far away they were from friends and family and home. Happy wife, happy life. We would have had to severely overpay him, and I don't know if that even would get it done. Seems like he likely told Joe he would leave, we sucked, and got what we could for him. A 1st round pick for a guy likely to walk is an excellent deal. But it doesn't fit the Joe is an idiot that can't negotiate narrative so it's ignored. Shit, he got 5 2nds for GPII, who likely never wanted to be here in the first place. He said this wasn't a 1 year thing, so he signed a guy, and was immediately able to flip that player for a bunch of assets to use he otherwise wouldn't have had.
No one can be absolutely certain, but unless you're going to argue that our GM is completely incompetent and there were a lot of good reasons to figure Hart would go elsewhere whether we wanted him to leave or not, it's fair to presume the Blazers did the smart thing and traded him, and, I'd argue they probably had a better roster after the trade than before.
I think there is some truth to this. Hart seemed grateful after being traded. Not sure what he will get as a FA, but I loved his relentless style. But I remember him saying before the season that he wanted to start and I see him more as a 6th man. Would we want him to start over Sharpe for the next 4 years?
Dames comment “I’m not interested in developing guys who will be ready 2-3 years from now”. Sure hope that doesn’t have anything to do with moving Sharpe…….
Yeah, that guy, as green as he is, is likely to be at least a good starter quality big as is and likely be better than any other big the Blazers already have on the roster.
This might all be true but it's still conjecture. When Dame was asked about his thoughts of the Hart trade he said he understood it because we couldn't pay him in the summer. My comments and thoughts were based off that.
I have thought ever since Paul passed that BK had run this organization and still does. He’s got two yes men at the top that are under his guidance.
Why do we also feel like singing Joe's praises for getting second round picks for GP when he is the one who signed him in the first place?! He created this problem and somewhat fixed it. This deserves a kudos? And it wasn't 5 true seconds. There are about a million qualifiers to 3 of the 5. They could turn into some assets. They also could be meaningless.
So you base it on a quote from Dame, I base it on a quote directly from Hart. I'd say your take on it is far more conjecture, but what difference does it really make.
