Getting a first round pick for a guy who is going to walk is a fine. That wasn't the sole point of my post. I was pointing out the choice Joe made to deliberately get worse in a season when things were still somewhat open. We were what... A game behind GS at the deadline? And they ended up in the 6 seed. We chose to get worse.
Singing his praises may be a bit strong, but I see what he was going for in signing GPII. A lockdown perimeter defender would still be incredibly useful on this team. It certainly didn't work out, but I do appreciate that he recognized that quickly and pivoted so at least we could get something out of the signing. And I think the protections on the picks are a little silly to be sure, but they are still tradeable assets, and I'd be a bit surprised if we actually used (picked with) them. The only downside now from moving on from GPII, who clearly didn't want to be here, was losing a MLE-sized contract that could be used to aggregate salaries for an upgrade... we are a bit short on those.
Again this comment of "clearly didn't want to be here..." Is that not his job to identify that beforehand if we're hardcapping ourselves in the process? Or the injury? Did we even do a physical in July? Props for getting out of it I guess but maybe do better next time?
Certainly seems like that is what is happening. As I said I'm conflicted on the path forward. A bunch if the comments in this thread are very very good. @Pinwheel1 @illmatic99 @PCmor7 have all had extremely valid points. I might just need to sit back and enjoy the ride. Hope for the best.
I'm mostly venting cuz this season sucked. Maybe it's because of the immediacy of these exit interviews but there wasn't much introspection from our key decision makers in these answers. I dunno if we really learned fron our mistakes to not repeat them again if we just blame injuries and youth as the primary reasons for our downfall.
I won’t read all this bullshit….but I am curious if our starting center is STILL claiming his head coach isn’t using him correctly like in Denver and with Stotts?
Meh, I think both of those critiques are a little unfair. I think many NBA free agents would prefer to stay where they are (but prefer money more). I think that's the chance you have to take in free agency, and I have no doubt that GPII and his agent would have been very reassuring to Blazers management throughout the process. And the injury... I assume that they did a physical, understood he needed surgery and the healing timetable. What they couldn't expect is that GPII recovery would take MONTHS longer than is standard for his ailment. That's just bad luck, or if one is GPII cynic, maybe something worse.
Hey man, I'm not trying to be a dick but Dame literally said, "We get Shaedon at 19 and he's just different." It was the sentence after the one you are quoting.
I think he is more so blaming injuries and claiming there is no better center the Blazers can get and sort of putting it out there that he can still be the beast, that he'll get back there. Not sure I see it.
Nope, he had nothing but praise for Chauncey. Saying, "Everyone BUT Chauncey is to blame". (Which is a load of shit, but he did say it.)
Just listened to the interviews. We will be a veteran team next year with a couple perennial allstars and Grant.
See that’s just it. Players realize it’s on THEM! Phil Jackson wasn’t leading this team any better this season than Chauncy did.
If we got Wemby, and if Wemby is a needle-mover, Dame won't give a shit how old he is. Since we won't get Wemby, Dame's point stands.
He signed him for the right reason - and life (injuries) got in the way, so he pivoted quickly. This team needed a good perimeter defensive player. GP2 is certainly this guy. Injuries happened and as quickly as possible Joe was able to pivot to get another elite perimeter player (MT) and offloaded GP2. He identified a problem, worked to fix it, had a snag out of his control and quickly pivoted to fix it again. Yes, it deserves kudos. That's exactly what you can expect from good GMs.
I especially don't see it if Chauncey wants to have him defending on the perimeter and in space as often as he has so far. I would really like to see Ant and Nurk as the outgoing salaries packaged with picks to get us a all star. We'll just have to wait and see what teams underwhelm in the playoffs and where our first pick ends up.
I didn't take it exactly that way. I think he'd recognize there are two guys in this draft that probably are immediate helps out of line with their age, one a generational talent and the other perhaps just beneath that. I'd hope he'd recognize that. Miller probably is a solid contributor sooner rather than later, and then there are four or five guys in this draft that either help pretty quickly (Jarace Walker) and maybe don't have quite the upside or have terrific upside like the twins but might not be ready to step up on the big stage in two to three years. The last part's kind of moot to me, though. I think in two to three years Dame still is going to be playing a pretty high level of basketball when those guys are fully coming into their own. Further, I think it's fair to presume some of Dame's peers that have been dominating the league since he's come into it (Durant, the Warriors) will be in a decline, and there'll be a void perfect for a younger team that has intelligently stockpiled and developed its own young assets instead of giving it up for pennies on the dollar for a fat chance to compete in 2023-24 to ascend. If Dame can't see that, I have no issue with admitting his stance is going to make it harder to build a true contender and cutting ties. Heck, send him to OKC for SGA and build around him, Sharpe and whoever we get in the lottery this year.
I'm glad that's settled and all the other teams around the league now know they have to make trades with us that all are Blazer-friendly. Start with Siakam for Thybulle and the Knicks' first. Then Embiid comes over for Nurk, Justise and a future second. I don't know if the Bucks would move Giannis for Ant but I'm willing to explore it.
I don't want to see Dame get traded. I will say he needs understand what team he is playing for and how that hampers the ability to bring in star players. I get he's tired of waiting and doesn't want any more excuses. On one hand, I am glad he is exerting pressure on the Blazers to go big. There has been a lot of retooling with different projects, rookies, and former 1st rounders that hasn't panned out. Maybe, it's time to try to go all in and try that. But, on the other hand doing that will leverage the Blazers future. Years of picks would be gone. Years of young talent we could develop would be gone. The ability to build something would be mostly gone. We would be capped out paying taxes with a second star and likely signing Grant to boot. We'd have to hope Dame could get some guys to come cheap. He says there are guys who want to come. But, we have yet to see it.
