Dame all but demanding vet roster

Look, I get to make up the facts when it comes to ribbing you.

 

Were you also handsome and funny in this imaginary world?

 

Even my imagination can't stretch that far.

 

well played!

 

Is it a little bit of sarcasm towards Dame…. I mean if I’m a player I’m not happy with some of his comments about having assets to trade meaning players and draft picks to trade away to bring in better players. Personally I’d be a little butt hurt by some of these comments especially from a close friend. Not creating drama but these guys have to be bothered that Dame doesn’t believe in them (for good reason or not).

 

CJ backtracking a bit?

 

agree with all of the above, except: the blazers plan to start sharpe this year with Dame. So Ant is either going to be a 6th man or be traded for upgrades on the wing or center!

 

Well if you listened to the boxing interview you'd know CJ was in Portland drinking a bottle of vino with Dame when he 'confessed' to him his betting man statement.

 

Quick Questions:
Will the Blazers have the MLE this year?
Is there any chance Poetl signs for that?

 

It does not sound like it. I think Toronto can offer more and they love the guy. He "seems" to like it there as well.

 

the Blazers will have A MLE; whether it's a full MLE or the tax MLE probably depends on trade's and how much Grant re-signs for, if he does

the cap is projected to be 134M. Meaning the tax line is around 163-164M and the apron around 170M

Blazers have about 113M in guarantees which includes a 3M 'option' on Knox. If Grant signs for 30M and the Blazers add the 3rd pick for 10M, they could be around 150M with 10-11 players. If the Blazers make trades relatively balanced in salary-out/salary-in, they could have a 16-20M margin between guarantees and the apron. That would allow a full-MLE, but of course, that would hard cap them again next season

and I didn't include the possibility of re-signing Thybulle, Eubanks, Wisnlow, Reddish...or the 23rd and 43rd picks.

it's going to be tight. At this point I'd probably bet against the full-MLE

 

Haynes saying it's pick three going out or Dame going out. I've thought this was what Dame has been saying the whole time and although Haynes has been wrong in the past, this is what I believe. If we pick with and keep the third pick then the team should just plan on trading Dame and making those arrangements draft night to maximize the youth they can get for him.

 

This is idiotic. Media making such a big fuss about those comments without having actually listened to the whole thing. Dame literally said he wants to be in Portland and envisions being in Portland in the following sentence.

Haynes is a shill who just wants clicks so he keeps riding Dame's coattails and flaming the fire.

I wish Dame would stop doing these stupid interviews when everyone will just aggregate one comment and ignore what he says and has been saying for years. This is undoubtedly also making Joe's job that much more difficult. Getting tired of all of it tbh.

 

Goddamn, stfu, cj. Thought we were done with this dude when we traded him away.

 

Yeah kind of agree. He should have just left that alone.

 

I think I get the most annoyed here with the seeming national media (and even some locals) simply assuming that it's all in the Blazers hands: "If they don't trade the pick, it was because the Blazers simply chose to go young over Dame." They seemingly ignore any context or nuance in the situation... i.e. perhaps the Blazers do want to trade the pick, but there are no impact deals available or those deals that are available are so outlandish that even Dame himself would likely agree that the organization couldn't do that (e.g. my favorite recent example I saw randomly: Ant, #3, and 2 future firsts for Siakam). Or the media themselves offer trades on behalf of the Blazers that the other team apparently won't take (e.g. "I just don't understand why the Blazers won't trade Ant+#3 for Bridges/Siakam/Brown/etc..").

I genuinely believe that should the Blazers and Dame need to part this summer, it is not because the organization didn't at least give it an honest effort to parlay assets for a win-now piece. They just (hopefully) aren't going to be stupid about it.

 

I think that's most likely what will happen in that conversation that Dame has alluded to. Joe would say, "We tried but the right deal just wasn't out there." but I think at this point Dame will say, "Well you're going to have to find the right deal for me then." Especially if the pick is Scoot.

The fact is that I do think there are going to be deals out there for us that aren't highway robbery but do make us better now with a fair enough return. We'll just see if Joe wants to take those deals or if he's stuck on winning the deal or getting exactly equal return.

 

Hearing they’ll settle. Just FYI

 

The only thing I found interesting in the Haynes interview........ was what he said (or rather didn't say) about Dame's feelings about Boston. Knowing he is friends with Brown and that Brown has alluded to some Celtic fans being racist....my mind went straight there. But it was a little odd how Haynes reacted so quickly to the question about Boston.