Lol. No. It seemed in the PC he was short about that part. It felt like he could have made the point that he was on the phone, and in the war room, and working to get trades done, and they just weren't there. He said very little on the matter, and it just wasn't assuring.
Fair. Also possible Dame let his agent know everything on Tuesday and let him know what the talking points were from there. See? It's all speculation. So wait until the facts.
Hmm... I hear you. I was taken aback by that comment, too, but it actually might be honest AND not incompetent. Why? Clearly Scoot was a lottery guy. Murray? I don't think so, personally, but he had been mocked in the teens so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine the Blazers had him as a lottery-level guy. So... Rupert. Is it legit that the Blazers thought he was a lottery pick? That seems crazy for a guy who wasn't especially good in Australia and doesn't appear to be especially athletic (at least not jumping)... he's young and he's exceedingly long, with a reported commitment to defense that seems awesome, but additionally: He was invited to the green room at the draft. There were reportedly 19 players invited to sit in the green room. That puts him in shouting distance of the lottery even if he was considered the lowest-ranked dude. Schmitz has been following/commenting on/complimenting Rupert since at least January 2022, when he was still 17. Rayan, not Schmitz It's definitely possible that this is a guy that Schmitz REALLY wanted and had as a lottery-level dude Would I have had all three in my lottery wishlist? No. But I think it's not insane that maybe the Blazers did, and that doesn't necessarily indicate incompetence.
Couple of quibbles that I have. RoCo and Hart were going to be UFAs. I don't think RoCo had much value at all and there has been a big debate about whether Hart would have re-signed here. Also, the trade would have been our TPE and Milwaukee pick for Kemba Walker and Duren. I don't think Dame would have been thrilled with that deal if we had taken that instead of Jerami Grant.
If Dame is traded not sure it makes sense to re-sign him unless it's a sign and trade. I don't think he will want to stay either. I could be wrong though.
Murray and Rupert were all over the big boards. Not sure if they were lottery picks though. Definitely saw both of them in the first round though.
I just think we'll sign and trade him, we'll recoup the future first we spent on him and Joe will be able to justify it.
The guy has been stuck on tank squads throughout his prime years. I wonder if he has an itch to play for a competitive franchise? Or is he content with being the goofy guy that's really good at basketball on bad teams? He's a highly skilled player, coming off a stellar scoring season. I would assume good teams would definitely want him.
What? You mean there are people that don't like to work 24/7 for 365 and twice on Sundays? Seriously, though, the people here adding 1+1 and coming up with 1,549,712 is cringe. You MIGHT be right. Dame MIGHT ask out. Dame MIGHT not give it a chance. And if he does there was no way the Blazers were going to come out on top, because we were either going to get players at their value through the draft or we were going to overpay for a vet to placate Dame, probably end up middle of the pack at best in the West and probably have Dame after all that ask out anyway. The offseason's not over. I don't think any of us are in Dame's inner circle. Cronin hasn't called Dame in Europe on vacation, or Dame's Insta story is "Welcome to Miami" (which is as likely to be trolling as anything) and Blazers S2 goes all Pepe Silva trying to put it all together. The biggest takeaway for me is a lot of us are really adept at making ourselves miserable and trying to pass it on to everyone else. For heaven's sake, how many times do the same people have to post a dozen or more times in every thread that "Dame's gone," "Cronin screwed Dame," "We're going to be bad for at least half-a-decade or more," yada, yada, yada. This is the draft press conference thread and it's becoming every other freaking thread for the last two weeks talking about Dame being gone or we need to trade Dame or we lied to Dame and some of the people even taking the thread off topic are moderators. Well, if you guys are going to rant about that nonsense, this is my rant about your nonsense. Get a grip. Let things play out. Just because you want to be unhappy, stop taking a leak in everyone else's Cheerios for goodness sake. Write a letter to Cronin. I don't care. It's just disgusting to come on to what was a pretty good board every day and read the same dozen people spamming every thread with how the world is ending and arguing with anyone that says it might not be. Yeesh.
They probably would want him but I don't think any of those teams can sign him. So it would have to be a sign and trade.
Schmitz 100% had Rupert as a lottery talent. Schmitz had dinner with him during the draft process even though he never had a formal workout with us (I believe).
For those doubting what Joe said about all three being (in their view) lottery picks, I think Chauncey put it better (and in a more provable way). He said we had three picks, all of whom were invited to the Green Room. That says more than what Joe said our impression was. The NBA does not like players sitting and waiting to be drafted.
If you listen closely to Rupert, he currently speaks English with a slight Kiwi accent (he played in NZ last season). It's kind of charming.
To the bolded....wasn't that more the previous GM.......specifically? I like 100+ page threads both years about how the Blazers would trade out of the pick. That's a fuck ton of wrong.
To answer that question I would say no. If @Whyachi said we traded 3 first round picks, Ariza, Gary Trent Jr. and CJ for that return then he would have been talking about Olshey.
Overall the press conference was pretty good. No stupid questions. It might be too early to answer but I wanted someone to ask about where Rupert and Murray felt their best position were. They both are kind of tweeners...weight wise My guess is Rupert is a guard defensively until he adds some weight....but eventually an SF? Kris maybe starts out as an SF and eventually is a PF?
Bro was already banned from here and is back. That's the 2nd person to do this recently. Not sure the reason to have forum rules and consequences if you don't follow thru with 'em.
