Meeting between Dame and Cronin today

Dame is free to do what he wants.

Fans are free to have an opinion of him doing this waffling and demands for the team publicly is both not helpful to the team nor pleasant for fans. I and many fans prefer Dame commits to the team or demands out, and does it privately. Others are free to have their opinion.

I don't see how Dame doing these public antics is either constructive to the Blazers building a winner with him or constructive to all parties moving on to a new chapter.

 

If Scoot and Shae being stars are the most likely path to contend then shouldn't Dame let Cronin and the Blazers continue those attempts to build the team?

I see Dame and Blazer fans frustrated by the lack of a second star the last 8 years since LMA left. But that's a sunk cost, the team can never change that, and can only try to put a contender together going forward.

 

The Ant for DeRozan makes almost too much sense. It gives the Bulls an asset with longer term control. For Portland it's an improvement without too much commitment if we decide to change direction after next season. DeRozan is close to Dame and would appease him while helping us at the SF position. The Bulls have a gigantic hole at SG which would be the perfect spot for Ant. This trade could also give us an opportunity to end this Olshey's draft pick nightmare and release all of our future picks.

Ant + 1 or 2 2nd round pick for DeRozan.

Follow up:
Nurk + Little + Keon + 3 FRP -> Ayton.

Resign Thybulle + Reddish

Sign Jaxson Hayes with the TPMLE

Dame - Sharpe - DeRozan - Grant - Ayton
Scoot - Thybulle - Murray - Watford -Hayes (TPMLE) - Walker - Rupert

We would still have a 8M TPE for a big but I think this is a path that could make sense short term and long term. It's just unclear if the Ayton part make sense for both side.

 

The thing is after two trade deadlines and a previous off season Dame was asked some questions and answered them honestly a while before the draft started. Those are all of the public antics you can point to besides an IG live with an unfortunate song playing in the background.

People can try to paint this picture any way they want to but Dame didn't make a comment since before the lotto and hasn't made one since the draft unless you consider some IG posts where he doesn't say a fucking thing about the team a comment.

The time crunch and everyone knowing that Cronin has to do something isn't on Dame it's on Cronin for continuously saying he would do something and never delivering on it. His first off season he said he was ready push all of his chips in and then admitted it hadn't gone how he wanted it to and the roster was unbalanced and they'd be looking to push all of their chips in between the end of that calendar year and the trade deadline, after the team had a chance to evaluate which talent worked together. At the trade deadline they tore the team down and tanked. I don't care if there are supposedly good reasons why other teams have been able to make massive improvements and Joe hasn't, it shouldn't matter to Dame either and Cronin's ineptitude should not be laid at the feet of Dame publicly demanding a roster that can compete immediately.

 

Nah. OG and Ayton in those deals would be enough to compete in the playoffs. That would be enough for Dame.

We don't really need a second star as much as we need better defense. Our offense would still be great and we'd have far better defense.

 

Agree. Scaling down is never a problem. But this could be a good path to improve short term without mortgaging long term.

 

Breaking News! Original Version of a Theodore Geisel's Classic Tale has been found!

Too Many Guards
Dr. Seuss

Did I ever tell you that GM Tries Hard
Had fifteen players, and made them all Guards?

Well, he did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when he wants one, and calls out "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Guard!" he doesn't get one.
All fifteen Guards of his come on the run!

This makes things quite difficult for GM Tries Hard
As you can imagine, with so many Guards.
And often he wishes that, when they were born,
He had named one of them Keith Van Horn.
And one of them OG. And one of them Jarrett.
And one of them LeBron, a friend of Mike Barrett.
Another one Davis. Another one Mikal Bridges.
Or perhaps even other one, the naughty Miles Bridges.
And one of them Buck Williams the Great...

But he didn't do it. And now it's probably too late.

 

He had even named one of them Keith of van horn.

Great starter, but the cadence is just a little off, the line above, for example, fixes that part.

 

Very nice! But I am a little sad you didn’t move to a Cat in the Hat solution of stacking little guards A, B, C, and D up to solve the size problem.

 

We can still be aggressive in moving Ant, Nurk and future picks to get better now. The upcoming draft is not considered strong. I don't have a problem with two timelines. But they need to get better now.

 

https://nbaanalysis.net/2023/06/27/...rd-scoot-henderson-scottie-barnes-proposal/2/

Toronto Raptors Receive: F Doug McDermott, G Devonte’ Graham, G/F Malaki Branham, 2024 First-Round Pick (TOR via SAS), 2025 First-Round Pick (ATL via SAS), 2027 First-Round Pick (SAS)

Portland Trail Blazers Receive: F OG Anunoby, F/C Chris Boucher

San Antonio Spurs Receive: G Anfernee Simons

 

Ant for OG & Boucher? Sign me up, I think that would help to balance the roster, quite a bit.

 

Yep, no 3FRP, just Nurk/Little/Keon