It looks to me like G.M.'s are graded by a fan, by whether or not that person did what that fan wanted. Anything else is failure.
Supply and demand and Dame is the Man....probably top 5 most popular players in the association and probably the most respected. If Dame wanted to leave and blarzesr are going to oblige him you give it time so that offers won't just be low ball. If he and the team are committed to each other still, do as Miami & Denver have done, use a few drafts picks, Bam & Herro / Murray and Joker, then go out get a player or two that improves the team, KCP & Gordon & Butler and hungry cheap players. The era of super teams is going to fade out and organizations will build for chemistry, and season vets that address positions, sprinkled with a few draft picks. I think by fall Portland TB fans will be happy with the way the team is shaping up.
Joe is a cap guy. Did he see the ramifications of the new CBA coming? I guess we'll find out with Jerami Grant. If Cronin can sign Grant can to a contract that wouldn't need "sweeteners" to be traded.
Watch this video if you haven't already. It explains the new CBA in general. Changes are a-coming. Skip ahead to 1:30 for the start of the CBA part. The part before that explains how we got where we are now. It kind of makes Cronin look more like a genius for tanking 2 seasons in good drafts and getting super lucky, before the new CBA kicks in. Dame should definitely watch it. I've thought all along getting super lucky this way was the best chance Dame has to go far in the playoffs. He might have to wait a couple years, but so what?
If you listen to this, Joe seems to be playing the long game. Stacking up on rookies is how you win in the future.
New CBA fully kicks in two offseasons from now. It sure as hell looks like we're building the team around the new CBA.
The Clippers certainly won't be getting any 1st round picks, which is what a lot of "experts" screamed about when he was traded from the Blazers. If anything, Powell's value should have gone up since then, looking at his numbers and fewer years on his contract.
I think it was always going to be next to impossible to trade Dame for the "hauls" and "godfather" packages a lot of people seem convinced Portland will get. If, and as soon as the Blazers start shopping Dame the offers start real low. That always happens when team is forced to trade their franchise player my hatred of Olshey and the ownership decisions to keep him on the job past 2015-16 just grows. With him in charge 'Missed-Opportunities-Were-Us' you were around during his tenure right? Did you ever have any contact with him?
Yes, but if the new CBA doesn't fully kick in until 2025, that would mean that Dame's salary will be harder to trade the closer we get to that date.
Another reason picks are becoming even more valuable then they used to be. If the Blazers trade Dame they need to get 3-4 picks, I almost don't care who the veterans coming back in a trade are.
I'd say it fully kicks in next offseason. What aspect are you considering that is delayed until the summer of 2025?
If Joe really saw all this coming months or years ahead then it makes his decision to overpay Nurk and Ant even more dumb.
Ant is cheaper than Herro and Poole, he is not overpaid. Vucevic just got $20m a year. Nurk's overpay is minimal. Cronin did the right thing to retain both assets and not lose them for nothing.
Blazers should never look at it as "forced" to trade Dame. If Dame tells them he prefers a trade then its the Blazers job to look for a good return. Maybe that happens immediately or maybe they have to wait until the start of the season or even the deadline. If the Blazers move on from Dame even the Miami package with control of 4-5 years of their draft picks could ultimately be a big "haul". It depends what your looking for in trading Dame, if you need both veterans/starters as well as picks it might be very hard. If you want draft assets which are likely to be much more valuable as we get further into the new CBA there are likely some good options with Miami/Brooklyn/etc. Yeah none are likely to be "godfather" packages or even "fair" value for the franchise best player of all time. But it could be very good assets that are critical to putting the final pieces of a winning team around Scoot/Sharpe/etc in 3-6 years from now. At that time when Dame is earning 60 million its extremely unlikely he has any value above his contract.
