Inactivity is always a good move then because you'll rarely hear about what teams declined and can always use that as a reason to excuse inactivity. That's why I focus on execution and actions.
If your opinion is inactivity is a good move, that's fine. I didn't say that. I will restate what I said: I don't know if Cronin passed up good moves or always made the best move. I know what roster he walked into. I know what ownership group he's working for. I know what the roster looks like today. I know Dame wants out. I believe Cronin is responsible for a percentage of all of that. Do I think it's greater than 50%? I do not, but I have to make assumptions to come to that conclusion. Am I ready to burn him at the stake? No. Am I ready to throw a parade for him? No. Luckily, I don't feel a need to blame one person. I'm bummed we never brought an all-star level player in to play with Dame.
Will always be a Dame fan but don’t give a shit if he’s traded somewhere other than his 2 preferred destinations, especially if it’s true he waited to tell Joe until after the Grant deal. There are several satisfactory destinations, I’m not saying trade him to the Wizards but there are at least 8-10 places he would have “a punchers chance”. It’s not like we are a free agent destination anyway, and the fear of making free agents hesitant about how we treat our players is the only reason I can think of trading a player with no no trade clause to the one team he wants. Sorry Pat, you can fuck off.
Even in that statement he is lying cause what he really means is he will do what's best for Jody and for that he is the ultimate kiss ass yes man so at least he can take pride in being the best at something.
No catering or cratering. Seems he fukked us a bit with the decision coming right after Grant signed but that is not nearly the big issue, it's where he goes and getting this TEAM the best return possible. If he is demanding (I don't think he is) Miami only then it's FU time, if he reasonable about several teams then OK we try to work with that, be interesting to see how it plays out.
Dame publicly making noise only hurt the team in trade negotiations. Trading a pick for equal value is almost impossible under those restrictions. Dame really should have kept that shit in house if he actually cared about staying and competing in Portland.
I know, I'm just saying that if we only criticize inactivity based on what deals we know front offices turned down, we'll never be able to criticize a lack of execution from a front office. I've been asked "What did you want Joe to do?!" over a hundred times since the draft as if an answer is needed as a qualifier for criticizing him.
Not holding my breath on this, but now's your time to shine, Joe. This deal will either make your reputation or it should cost you your job (not that I think Jody and the Vulcans would fire him, either, but that should be the potential outcomes in a normal organization).
Not that I have confidence in Joe but…. He went 2 years without overpaying for a deal that would have kept Damian Lillard in town. What makes you think he would take Miami’s pupu platter now that he doesn’t have to juggle Dame’s interests anymore?
Exactly. And Dame has 3 years left on his contract. And the Blazers aren't "win now." Miami most definitely is. And so is Dame.
I hear you and I understand why the question would frustrate you (or anyone) who wants the bullseye on Cronin. I think a lack of activity over a large period of time is fair knock. I would say Cronin wasn't inactive as the roster only has 4 players from when he took over 18 months ago. The bigger debate seems to really center around how much value guys like CJ/Norm/RoCo had. This of course gets back into the type of conversation where we really don't know. I think where you run into issues is that it can appear you have an agenda when it comes to specific topics/people/players and once you set you agenda, your takes slant very heavily in that direction. I popped on your stream yesterday and the part I saw spent a lot of time where you and your co-host were seemingly getting very upset about a hypothetical signing of Eric Gordon; that hadn't happend, and even you didn't seem to think would happen. From my eyes, the purpose of belaboring a bad move that hasn't happened was to aid in casting a negative light on Cronin. You and I both want the same thing. We both wanted Dame to have winner in Portland. I suspect you and I both want this thing to turn around and end up with a championship contending roster in a few years. You and I both seem to think that's going to be more difficult than a lot of other people. I feel like you want to put way more of this on Cronin than I do, but that doesn't make either one of us right/wrong.
yup the minute he said anything of displeasure with how the team was going was the minute he was doomed to eventually ask out. Not one team was going to give us any kind of fair value for any trade we were going to offer or be offered. So I feel like fault wise it’s 50% previous front office. 35% dame. 15 Cronin. I’m really hoping Cronin doesn’t screw the pooch on this one and tries to bring some aging star to hope and replace dame. But his previous track record prior to this dame shit storm doesn’t inspire much confidence. I also have some glimmer of hope that dame comes back later in his career to finish it out in portland. But until then I really hope scoot and shae destroy him anytime we meet. I’m a blazer fan first.
I'm not sure if that's true, but if it is, that certainly doesn't help the cause. Dame obviously thinks difference makers did want to come to Portland (to play with him), but what we don't know is what it would've taken to obtain those players.
If only Miami had the package Phoenix did, but even if they did we'd still end up talking about how Cronin got "out leveraged" even though Brooklyn didn't.
Yeah, he got rid of players, he didn't add them. We went from four role players (CJ, Norm, RoCo, and Nance) to one (Grant). People said that Cronin's first deadline was to gain flexibility to add down the road. Outside of Grant, Cronin didn't add anything. His goal was to build a win-now team around Dame, but he clearly went backwards in that. So either he massively failed on his goals and the plans he had, or he lied about his intentions. Either way, I can't accept that. We both want the same things, but I desperately want a new owner and GM. I don't trust Cronin to build a winner unless he lucks his way into one via the draft. I don't have an agenda. I back up all my opinions with reasoning. It's not like a don't have an explanation for why my opinions are what they are. We would've been mad about Eric Gordon because he would've been ANOTHER guard when 4 of our 5 core players are guards. We didn't need more guards if we kept Dame. That's not about having a vendetta against Cronin, it was about the idea (but all Cronin has done is keep up with the undersized, guard-heavy rosters from Olshey's years, so it's fair criticism). I said this summer would be his litmus test and I was going to give him a fair chance. Now Dame's requesting a trade.
I think Dame identified where he would like to go. Has any all star ever publicly targeted Portland as their choice destination?
