You're a good poster. We both like Dame but i am not as glued to him as you are. He's thought about leaving before. These leaks over the last month have come from somewhere in Dames camp. I thank him for his time here and i'm ready to move on
So in an interview with incoming prospects( Scoot) and free agents , does Joe ask, "How good are you at recruiting other players to join you". That wasn't Dame's job. I'm sure he tried though. The Nat'l Sports Media and others don't like Portland. I find their opinion on the Rose City dumb and misplaced. But it is what it is. Durant so good with his judgement he recruited, Kyrie & Harden. How'd that work out?
I'm sorry, but this is sooo, sooo weak. It seems so needy. This tweet is just weird. If you're happy with your decision and you thought it out, why the heck do you care that someone doesn't like it? And if you can't remember the "I don't run from the grind. I want to be the greatest Blazer ever. I want to play my whole career in Portland. I'm built different," then you've lost your mind. Everything Dame's done in the last couple weeks has made him seem just the opposite of the terrific role model and leader who didn't follow the path of the masses, didn't judge, and went and did his own thing. He really needs to stop this now, go play for your new team, leave Portland alone. You're ruining your legacy every time you take a step, open your mouth, or post a tweet. Like they say, it's not an airport, Dame. You don't need to announce your departure. Shut up and get on your flight. Your antics split Blazer fans and put team supporters through so much in the last couple of months. Just stop asking for validation and go to ... wherever Cronin sends you. Good lord, this is like something I'd expect from an adolescent that just got dumped, except they were the dumper.
Fully expect Dame to change his Twitter handle to "I'm not the villain!" sometime tonight. What a waste of bandwidth.
It wasn't his job, but he demanded a voice. He commanded a seat at the table. I blame him for THAT, not for being bad at it. Being a basketball player is, like, a full-time job and to pretend like he could be an assistant GM, too, is ridiculous. Part of the blame, of course, goes to management for allowing him/conceding it to him, but if Dame didn't ask, they wouldn't have had a chance to say, "Yes." And the paranoia about Portland is just that: paranoia. Some Blazers fans had their heads in the sand about Lillard, claiming he wouldn't ask out, he wouldn't be traded, etc., etc., and acting like the national media was off base when, in fact, the national media had a wider perspective and less emotion to cloud their judgment.
Link? Not for the basketball being a full time job shit, for the Dame commanding blah blah blah shit.
Stepping back and thinking on the drafting of Scoot, I'd rather see 13 years of Scoot performing beyond our wildest expectations than watching Dame make the supermax as a player not worth what he is making 3 years from now. I realize his past play has earned him the supermax, but we can surround Scoot, Sharpe, and Grant with 2-3 solid starters for the price of one Lillard. To me, Joe is doing his job and looking at our 3-5-7 year future, not Damian's current state of emotion. Do any of you remember the turd of a lineup the Lakers surrounded Kobe with during the end of his supermax? They were hobbled since Kobe made the majority of the team's salary. I love me some Lillard - don't get me wrong. I am looking at my signed Lillard jersey and signed rookie card hanging in my office right now and am thankful for all he gave Portland. But no one player is bigger than the team/franchise. he was paid HANSOMLY to play in Portland - I'd love to hear from someone else on S2 who could command that type of salary and also dictate where he wants to go if he doesn't like where he's working. Sometimes these stars' sense of reality is skewed having never holding down an 8-5 job. I am big fan of karma and you reap what you sow. I expect Cronin to get the best possible deal for the franchise, not Lillard - even if it means sending Lillard to Minnesota, Memphis or Detroit.
https://theathletic.com/4659350/2023/07/01/damian-lillard-trade-request-trail-blazers/ "That summer triggered a switch in Lillard. Suddenly, it seemed, an organization that did everything for him — his approval and opinion were sought on everything from player moves and coaching hires, to practice times and plane departures — wasn’t doing enough. So he began to voice his displeasure, first internally and then publicly, albeit in ways that would allow Lillard to proclaim no one ever heard it from his mouth, thus protecting him from backlash. He felt the Blazers should have been giving him more help with the roster, a feeling that only heightened that summer as he watched P.J. Tucker win a ring with the Milwaukee Bucks in July 2021."
Yep. I get that some people don't trust the media, especially when they're emotionally invested, but the reporting seems pretty consistent and Cronin had repeatedly said he'd had conversations with Dame in the last few months about the future of the team... presumably it was happening behind closed doors before it was discussed in press conferences.
"Paranoia" . I get what you're saying. Fux News likes to say were on fire and under siege all the time. I deliver food all over the city, and while there are parts of neighborhoods that have issues, most also have tons of very nice houses and businesses that are doing well. Maybe Portland needs a public address announcement to the NBA that it's a pretty cool place to play, and a great place to live. I don't think Dame asks out , if Joe had actually done what he said he would.
Yeah I have a hard time believing anything Quick has to say since the team basically cut him off before Dame even got here... even though that article from Quick was less aggressive towards Dame than he has been in the past, it was still slanted towards slighting Dame. The media covering our team is a clown show.
Quick essentially said that all free agents and trades were run past Dame before they were executed. That would align with everything else we have heard over the years. Dame has been heavily involved in the direction of the team. That's why I thought it was a pretty glaring sign when Dame was less involved in the draft process this year. He was in the building, but he wasn't sitting with Joe. There was clear disconnect.
I think being kept in the loop is a little different than commanding a seat at the table or whatever the fuck you said. Being consulted is obviously not the same as making decisions because look where we are right now. Look where we were a year ago right now with Dame pissed that we took Shae instead of trading for OG... rumor has it. It's a lot of conjecture especially from Quick. That dude isn't allowed the same kind of access he once was but still writes like he is.
I buy that Dame gets consulted but I don't think for one second that he's in the room when decisions get made... not for the CJ trade, or the Clippers trade before that, not when we held onto the pick and took Shae last year... I think he pushed for Jerami but I don't know another move of consequence that really has Dame's fingerprints all over it.
