Yep, one that wants to have him contribute to being a contender. He's the most respected player around the league Ive seen in a long time.
Dame has done his part for Portland....and more. Cronin stepped into a pile of shit financially, and has done his part. There is no VS to me, just unfortunate timing and circumstances. I hope Dame goes to a team that he wants, and gets a shot at a ring. I hope Cronin builds a deep playoff team here in Portland.
What does "handle it better" mean? I saw it as: - Public relations - Getting what they want That's why I answered it as I did.
What makes me laugh are people saying OMG, Joe is a liar, he hasn't been honest! That's executives/management for you. Things change. Situations change. At the time something was said it could have been the path. Then something else happens (like winning the 3rd pick). You can't take less just to appease someone that honestly might have already given hints they wanted to leave. Its hard to trust people too. Dame totally could have told someone he was thinking of leaving and they ran to someone in management to tell them. It is a divorce. Shit happens. The team is going the right path toward having any chance of building an actual winner. Could they fail? Absolutely! But we have sucked for 4 years now.
Fuck it. This is what I heard from a very good source... The meeting with Cronin, Dame and his agent Joe talked about multiple trades and deals they were working on. Some really big ones that would move the needle and make the Blazers contenders. But when Dame's agent called those teams and asked the teams about those proposals those teams had already turned the Blazers down. Dame and his agent know deals get talked about and nothing ever happens but Dame and his agent got frustrated because Joe was talking about possible deals that he was working on that in fact were never going to happen.
the Blazers aren't going to throw away all this free advertising by trading Dame right away. We got the word Portland Trailblazers and the team logo pouring out of multiple channels daily.
Let's not pretend dame wasn't part of the decisions that got Portland in the place they are. I am sure that if he was frank about CJ to NeO, we might have handled that bit better before, but he put friends over team before. It feels like once NeO was out and Joe didn't succumb to everything dame wanted (keeping Shae for example) it started to change. The blazers did good to dame just like he did for them, but once he decided to go Dame first for the trade, the blazers should go team first
I could totally see Cronin just not being able to read people very well. People skills and negotiation don't seem to be his strong suit. Doesn't mean he is a liar. Could he be a liar? Sure, but sometimes management are told to do shit and they do it because if they don't, they could get fired.
I don't think that's true anymore. I think you're seeing more and more national talking heads saying this makes Dame's brand look pretty bad and the Blazers wouldn't be doing their team, their current players or their fans right to accept less than was reasonable for a guy that not only is leaving but is giving you ultimatums on his way out the door.
Joe was likely trying to buy time. He shouldn't have told Dame these trades were possible if they were in fact dead. Maybe Joe was hoping to re-engage with these teams about said trades, but damn that's dishonest if true. Frankly, it's embarrassing. If the media gets a whiff of that...Jesus.
Cronin seems like a hell of a nice guy and a people-pleaser. And the person he has to please the most doesn't have a real depth of knowledge of basketball. I'm sure Jody wants Dame and the draft picks. Best of both worlds. I'm not sure Joe is the type who can tell her that just isn't possible. Joe is a Robin trying to be a Batman. Nothing wrong with being a Robin but a small market team needs a Batman with a side of the Joker.
I can support neither party at this time, because no one has resorted to spilling the tea or airing the dirty laundry. All the dirt is needed to figure out what the over promises and failures were. As is, both parties are posturing as expected, and within reasonable norms.
