I suspect there are grains of truth on both sides. How about this for a possibility: The Blazers took longer than Dame was willing to wait. Simple. And, again, I think the likeliest scenario. My issue becomes more about Dame and his entourage's stance afterward. Because I can see the trade demand being made out of frustration or lack of patience, and I've said before he's totally within his rights to demand a trade for any reason, even if it's that he just doesn't like Cronin or wakes up one day and hates the Portland skyline. However, to start floating this narrative that he always was loyal to the Blazers and acting like it never was reciprocated is pure bunk. And trying to limit the Blazers to one potential destination and then threatening to drag them through the mud if they don't accept Riley's lowball offer is unprecedented and spiteful ... I don't know how that's even debatable.
What I think is happening is the likliest scenario happened, then Dame was seeing the organization try to get the best offer and he doubled down. Meaning, either way you look at it, Dame is being a dick. He should understand the business side of it seeing as he made decisions on the team. He shipped off his close friend CJ for gods sake. He knows what has to be done, but now all of a sudden when it's him he becomes a fucking diva? Slow your fucking roll, Dame.
What will happen if Dame hasn't been traded by the start of the season? It's possible Cronin will wait until either Miami gives him the trade he wants, or Dame adds more teams to his list.
I think there's an element of that at play, too. Dame pretty much admitted it in one of the interviews a month or so ago when he said you have to look at whether a team trading for him is going to have enough left to contend. The Heat probably are among the most-poorly constructed landing places with this in mind. They almost missed the playoffs completely this season, they've already lost Strus and Vincent, and they just don't have a lot of draft picks to offer or with which to reload. Dame's trying to help his likely new team give him the best shot at winning by holding all its valuable assets except maybe Robinson and Herro by playing the "I gave Portland everything for 11 years, and look they can't even do this for me" card.
My theory is that everything changed once we moved up to #3 in the lottery. It changed even more when the possibility of CHA taking Brandon Miller was real resulting in Scoot falling in our laps. I think they still tried to shop the #3 pick and assets but realized that that teams weren’t offering good packages. Brooklyn didn’t want to trade Mikal, Zion was never offered, Boston wasn’t trading Brown and Masai Ujiri was being Masai Ujiri. They realized they would have to massively overpay to get anything done. At this point, I believe ownership pivoted and decide to rebuild with the young guys. I don’t understand why Cronin is getting all the blame. He definitely did not act unilaterally. I think when the decision to keep or trade your franchise GOAT, this goes all the way up to ownership. This all reeks of Jody/Bert. What owner would idly watch while their GM ran out your franchise player? Do you think Mark Cuban would let Nico Harrison run Luka out without intervening? Do you think Mat Ishbia would let James Jones trade Devin Booker without his approval?
Hawaii been good for the soul, brah. I checked outta so much unhealthy shit in my life. The people I’m meeting are authentic kind souls. The wife and I opened our home to so many people, lone wolves, “stray dogs”, people in need, etc. For years. And when the coin flipped, not many were not there to reciprocate. We just needed to get to a place that finds us peace and I’ve found a certain level of it. Shit, there’s a highly-popular Buddhist Monastery in my neighborhood. I heavily believe in a lot of their teachings, so it’s been a solid experience thus far.
Welcome, rook! First quality post you’ve had and I completely agree. (I’m kidding - just thought I’d needle HCP and his posse of haters all at the same time, FAMS. But I do completely agree and it was a quality post.)
I love Dame…. This is breaking my heart. But I'm in camp Cronin. Without knowing the details of conversations behind closed doors, this is lame. Publicly, Joe has said the right things. To say early that they will go young without trying to please dame is suicide. Dame has forced Cronin into a corner.
The Bam one could've been too. Everyone knew Bam was unavailable, especially for a draft pick. But there was that report of Cronin "trying" by offering 3 for Bam.
Well that's because it happened a year earlier. Last year he traded the power forward, the small forward, the shooting guard, and the backup big man.
I know my opinion is in the minority on this forum, but I truly believe this. I think it may be worse in that Cronin and/or ownership wanted to go the young route but didn't want to look like the bad guy in this situation. After Cronin preached "transparency" numerous times, it would feel like a stab in the back to Dame if Cronin was lying to him. It also seems like Cronin is trying hard to control the narrative through the media. Regardless of if this is the right move on paper or not, I can't stand the way the front office has handled this. As someone who's been ride or die with Dame and wanted the organization to give him the same loyalty back, it seems to me like they spit on that and lied to him in the process of replacing him while trying to make Dame out as the bad guy. That's nauseating to me. If the people running this organization would do that to Dame, they'd do it to anyone. I hope we find out the truth, no matter what it is. But that doesn't seem possible unless Dame comes out and says his entire side of the story. But even then, it's his word against Cronin's. Jody needs to sell the team, and the new owner needs to bring in a new GM. We need our own Mat Ishbia.
