And there's the very real possibility Cronin told Dame he'd trade him where he wants to go (considering Cronin has already done this with three players) but they didn't trust Cronin to stick by his word considering he hasn't up to this point.
But did Dame tell Joe that it was Miami and ONLY Miami before he went public? And should Joe take a shit deal just to make Dame happy? And by shit, I mean Herro, Robinson, 2 picks? Miami knows they're only bidding against themselves so why on earth would they give us even remotely good value on Dame? And it's like Dame still doesn't get it, or doesn't give a shit, that when he puts us in a box it drastically reduces our leverage in negotiations.
Imagine if Lillard said Lakers only, GSW only, PHX only. The dumpsters full of scrubs and 2nd rounders for Lillard would have been far worse then a Heat package.
Listening to the Fentress/Oregonian podcast and he said he spoke with Simons at Vegas and he said "so I guess you're staying?" And Simons said back, "We'll see."
I think if we make a deal with Miami for Dame that we will see the teams that were interested in Herro and especially if we're getting Lowry in that trade, we'll talk to one of the other teams who were interested in Herro and see what they'll give us for Ant.
I just really really don't want to see a small starting back court again. I also don't want to see Shaedon having to start at the three alongside a small back court. I also don't want to see Scoot or Shae giving up minutes to Ant. Now if Chauncey is smart enough to bring Ant off of the bench but give almost all of the 96 minutes in the back court to a three man rotation of Scoot/Shae/Ant, then I'll be cool with it. I think the best way to showcase Ant is as a super sixth man anyway.
some quotes from Lillard after Blazers gave him the supermax extension last summer. "I don’t want to go out there with this crazy uphill battle that I’m fighting and we need a miracle times 10 to get it done. I just want a shot at it. And if that happens, and it doesn’t work out, then I can live with it.” ”The answers that I got and the responses that I got, I didn’t look at him, like, ‘Oh, he’s just telling me this,’ I was able to trust what I was hearing from Chauncey and Joe, And I think I’ve got a good nose for when somebody is blowing smoke."
Huge risk if he gets serious injury his value will be shot. Plus do you alienate the young guys if they don’t get the playing time early on. All things to consider but I agree the longer we wait the better the return. Dame or Miami will cave
I realize this is slightly OT but can y’all just take a minute and look at my profile picture and ponder how iconic it is. It’s on our court, and while it’s a bummer it says “moda” it’s still historic. Yes he had done it before, but until that shot nobody had done it more than once.
In all seriousness, with all these people who say they know people and that they therefore know exactly what went down in discussions between Dame's people and Cronin, I don't understand how it is that what I think would be the single most likely situation never is brought up. First, Cronin saying he'd try to use this year's pick to get veteran support for Dame. The problem is, when the Blazers get the third pick and a potentially transcendent player and the return you are getting for that is OG Anunoby IF you throw in Ant and other first-round picks, or maybe you are getting a Tobias Harris-level forward, it makes no sense to trade the pick that became Scoot for that. I feel pretty confident that had Cronin made that deal, 98% of the people criticizing Cronin for not making a trade would be lambasting him for making that trade that Dame wanted. Dame wouldn't have been held accountable for it, just like he never was held accountable for the other trades to bring him veteran help. I think ^ this has pretty much been confirmed by the actual people involved. However, second, I could absolutely see Cronin telling Dame and his representation that he'd try to trade him where he wanted if he wanted out. "Try" being the key word. I'm very skeptical that anyone in Cronin's shoes would have guaranteed that absolutely and backed himself into a corner. I think it's very likely Dame and Goodwin were disappointed that he wasn't immediately dealt to Miami and might have either been taking Cronin's conditional guarantee for something more because of that or never understood it in the first place. There's going to be a line that Cronin or any GM is not going to cross regardless of what he might have said he wanted to do. If he said he was going to trade Dame to the Bulgarian League and the Bulgarians low-balled us by offering Keljin Blevins and only Keljin Blevins in return, of course he's not making that deal. Why people think it's realistic that Cronin made an unconditional promise in the first place and are holding him to that regardless of the return is beyond me. It flies in the face of reason. Finally, Dame did himself no favors here. If Team Goodwin was putting out the vibes that Dame was close to asking for a trade before the draft, he might have, perhaps unwittingly, decreased the market for the third pick, because other GMs thought that Dame was the real prize instead of No. 3, and, they'd either get the third pick and extras for a song or Dame would be in the market and they could make out there. Sharks with blood in the water. Then Dame didn't keep his word and wait until free agency was well underway to ask for a trade. Then he made it harder for the Blazers to trade with the Heat because he named one team and then he had his agent call all these other teams to tell them not to trade for him so Dame could basically join a Heat team that just played in the finals without having to give up any of its core rotation to get him. I think that's pretty likely how this all played out, but some people just need to be angry at someone all the time, so knowing what we actually know about how these things usually play out doesn't matter.
My only pushback is if he told 3 people he'd trade him to his preferred destination and there's 3 examples of it, it's human nature to believe. There's lots of blame to go around regardless
No sorry, there is not. Dame making tip top dollar and the face of the franchise is not at all in the same situation as other peripheral players traded from PDX. Making assumptions that he and his massive bag are the same as others is ridiculous period. Blame belongs primarily with him for being completely arrogant and stupid about his situation. He didn’t have to sign the massive extension but since he did, he should have understood what that meant. Wanting to screw the Blazers over as he leaves by demanding to be traded to a team without the assets to come close to compensating them is completely selfish. STOMP
But none of those 3 people went public with those, or limited to 1 team. From what I read, it was more of: "We have 2 potential offers on the table. Do you want to go to X or Y."
