He said he was going to push all the chips in for Dame and its debatable he actually tried hard to do so. But cant blame him when reports were demands of Scoot+Sharpe for anyone above average.
Agreed about Dame. I don't get people seemingly arguing that Joe hasn't been good for PR. Outside of his roster moves (for some), Joe has a really good relationship with the fanbase. People take his word and think he's up-front and honest. A big part of that is because he's not some smooth-talking salesman and is a direct correlation to why Olshey was bad for PR. He was the antidote to all the damage Olshey caused. I think Cronin's been great for PR and I think the organization knew he would be.
Correct, Joe avoided the extortion. Should never have said anything about his chips, nor should Dame have. But I do not think it is unreasonable to expect Joe to back away from the extortion. It should be a core piece of his job description.
How is it extortion when Joe himself said he was obligated to do so and wanted to build a winner around Dame? He specifically said he would be aggressive. Sounds like Cronin extorted himself. Dame wanted to win. The organization hadn't taken productive steps towards that in years. Hard to blame him for wanting to be competitive.
We haven't heard Dame's side? His mouthpieces don't count: his agent, his journalist, his mother, his cryptic smoke signals, etc?
Fair enough. I don't know anything about crying on You Tube? I kind of think you guys are passionate for sure.
Cronin used the "chips all in" term after taking over from the shat show that was created before him. I have zero doubt he has been trying to do just that. However, if the only deal that was available (up to the point where Dame changed the dynamics) was lopsided in the other teams favor, or it was debatable that it would get the team to the finals.....making that move would have been stupid, regardless of what is fair to Dame.
I’d still be down with an about face from Dame but he and his team have not dealt with this well. They’ve somehow make a newby GM look savvy and themselves amateurish.
We agree that we can't point to evidence when pronosticating. Because of that, I tend to operate that the Blazers doing what is best for them, not the league or the off chance helping Dame may help/hurt re-signing Scoot/Sharpe. Your "all things being equal" scenario is an interesting concept, but also totally unrealstic, as no two teams are going to have the same/equal assets to trade. One trade offer out of all the offers will be considered the best package by the oganization. I want the Blazers to go with the best package, not the package that has an off-chance of setting a negative/positive tone about players staying in Portland down the road. I 100% see the big picture. I could argue that you're letting your emotions about the situation cloud your ability to see the big picture and want to act out of spite rather than the best interest of the organization. We agree this trade will be of biggr importance than any trae in recent memory, which is all the more reason to not limit the return by excluding a trade partner.
Dame's coach was "happy" after trading Josh Hart & GP2 and effectively cratering the season. Meaning... Lillard was the only one left in Portland's upper echelon that still wanted to win. you can see how happy Coach Billups is in his trade deadline video. It's ALL SMILES, ya right. Long story short, it's 7 minutes of Billups talking about Cam Reddish. A filler contract player Portland had 0 intentions of resigning. https://www.youtube.com/live/mfHSFMxxbKU?si=VJck142rRw4Op--8
good grief man, you pointing fingers about naive posters freaking out when not having all the facts yet jumping to negative conclusions is absolutely precious. Anything else? STOMP
This seems like a great time to restate that I still love Dame, I think he was incredibly loyal, and I think the franchise is going to take a major dip without him. This franchise has mismanaged a lot of things in the last decade and I'm certainly haven't handle this situation perfectly. Having said all that, making another mistake by "doing right by Dame" and only considering one trade partner would be the greatest mismanagment of Dame's tenure. Lastly, Dame has EVERY right to try to do whatever he can to end up in the best position for him, and conversely the Blazers should do what's best for them.
Very reasonable. I would say it looks like at least some of the grossest mismanagements during Dame's time in PDX had (at the very least) him signing off on and likely more. I really don't like the idea of management running personnel moves past the players. Guys age, eras pass and tough calls on personnel by management will need to happen with any team... better to make those decisions without those being affected weighing in. As you touch on, a player's best interest is not necessarily a franchise's best interest STOMP
Dame decided guaranteed money was best for him when he signed that huge contract. Now he is looking force his second-best thing as well. He’s under contract. He has no leverage without further alienating his fan base (or former fans in some cases) and further destroying his “loyalty” legacy. I will be very curious how things work out as time passes and training camp approaches.
I just really don’t care at this point. I don’t care what Joe did to Dame. I don’t care what Dame did to Joe. I just want to turn the page and move on. I want to be excited about Scoot and Shae. This divorce should have happened two years ago.
