How do we know they weren't? The talk leading up to the draft was the Blazers will get their best, final offers when they're on the clock at 3. They decided they weren't trading the pick days before that.
Because it was public? Cronin informed Dame he was using they were keeping the pick, they talked on Tuesday two days before the draft. All the reporting in the week leading up to the draft was that Portland was keeping it.
I thought that was supposed to be the meeting where he told him there were trades that he was working on that were already dead? Clearly he wouldn't tell him 2 days prior we're keeping the pick, while ALSO saying we've got our irons in the fire on deals, since those deals would almost certainly utilize the #3 pick.
Anybody remember Dame saying there were 5 guys who wanted to play with him in Portland and 2 were gettable? Was that a lie? (see how that works?)
The fact is that for whatever reason Joe did the opposite of what his goal was. Dame had made it clear that if that were to happen it wouldn't be the path he was going down. I don't blame Joe if he was making the best decision he could for our franchise. I don't blame Dame for wanting out. It's frustrating that he is only giving one team and I wish he'd have given more teams than that but he obviously isn't worried about our team anymore and is only interested in what he wants for the future. If he feels that the team went the opposite direction than what he asked them to, being unreasonable makes sense.
I think Dame realizes if Miami doesn't happen he 's still under contract and would plan on starting game 1. He knows, he can always set down later with Joe and work out a mutual plan that involves several teams. If nothing happens Dame goes to work like he always would do.
I dont believe there is a moratorium on trades now, so a lot can happen in the next few months. Even the unexpected....
I'm confused by the continuation of this storyline. Where was the discrepancy? Cronin said his intention was to build a winner around Dame and didn't? Is that what we are talking about? Does that mean you're under the impression that Cronin lied and is a liar? I'm certain many a Blazer fan looks at this differently. More specifically, I think most of us think that the right deal never materialized. We got Jerami and then nothing else was really good enough to trade either pick (#7 last season or #3 this season) for. So we didn't. Even the deals that were theorized were underwhelming: Ant and #3 for OG or Pascal or even Bridges doesn't seem quite good enough. I will say, it is curious that we didn't figure out a way to free up the pick owed to Chicago. Perhaps Chicago wouldn't cooperate, but if you're going to try and build something around Dame it certainly would make sense to open up more avenues to do so, ie the ability to trade future picks.
I agree with most of what you said in your post, but I think it’s pretty clear that Joe played his cards right regarding the pick owed to the Bulls. He said in February that the Blazers had touched base with the Bulls pretty much every trade window to sketch out the outline of a deal to free up the pick should a trade come along that demanded it. Presumably that was done again in late June. Since no suitable trade was found, the pick gets kicked down the road for another season. Since it’s top 14 protected, the Blazers are almost certain to retain and use it in next season’s draft. Because the Blazers are likely to have the worst record in the West, if not the league, that should be a very valuable pick. Once Dame asked out, any incentive to trade the pick in a deal for a player became moot since the pick has more value to a rebuilding team.
How long does Dame need until he realizes now is the time to sit down with Joe and work out that mutual plan? I would say now is the time to open up his list of preferred destinations to four or five teams. If he thinks keeping it real as some call it here is working, think again. He is not part of marketing and Joe has not shown one iota of budging on this matter, nor should he.
