Great point. I was thinking an expiring or something... It seemed like something may have been able to happen on that, but it seemed like Boston wanted a major overpay.
He's deeply connected because of his history with agents, owners and GMs for decades. Every sports writer uses their favors as a marketing tool Torey...Shams however, lied to get in Golden States good graces.
GM's never speak that way, thats just not how the NBA works. If you think everything the GM says at a press conference is guaranteed to happen.... thats not Cronin's fault.
Makes sense from Jody's shitty perspective, I guess. I really don't like her as the owner of this franchise...
Dirk was a year younger than Dame is now. Duncan did not carry that team - Kawhi was the MVP and it was a balanced deep squad like the Pistons. Steph was not older, he was the same age as Dame now - so Dame would have to win the title this season.
A 19-year-old rookie guard who didn't play past high school is not a win-now upgrade for Dame in my mind. Neither is a 19-year old PG. They're great pieces to kick off a rebuild though! Two top 7 picks, the 23rd pick, and two Full MLEs at his disposal and not one of those assets were used to make a win-now upgrade around Dame. His words were a direct contradiction to what I think his intentions were this off-season. If you're cool with that, that's fine.
Jody is smart to not pay the tax since Dame asked out. Chauncey hasn't overachieved with his rosters to make an owner want to dig deep. She paid Dame a fortune for him to want out of his contract 4 years early...I don't think that screams luxury tax to any smart owner.
Duncan didn't carry that team...he LED that team as the team captain. Kawhi isn't a leader by any stretch..Duncan also took a paycut to bring Ginobli back...Kawhi didn't take a paycut for the team and in fact demanded to be traded and sat out a long stretch of a season pretty much until they moved him.
Very well could be true at that point. Doesn't make a comment Cronin said months or years earlier a lie. Plans change.
#3 is a lot to give up... i think #7 and Simons probably would have been a done deal from Portland's side if money weren't a problem. As soon as we got #3 it made trading the pick far, far less likely.
Yeah but if Jaylen Brown is saying "I don't want to be here, I want to play with Dame, I'll leave in free agency" and the choices are risking that with a best case scenario of paying him the supermax when his fit is already questionable there, or getting Scoot Henderson and Anfernee Simons, I believe they would've chosen that package. Even if they wouldn't, if Portland was being aggressive in terms of building around Dame, I think they would've pursued it.
Boston had the #3 and #1 pick in consecutive drafts while having a winning playoff team, one year in the conference finals. They chose to draft Brown and Tatum. We just almost never see teams trade out of the draft with a top3 pick. As I said Cleveland with Wiggins is the only one I can think of in a very long time. They didn't do it until LeBron signed as a free agent and they were thus obviously a contender.
If Jayson Tatum was available at #3, it would've made more sense to draft someone with 3 and try to build around Dame. I think one reason for this is GMs fall in love with prospects and get scared at the thought of trading away a future hall-of-famer and what that would do for their reputation.
Just a bizarre criticism microanalyzing someones job based entirely on second hand rumors. How do you know when Cronin typically takes trade discussion phone calls? Is it ever even directly himself on the call once he assumed the top GM role or is this all done initially by assistant GMs? Did all the calls happen days prior and both parties knew there was no common ground on deals? Just no way for any of us to critique these tiny details if we don't work in the Blazers front office. I highly doubt Cronin ever has the phone off - if the Bucks come calling offering Giannis or the 6ers with Embiid he's going to be listening. If the calls were all Morey offering Tobias Harris, Balmer offering PG, and Masai saying OG for both #3 and Sharpe.... well yes I can understand Cronin turning off the damn phone!
If Portland was calling teams and offering packages, everything got shot down. Successful trades and Free Agent signings were raining like fireflies during draft day. It seemed like every NBA team made adjustments except the Blazers. That's 29+ phone calls that went bust. It's a pretty big whoopsy in an "attempt" to operate successful trades and Free Agency.
Why does it matter what they do in private? How do you know Dame didn't lie first? Or both lied? Or neither? Or sources are feeding you/hoopjock misleading statements? Why will it ever matter? Just sounds like private drama of some old married couple getting a divorce. What matters to all of us is the actions all parties take publicly, direct actions they do with the team, or actions they allow through their representatives.
phone calls that didn't land a deal are usually because the team you call offers pennies on the dollar. I promise you Joe has made probably 2,900 calls around the league ....we already know that deals were squashed when teams asked for Sharpe in the trades. Joe wasn't ever trading Sharpe this off season.
