How's everyone feel about Smokin' Joe Cronin now?

It can be his first priority while still being unwilling to take bad deals and waste assets. That was the Neil Olshey special. Maybe that's why Dame thanked him. Neil was willing to placate to Dame and make shitty moves to keep Dame happy. Robert Covington? Larry Nance? Neil wasted draft picks like they were nothing. Neil was great at talking. Joe is more introverted. He's a numbers guy. He's not a salesman. Neil was a con man. He was great at selling his shitty moves to Dame and to the city. But those moves were garbage. Bad trade after bad trade after bad trade.

Joe could have been doing what he thought was the best path to build around Dame without taking bad deals, but Dame is used to Neil's bullshit and thought Joe was lying or not doing his job. They have different personality types. Those personalities don't always mesh. People process things differently. My wife and I are completely different in how we process things and approach decisions.

 

It is not when Miami made it known that they do not need to bid against themselves. At this point, why waste time on them?

 

A large majority of what has happened in this entire saga wasn't "needed", by any side. I've never said he needed to do it.

However, you continue to want to put the blame on the whistleblower and not the party who is responsible.

 

Why should Joe have to call them!?!??!

They want Dame. They call Joe. That's how it works. If you list something on Craigslist, are you calling up people to come buy your shit???? They call or text you. If you call them you look desperate. We were already working from a deficit. Dame gave us a list with one team on it. Why the hell would Joe be calling them!?!

 

To me the hit piece is a lot like the Miami or nothing shit. I don't like it but Dame had been jerked around by Olshey for years and then felt Cronin was doing the same shit, then Cronin said Dame couldn't come back while waiting for things to make sense between the Blazers and Heat. In both of these cases Dame did things that I don't appreciate but I can understand. Cronin continuously saying he was intent on building a contender around Dame ASAP and then making the moves he made makes less sense to me... that doesn't make him the bad guy because he probably thought he was doing what's best for the team but I can see how that would push Dame.

Joe did the best he could do and some of the things he did along the way were kind of shitty whether intentional or not. Dame did the best he could do until he broke and then he did whatever he thought was best for him, which I get.

 

I'm losing steam here. You Cronin loyalists are tiring me out.

Crazy that 10 plus years of goodwill buys you this.

Dame endured an incredible amount of ineptitude. Impatience seems pretty reasonable, ESPECIALLY when you have someone saying they are going to do what you want, which is what Joe kept saying.

 

I think this is where things kind of go off the rails with this POV. "Desperate." The Blazers shouldn't have been "desperate." They certainly shouldn't be "desperate" to do something in the interest of one player.

"Desperate" most often leads to extremely damaging mistakes. "Desperate" is a step beyond trading two first-round picks for Robert Covington.

If the best value for the third and 23rd picks was Anunoby and we still had to include sweeteners, that's "desperate" and also might as well just say "dumb." The Blazers have better players and give Dame a better chance to win ultimately by keeping those picks -- it just might be two years down the road when Dame might still be playing at a high level but have a couple of young burgeoning superstars running with him. If the Blazers make the "desperate" move that doesn't make them a real contender and it fails, what is there left to do? Do you think, considering what we've seen from Dame's circle during this, that he was just going to sit back while the player we just acquired to placate him leaves in free agency, "Oh, well, I appreciate you guys trying for me. I'll stay here and play out the rest of my career and you'll never hear a peep from me. I'll even squash all the rumors that are going to come out on social media that I need to be traded where I can get a ring"?

 

Why reengage? Did their roster/assets suddenly have an overhaul? What changed? Miami could have tried upping their offer, that clearly didn't happen either. Why aren't they petty? Cronin is getting low-balled and they're trying to force his hand and you think that makes him petty? Grow up.

 

Please don't kill yourself. It's only a post on a message board.

 

You're asking me what Dame would've done and obviously I can't know. If I had to guess, I would say if we traded the #3 pick for Bridges, there would be not have been another mention of the organization asking him to sit out. Again, I'm just simply guessing as I have zero knowledge as to what Dame would do.

It's important we circle back to the main point I continue to attempt to make: If the organization broke a rule, the blame goes on the organization, not Dame. I would be saying the same thing if Dame broke a rule and the organization tried to throw him under the bus on his way out; at the end of the day, Dame would have to own his actions. Putting the blame on the whistleblower and not the bad actor shows a total lack of objectivity.

 

Yeah sure, dude. And Joe doesn't have to talk to Dame for weeks either or accept him back. He can do whatever he wants. Whatever. And I didn't say call, I said he'd not spoken to or reengaged.

 

That’s awesome.

respectfully, he seems like someone who might be difficult to hang

if joe called miami he'd be validating their anchoring lowball offer that they floated publicly. it made zero sense for joe to do the approach.

 

FUCK MIAMI, that's truth. Why in god's green earth would you "reopen negotiations" with an obvious bad faith negotiator? So you can ensure you get screwed? Why would you decide to have a discussion with your neighbor about where to place the fence, when you know he broke into the survey office and falsified documents so he could get a better deal thereby screwing you over and taking more of your property? You wouldn't. Why would you reward the insane bad behavior of Goodwin and Riley? Why? Dame's gonna win a ring now, even more certainly than on Miami, we got an All-Star two-way player, what will be a good draft pick and likely trading our late first rounders for lottery picks. Everyone wins, except for Dame's cousin who is gonna miss out on Dame's table scraps women. Wait, are YOU Dame's cousin? That would explain a lot. Fitting name you have given you are peddling the Dame/Miami propaganda.

 

It's Dame explaining his version of the story, through his lense, which is certainly going to be bias. Same is true when Cronin gives his version of the story.

How are people so naive to think one side of this mess is the bad guy and the other is the victim? Anyone who thinks this is all on Dame or all on Cronin/Blazers are incredibly closed minded.

 

I'd counter with the fact that the Blazers weren't the ones that wanted to trade Dame. The Heat wanted Dame and Dame wanted traded to the Heat. It seems to me the burden falls to the Heat and Dame to find an offer, like we hear NFL players doing all the time.

I compared this once before to someone telling me my neighbors told them I'm not friendly because I don't say hi to them when I am on my daily run. I asked this someone, "Well, why couldn't they say hi to me?" They could initiate and let me respond.

 

I am not a Cronin loyalist. I am a realist and like to think logically. If Cronin is the guy that does it, I will side with him. If he does not, I will not. I do not think it makes sense to paint us as biased.

It is absolutely fine that he asked for a trade. It is not fine that he did not understand it will take time. It is not fine that he worked to reduce the value of the pick that could have got him what he wanted. It is not ok that he demanded a trade to one team only and screwed the team and the fans he claims to love.

This is logic. This has nothing to do with Cronin or anyone else.

I think you are losing steam because you are trying hard to swim against the current of logic.

 

I should have used the word urgent because I didn't see any urgency either and that is what Dame asked for over three years ago.

As far as your assertion of who and what was available it has no weight because we have no idea who and what was available just that it wasn't enough to keep Joe from continuing a youth rebuild. How bad were the deals being offered? We don't know. The few offers that were leaked I'm pretty sure were leaked by us.

That being said, I don't give a fuck anymore. I want our team to do the best with what we have, no one has to be the bad guy. I love the Blazers, I have never been and may never be a huge fan of ownership and management, I am and probably always will be a big fan of Dame.

 

I believe in the last two drafts Cronin added the two most talented players Dame has played with since Lamarcus Aldridge.
Cronin re-signed Nurkic, Simons, Grant, and Thybulle.
Cronin drafted 1 point guard, 1 shooting guard, 1 small forward, and 2 power forwards in the last two drafts.
Drafting Scoot was a no-brainer.
I don't consider Simons a point guard, so the Blazers depth at point guard was one player, Dame. That's no way to make a playoff run.

It's on Dame and his sycophants if they think the Blazers should have traded Scoot and Simons for OG Anunoby (if that was even available). That's an absolutely shitty trade in many ways. Cronin didn't promise to jump off a bridge. If that's what Dame wanted Joe to do, he's an asshat.

Dame and Scoot are very different players. Scoot does not replace what Dame does . That's an idiot's take. Scoot attacks the hoop and passes the ball, and Lillard drills 3-pointers from the Logo. Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon weren't as different as Scoot and Dame and they won two titles in three seasons, and might have three-peated if Magic hadn't been injured in the middle season.

It was Dame's way or the highway. He chose the highway and now he wants to play the victim. A sad ending for him as a "leader."

 

I can't even. Wow.