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

The fact that Joe had to keep his thoughts and ideas in a personal diary says it all. He felt that Dame and Goodwin were working against him and he had to be careful about who he brought in on trade negotiations.

 

And rightfully so...

 

In Vegas during Joes PC he said Shae and Scoot are win now players pretty quick. Scoot is not your typical rookie. His point was to build around them.
What does that mean?

 

Means he sees them as players who can contribute on a winning team.

I tend to agree with him. Dame, Scoot, and Sharpe would have been a fine rotation. If you could trade Simons/Nurk for Ayton and a solid PF it could have been a competitive team.

 

Im thinking if he’s offered a seasoned three under 28 and a pick/s for Holiday he will. No more tanking.

 

actually...that's a major stretch of imagination and I don't believe that's what the issue is

I think it says that Cronin doesn't trust all the people in his front office. it's not like Dame or Goodwin had the keys to Cronin's office

 

But the question is….. why? Does he think there are leaks? People loyal to Dame?

 

I don't know but I'm pretty sure he wasn't worried about Goodwin seeing the white-board

 

If the report is true and the Bucks threatened to pull the offer if it leaked that they were interested, I’m willing to bet that he wasn’t willing to risk anyone seeing it and leaking it.

 

yeah...that's an excellent point

 

And Joe did help Hart and others get to teams they had listed. Joe trading Dame to Milwaukee both helped Dame and the Blazers.
I still think Joe once he got #3 knew he was probably going to have to trade Dame.

 

You knowI have to remind myself just how young Dame is, I remember when I was 32 trying to raise a family and pursue a career.
The fact that Damian Lillard conducted himself so well over his time here and gave back to the community big time, I cut him some slack in his role with all this, Im more pissed at his agent for not giving him sound advice. I also went through a divorce around his age with a career and kids and it was a difficult time to stay focused. I had good sound advice that helped me navigate a new beginning.
Im a huge fan of Damian Lillard and hope he comes back here after 2-3 years and retires a blazer.

 

My comment is a response to another poster about the timeline.

 

Agree 100%
Dame is just trusting a shitty agent. It doesn't excuse him from responsibility, but it certainly makes it more understandable.

 

This was the situation whittled down to the basics to me:

In two seasons Joe Cronin has probably added two players (Scoot Henderson & Shaedon Sharpe) that are better than anyone Neil Olshey added in 8 1/2 seasons. Possibly way way better for at least one of them. Like All-Star level someday.

Maybe someone could also make the argument that Jerami Grant is better than anyone Neil Olshey added. (I really liked Aminu in his last years for all he did, so I won't do that. I also like Nurkic when the offense isn't stagnated.)

Jusuf Nurkic was re-signed to the team between Cronin's first and second seasons. Cronin also signed Anfernee Simons to a 4-years extension.

Damian Lillard was playing at all-time high level in his career as a Blazer.

The downside to getting lucky (extremely lucky in my opinion) in the 2022 and 2023 drafts was that several players were asked to sit 10-12 or so games at the end of both seasons.
However, the outlook for the rest of the season in 2022 and 2023 would have been mediocre even if those players had played.
The last trip to the playoffs (2021) ended in a 2-4 series loss in the first round and I think most people would have expected that to be the best-case scenario for the 2022 and 2023 teams.

Anyway, here we are in summer 2023.

We have Shaedon Sharpe. We have Scoot Henderson.
Jerami Grant has just been re-signed.

Drew Eubanks is gone, and Cronin is clearly looking to add more size, the quality is unknown , but he's not looking at 6'9" centers. Several 7-footers in summer league. A 6' 9" power forward and 6'7' small forward with a 7-foot wingspan were drafted.

AFTER TWO SEASONS WITH JOE CRONIN, DAMIAN LILLARD ASKS FOR A TRADE. WHAT THE FUCK.

I'm not mad or sad. Just bewildered.

 

Yeah but honestly this shit started two years ago when Neil was still here. This has been a long time coming. Dame and Goodwin started this two summers ago.

 

This started a lot longer than 2 years ago. On the day they let Ed go, I heard through Dondrale Campbell that Dame was angry and thinking about demanding a trade

 

I have been thinking about it and I believe the issue with Joe and Dame is that Joe strikes me as a numbers guy. He was a cap guy. Possibly similar to the way that Billy Beane was portrayed in Moneyball. In that movie they mentioned several times that Beane wouldn’t mingle with the players so that it would be easier to cut or trade them. Neil was a salesman. He was a talker. Joe is more analytical.

People process information differently. I tend to talk my way through problems and use a stream of thought to come to a conclusion. My wife is not at all like that and takes time to review data and come to a conclusion. I drive her nuts when I want to quickly talk through a decision.

One of Neil’s biggest flaws was that he was unwilling to trade “his guys.” He wouldn’t admit mistakes. So far Joe doesn’t seem to have that flaw. He dumped GP2 real fast. If I’m right and Joe looks at players as assets/numbers, that could definitely rub some of them the wrong way.

After reading the Haynes article and the Woj article it just seems like bad communication and failure to understand the other side. I don’t think Joe was intentionally misleading and I don’t think Dame was intentionally trying to hurt the team. They were both doing what they thought they had to do. It’s just sad that it ended this way.

 

So on one hand Cronin is so secretive as to abide by Milwaukee GM in not letting negotiations get out to the point even the Suns GM doesn't know who they are getting for their last piece.

Then on the other hand things are loosy goosy with Ayton/ Nurkic trade as that has been out there for about a week prior to the trade?