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

Zach Lowe - "I never heard one trade for the #3 pick that made sense for Portland, or that was actionable and made sense for Portland."

 

Zach Lowe - "I think a lot of the reaction to the Haynes piece was, "boy does Joe Cronin look bad." Not all of it, but a lot of it. I didn't come away from that... I don't think anybody came out of any of this looking great. And like I said, I don't think the declarative words about going all in for Dame served the Blazers or Joe Cronin well. I don't think snubbing Dame in the practice facility, if that's indeed what happened and we haven't heard a counter to that. It's one thing to cut them out of the trade talks, it's another to in person just straight up ignore the guy. I don't think that's great personal... whatever. But in that same story, Aaron Goodwin, Dame's agent, goes on the record and says, "I wanted everyone to understand that even though we didn't have a no-trade-clause, a provision that's not afford to Dame under the CBA, I was going to do everything in my power to control the market and help get my client to a place he wanted to be." That is an agent going on the record for the SECOND time. The first time in the aftermath, saying 'yeah I tried to *(&$ the Blazers, I wanted my client to only go to one place and one place only and I wanted to screw up their leverage. You don't get to do that, and you're within your rights to do that... great.... Klutch did that with Anthony Davis. Got him to the Lakers. That's fine, that's part of the agent playbook. You don't get to do it and then play the victim on the other end of it because the team wouldn't take you back in the end. You especially don't get to do that if the team that won't take you back has already signed you to a gigantic contract extension, paying you the max possible into your age 37 or what season. I'm not saying there's any villain here, I'm just saying I see bits of regrettable stuff all around. What you should do is what you said in your story, here is a list of teams that we would be happy to go to. That's what Jrue Holiday did, here is a list of teams we would be happy to go to. And by the way, he ended up at one where he has his best chance to win a championship that he ever has had in his career, and I don't think it's even close."

 

I think what Cronin has done is earned himself a reputation is a ruthless GM who can completely remake a team in less than two years. If we get different ownership and they decide to go a different route, I think Joe will get another job.

 

Agreed. He's gone out and hired what appears to be the best untapped draft mind. Now he needs to go out and hire the best untapped coaching staff.

 

This exactly. There was nothing that made a bit of sense or I think Cronin would have done it to put a competitive team around Dame.

 

I think Chauncey is gone after this season. Maybe I'm wrong. I think they thought it would be a bad look to fire him after asking him to tank the past two years, but I'm not sold on Chauncey. I wouldn't at all be surprised if Cronin would want someone else.

 

I have to ask this....how much time do you spend viewing these podcasts? Seems like you're always linking them and giving cliff notes. That's a 2 hour video for chrissakes. Do you ever sleep? How much coffee do you drink? Do you steal your girlfriend's adderall?

 

Agreed. Hopefully Chauncey gets the most out of these guys and can get another year or two. But I'd like to get an up and comer in here to start moving up the ranks to be a head coach.

 

I listen to podcasts when I take my dog for walks. I have worked from home for years, so I always have something on in the background. Radio is usually so garbage, so I just listen to podcasts now.

 

curious...and it's fine to tell me to 'fuck off it's none of your business', but what is your work?

 

I work in the energy consulting industry. I was a program consultant. Moving up to a program manager. Lots of working from home

This is why I don't care at all about making money as a writer. Just messing around and having fun doing podcasts with @TBpup

 

Well, he finally has a roster that will work for his defensive and offensive scheme, so I for one, am willing to wait and see

 

Depends on how the team responds to him, and if he can figure out a defensive plan that makes sense.
I am going to judge him mainly on how much he can get out of Ayton. If he can turn him into an All Star candidate, I'd like to keep him. Billups has the roster an opportunity to feed the ball to Ayton and motivate him to keep his effort level higher on defense, and help him improve overall.
The only other goal that needs to be met is playing time for Scoot and Sharpe.

 

everyone wants to cut Billups some slack. Even Cronin had to say "I didn't deal Billups a good hand".

the good:
Dame's best season EVER.
Hot new Blazer Jerami Grant.
Workaholic Josh Hart.
Eubanks actually looked like a pro.
Nurkic hit some flippy shots.

the bad:
Anfernee literally ran away from defensive contact.
Shaedon massive poster dunks! only to get benched.
Nassir's worst season ever.
Winslow tried his best, Coach never gave him rest.
Watford just stood there and allowed layups.
Keon looked like he had no business being out there.
Jabari tipped over during opponent crossovers.

Coach Billups ran the starters too hard. The bench looked unplayable at times. Billups did a poor job getting young players to engage. When the bench looks like practice fodder for the starting 5... I'm sorry, but that's bad coaching.

It's as if ALL the emphasis of last year's team went into getting stats for the big salary players. Everything else was shuffled to the bottom of the deck.

 

Yes that scenario is correct. But if the Blazers had the 14th pick instead it would swap with Milwaukee for #1.

Seems very unlikely that the Blazers miss the playoffs the next 4 years, make it in year 5, and Milwaukee gets a better pick in year 5. But yes in that scenario the Blazers lose the swap.

If I'm Cronin I see if Chicago is interested in Brogdon for our pick back and something else.

If not, probably best to have the Blazers just make the playoffs ASAP and be done with that Chicago pick debt.

With how shitty the 2024 2025 drafts are better to just get it done with now, although that's going to be unlikely with us having such a young roster.

 

Aside from sexist language, the one time I met him I liked him. Which is irrelevant to is he doing a good job.

Two underestimated Joes. Both showing they are far from incompetent and leaving people wondering how they got the best of the deal. Cronin and Biden.

 

If the drafts are so shitty, why would Chicago accept that deal?

 

I never thought about douche being sexist. My apologies…..Sincerely

How did this get spun into a political statement?

 

The draft strength doesn't have anything to do with Chicago. I was saying there is less incentive for the Blazers to tank these drafts than other years with quality drafts.

Reason Chicago would give us our pick back is if we send them Brogdon. If we do it for Ball's contract we should get something else too.

With such a young Blazers ~28 projected win roster our pick owed has likely never looked worse to Chicago, probably a real chance it could never convey. Thus they might be more willing to trade it back for lower value than any prior time.

 

Combine that with the guy who hits back typically gets in more trouble for making a bigger deal of it. In this context Society has really gone full tilt cray cray.