This is a two part topic. 1) moving up 2) player Blazers want. Exploring trades that also include moving up, is a normal process every gm should be conducting. No real news here. As far as who the Blazers want. How can anyone assume who the Blazers want, based on rumors? Going back to moving up to pick Zack. Rumors had Bam's great workout making him the Blazers pick. I had Mitchell as the pick, BPA. Heck many "experts" had Zack as the second best Collins, to John. A case can be made, based on rumors, that the Blazers had Zack at the bottom of the list of these 4 players.
If you’re not into Clingan, who are you into? I don’t like us picking Clingan. At all. Full stop. but this lottery is rough. It’s hard to feel particularly strong ‘for’ any one player because everyone has massive holes in their game. maybe clingan is a smokescreen. But if he isn’t I’m willing to hear the rationale.
yep help me out here....didn't this rumor about Portland wanting to move up for Clingan first come from Jonathon Givony? And didn't Givony and Mike Schmitz work together for years? And aren't they still close friends? and besides all that, hasn't Cronin been pretty transparent about his plans? There were plenty of rumors he was going to tear down the Dame-CJ team before he tore down the Dame-CJ team. We heard months of substantial rumors about Grant heading into the off-season. And he got Grant. We heard that he liked Sharpe, a lot; and he drafted Sharpe. There were rumors he was shopping Payton approaching the deadline; and he traded Payton before the deadline. We heard almost 2 years of rumors about him being in love with Ayton. And Ayton turned out to be the biggest asset he got from the Dame trade. And we heard there was no way he'd trade Dame to Miami and wasn't event talking to Miami. And he traded Dame to Milwaukee. and to the dismay of many of us, we heard plenty of rumors that Portland wasn't actively engaged in trade talks prior to last season's trade deadline; and the only trade they made was Banton so. sure, it's possible that Cronin is using that reputation in some sort of triple-deflection tactic to disguise who he really wants and has engaged Givony to be the front man. But it sure seems likely that the Blazers are targeting Clingan and Clingan might become Cronin's Zach Collins debacle
Agreed. No matter how we feel about Joe, he or any other GM is not going to say who their target is before the draft. They are either going to keep their mouth shut, or they are going to lie, lie and then lie again. And since I read all last summer that Joe is a liar...I feel confident that he is not telling anyone who they are targeting.
I think he surprise everyone when he drafted Murray, who never worked out here. I also think he would have drafted Miller over Scoot. If he had #2.
This right here. The Joe literalist interpretations sound unhinged. It’s purposefully word salad at this point.
he said he was being really aggressive to make a trade pre-2023 draft, and then he didn't (or couldn't) then he said he wants to maximize value of the 3 and 23 picks, and then didn't (or couldn't) then he said he was open to dame sticking around, and then dame wasn't (or he wasn't) then it appeared he was going to keep dame for months if he had to, into the season, until he found the right deal—then he traded him before training camp opened. he put out a statement via woj that he was committed to his young guard corps (read: moving brogdon), and then didn't (or couldn't). same thing at the deadline—it appeared he was going to trade brogdon but he couldn't do better than meh additional 2024 firsts, which he already had a lot of. post season presser, he said he wanted to take no steps back, but also build sustainably, the right way (?). IMO, joe has been pretty purposefully opaque while he tries to get as much value for the team's assets as possible and preserve optionality the whole time. I think it's a strategy. A 'liquidation sale' sign doesn't do much when you're looking to trade.
People that point to those things don't understand how management/executives roll In the corporate world. Most of that stuff is all boilerplate statements someone in those positions make.
exactly. I never understood the level of surprise about some of the stuff that joe says. the mystery—the lack of telegraphing your strategy publicly—is the entire point. it sucks as a fan—I get it. but this is how other gms do it too (was just listening to sixers fans complaining about 'daryl snorey', ha) I will say I suspect the next gm under new ownership may lay out a tick more of a vision statement (ex: 'let it bake'), vs the quick 15m pressers full of that we've been getting with joe as he transitions the roster.
that really doesn't have much to do with what I said if you re-read what I posted, not once did I quote Cronin or talk about what he said. I don't pay any attention to what he says. A decade of Olshey convinced me never to believe a GM's words, just his actions. What I talked about was the reporting and rumors concerning what the Blazers were actually looking at doing behind the scenes, and how those rumors mostly seem to match what they ended up doing
Joe doesn't need job security. He entered his position with a 10 year warranty, just like Olshey. There's no pressure or time limit for Cronin to produce results, except for 1 area... The Vulcan owners will get paid. A massive TV revenue sharing check is on the way. Blazer fans who think this Franchise is unsuccesful better think twice. Jody is soo wealthy, she can rent the Moda Center to Portland for 1 dollar. THAT'S CRazy rich
You mentioned the word transparency. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty closely associated to what a FO presents publicly about itself, to me. Kind of like what they might talk about publicly, say. Or what they might release through backchannels in the media, say.
