I think it’s Joe min/maxing value. He caught so much shit for the Norm trade. I think he refuses to lose assets for nothing. Even to the detriment of the team.
Dame asked for a trade 10 days before the new deal with Grant was signed. I'd say Cronin considered trading for Grant his first significant success and was unwilling to concede failure by not re-signing Grant. Very similar to Olshey re-signing Powell to a 5 year deal
The point is though, no matter how much he might want to Joe CAN'T trade Grant unless it's for a similarly distressed asset which there are very few of leaguewide. Why posters continue to act like this is and has been a reasonable possibility thats just sitting on the table waiting for him to act on, let alone laughably suggest he's holding out for 1st round picks shows them to be clueless to whats at play here. It takes two to tango on a trade and no franchise has a good reason to show up to the Jerami trade dance no matter who is calling the shots for the PTB. No one will next offseason, or next trade deadline, etc... He's all ours which does suck, but thats reality going forward. Heck, I'd love to see him off the books and wishfully entertained the thought that they might be able to move him for Middleton this past deadline following someone starting a thread on it. Grant being Dame's buddy made some sense for them & they need another forward to compete with their aging roster. Despite Khris seeming to be physically done as age and surgeries have robbed him of mobility, I suggested that Middleton's expiring deal was so much better an asset to hold that Portland would have to include draft capitol to sweeten the pot for the Bucks. Of course instead they shipped KM off for the selfish headcase that is Kyle Kuzma and his 10 PER. Compared to Grant though, Kuzma is a year younger & makes less then 2/3rds as much on a contract that expires a year earlier. While KK is a decidedly worse player to have on a roster then Grant IMO, he's much less of a financial anchor. He's a crappy asset for a franchise to hold, but Grant is worse STOMP
This is how I remember it as well. It was up in the air until after the draft. Then Dame demanded out. Grant was signed prior to the draft.
The Blazers reached an agreement with Grant on June 30th. Dame asked out on July 1st. Grant’s contract was signed July 9th. (Edited to provide correct signing date for Grant)
the reports of Dame asking for at trade came out on July 1st and the gist was he'd asked for a trade at least a couple days earlier, shortly after the Scoot selection and no draft day trades https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...il-blazers-star-damian-lillard-requests-trade https://www.si.com/nba/2023/07/01/damian-lillard-requests-trade-portland-trail-blazers Grant signed his deal on July 9 https://www.prosportstransactions.c...ndDate=&PlayerMovementChkBx=yes&Submit=Search
Grant signed on July 9th, which was the 4th day after the moratorium ended I have never read anywhere that an agreement with Grant was reached in June. And I sure haven't read anywhere that the Blazers made signing Grant contingent on Dame staying and that Dame double-crossed them. seems like people are just imagining bad things about Lillard now
Dear Baby Jesus if you could just remind Jerami he should never handle the ball again - that’s all I ask
I guess it's even possible that Cronin and Grant reached an informal agreement in the 2022 off-season after Grant was traded to Portland. And that Grant played the final year of his last deal with an assurance he'd be getting a new deal AFTER a new CBA. IIRC the maximum raise under an extension in the old CBA was 20% meaning Grant would have had a max base salary/1st-year of 24M. trying to blame the Grant contract on Dame is bogus. This was all Cronin
People agree to contracts some time before they SIGN them, right? I can fully understand if Jerami agreed before Dame asked out and Cronin felt duty-bound to honor the agreement even after Dame asked out.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...erami-grant-agree-5-year-deal-nba-free-agency You're right on the July 9th date. I misread the article I looked at. I never said anything about Dame double-crossing the Blazers, so I assume that's aimed at somebody else's post.
