And Dame still lives here, still investing in the community, still cares. How did Dame's demand to go to the Heat hurt the Blazers? It didn't. You can villify him all you want, but he didn't hurt this franchise.
I think the FO have a pretty good idea of Dame's feelings toward the organization. For anyone to blindly say bring him back is foolish and I doubt Dame's ego will allow him to show interest in coming back. It would look pretty weak and desperate to reach out this soon.
A long-time GM and long-time coach, now that Pops is retired, the most stable franchise in the league.
Except we now have more data. Seeing what the Blazers front office has done this offseason, the Dame trade to Milwaukee looks even more exceptional. So the knock that Dame's demands hurt the franchise are not accurate.
Are people saying that he hurt the franchise or are they saying that he hurt his reputation with the fans?
Who do you consider more stable? Look at the top teams over the same time frame. Lakers? Coaching drama. Milwaukee coaching drama, Knicks coaching drama, Nuggets coaching drama, T-wolves, weird ownership drama, Suns, lol. OKC and Pacers you could make an argument for now, but at the time Lillard asked to be traded, Miami was the most stable and playoff-ready.
So out of all the players involved in the initial trade: Dame - Cut Ayton - Cut Nurk - Traded twice Little - Cut Keon - Cut Allen - Still with Suns (and extended) Holiday - Back with Portland (and extended with Celts) Camara - Best of the bunch...
If he accepts a back-up / mentor role at a discount to end his career at home, I would gladly support signing Dame
As of today the two best players in the original trade are Camara and Jrue and both are on PDX. We win. Until we see proof of Dames play after the Achilles rehab I don’t think you can say he’s still better than Jrue today.
Dame’s days in the paint are probably over but he’ll still be a sniper from deep. When you need a bucket.
