Not at all for me. He’s obviously trying to stay good PR in his media availability. Doesn’t bother me at all. I also think back to the times many years ago when Dame has talked about flashy destinations and why some players wanna be in places like LA. Wasn't one of the biggest complaints during his trade how he had talked about loyalty to Portland? Why he played in Portland, the talk about the Basketball Culture among the teams he played on here. Talking about people coming to Portland to play basketball. It’s pretty true, nobody is coming to Portland for the night life or the celebrity, if they choose to come here it’s generally going to be a basketball related decision. We’ve said it all before… But we signed Pippen, then we signed Melo, and then we signed Dame (again). And then we merged every single post on the forum into the Melo thread. Like some sort of a cosmic anomaly or “big bang” where S2 itself starts a new as the super mega ultra Melo thread Now with extra extra fiber and championship trophies. Those were great times, two years from now. Real talk, this is a legendary NBA franchise. Historic… The Blazers are an NBA franchise rich in history. Sometimes we’ve been on the wrong end of it, but we were there for it. We’ve been there for it a lot more than most other teams in the league. We’ve actually got it pretty good among the wild disappointment, and if history is actually any indicator - people are foolish to ever write this team off. Our windows of “irrelevance” are generally pretty small, even if we’re not winning. Dames era broke us out of a playoff success drought, but we had still been there many years. We were always hoping this new era would take it further. And I think this off-season things just got a whole lot better. I’m kind of afraid at how sneaky good this team might be. Maybe I should take the under on the 30.5 wins they give us… SIKE
I dont subscribe to the notion that teams wanted Scoot less because Dame wanted them to trade the pick. I dont think the "they had no leverage because of Dame" argument holds water when you have enough teams going after the same thing, because the demand is leverage enough, as teams wouldnt be negotiating against the Blazers, they'd be negotiating against each other. And IF there wasnt enough demand, then why were they valuing that pick more than all other teams were, if they were pushing for the present, not the future?
I'm ok with you disagreeing with me. I don't find your argument compelling. The logic at the time was that if Scoot were in any of the last several drafts, he would have gone #1. He only fell in the draft because Wemby, and Ball didn't want a PG competitor. I heard zero rumors of teams offering #1 overall talent for pick #3. Did you?
Maybe it was that Simons had basically no value and Scoot alone was not enough to get a star? The Nets got a kings ransom for Bridges. I’m sure we could have gotten OG but that guy is horribly overpaid. Who else was there?
Leagues not lacking the guard position right now. If anything there’s an influx of guards. Easy to understand why a lot of guard contracts aren’t sought after, pretty much all of the contending teams are set at that role.
I don't listen to Marang at all but I'm with him on this. Dame being back is great and if you can't enjoy it I feel bad for you.
This is going to sound soft but like… I’m glad Dame is back because the team and Dame needed to forgive each other. Grudges turn into curses. I’m not saying curse in the “oh no we’ll never win again” way, but like a real curse, the kind that eats away at your hope for things to get better until there’s finally no hope left and that part of your heart just rots away. I never wanted what happened between Dame and the team to become unforgivable, you know?
I think the problem anyone had with Dame staying the first time was where the contract was headed for his age and how that would restrict us. Dame back at his current price is a Homerun, especially if Scoot doesn’t develop.
The remarkable thing is we still own the Dame trade haul. Not saying I agree with it but probably the main counter point to Dame is if you think he'll be in the way or others or hurt the defensive style of play. Maybe I'll do a poll as I don't recall posters complaining about that.
I wanted to trade him (a couple years earlier actually) because he was the only trade chip we had and there was really no path to building an actual contender around him. We were running out of time. That isn't the issue now. The issue now is the two timelines. Gonna be really interesting to see what the heck they do not summer because you know Dame expects to start in 2026 and it sure seems like they're building a playoff team.
It's not soft. I couldn't believe just how happy I was when I frist heard and still am that Dame is back. I really didn't know that I was still sad about it. It felt like a relief and I believe it relieved a lot of things for a lot of people related to the Blazers. Obviously it had been weighing on Dame. Obviously it had been weighing on Joe. If you want to call it a curse, I get why you would but I'm just glad the separation is over.
I guess I just don't understand the issue with 2 timelines. In theory, having one good group, whose window is closing, and having another group that is ready to take over is a perfect scenario. However, this is not the case. We are only talking about 3 players out of 15 who are in their 30s. And only 2 of them are playing next year. (and probably only one if another gets injured) I understand that you don't want any of them holding a younger player back, but there are enough minutes for that not to happen unless the coach makes it a problem. But again, having 3 vets on the team is not a bad idea. Even if you had a young team with 15 players around the same age, someone with potential is still going to sit, unless your bench just sucks and you have no depth.
Provided they are healthy & recovered, 30ppg players should be relevant into their mid-late 30s. Kareem, Karl Malone, Jordan, Lebron, Durant, Wade, Harden, Steph are examples. No guarantees of All-Star level play but they can reach something like current Fred Van Vleet or prime Dennis Schroeder level. I expect similar from Dame. 18-22ppg/7-8 assists/sloppy & inconsistent defense You can get to the playoffs with that but it's going to take Sharpe and Deni becoming stars to be a contender.
Am I the only one that doesn't get fans or pundits being at all invested in other fans or pundits sharing their elation over Dame coming back? In my circle, I'm probably the person that most wants people happy, if for no other reason that happy people let other people alone to be happy themselves in their own way. To me, watching this video is just someone wanting a confirmation bias and maybe trying to avoid that there are more nuanced ways of viewing this that acknowledge it's not exactly perfect.
Same. I knew we were gunna be hamstrung when they gave him the supermax contract and that’s when I wanted them to trade him. Dame can expect what he wants but if Scoot balls out this year he’s the one that will be starting.
Damian Lillard on his relationship with Giannis, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "As a tandem with him, I felt like we can go and win it all with the two of us. We can just go on a run and just dominate. I’m not sure I’ll ever have that experience again. But it was great playing with him. It was truly a pleasure and a luxury to play with a guy that dominant and also a guy who cares that much. I think that was something I really appreciated. I’m a guy who cares, even when I’m mad, even when I’m not doing well, I care about the team doing well and I put everything I can into that – how I take care of my body, how I train and prepare. I do everything I can to position myself and the team to do well and he’s a guy that does all of those things with the same edge and worry. That was something I really appreciated, too." I think this is really cool.
