Dame all but demanding vet roster

CJ did say "This isn't Dame telling me these types of things..."

 

I'll oblige in that CJ is known to be a pundit as well as a player. Can't do anything to stop somebody from outside of the Blazers. My issue is Dame is in the organization. If you want to say Dame is a pundit now like CJ has been positioning to be for years, then sure, Dame can speak to anything he wants, though I doubt that is the case. Put it this way, here is a list of titles saying nothing;

GM
Asst GM
Team President
Coach
Asst Coach
Teammates
Video Replay Guru
Locker Room Attendant

And there are many more associated with the Portland Trailblazers quietly doing their jobs to improve the team. If any of the above was discussing the teams plans publicly would be facing some serious internal problems up to losing their jobs. Why would they possibly lose their jobs? You let the GM do his job. When he thinks he has something to report, then he runs it through the final decision making team. I own a patent on a new product yet to be released. Of course I have NDA's, but if anyone from my team was discussing or leaking what my business plan is, yes, they would have problems. As the Chairman I need to have the latitude to execute my plan and vision for my organization without being undercut. Seems simple to me. Many of you obviously don't appreciate the nuances of trade secrets and implementing a plan quietly so it is not disrupted prematurely. All good. As Tince said, some of us who disagree with him should take our 50+ years of fandom to another team. I'm taking that under advisement. Tykendo called me a hater. Another suggested I sounded like Dwight Jaynes. Whatever. I'm a bit more shrewd and internal in my business dealings. The plan is the plan until it is no longer the plan, but we don't give the plan away to diminish our position. Pete Carroll doesn't make the playbook available to the entire league. That's enough.

 

If you listen to the full interview, CJ didn’t say anything different about Dame’s future than most of us in the “give it a shot to rebuild around Dame” camp have been saying. The Blazers are going to go through the draft and initial free agency period with the intention of forming a team around Dame that has a “puncher’s chance” of competing for a title. If they can’t do that, then there will be discussions about which teams fit with a mutual interest situation of being able to offer Portland a good return for Dame while remaining a viable contender themselves. CJ says his best guess is that the Blazers won’t be able to build a contender and Dame will get traded. CJ is a smart guy, but he’s not a GM. We shall see what happens over the next month or so.

 

Really tough to look past CJ saying Dame is leaving.
Not sure how else you would take that? Course I’m sure it can be spun.

 

So now all the tankers want to tank another year?

 

I thought CJ was pretty accurate in this portion of the interview. "It's more about what assets teams can offer for Dame".
I think he was wrong on the betting statement, but the rest was a solid take.

 

Attention.

 

New Orleans isn't a hot bed of basketball, at all. They don't even get close to a sellout very often . It's a football town. But Screamin' A was talking like Nawlin's would be a better place. Whatever on Screamin' A. Your hate for PDX is noted.

 

Eric Bledsoe is still under contract. Get him a jersey to be the veteran bench advisor for Portland ?? He's one of Billups "guys". They bonded during Chauncey's assistant coach warm-up season before becoming the Blazers head coach.

 

To be fair, I don’t think he’s saying that Dame wants to leave or will ask to leave. I think CJ is thinking from the franchise’s perspective and realizing that they won’t be able to create a contender and to start the reset sooner rather than later.

 

If he’d said that, I guess I’d agree with you.

 

Totally agree. He was right saying it would take a ton of compensation . But Dame himself expressed that , with the amount of compensation needed to facilitate a trade like that, would there still be enough for that team to be great. Looked like he wasn't convinced there would be. Thought the betting statement was silly from CJ. " I'm not a betting man", reminds me of , " I don't drink beer, but if i did"

 

hey.. at least Steven A. pronounced Oregon correctly

 

Yeah I just don't see an deal close to appealing enough from any of contender + Brooklyn to trade him.

 

I don't think he is still under contract, but to that point, I'm not sure he's exactly what the Blazers needed last season.

 

hell I said the same thing after his last game “good chance we just saw Dames last game as Blazer”

 

so basically you're doubling down on your "Dame should shutup and go camping" stuff without offering a single shred of evidence that Dame talking to people is undermining Portland's leverage

 

When are you going to provide us the deals that have been worsened or prevented due to Dame doing interviews saying he wants the team to contend?

You are making a lot of claims, but have yet to back them up with any evidence.

 

There’s a spin for ya. He literally said he thinks we have seen the last of him as a Blazer.
He’s his best friend or at least one of them.
I know Blazer fans hate the thought of it but this is pretty clear.

 

I wonder if Dame could contribute to this being a self fulfilling prophecy?

ie perhaps Brooklyn/Boston/Toronto/etc was prepared to trade a star to Portland for #3 or some assets - but seeing that if they hold out Dame may actually be available to them in trade they decide not to approve their star going to Portland. Dame eventually doesn't get his contender and the team moves on.