It makes me so happy that his knight in shining holier than thou armor bullshit has several holes in it
I never begrudged him for making the trade request. Ever. I do begrudge him and his team for trying to strongarm us. There's an ocean of difference.
Lillard has always been selfish. I have tried to point it out a couple times over the years: once when he said that he and Simons (or maybe CJ) were so valuable offensively that they shouldn't be expected to do much on defense. once when he was talking about what Cronin needed to do help him ("me") and then quickly corrected himself to say "for the team".
I agree this is a very likely scenario, maybe the most likely scenario. Another key difference in Dame's situation is the reports he leaked much of this info to Bam and Butler. They likely relayed it to Riley and Heat management, who then hold it against the Blazers in negotiations. That basically tries to give Dame's new team extra assets and remove them from the Blazers - a totally unfair element to this that contradicts the supposed informal goodwill agreements Dame's camp alludes to. Even if the Blazers agreed to give Dame input on a trade destination I highly doubt they would've agreed to all these actions Dame and his agent have taken. I cant think of a trade ever happening in NBA history where a player was able to act the way Dame has and get to his choice of team for very little. Its nothing like the CJ/Norm/Hart/etc trades. Really all of the possibilities of what could've transpired privately with Dame/Cronin/Blazers ownership don't paint Dame's recent actions in a good light.
Exactly. This is an underappreciated aspect of the situation. Either Bam or Butler (I don't remember which one) basically said as much on a national interview.
Lmao, um, how long you been here? it’s been like this way before. Nothing to do with a silly podcast. But on that note, it is a horrible podcast
If GM’s thought like this, they would be fired quickly right after. You don’t make a move out of frustration or because you’re sick of it, if you’re sick of it keep crying will help the situation. This is Cronin biggest trade ever, he wants to do what’s best for Portland not for Dame or fan that are “sick” of it
Okay, here’s a question, does Jimmy make us a contender? I don’t think that’s a bad trade, but I don’t really see the point. This roster is so bad. It needs so many things. The window for Dame and Jimmy would be so short. I know that trade isn’t at all realistic, but we need an Embiid to pair with Dame. We need a super duper pooper star.
Jimmy would go ballistic after one week of "Blazers culture". It couldn't work even if we get Bam AND Jimmy here.
Great post - yeah there aren't any Blazer fans that would've said no to that. Maybe now some feel the Lillard relationship is beyond repair - but if this had happened before Dame's trade request I can't think of any reasonable Blazer fan that would've been against it.
Butler was way better than Embiid for the entire playoffs. That trade isn't even a debate, of course the Blazers should've done it. Maybe a final follow up move could be done, but then the Blazers would still have a pick plus Scoot and or Sharpe to trade for the 4th starter to pair with Dame/Butler/Grant. Even with no other move that team could be a darkhorse contender such as when CP3 arrived with the Suns. Obviously the Heat would've never been interested coming off Butler carrying them to the finals. But in theory it would've been a slam dunk deal for the Blazers. Does a great job of showing how ridiculous some of these Heat trade proposals are for an All-NBA level star in Lillard.
Nurkic, Grant, Jimmy, Matisse, Lillard? Sharpe, Scoot, Little … and use that TPE! That team does some damage for 3 years and then it’s next generation.
The singular move wouldn't make Portland a contender. However, it would easily be a net-upgrade from an asset standpoint, so even if you had to pivot in a year, I'd say Portland is in better shape. No singular move is going to make Portland a contender. Nor is standing pat and staying young.
