Dame could have said that stuff behind the scenes. I'm not putting blame on Joe because I don't think there was any shame in pivoting when he did. I think it was a little weird to make Dame be the one to demand a trade but Joe obviously wants to come off as the good guy... that's fine with me too. I wish we could have kept Dame his whole career, I hope Joe did everything he could to do that while doing the best for our team. Now all that I want is for us to get the best return possible for Dame and hopefully send him to a place where he has a shot at winning big.
the thing that im the most curious about is if joe cronin has the balls to trade dame lillard anywhere but miami heat if he does that, it will mark him for life (in a good way, at least within our fan base and possibly within other franchises too), but im not sure how players & agents across the league would react to it (but as always, money talks)
I think Joe wants Lillard, otherwise he wouldn't have signed Lillard's extension. I think someone up in Vulcan Land had a change of heart, told Joe to flood the team with rookies. Tell fans the new rookies have more talent then anyone the Blazers could trade for. It worked, Lillard asked for a trade.
It wouldn’t for me. Why the blue hell did this jabroni trade role players to their preferred destination and then trade Dame somewhere he doesn’t want to go?
I understand all that bro, and I feel a lot of the same way. I love Dame, and will be sad to see him go. With someone like Dame, his superstar level and how loyal he was for all those years are still things to praise about him, even if you think he is being un loyal now. I wanted to keep Dame and try to build a championship regardless until the wheels fell off because players like Dame don’t come around often, especially to small market teams like Portland. But I came to the realization that maybe that wasn’t possible with the current situation, and Scoot falling to use lead us more into this direction. Cronin from the beginning took over a team and roster that Neil Oshley put us in the first place and had to do some clean ups. All in all, I also want us to get the best possible value or close to for Dame while sending him somewhere he can win a ring. I’m not in the boat of sending Dame to OKC or just anywhere. Unless Scoot, Sharpe and crew can really live up the potential WHILE staying here long term, I think people will really miss Dame when he is gone, which seems like real soon.
dame lillard and his camp were toxic as it gets, fuck them and what they want they did everything in their power to force a trade to the miami heat and that other teams dont make offers if they just said that their preferred destination is the miami heat and went quiet after that, he mightve been their player already (maybe miami wouldnt low ball us and maybe we would act with more willingness to trade him to the miami heat)
I think Joe wanted Dame here until he decided he wanted to draft and keep both Scoot and Kris. It could have been Kolde, I guess but I think it's far more likely that Joe looked around at his roster and decided that a rebuild made a helluva lot more sense once he was at number 3 with Scoot available and wasn't getting traction on reasonable results for an all star running mate to put with Dame. He then did a bit of spinning about threading the needle but Joe had watched the same interviews we had and for sure Dame had told Joe the same shit about going young not being cool with him in private. So Joe knew he wasn't trying to thread any needles once he picked Scoot and Kris and didn't do much afterward. To say that "Joe wants Lillard" like currently Joe's desire is to keep Dame on this team is inaccurate in my opinion. It's a judgment call and honestly if Joe wasn't getting any traction on the trade market for a second star it was likely the right call. I couldn't make that call because I wanted Dame to retire a Blazer too badly but it's Joe's job to be dispassionate when pursuing the team's best interests.
And that girl grew up and blossomed into @SlyPokerDog …… And now you know……..the REST of the story…….
Alright so what are our “insiders” saying….. “Nobody is interested, but that could change real quick” Or “Something could happen today or tomorrow or next week” I fucking love it.
What's Jabari? It's not that I don't think we need another PF, it's that his ceiling is significantly lower than the other guys that were drafted after. It seemed like a pick that was made to appease Dame, not going for the highest ceiling (ala Leonard Miller). If we do a deal with Miami, we'll be adding Jovic to Walker, Murray and Grant.
I don't think we have to speculate very much at all on any of this. Joe clearly said exactly what has happened for many months during the summer league press conference. He tried to build a winner around Dame, he tried to close many trades to acquire another star but repeatedly failed to and he owned up to it. I applaud him for recognizing that and pivoting to this new youth direction. It was nearly inevitable that would result in Dame asking out, but that eventually became the clear best option available. Doesn't mean any of Dame/Cronin/Billups/etc are liars or scumbags or fake. Just means situations changed and it made sense for all parties to go separate ways.
Just seemed like a Cronin/Schmits pick where they rated the guy very highly to me. Maybe later they will be proven right or wrong. If they wanted to appease Dame they never would've trade Hart away and got the pick. Or they'd have traded for a vet at the draft with it.
They just didn't want to pay for a vet, so they split the difference by getting a guy on a rookie contract that was supposed to be a Dame guy.
LMAO dude, no. You're drawing false equivalencies. Trading #3 for a vet would have been way more costly. lol
Lots to unpack https://sports.yahoo.com/the-damian...p-and-what-factors-are-in-play-233718397.html At this juncture, Toronto and Chicago have been the two possible destinations for Lillard most discussed by league figures. But there are so many other details...
Hart is 6' 5" and hesitant to shoot 3-pointers. Murray is 6' 9" and is never going to turn down an open 3-pointer. This does not seem to be an exchange that should make Lillard upset, unless all he cares about is playing with "veterans."
