I'm pretty sure I will be in the minority with this take, but here goes. Both locally, and especially nationally, there is all of this talk about how the Blazers somehow owe it to Dame to trade him to a contender, because after all "he deserves a shot at a championship." Plenty of my fellow posters here at S2 have said the same thing. What a load of crap! First, Dame is just fine. He isn't owed anything. He is adored, almost universally now considered the Best Blazer Ever, has made literally hundreds of millions of dollars, and has had a great team that he liked around him most of his career. An amazing career. Second, I assert that he not owed a "shot at a championship" any more than, say, Nurk, or Nassir Little for that matter. ALL of these guys are among the 500 best basketball players on the planet. All have sweated and sacrificed. All want to win and are uber competitive. So Dame is a little better, had bigger moments, is better known. BFD.
tend to agree. i think the framing of the narrative is getting way distorted by the national media. it's not that he "deserves" a chance for a title. it's more that he "deserves" a solid roster build that enhances his strengths and addresses his weakness. as well, he has not had true commitment from the ownership towards winning in the playoffs (outside of a year or two). for the player we all consider the best in franchise history, we at least need to take a shot at building a team around him that can compete for more than lottery balls.
Agree...when Dame was asked years ago why he didn't want to join a superteam and win he answered, "I've already won" Adam Morrison has two rings and I'll go ahead and predict that if Dame retired today, he'd leave a legacy without a ring but Morrison won't with two of the things.
"Owe" and "deserves" seem quite out of place when Dame will make ~$450,000,000 through this current contract just from his NBA contracts. Add endorsement money, the ability to have a car dealership, etc, he certainly hasn't been shortchanged in life's lottery. Would I like him to get a ring? Of course. Would I like that ring to be as a Blazer? Even better. But I don't see how that happens and in the process, I'm concerned it will weaken the longer term viability of the roster and assets they control. As previously stated, this needed to be done right after the sweep by the Pelicans. There would have been time for pieces to come together and not so much worry about giving up Draft picks that might be very good after Dame is gone or declining. It stunk it didn't happen then, but IMO, it is too late now to build around a player whose height and style of play has just not historically been conducive to winning championships.
Here’s what the franchise deserves: the flexibility to make decisions for the best interests of the franchise. Making Dame happy might feel good now but it will mortgage our next five years for a long shot at beating Denver in the West. I don’t blame the front office for hesitating or even flat out disagreeing.
there's a certain basketball etiquette. The NBA is one big happy family. The national viewpoint is trending towards Damian Lillard trapped on stinky team with a GM pissing away the best years of his career. There are really good teams in the NBA that are "a Lillard away" from a title run. Depriving opposing franchises that want to win now of incredible talent, is like a greedy child in the NBA family that won't share their coolest toy. Basically, the Blazers don't need Lillard to scape bottom and land top rookies. But ownership is hoarding Lillard just to make a few bucks. It's a frustrating moment in time for several NBA factions, not just Blazer fans.
I think this is a non-issue I do know when I see posters here who have criticized Dame and advocated trading him say "he deserves a shot at a championship" my Bullshit detector screams like a bullhorn
No. He deserves a shot at a championship here. We should make every effort to compete with Dame. If we trade him it should be to what ever team will give us the most.
I find it comical that fans blame the GM or owner or whoever for not putting the pieces around Dame to contend for a title while he's still in his prime. What that sounds like is that it could have been done if they wanted, but have waited to do it until now and they shouldn't wait any longer. Don't fans think that the FO would have done it a long time ago if it was that easy?! That whole "they owe it to Dame to build a contender" blows me away. The OP was right, they don't 'owe' Dame anything. They've paid him tens of millions, eventually hundreds of millions, to do what he does. That's what they owed him. It seems the old belief that no individual is bigger than the team doesn't pertain to Dame and the Blazers. I love Dame. He's had a huge impact on the team, the fans, the community, the state, even a lot of people around the world. But, that doesn't mean he's bigger than the team. If they trade him, I hope it's to a good organization. I don't want to see him go to a contender just for his sake. I want him to go wherever it is that offers the FO the best package to build this team for the future. I can't imagine watching Dame play in the finals for the next few years while the Blazers are struggling to make the play in game because the FO thought they owed that to him, but not this entire franchise.
There's not a contender that can put a package together for Dame with his super max deal and still have a contending roster when the deal is done. He'd be on a lottery team and losing to the Blazers if he did that. Dame's not old enough to take a paycut to chase a ring...Chris Paul is though.
We had a bad GM who was too loyal to his first legit pick as a Blazer. Sometimes I honestly think Olshey wanted Dame to demand out so it could be CJs team. *Edit* And this is not intended as a knock on CJ
after Afflalo, Olshey sure seemed to make a point of insuring that CJ didn't have any legitimate competition for SG minutes or for backup PG minutes. And his refusal to include CJ in the trade discussions for PG13 & Butler....geeeezuzuzz
