Zombie Damian Lillard to request trade in coming days (nope, he's not.)

wut? I've come to a consensus and I'm a one....

 

Quick has a new piece out: https://theathletic.com/2723147/202...n-lillards-desires/?source=emp_shared_article

Within the Blazers — both on the business side and the basketball side — Lillard’s call for accountability and action has been met with the appropriate alarm. No one yet is convinced he will request a trade, and as one executive put it, “I don’t think he wants to leave. He has built an empire here. But we have to assume he is leaving to make sure he is not leaving."

The franchise losing the best player — and person — who has ever donned the pinwheel logo is a fear within the halls of the Trail Blazers that has never been more real. Lillard wants to see meaningful improvement, which means the Blazers need to transition from being good to being great.

Teams are calling the Blazers and asking for CJ McCollum, and in return offering Portland a chance to get into the top part of the draft. But Portland is not entertaining those offers because they are in a win-now phase, and looking for veterans more than rookies to build around. However, the Blazers are expected to try and buy their way into a second round pick to bolster a thin stable of youngsters that consists of Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little and CJ Elleby. Historically under Olshey, the Blazers have flourished in the second round, drafting players such as Will Barton, Gary Trent Jr., Pat Connaughton, Allen Crabbe, and Jake Layman, all who became NBA starters.

The Blazers’ top free agent priority is re-signing Norman Powell, whom they acquired at last season’s trade deadline.

Although Olshey has never publicly admitted it, he knows he failed last season in not recognizing a bench centered around Carmelo Anthony and Enes Kanter was fatally flawed from a defensive standpoint. If he can secure Powell, it is believed Olshey will turn his free agent attention to deepening the bench with long, rangy players who can play multiple positions and easily switch which players they can guard on possessions.

If Powell signs with Portland — which is far from guaranteed — the Blazers will have the tax-payer mid-level exception ($6 million). If Powell signs with another team, the Blazers will have the full mid-level ($9.3 million) to spend. During the same trip of the Lillard summit in Las Vegas, Billups met with Powell — who lives in Las Vegas — and communicated his vision to the wing. The hope is the hiring of Billups, who is a uniter and communicator, will inspire Powell to consider a deal in Portland, where Powell was part of the NBA’s best offense during his 28 games.

Last summer, the Blazers with the full-mid level pursued Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol and Paul Millsap — only to finish as runner ups to the Clippers (Ibaka), Lakers (Gasol) and Denver (Millsap). The Blazers ended up signing Derrick Jones Jr., beating out Minnesota, Sacramento and Memphis for his services.

Will Lillard’s urging tempt Olshey to be less conservative this summer?

It likely depends on what McCollum can garner on the trade market.

McCollum likely isn’t enticing enough to pry Ben Simmons from Philadelphia, even though their salaries virtually match. Olshey is known to be close friends with Daryl Morey, his counterpart in Philadelphia, but that friendship won’t be a factor whether Morey considers a McCollum-based offer, even if the pot is sweetened with young players like Anfernee Simons or Nassir Little.

It’s not an encouraging landscape for significant change, as it appears Portland is headed toward having the same starting lineup with a different supporting cast. It has undertones of the summer of 2018, in the aftermath of third-seeded Portland being swept by sixth-seeded New Orleans. Amid the clamor for massive changes, the Blazers mostly stayed the course, and reached the Western Conference finals the next season for the first time in 19 seasons.

There appears to be an inclination to run this group back again, with Billups holding the defensive reins more tightly than Terry Stotts, and seeing what a full season of Powell — should he return — could look like.

Playing the patience card is a dangerous game for Portland, especially with Lillard’s unrest, but while the outside world is fixated on the word “change” for Portland, the operative word inside the Blazers’ offices is “improvement.” In the coming weeks, it will be up to Olshey to determine how closely those two words align. The future of the franchise, and perhaps the heart of the franchise player, depend on it.

 

Quick isn't plugged into Olshey's front office but if this is accurate we can expect a trade demand from Dame. No significant roster moves is the opposite thing from what Dame was demanding in his presser. I also don't think Neil telling Dame that the landscape didn't have the kind of opportunity necessary to make a big move will fly with Dame after he talked so much about urgency.

 

Multiple teams, lots of player movement!! Epic trades!!!

WOJ said it, WHICH MEANS....
....It is....
....Going to....

 

That's a spicy conversation right there.

Behind closed doors...
How do you think it went?
CJ saying that he thinks we need to make the right moves?

Nurk is the most likely out of everyone to be traded I think.
Keep Kanter and trade Nurk would leave a solid 5 and potentially bring in someone who can make a big impact for us to round things out.

 

I'm assuming the other side of the equation...

CJ is trying to see where he might be headed (and using the discussion with Woj to help influence his landing spot).

 

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiret...-To-Make-Big-Trade-With-Bradley-Beal-On-Radar

I thought this was interesting.

 

I wish Golden State would just blow it up so we can have Draymond.

 

Haynes on 1080 w/ AJ.

On Dame:

For the first time, Dame is letting it be known publicly what he thinks about the direction of the team. Other times, Dame has handled it internally and he and Neil have had a good relationship. It's at a point now when Dame feels like taking care of things behind the scenes is not getting it done. Dame is not satisfied with the first round or second round. Championship. That's what he wants. And he wants to hold everyone in the organization accountable to try to achieve that.

On Powell:

Talked to him briefly but we didn't into specifics of what he's looking for in FA. Money figures to be a high priority, but this is me speculating. There are other suitors out there, including Dallas. Position probably matters to him, he's a 2. It sounds like the team in Portland wants to bring back the same starting lineup, but I would think that money trumps all of that because he's at an age when he's due for his big contract.

 

He basically demanded everyone work harder. That may or may not be a trade.

You really seem intent on pushing hard that Dame is going to demand a trade. I mean, it seems like you've posted a lot of that narrative in the last few days.

 

Was this Haynes speculating as well?

 

i got the feeling he was referring to JQ's piece yesterday but he didn't say either way if it was speculation or otherwise.

 

If we lose Powell because we didn't move CJ and just wanted to run it back..........

 

He said that he doesn't know where his future is for the first time and that what has been going on here isn't working. He said the team had to change in order for him to make up his mind on his future. He said straight up that the roster wasn't good enough, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean they need to work harder. It doesn't get much clearer than that and he didn't say that the team had time to change, he said that they need to work to improve with the same urgency he has throughout his career.

Every analyst in sports thinks that he will demand a trade if the team doesn't make big changes and when asked about it Dame didn't stop that narrative he furthered it. So it's not my narrative, it's Dame's.

 

Wow.
Talk about picking every possible thing he said that could be taken negatively and putting it all in one statement.
There is a thing called context.
What you just did was take pretty much everything he has said out of context.
He also said. No it’s not true.

 

That's very likely

 

Please re-watch the presser, it's not that long. He said that he wasn't requesting a trade in the next few days. He said that because of the lack of sense of urgency he didn't know where he wanted to be in the future (I can't spin that negatively because it's just really negative). When asked about what could be done to make him certain again he talked about the team showing urgency. When asked if he thought Chauncey would be enough he said Chauncey might be the best coach ever but when he looks at the roster he said changing the coach wouldn't be enough. He said at some point it's about winning championships and he'd like to do that here (in other words if he has to he'll do it elsewhere).

He said he's had more in depth conversations with Neil and believes that Neil understands what needs to be done and then said he sees himself in a Blazers uniform next season. Some context on the only positive thing he said in that presser (that he sees himself here next season). It had a pretext of him saying he trusts the team and Neil to act with more urgency and for Neil to be on the same page as him.

So if you think me and every person in the world that covers the game are just being negative in thinking that if the team doesn't do something big Dame will ask out, that's fine but Dame was in the classiest way possible saying that the team gets its shit together or he wants out and he didn't sound patient at all.

 

I can finish that sentence.

...... Dame will demand a trade.

If we get worse when he sent a clear mandate to get better, I just can't see the guy giving it time when all he talked about was urgency.

 

Beal is a definite possibility for the Warriors. He’s been discussed already internally. That would make them absolutely ridiculous offensively. Unguardable.