Guys with options want to get paid and win. Portland will be on the short list of most desirable locations for Free Agents IF during the next couple seasons Scoot and Shaedon ball out showing great promise & Joe clears cap space to be able to pay. STOMP
How badly does Dame himself want to be traded? He must have known Miami doesn't have much to offer, and he certainly knows his own contract status. If there was any offense that Cronin committed against Dame, I would expect Dame would try to make it easier to be traded away from Portland, rather than more difficult.
Also, how much does Miami actually want him? Supposedly, they've been on the top of his list for months. It wasn't any sort of secret. Only the willfully ignorant tried to deny it. But the day before Dame made his official trade demand they traded Victor Oladipo and two future second-round Draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not that the Blazers would want Victor or those second round picks are that valuable, but it just doesn't strike me as a move that a team trying to trade for a superstar would make.
Oddly enough, they have this notion that everyone is out to get Miami, that everyone—including national media—hates Miami and biases toward Boston, LA, etc. it’s a dynamic that causes them to overrate their own players and understand little about what another team might want. It took their media a WHILE to realize that Simons was functionally duplicative with Tyler Herro—to the point that now they’re hurt that the Dame chatter has potentially wounded the relationship between Tyler and the org. ‘fine we won’t include Tyler’ (yeah, that’s not how this works)
Good point, we could have taken those picks and Miami has trouble putting enough contracts into a trade to match Dames salary. They could've just put Oladipo into a Dame trade if it was likely.
Ideally, we get back a player of need. And that need is a front-court player who can defend and rebound. Miami does not offer that, but not many teams really do. And those players who do excel at it tend to be below-average shooters. So I am okay with Joe holding firm. You would think that Toronto could use Herro while giving up Precious and filler (Boucher and Young) Since they are giving up 3 PFs send them Jovic in the deal. Portland: Precious, Boucher, and JJjr. (and Lowry) Miami: Dame and Young Toronto: Herro and Jovic That might not seem fair to us, but it does fill some needs especially if we get a couple of picks.
I do not see any headliner in this trade going to us. Like Lauri in Mitchell trade, Mikal in Dutant trade.
Who is a realistic headliner that you think we can get? I would like to get one for sure. But the reason I never wanted to trade Dame in the first place was that I doubted we would get a front-line player in return. Personally, I would like it to be Simmons, but I don't see it happening which is why I am suggesting we at least get two young front-line players that fill a huge need. Precious has the size and high motor we need at PF. Jaime likewise brings size and energy (and a high BBQ) to the SF position. Boucher is more like Grant in terms of age and size, but he is a solid bench player. No none of them are Dame, but is Toronto going to trade us Scottie Barnes? Not happening
That is another good question. (How badly does Miami really want him?) If Dame sticks with his Miami-or-bust stance, to me that means his top choices of where to play next season are 1) Miami 2) Portland 3) nowhere else. There is nothing unreasonable about that.
My question is how badly does Dame want to leave? In other words, when we approach training camp does he want to come back and deal with the media, or will he expand the number of teams he would be enthusiastic about going to? I think he would expand that list
I'd want Gradey Dick (though I doubt his NBA future) and a pick from Toronto as well. That would be a pretty good return on a Dame deal. I'd be very interested in how that roster might shake out over this season. Scoot/Ant/Lowry Sharpe/Little/Dick Thybulle/Jaquez/Rupert Grant/Murray/Walker Nurk/Achiuwa/Boucher I feel like there are enough lottery tickets on that squad that a few would have to pan out.
I think he will not expand his list, and he will play for the Trail Blazers. It's one thing to say you want to trade playing/living in Portland for playing/living in Miami. Maybe Dame was dreaming and though he'd give asking for a trade to Miami a shot. Why not? Salt Lake City and Toronto are a far, far cry from being Miami.
I think he would enjoy Toronto hanging out with Drake. It has a great music scene Brooklyn is still an option
Why didn't he include those as possible trade partners? He obviously doesn't like those teams and locations as much as Miami. I think everyone is forgetting or ignoring that Joe Cronin would like Dame to stay in Portland. Any team will have to offer a reasonable return. Cronin is not going to trade Dame just to trade Dame.
True, he likes Miami best. But the point is would he prefer the other two over coming back to play in Portland? I have no idea, but I think there is a pretty good chance he will expand the list in a few weeks if Joe does not like what Miami is offering.
And for Miami to be able to provide a reasonable return, they'll have to receive a reasonable return for Herro. And any team trading for Herro knows they're just helping Miami get Dame, so they won't offer anything decent.
So said team would probably need to believe that adding Herro makes them better than Miami-Herro+Dame, and would need to be willing to part with assets that we would want. I'm guessing that venn diagram has a very small overlap.
There will be scenarios currently unknown that will playout during the season. Teams overperforming, Teams underperforming, other players asking out, other players getting injured, demand for Dame will increase. Good things come to thosr who wait. This will be the Broncos/Wilson of the NBA
I agree which brings us back to my proposed trade earlier. It was certainly not a proposal where we were the clear winners but one that I thought all three teams benefitted from. Now I know some will say by losing Dame there is no way we benefit, and that is a fair argument, but he made his choice and we have to make the best of it. We should not trade Scoot or Sharpe, but the one thing that could still make Dame feel like he has a puncher's chance in Portland is if we were able to obtain that much-needed forward in a trade for Ant and filler, which I think Joe was trying to do all along without any success.
