Meeting between Dame and Cronin today

I still think as long as there are incremental changes that help meet Dames concern about having enough seasoned vets, he ok to stay. It's ok to keep some pressure on Joe but thats all it is. Dame has a really good situation here and he's not opposed to being a leader of a few young mens that want to grind and have talent, along with filling roster out with seasoned vintage well preserved talented vets....

 

Because we had a great draft and kept the greatest Blazer ever on the team....what I'm not happy about is maybe the coaching but I'll give him half a season to show what he's got...New Zealand coach compared Rayan to Mikail Bridges and to me Kris Murray is a younger healthier Rodney Hood. Scoot is going to be our sparkplug behind Dame and tear up opposing benches when Dame rests...what's not to like? Sign Derozan and a center and move Ant and Keon and Nas..use the TPE and MLE to get a couple serviceable vets.

 

oh. i see

 

Not sure I get it? thanks

 

San Antonio can absorb Nurk and Ant into capspace for nothing. If I'm doing my math correctly, signing Jerami to a 5/150 allows us to start him at 25.6. Let's assume we sign Matisse at around 6.5 the first year. If we dump Nurk + Ant + Keon, this lets us offer Draymond a starting salary of around 25M, and the total contract will be around 4/112. We can probably get up to 30M AAV if we need. If we just dump Nurk + Ant then we can only offer 4/100. If we dump Nurk + Ant + Nassir we can offer 4/125.

Not saying this is the path, but it's technically possible?

@wizenheimer And other cap experts, I added the 9.7 from Scoot and 2.8 of Kris Murray, but I don't remember if we can wait to sign them, just incur the incomplete roster charge (which is like ~$1m each?) instead of their actual salaries. This would give us a lot more wiggle room since Scoot is almost 10M and Kris is 3M.

Order of operations is critical here:

1.) Sign Jerami and Matisse - their actual starting salaries much lower than their cap holds.
2.) Sign Draymond.
3.) Sign rookies.

EDIT: NVM 1st round picks have a cap hold. Scoot and Kris have a cap hold, but Rupert does not. This means we need to dump Nassir or Keon as well unless Draymond is willing to take less.

 

ah, got it.

 

No doubt the Spurs would take Ant and Nurk. They need a PG of the future and they have been talking about getting a vet center who can take the pressure off Wemby. Steep price but maybe we can get a pick back or a young piece or two. Would love Sochan honestly.

 

I feel somewhat alone on this, but I don't think the press release really solidified that the Blazers are keeping Dame or trading him. What am I missing?

 

Who's playing center for us?

 

I'm with you. I don't get the "he's not leaving" take or the "he's gone" take.

 

Not alone. It’s the only thing that was ever coming out. It’s not like he’s gonna say “ya, he gone”

 

Schrodinger's Lillard: Simultaneously here and gone.

 

lol this team wouldn’t even win a summer league championship

I like Draymond but that does very little to change our ceiling …

 

you're not alone at all. it's simply kicking the can down the road, presumably until after the FA period.

i also don't buy that the convo was going to be some watershed moment where Dame delivered an ultimatum.

said as much here...

 

Cronin might be committed to building a winner around Dame but is Dame willing to put up with the team's bullshit promises that lead to nowhere ?? I guess we shall find out soon and part of me is happy IF true but part of me now prays every time I do not open up ESPN website and see the headline of : BREAKING NEWS : Dame Demands a Trade out of Portland --

Cronin time is ticking time to shit or get off the pot as they say -- You either do what needs to be done to help Dame or you end this crap and the drama that is making some fans stress out and trade Dame. The one thing I am sure of is IF Cronin really is determined to build a winner he does it with some bold moves cause if his move is to sign and/or trade for one bench vet and re-sign Grant that will be a complete utter failure. It's time you earn you money Cronin trade Ant , Nurk future assets , Little etc but do what needs to be done ASAP --- tick tock tick tock ...

AS THE DAME TURNS ---

 

We’re going small-ball.
Scoot: PG
Shae: SG
Dray: SF
Jeremi: PF
Dame: C

Very small ball.

 

Dame could buy the Blazers and people would still question his commitment.

 

I don't know. It's a weird ass team. Let's say we dump Nurk + Ant + Little (for sake of argument)

Lillard/Scoot/Johnson
Sharpe/Thybulle
Grant/Watford/Rupert
Green/Walker/Murray

11 spots with 4 remaining spots. We will have the full MLE, the BAE, and the Gary Payton TPE to find 3 role players. I'm sure we can find a replacement level center. $5M for Mason Plumlee? Full MLE for Christian Wood? We can still re-sign Eubanks in this scenario. We don't need his bird rights since I doubt he's getting a big offer. Badji will be back.

Hartenstein fits into our TPE, maybe we toss in a pick.

Like I said, I only lay this out since it's technically possible. I put probability at less than 0.1%.

 

Agreed.

I'm kind of pumped for this next week. Almost as much as i was for Draft. Cronin has dug in several times that we are going to build around Dame and that we will make some moves. Looking forward to seeing the results.

 

how much do you want to bet we try to duck the tax again? this all ain't happening.