Our worst mistakes have come from trying to build around Dame

45 years and counting...

 

invariably, it seems to me, if you track the posters most pessimistic about the current Blazer direction you'll a lot of find people who, IMO, significantly overrated the value of CJ, RoCo, Nance, and Powell. As if having those four instead of Hart, Grant, Winslow & Sharpe is a better direction.

 

@Eastoff has a jersey for sale i think.

 

When you hear the term "patience" applied to a player/team, that is a tip-off that they are stagnating or regressing.

 

Totally disagree. Philly fans were asked to be patient by trusting the process. Now they're a contender, even though they've gone through the ringer with some personnel issues. Many pro franchises in all sports have had to show patience with their players development.

 

The key word there is "development". There is no need for patience if the kid is showing progress. If he is learning and progressing, that is just the natural order of things. Patience is for the kid who looks the same in game 82 that he did on opening night.

 

Philly was beyond exercising patience. Not only were they purposefully losing year after year, but their lotto picks weren’t even playing until a whole year later. So as a fan, you aren’t even rewarded for your tanking season until 2 years later. The only one that played the same year he was drafted was Okafor, who ended up being the worst one. That would be incredibly frustrating as a fan, and even after seeing how The Process turned out, I would still be 100% against us doing that.

OKC at least has an established star, and even he may ask out eventually, and which point they’ll be stuck in a treadmill where they have a bunch of talent but no culture setter.

You consider trading Ant over Dame for that very reason.

 

I doubt anyone would want to buy it!

 

Just need to promote the incentives.

“Ever wanted to burn a Blazer Jersey because you are tired of mediocrity? Well ive got something for ya!!!”

In 24 hours im searching that title on ebay. Better see your add. Lol!

 

I think that Cronin will have to make a decision before the deadline as to whether there’s a reasonable path towards contention using some of the young guys mixed with one or more of the vets to obtain an impact player. If not, then I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s a promise to Dame to trade him to a contender for a boatload of picks and switch to a rebuild around Sharpe and Simons. Dame gets to pass Clyde in the first half of the season to get the all-time Blazers scoring title, he gets to move on with the longer term deal Cronin gave him, and he gets to keep his image of loyalty to the Blazers intact.

 

Agree

 

I don't think we make the Grant trade if trading Dame and hitting reset is an option on the table. I think we'll build around Dame and finally do so without CJ. If Ant proves to be CJ he will be the one getting traded at the deadline. Dame is here to stay... until the day of his retirement. With Grant, Sharpe, Ant, Nurk, Hart, Nas and Justise I think the organization is committed to building the right team around Dame and that's a fine move... it's not a move @Rastapopoulos is on board with but it's the only move this organization sees as far as I can tell.

There will be a consolidation trade made in February that nets us size behind Nurk or a replacement for Nurk that makes more sense.

 

I really would have a hard time believing Dame would ask out. And at this point, I’d rather have him here than not. He’s really been a culture-setter and was the main reason I was all on board with drafting Sharpe.

That being said, if we are fully confident Ant can lead this team to the playoffs eventually, this is absolutely the year to do this kind of deal. This deal would have me sweating,

NYK gets Dame

OKC gets Barrett, salary

POR gets Dieng, 6 1sts from NYK (2023 DET/WAS/NYK/DAL 1st, 2025 MIL and NYK unprotected 1st), 4 1sts from OKC (2023 LAC 1st, 2024 OKC/UTA/HOU 1sts)

We’d also trade Grant, Hart, and Nurk for whatever you can to add to a core of Ant + Sharpe + Keon + Little + Walker + Watford + a 2023 lotto + 1 or 2 more rookies.

I’m excited to see what happens, and I’ll be happy whether we win or lose this year.

 

Do you think it’s possible Dame would embrace sitting out if we are maybe around 10th in the conference with 23-25 games left in the season? So far the last year, Dame has shown he’s put complete faith in the organization. As a team, I imagine it wouldn’t be hard for the front office to do especially in a year where half the NBA teams’ fans want their team to tank. And the last quarter of the season looks brutal.

 

If we have a chance to make the playoffs, which we obviously would if we're in the tenth spot, Dame is going to want to compete.

 

I worry that we may have missed the window to get a windfall for Dame. NY was our likeliest partner and they just gave Brunson a shit ton of money. They're not likely to want Dame AND Brunson, and if we trade Dame, we won't want Brunson in return. Maybe if OKC or Houston wanted him and would send some of their wagonload of picks our way? Doesn't seem too likely though...

Still intrigued by getting Simmons from Brooklyn, but would they think a backcourt of Kyrie and Dame could work?