several posters have been calling for Dame to be traded, repeatedly, even though his loyalty to Portland has been incredible and his leadership and character have been exemplary. Not to mention being arguably the greatest Blazer player ever so I'm wondering what gauge those posters, and others, are putting on those qualities that Dame has displayed for 11 years. What value his loyalty has in the minds of fans. How far the loyalty stretches from the Blazers to Dame seems like a pretty simple question of if the Blazers should trade Dame if he doesn't want to be traded. Ergo...
The only trade packages I'd even consider for Dame seem highly unlikely to be offered from the other trade partner, so I simply voted to not trade him. I have zero interest in giving up the best player in franchise history, who also happens to be incredibly loyal, for a discount.
You have to have a player of Dame's caliber to win a title. Getting rid of the only player like that we've had in over 30 years seems counterproductive if winning a title is your intention...
And it's not like these kinds of players are getting handed out like candy. Especially since there are very few examples of when trading a superstar has ever worked out for both teams. The only times I can think of are Kwahi Leonard to the Raptors and KG to the Celtics. And San Antonio didn't benefit from the trading of their superstar, and the Minnesota Twolves didn't exactly get a decent haul when they traded KG (thanks to Kevin McHale for gifting KG to the Celtics). I know Boston got Tatum and Brown through trades, but neither one was in a trade that included a superstar traded. At the time the Celtics traded for what turned into Jaylen Brown (in 2013), KG was pretty much done, Paul Pierce was a shell of himself and the Nets were stupid desperate to win a title, and that pick was 3 years out. I'm sure I'm missing some trades, but not sure there are any obvious ones. Kyrie has been traded twice and neither haul helped the team he left. Durant was traded for a lot of future firsts, but we don't know how well those will be.
We're not going to be a contender anytime soon if we do trade him, because nobody is going to give us prime players for him (we'll get Raef Lafrenz-style contracts and a couple of overpaid A- players). Might as well enjoy him while he can still give us spectacles.
There is one superstar that has been outspoken and backed it up in regards to his dedication to this franchise and this city and some of you want to or think we "should" trade him. Shameful. What we should do is put a team around him that makes sense. The best team possible to compliment his game and give all of us the best shot at our team winning a title as soon as possible.
true, but what it does do (hah, I said does do...wait, that doesn't work) is create stability. trading him away doesn't mean they'll get a great haul, doesn't mean they'll have a chance at another star. They might go through a long stretch of massively bad seasons.
You are so correct, but keeping Dame absolutely guarantees we won’t win. He makes too much now and we don’t have enough assets and cap room to get what we need around Dame
I mean any worse than the stretch of bad seasons we’re currently on? And I’m not trying to be smart ass. I just think I’m a jaded Blazer fan at this point. I have no faith in anything regarding this franchise. At least with sucking there’s the hope of lottery and luck and change.