We weren't going to win with him. That doesn't mean people don't appreciate how good he is. Dame and his agent are making it easy to not have warm and fuzzy feelings for him at the moment.
I don't like the Dame wants out, but I totally understand it. We havent won a title with Dame, thats a fact. We don't know if we could've won a title if Dame was given a solid supporting cast. I'd also venture a bet we won't be winning a title anytime soon without Dame; so the Blazers winning a title has less to do with Dame and more to do with ownership, the front office, the market, etc. in my opinion.
Getting the right pieces and becoming a contender usually needs a dose of luck too, especially if you are a small market team. Olshey did make some bad moves that made us not able to put a team around Dame. But, we were not one player away from being a contender with Dame. If we would have hypothetically traded for Siakam, Brown etc. I doubt we would have been a contender. Dame only has so many years left playing at a high level. Might it take awhile for us to be contenders? Sure, but our runway is so much longer now with Scoot and Shaedon cost controlled for a few years and eventual restricted free agents. I'm excited to see if we can put the right pieces around our young backcourt. Lots more room to maneuver when you have value contracts and multiple picks. And i'm not talking about just cap.
He’s 33. I think people overvalue being mediocre and undervalue rebuilding. Especially when you already have two great building blocks.
That was clearly the best supporting cast he had. Too bad he never really experienced anything close to that once he was off his rookie deal. To my knowledge, no other top 75 player had a worst supporting cast in the 7-8 prime years of his career than Dame.
That shooting 40 ft jumpers early in the clock is probably not winning basketball. Also that Chauncey is on the clock now without Dame to run the offense. We get to see what Chauncey can do with a fresh roster of young talent. I've also thought that it might not be the best practice to give the team to a rookie but to develop good habits first. Let him earn it. Make the new guys learn defense first and make that more of a priority
I agree on the luck part. I agree we're more than one piece away and that Siakam or Brown wouldn't have made the a title favorite. I also seriously doubt we'll be title favorites with Scoot/Sharpe unless we make a handful of other high quality transactions. So no different than Dame, the organization will need to do things much better with Scoot/Sharpe for them to have a chance.
Of course on Scoot/Sharpe. But if they ball out next year and we still suck, we get a high draft pick to trade or select to grow with them. And they are super young, so plenty of time to grow and try to build around them. I don't know how anyone couldn't be excited for the opportunities with Scoot. Dude has star written all over him. May never be as good as Dame, but he doesn't have to be. We have time to try to get it right and hopefully the assets we get back from a Dame trade helps that.
You're referencing less than 1% of Dame's field goal attempt (which he made at a high effective FG% and stretched out defenses) as a contributor of "not winning basketball"? I'm willing to bet Billups' offense w/out Dame with not finish with a higher rating than the average rate we had with Dame over the past 8 seasons.
I'm excited that Scoot could be good. If he turns out to be 90% of what Dame was, that will be huge. If he turns out to be a Top 75 player, we hit the lottery twice!
I wasn't referencing any stats or frequency...just that particular basketball style is not in my opinion team basketball ..Dame is an amazing shooter with incredible range...it's not always the best way to get the ball moving around and tire out a defense...it's the opposite..give them long rebounds and transition buckets.
This is exactly my point. A lot of people seem so confident Scoot/Sharpe are two great building blocks based on a lot of assumptions and very little NBA productivity. I'm not ruling out that they both could be very good players, but the hit rate for two guys to both be star players, one drafted #3 with no NBA experience and the other drafted #7, who wasn't even All-Rookie 2nd team is not going to be near 50%. Doesn't mean it can't happen, doesn't mean I don't want it to happen, but the confidence level around here seems to be that it's likely. If the pattern of this forum holds to form, I can see Sharpe being the whipping boy around here sooner than not. Mainly because the expectations for him were unrealistic.
Did we give up an abnormal amount of transition buckets when Dame took long shots? Or even over the years Dame was on the team? At point we probably should stop regurgitating the out-dated principals from our JV basketball coaches and look at the data, since the data is available. Now obviously, if you personally don't like watching it, that's a fair matter of opinion. Suggesting it's not winning basketball or is hurting the team, should be backed up by data though.
yes..we gave up a ton of transition buckets and wore our own defense out chasing their guards back down court. Hitting game winning deep 3s is awesome...I particularly mentioned not early in the shot clock. I'm not talking about the LA Rolo Wes Nico team..that team played defense. Defensive principals don't get outdated in my view except for handchecking or flopping.
No doubt. Most likely, some of Sharpes biggest fans today will turn on him in the next two seasons in favorite of a 2025 prospect. Sharpe has amazing tools, but got hurt last summer, didn't produce much as a rookie, and didn't dominate summer league this year. Yet the expectation from some is that he'll be a future All-NBA or All-Star, and at worst, a great building block of a great team. To me, that's an unrealistic expectation, that shouldn't be held against him if he fails to meet it.
We missed the playoffs and had a bottom feeding defense for 3 years straight... That's the end result that should be the kicker. Dame can put up some amazing offensive stats...sure. That was not my point though.
