Some GREAT info from Quick (What Billups investigation took place, where Dame stands with the Team)

You come from a long line of tuber-sniffing mutts.

Ha! I insulted your whole family, but not you. Nothing personal

 

Btw quick has to know why Olshey didn’t get into specifics about who they hired and what was discussed. To bring up his avoidance of the question and not mention that detail is dumb. Other than that good article.

 

One thing that was brought up and I didn't catch it during the press conference but it is actually surprising...

Neil said the word "consensual." I was actually really surprised they got into any specifics about what happened.

 

yeah, I agree. More than that, it sure looked to me that Billups was ready and willing to answer that question and it would have likely elevated that presser above what it was. Billups owning his past and explaining how he's built his life off of lessons learned would have been great.

as for Quick, I think he's really evolved as a writer since his earlier days as the Blazer beat reporter. He rarely makes it about himself anymore in stories and seems to be much less subjective in setting the story-lines of his pieces.

 

Did you see the speculation about Neil's funny baseball signal to have them block the question?

 

that's a real loaded word in my view. Even if he has good reason to believe that's accurate, I don't think he should have used that kind of descriptive word if he wasn't willing to justify it's use

 

There were a couple of little mistakes that he made in terms of what he said. Telling everyone that we will just have to trust them. The weird use of the word "proprietary." But I thought the use of "consensual" was probably the biggest mistake. I would have probably avoided that one. Anyway, overall I thought it went well.

 

yeah, I did:

 

it’s not weird if you know what a proprietary agreement is, which the team had with whichever firm or investigator they hired. It was the perfect answer to a dumb question.

 

I don't think the Dame news was positive or negative.

"Improve the roster or I'm out."

That's the constant in literally every leak about Dame or Dame's preferences.

Haynes:

Olshey:

Quick:

Everything else from Windhorst and other various sources are saying the rumblings are out but he's not serious yet. He's "waiting" before he makes any commitments.

My read was the Olshey telling the team "we aren't making any major changes" after losing to Denver set Dame off. That's the main source of his displeasure. He's seen what Olshey has done in the past few years. The 16-17 and 17-18 offseasons were DISASTERS to say the least. 16-17 hamstringing the team with terrible contracts, and 17-18 missing out on multiple all-stars for someone that might not even be on the team next year. He cannot be patient or give Neil the benefit of the doubt anymore given these two catastrophic off-seasons. The coaching search did him no favors. I am certain Billups was Dame's preferred choice among the many names brought to him or were being seriously considered by Olshey. Trying to argue otherwise is just horsewash. But he didn't make the decision, or have a hand in personally selecting the candidates, so he was mad that people came after him for it. That's perfectly reasonable. Additionally, I think watching these teams that were not considered championship contenders be in the conference finals is massively disappointing to him, especially considering how Phoenix trounced the injury ridden team that ousted us.

As far as what we need to do to keep him? Nothing has changed. He wants to see improvements to the roster. Nothing short of that will make him happy. We're not even done with the season yet or at the draft so it's unlikely any major trades or free agent acquisitions can happen. If we want to placate Dame now, like Neil said, it's on him to build a roster that can compete for a championship. If we go into training camp with a much better roster I think the rumblings regarding Dame will die down in the short term. If nothing major changes, I think they increase. Either way, Dame has 3 years guaranteed on his contract, and I think he would at least give us the courtesy of riding out one more season, even if Olshey cannot meaningfully improve the roster. Another first round exit and he's asking out next season, or maybe we move him at the trade deadline if we are sucking next year.

I don't know how many people remember this, but the rumblings about Giannis asking out were HUGE last year. Then the team sold it's future for Jrue Holiday and (at least tried) to get Bogdonavic. Yeah they overpaid to do so, but it made Giannis happy, and they are in the conference finals this year. Giannis's situation is a bit different, his contract was expiring and they needed him to sign to supermax. Dame is just starting his supermax. But we need to go all-in a-la the Jrue Holiday trade. Otherwise just trade Dame.

I was a fan of moving McCollum for depth pieces before this stuff about Dame came out. Now I think if you move McCollum and don't get someone better in return Dame is asking out immediately....

 

I don't know if they have to be better, but at least lateral at a different position. But if we don't re-sign Norm, it's all moot.

 

In all fairness, I have been asking Dame to put this kind of pressure on the organization for years..... it's just terrifying now that he's doing it.

 

It still felt like a weird word to toss out in the context of the conversation. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it felt out of place.

 

This is also a great point by Quick. Olshey has done nothing but bring quality guys in for the last 9 years. He's asking people to trust him that he has done his homework and that this one person is actually a quality human being. But yeah, people will have their own opinions I guess.

 

The problem is... the avenues Olshey has to bring in a legit star are not very clear. And I dunno, after everything Dame has publicly said before, I don't see him as the kinda guy to throw his teammates under the bus. Maybe he's changed?

 

It alludes that something definitely happened, but was consensual. For the record, Chauncey has said this entire time that they had oral sex in the car. Never admitted to anything happening after. He also stated that his current wife was his girlfriend at the time, so presumably he cheated on his wife at that point. Clearly that event shaped him in the ensuing 24 yearss.

 

it couldn’t have been any more in place. Highkin asked for him to get into specifics about the investigation. Olshey told him why he couldn’t. If anything Highkin was either not prepared (he should’ve known that olshey couldn’t get into detail) or he was and decided to ask it anyway to try and make Olshey look bad, knowing well he couldn’t answer it.

 

Oh I meant proprietary. It just felt like a weird word to use about the investigation.