Yep, this. Anyone who mentions free agents as a viable part of our long-term strategy shouldn't be in this convo. It's just not realistic. Geez could be our point guard (or maybe an assistant coach, since Geez probably couldn't hoop) and dudes still wouldn't come here.I think a big piece of it is that free agents just aren't interested in Portland. It's never going to be a free agent destination, so it's a lot like Sacramento in that way. They aren't going to be able to attract top free agents, so they have to gamble and hope draft picks work out and those guys want to stay. I think that's been a big piece of the franchise being tied to Lillard. There just aren't many stars that are going to be willing to stick around.
Why do people think we're doomed to NBA Purgatory with Dame here? The Blazers haven't made a serious trade to help him out since he got here. Blame Olshey for that, or blame Jodi, whatever. We have the assets to possibly make that happen now and the option can't be overlooked.
Also, my argument stands whether Dame is the first, second, or third-best player in franchise history. You're all attaching unrealistic expectations on a sophomore and a dude who isn't even a rookie yet.
A rebuild would be exciting, but don't expect us to do much better than we might possibly do by keeping Dame and trading for help.