Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Lillard, as usual, is just thinking about himself, not the team. If he looked at the situation objectively, he would see that Cronin really didn't have a choice here; picking Henderson was the only move he could make that would guarantee maximum return on the pick they lucked into. Now that Henderson is on the team, an honest assessment of the situation also dictates that the best thing for the Blazers is to dump Lillard's contract. I have no idea what is being offered, but the goal should be to get good contracts or picks back. I liked the draft, and I liked the trades Cronin made for the most part last year to get out of some bad deals, but I have no confidence that he has the ability to originate sensible contracts with players. The ink is barely dry on the ones he did with Simons and Nurk, and already they are liabilities that are almost untradeable. The extension he did with Lillard was complete lunacy. Getting out of it while they still can should be the top priority. I also think they should let Grant go rather than pay $30 million/ yr. There will be better deals on the market once the crazy money has all been allocated.

Probably they will wait until fans are properly introduced to Scoot and his game before dumping Lillard so that people have a reason to buy tickets, jerseys,etc. I personally would love it if they made a deal this offseason instead of waiting, so that Lillard's dissatisfaction and resulting whiny media leaks didn't have a chance to fester. The dude has had 11 seasons to do something, and all he was able to accomplish was personal stats and eating up a ton of cap space. Time to cut bait.

Phalanx wrote:Lillard, as usual, is just thinking about himself, not the team. If he looked at the situation objectively, he would see that Cronin really didn't have a choice here; picking Henderson was the only move he could make that would guarantee maximum return on the pick they lucked into. Now that Henderson is on the team, an honest assessment of the situation also dictates that the best thing for the Blazers is to dump Lillard's contract. I have no idea what is being offered, but the goal should be to get good contracts or picks back. I liked the draft, and I liked the trades Cronin made for the most part last year to get out of some bad deals, but I have no confidence that he has the ability to originate sensible contracts with players. The ink is barely dry on the ones he did with Simons and Nurk, and already they are liabilities that are almost untradeable. The extension he did with Lillard was complete lunacy. Getting out of it while they still can should be the top priority. I also think they should let Grant go rather than pay $30 million/ yr. There will be better deals on the market once the crazy money has all been allocated.

Probably they will wait until fans are properly introduced to Scoot and his game before dumping Lillard so that people have a reason to buy tickets, jerseys,etc. I personally would love it if they made a deal this offseason instead of waiting, so that Lillard's dissatisfaction and resulting whiny media leaks didn't have a chance to fester. The dude has had 11 seasons to do something, and all he was able to accomplish was personal stats and eating up a ton of cap space. Time to cut bait.

Time to totally rebuild. Hopefully with a new owner. Thanks Dame but you’ve priced yourself out of value. Get what we can get for him that improves the team without him and move on. If you don’t think this is the only option right now you’re kidding yourself.

nogerO wrote: Time to totally rebuild. Hopefully with a new owner. Thanks Dame but you’ve priced yourself out of value. Get what we can get for him that improves the team without him and move on. If you don’t think this is the only option right now you’re kidding yourself.

It’s going to come down to what they can get for Anfernee Simons.

Boom wrote:

nogerO wrote: Time to totally rebuild. Hopefully with a new owner. Thanks Dame but you’ve priced yourself out of value. Get what we can get for him that improves the team without him and move on. If you don’t think this is the only option right now you’re kidding yourself.

It’s going to come down to what they can get for Anfernee Simons.

and Vulcan deciding they are willing to go into the Tax.

Part of the problem of "contending with Lillard" has in fact been the lack of a real Owner and instead a Trustee group. They can have opposite concerns and while they can align at times, you never get a management group that thinks like a fan but you can with an Owner. Lillard's prime has occurred in the post-PA timeframe, the same timeframe in which the team needed to make the decision to have swapped CJ for a Forward and instead largely made moves to get under the Tax.

Without an Owner, a management group is happy to take the W's, ignore the flaws in the roster and continue "proper stewardship." With an Owner, the ability to make a big-move in order to compete can happen.

Agree, 07. The lack of a real owner is why I'm finding it hard to get excited over a rebuild. Choosing players from a board is one thing, but this organization appears completely inept at moving the needle via trades. I think some of it is by choice -- Jodi seems determined to do NBA ownership on the cheap -- but the rest is on Cronin, who just doesn't seem to have the chops for this job. Eventually, all teams must engage in trades to add those final necessary roster pieces, and the Blazers can't simply tank their ways around that. (The next couple of drafts are expected to be pretty weak anyway.) I love our new young core, but Cronin can't keep hiding behind the ping pong balls. He's going to need to eventually do his job, and Jodi will have to give him the resources to do it -- otherwise, the faces will change but not the results.

That said, I'm thankful that Dame is being such a professional and not airing a word of dirty laundry toward the organization. It would be so easy for him to do so, but the fact he's continually taken the high road is a rarity among players of his caliber.

I don't think most fans judge what makes a good GM very well - mostly they just want to win and they don't care what it costs because it isn't their money. The best GM's are the ones who can build while limiting spending until the team has reached a critical mass of talent and then they spend to get over the top. In doing this, they limit hurting the future and keep the winning going longer. That is what I'd like to see from Cronin, but he needs to be more disciplined with signings and re-signings, and he may be too afraid of not being considered a legit GM to practice the patience that is needed. Losing LMA threw Olshey into a years-long tailspin of overpaying and trading away future draft picks, collecting dead salaries on payroll (close to $8 million last year), and a dearth of pipeline talent. That's the situation Cronin inherited, all that has to be undone while making some semblance of progress on rebuilding a broken team and keeping the team diva happy so he doesn't whine to the media. So far, 2 years of tanking and a little luck to get #3, hopefully the draft picks work out - it's really the only way the Blazers will return to contention.

So far, Cronin hasn't impressed with either salary extensions or trades -- possibly the two most difficult things for a small-market team. I'd still love for him to succeed simply because I don't see Jody making a change anytime soon (or else she likely would have had Billups replaced this offseason) but I've seen no real reason to be overly optimistic.

Dame's professionalism regarding the team's status gives him an open lane to return if he chooses. But that would really put Cronin into a difficult position. Is he capable of making the trades to capitalize on a Dame-led roster? So far, no, he's clearly not, and the Blazers no longer have the assets to do that with any real seriousness. But would he have the stomach to trade Dame and focus on a younger roster that wouldn't require him to swing important trades anytime soon? I'm not sure. We've already seen clear evidence of him being a GM who'd rather play both sides than choose one. He is still saying he wants Dame back (and to retire here) despite just drafting his replacement. That just doesn't square up.

Props to Cronin for undoing a lot of the mess he inherited from Olshey, but tearing things down with no real pressure to win is the easy part. Building a winner -- either by rebuilding around a superstar or a young core -- is the hard part. And, so far, I don't like what I'm seeing. Inabiilty to make trades, not the best at extensions, bungled messaging to players and season ticket holders, etc. He still doesn't appear to have a real vision for how to build this team. Nothing changes until that changes. (Or until Jody sells the team and we get a new GM.)

The Blazers announced the name of their G League as the Rip City Remix. Decent logo but the name will take some time getting used to.

Embedded Tweet

Embedded Tweet

Love the name!

pezsez1 wrote: Choosing players from a board is one thing, but this organization appears completely inept at moving the needle via trades. I think some of it is by choice -- Jodi seems determined to do NBA ownership on the cheap -- but the rest is on Cronin, who just doesn't seem to have the chops for this job. Eventually, all teams must engage in trades to add those final necessary roster pieces, and the Blazers can't simply tank their ways around that.

Last season, Lillard made a big deal out of getting Jerami Grant, swearing he would 'move the needle', so Cronin went out and got him. Lillard also wanted Billups as a head coach, so they hired him. So is the ineptitude that Cronin listened to Lillard and did what he wanted? Or maybe Cronin should have known that a Lillard and Grant team would be ineffective? I'm just trying to understand the criticism here.

pezsez1 wrote: That said, I'm thankful that Dame is being such a professional and not airing a word of dirty laundry toward the organization. It would be so easy for him to do so, but the fact he's continually taken the high road is a rarity among players of his caliber.

I'm not sure what dirty laundry you are looking for, but Lillard's camp seems to have fairly regular contact with the media and he has told them he didn't want another 19 year old, that he is displeased with the tremendous draft they just had, and it is well known that asking for a trade is on the table. What other player could get away with this on the team? Lillard is an overpaid, high-maintenance diva.

You want to know something funny? I agree with Paul George, that was a bad shot. It was selfish. A better teammate would have ran a play instead of holding the ball until the last second and hucking up a long-distance shot like some junior-high ball hog at recess. The score was tied; all Lillard has to do is create a play and get somebody a high-percentage lay-up or a dunk and they win. Instead, it's all about Lillard, as usual. He gets all the credit for the few times that he wins, and none of the blame for all the years of getting bounced in the first round or hitting the lottery.

I look forward to having a more well-rounded team game with several rookies all coming up together. It should never just be about one guy.

As predicted, Cronin emerged from today's meeting with Dame and basically announced he has no vision or plan.

Not a word from Dame, who continues to show his professionalism by not airing his dirty laundry in public.

I think the best-case scenario right now is that Cronin and Dame discussed his trade options and both are committed to keeping the chatter under wraps for the good of the organization. Dame loves the Blazers, and Cronin clearly loves Dame, and they seem to want to do right from each other (to the extent that Cronin is able to).

Should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Embedded Tweet

If you remove Ant and Nas from the equation via trades (I think Simons is a positive asset but Nurk is harder to move)

Some combination of Ant to Chicago for Demar DeRozan and freeing up future picks is probably a good move to make. Easier 1-year rental trade to make than for Pascal unless Toronto changes their mind on compensation for someone who has stated publicly that he watns to return to Toronto. Cleveland reportedly likes Nas so if they can help settle the Chicago Future Pick it would allow for flexibility if there was a big trade to make to bring someone in.

PG: Dame/Scoot
SG: re-sign Thybulle/Sharpe/Johnson
SF: DeRozan/re-sign Reddish/Rupert
PF: Free Agent/Kris Murray/Watford
C: Nurk/re-sign Eubanks

Now the team needs a PF and another versatile backup Center (Boogie Cousins flyer after China?). Do you re-sign Grant even though he's weak on the glass or does Vulcan spend and go after Middleton?

If Dame and Aaron Goodwin didn't ask if the plan is to go into the Tax from acquisitions and signings then it wasn't a serious discussion. Right now this is the biggest question that hasn't been publicly answered as "building around Dame" is still open-ended.

This seems like the only way to try and balance a present and future timeline this season and putting a competitive roster around Dame. I think he has to accept the value in him trying to do less so that his younger teammates can do more.

I have a terrible feeling that Cronin intends to trade future assets away and saddle the team with some rotten contracts. It is interesting to see Lillard backing off though. I mean, the man publicly stated that his road and Portland's road would diverge if they drafted another 19-year-old and what did they do? They drafted TWO 19-year-olds and another rookie as well. So where are all his threats now? Suddenly he is as meek as a kitten?

It's because he realizes they don't need him now - that there is a road to growth with out him, that the team might even have an incentive to trade him, and he suddenly had to either put up or shut up. That realization had to have taken him down a few notches. He could ask for a trade, but then he is leaving this cherry situation where he is the big team leader and everyone wants to put up a statue of him, etc. It was all over the news about Miami. Does anyone seriously think that his no-defense-playing game would go over well on the Heat? Jimmy Butler would make him wish he was never born; he doesn't want to go there. What a joke. It's much nicer to stay here where nobody blames you for losing and you can just sit back and collect your millions. Heck, you don't even have to play the full season anymore, it's great! Of course Lillard doesn't want to leave.

Nah, it isn't any of that.

Lillard has pretty much moved his whole family here. His life is here. He's fully adopted the community. Does tons for local kids and schools. Clearly loves the team and the city. He'd do great with a player like Jimmy Buttler who loves the game as much as he does.

Just because Dame dared to voice what he'd like to see happen (!!!) doesn't mean he was ever absolutely going to leave. He never said that. Those are simply the words that others put into his mouth. And there are a ton of fools out there still putting words in his mouth.

Meanwhile, in reality, Dame is being as professional about it now as he's always been. He's never whined or complained about being a Blazer; quite the opposite, he's stuck by the team and defended the organization no matter the circumstance.

Sure, there is lots of noise about "oh, he should play for New York!" or "oh, he should play for Miami!" or "oh, he needs to get out of Portland!" or "Oh, now he's just trolling the Blazers, the hell with him!" But literally not a single word of that has ever come from Dame. All that crap comes from national pundits and comment section trolls.

I think most of us expected he would have gone into that meeting with Cronin angry that the Blazers didn't use the draft to get veteran help. But, once again, that was our noise, not Dame's. Turns out the meeting was cordial & professional, just as Lillard has been throughout his career.

Even I'm guilty of underestimating Dame sometimes, so I'm not going to pretend I'm better than everyone else on this topic. But man, you'd think after 10 years, we'd be better at giving Dame the benefit of the doubt by now. He's literally writing the textbook on how to properly handle this kind of situation. I hope Scoot is paying close attention and learning what it means to be a true professional.

Dude, just stop. Lillard has said over and over that if he doesn't see a contender around him, he will be having a 'separate conversation' about going to another team. Nobody put those words in this mouth. Up to now, he has believed that he was holding all the cards in dealing with management, and suddenly he is waking up to the stark reality that he is 33 and the team just drafted his replacement against his loud, express wishes. I have to hand it to Cronin for at least this much: he may have blown up the near future with that extension for Lillard, but he at least had the sense to use the high draft picks to invest in the future, despite Lillard's insistence that they be traded for more player rentals. So at least there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon, after this cap-sucking albatross is through making his millions.

P.S. Somebody on another site pointed out that his rap name is 'Dame Dolla' not 'Dame Family' or 'Dame Winning'. I thought that was pretty insightful.