Blazers 2023-2024 Thread

[Duck07]

Embedded Tweet

Definitely ready to see this a lot in the coming years.

[Duck07]

I'm ready to see Joe tell the NBA that since we haven't received any legitimate trade offers for Lillard, we're done exploring options until after the season has started and that the teams goal is to still compete for the Playoffs and we hope Dame leads that effort.

Dame/Scoot
Sharpe/Simons
Thybulle/Little
Grant/Murray
Nurk/Free Agent

That team is a Shaedon Sharpe "next-step" of growth away from being at minimum a Playoff team by doing nothing more than helping solidify the bench unit with a better PG who will set up someone like Simons to bomb-away. When the trade deadline comes, you can off-load him and his stats to a team that's now ready to make a move for that "final piece."

[pezsez1]

I'm ready to see Joe tell the NBA that since we haven't received any legitimate trade offers for Lillard, we're done exploring options until after the season has started and that the teams goal is to still compete for the Playoffs and we hope Dame leads that effort.

Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Won't know until that Miami rookie becomes tradeable in a month from now -- I'd still put my money on Miami facilitating a trade with enough value that we can pull the trigger sooner rather than later -- but Cronin isn't exactly known for being a man of action and it wouldn't surprise me if he just kept sitting on this. Dame is doing his part by not airing his grievances in the media... so far, he has left a lane open to return by not torching the bridge he's crossed.

I've seen lots of debate over who has the leverage here... Dame, Miami, or Portland. Normally, I'd say the superstar has the leverage, which is why superstars usually get their way in regards to trades. In this case, though, I feel like Portland has at least as much leverage as anyone else, mainly because we have a deadbeat owner who doesn't care and a GM who faces zero risk of being fired by said deadbeat owner. That, and with Portland in full-on rebuild mode, there won't be any expectation of winning and making the playoffs for at least two or three years. So the Blazers could literally sit on Dame and just wait for Miami (or other teams) to make more competitve offers, and it could also win the PR battle by simply letting Dame pick which GOOD offer he wants to accept. Both Dame and Miami are on much shorter timelines to play and win than the Blazers. Someone would blink first.

Meanwhile, Jody clearly doesn't care about bad press. Blazer fans & local media hate her and have spent the past year begging her to sell the team to Phil Knight -- and her response was to say she might sit on the team for 20 years. Does anyone really think she'd care about sports pundits criticizing her treatment of Lillard? Nah, I don't see it.

This could be maybe the one moment where Jody's terribleness actually works in our favor.

[Phalanx]

I have no idea why Lillard would be involved in the decision about where to send him at all. He signed a contract to get paid a colossal amount of money to play for the Blazers, and now he doesn't want to play for the Blazers anymore, and the team is left scrambling, trying to find a place to trade him and figure out what to do to replace him. They should be able to send him wherever works best for them, not him. He is lucky to still be getting paid according to that contract, since he is indicating that he is no longer willing to fulfill the terms of it.

As for 'airing his grievances', letting the media know he asked for a trade and putting the team behind the 8-ball is probably enough airing. I have no idea what his grievances could possibly be anyway. The dude got literally everything he wanted for years, and now he is sucking his thumb and wanting a trade because the team wanted to actually use their draft picks for a change. Oh, the humanity!

[pezsez1]

The dude got literally everything he wanted for years

Clearly not, hence the trade request.

Dame said when Cronin took over that he didn't want to be part of a rebuild. Cronin went the route of a rebuild. Dame requested a trade. He didn't call out Cronin for being incompetent or a liar (although Cronin is logically either one or the other) or say Jody was a terrible owner (that's for us to say), he simply requested a trade and that's it. Cronin, similarily, released one statement and is now presumably working to make that happen.

I get it that some fans want this to be like Desperate Housewives but it's really not.

[Phalanx]

The fact that Lillard was unable to lead the team even to a play-in for two years running despite getting paid a vast sum demanded some kind of rebuild. It's not Lillard's job to tell management what players to acquire or how to make moves. He is hardly justified in asking for a trade because they wouldn't let him also be the team GM.

Requesting a trade is one thing. Demanding where you be traded and limiting the team's ability to get a return on investment is another. I don't care where they trade him, as long as they get the best deal, and frankly, I don't think anyone should care what Lillard thinks about that.

[squintsdd]

The fact that Lillard was unable to lead the team even to a play-in for two years running despite getting paid a vast sum demanded some kind of rebuild. It's not Lillard's job to tell management what players to acquire or how to make moves. He is hardly justified in asking for a trade because they wouldn't let him also be the team GM.

Requesting a trade is one thing. Demanding where you be traded and limiting the team's ability to get a return on investment is another. I don't care where they trade him, as long as they get the best deal, and frankly, I don't think anyone should care what Lillard thinks about that.

To be fair, Lillard was forced to sit a decent amount of the past 2 seasons due to injury, and intentional tanking. Tough to lead a team to even the play-in when your forced to sit.

[pezsez1]

To be fair, Lillard was forced to sit a decent amount of the past 2 seasons due to injury, and intentional tanking. Tough to lead a team to even the play-in when your forced to sit.

Wait, you mean Lillard can't score 32ppg when he's not allowed to play?

Also, the Blazers got worse last season at the All-Star break by trading away Hart and making no other moves. Meanwhile a bunch of other west teams found ways to improve.

And Cronin told Lillard that tanking would help him find veteran help this offseason. Cronin also sold that BS to season ticket holders in their renewal emails. People aren't talking enough about the sheer incompetence of the Blazers as an organization. I want to be excited about Scoot/Sharpe but this organization is going to screw it up somehow.

[Phalanx]

Lillard only sat the last dozen games or so this year, and that was because they were already out of contention, thanks to years of paying Lillard all the money and trading picks away for temporary players...again to appease Lillard. And injuries are hardly an excuse for a supermax player. If he is injury prone, he should sign for less. Taking up so much of the team cap space and then sitting is the sign of a bad contract.

At some point, even Lillard admirers are going to have to admit that giving him supermax deals and then caving to his demands for converting so many picks into players that ended up leaving was a failed strategy. It might work somewhere to invest so much in one player - maybe LeBron or Curry, but Lillard is not that guy.

[pezsez1]

The Blazers were definitely not out of contention when Lillard sat. Making the play-in would have been a stretch at that point -- and the Blazers clearly didn't have a roster built to compete for playoff wins -- but there were winnable games down the stretch and it wasn't a foregone conclusion. This wasn't like Dallas sitting Luka and Kyrie when they were like one win out of it.

For too long the Blazers have been a one-man show thanks to inept GMs who've either been high on their supply or simply unable to pull off meaningful trades. That's why nobody is blinking about Lillard requesting a trade.

I'm actually excited to see Lillard play with a real team under a management that isn't woefully inept.

[Phalanx]

And Cronin told Lillard that tanking would help him find veteran help this offseason. Cronin also sold that BS to season ticket holders in their renewal emails. People aren't talking enough about the sheer incompetence of the Blazers as an organization. I want to be excited about Scoot/Sharpe but this organization is going to screw it up somehow.

I have no idea how Cronin presented the options to Lillard, but I seriously doubt he guaranteed he was not going to use hisown draft picks. He certainly never said that in public. Also, the free agent market isn't even done yet. Only one free agent was signed, and it was the guy Lillard specifically asked the team to get. Starting to notice a trend here? Giving Lillard everything he wanted didn't work; it just made the team worse and worse.

Anyway, Cronin doesn't owe Lillard an explanation. Lillard signed a contract to play for the Blazers. Not to play only if the personnel moves were to his specifications. I love how all of these supposed Blazer fans are constantly looking at this from the viewpoint of one very self-centered player instead of from the team's perspective. The Blazers are in the process of building a contender out of the ruins of the Lillard years. How are you Lillard lovers going to feel when they start making the playoffs with regularity again? Will you still be stuck on Lillard? He clearly isn't stuck on you.

[pezsez1]

He certainly never said that in public.

The Blazers literally sent out an email to season ticket holders after the season saying the plan was to build around Lillard. If you don't understand that meant trading Pick 3 for either a star player or veterans then I don't know what to tell you.

[buckmarkduck]

The dude got literally everything he wanted for years

Clearly not, hence the trade request.

Dame said when Cronin took over that he didn't want to be part of a rebuild. Cronin went the route of a rebuild. Dame requested a trade. He didn't call out Cronin for being incompetent or a liar (although Cronin is logically either one or the other) or say Jody was a terrible owner (that's for us to say), he simply requested a trade and that's it. Cronin, similarily, released one statement and is now presumably working to make that happen.

I get it that some fans want this to be like Desperate Housewives but it's really not.

If Dame believed there was a way to build this team through FA and trades, then he’s as delusional as half the fan base and hasn’t paid attention to the Blazers history.

[buckmarkduck]

He certainly never said that in public.

The Blazers literally sent out an email to season ticket holders after the season saying the plan was to build around Lillard. If you don't understand that meant trading Pick 3 for either a star player or veterans then I don't know what to tell you.

Except no one was willing to trade a worthwhile star for the 3. Just because you want it to be true, doesn’t make it so. The clippers was red Sharpe, the 3 and Ant for George. And I’m guessing that was about anyone else’s ask for a star player. Not worth it

[Phalanx]

He certainly never said that in public.

The Blazers literally sent out an email to season ticket holders after the season saying the plan was to build around Lillard. If you don't understand that meant trading Pick 3 for either a star player or veterans then I don't know what to tell you.

Well, since you seem at a loss, let me help you. The phrase 'Build around Lillard' does not mean 'trade away a golden opportunity to get the 2nd best player in the draft for yet another player rental'. It means 'bring in talent using a variety of sources, such that the team around Lillard improves'. That is exactly what Cronin did. The Blazers are a more talented team today than they were a month ago, there is more buzz about their future potential, and the only difference is the draft. They had a great draft. Cronin is not obligated to acquire talent only per Lillard's instructions. He is allowed to run the gamut of options any normal GM has open to him.