Blazers 2023-2024 Thread

[Duck07]

Yes, 2x All NBA defenders entering the prime of their career are the easiest position to find in free agency.

[dthomas=ddixon]

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[buckmarkduck]

Dame can eat a bag of D now. He’s trying to strong arm a trade to a team with nothing to offer. At this point you start acting like the Patriots, and ship him to the worst team.

[StevensTechU]

Yea, this is turning south. Asking for a trade, cool. And if you've been respectable, the front office should try to get you in the best spot they can. But you don't get to dictate the terms of the trade and sink your former franchise on your way out the door.

[squintsdd]

I'd just call his bluff. He can rot on the bench until his contract is up, or he changes his tune. Eating the salary sucks, but it's not like Portland will be competing for a championship the next couple of years anyway. Take the lottery picks, and build through the draft.

[pezsez1]

Yea, this is turning south. Asking for a trade, cool. And if you've been respectable, the front office should try to get you in the best spot they can. But you don't get to dictate the terms of the trade and sink your former franchise on your way out the door.

Agree. He's taking all that goodwill he'd earned and just trashing it in a hurry.

[Phalanx]

Think about the precedent. You make love to your team for a few years until you can coax a supermax contract from them, and then once the ink is dry, you move to whatever team you want and try to force your old team to take wooden nickels in exchange. Kind of wonder if the league would take a look at something like this, since it inhibits organic competition. Anyway, it's nice to see Lillard showing his actual hand on the way out. This is who he always was. The Blazers fielding a competitive team was always an incidental goal for Dame Dolla.

[Phalanx]

Dame can eat a bag of D now. He’s trying to strong arm a trade to a team with nothing to offer. At this point you start acting like the Patriots, and ship him to the worst team.

The funny thing is, Miami DOES have something to offer. Bam would make this deal go in a heartbeat, but they don't want to trade him. They want to keep their best players and force the Blazers to trade them their best player for 'Herro and pocket lint'.

[pezsez1]

Anyway, it's nice to see Lillard showing his actual hand on the way out. This is who he always was.

I'd like to say you were wrong and that he's just extremely pissed about being lied to and having two years of his prime wasted. Some things are bigger than money, especially when large & ballooning paychecks become normal. But adversity reveals character and Dame Time is quickly becoming Shame Time. Maybe he's getting terrible advice from his agent or maybe he's too insulated for his own good. He's been nothing but a model team player & community leader for more than a decade, so this whole James Harden act is just really jarring. I mean it's pretty wild how recklessly he's trashing his brand.

I used to work with this Australian guy who was also kind of a petty criminal. He had a bizarre code of ethics, but one I always liked was if someone made him pay, then he'd make them pay, too. Like if Comcast overcharged him, then he'd find one of their vans and throw a brick through its window -- make them pay, too.

That's where I'm at with Cronin if Dame and his agent want to keep playing games.

[Everythingsducky]

Goodwin is just doing what he is hired to do. Put the leverage on Portland. Dame isn’t the bad guy. The Blazers aren’t either. There probably isn’t any ‘bad guy’ at all. Take the emotion out of it. A deal will get done eventually. Cronin/Jodi, however, are on the hot seat. And the worries about Jodi moving the Blazers to Seattle will never happen. Yes, Key Arena (or Climate change whatever they call it) just got a makeover, but it is still a pit that would require a new arena short term, fine for the NHL now. Not happening, especially when you have suitors like Phil that would pay whatever to keep them in Portland. Would not pass league owners vote.

[Duck07]

Goodwin is just doing what he is hired to do. Put the leverage on Portland. Dame isn’t the bad guy. The Blazers aren’t either. There probably isn’t any ‘bad guy’ at all. Take the emotion out of it.

Sure, take the emotion out of it after the guy at the center of it all made it about emotion with the fans.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/artic ... everything

Bruh, not being a Top Five guy was the best thing that ever happened to me. Thank God I didn’t go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Because who was at six?

Who was at six?

Portland.

My city.

My people.

I’m saying, you think you know how deep this goes, but you have no idea. When I say that I will never, ever switch up on the city of Portland, I mean what I say. When I say that I will never, ever switch up on this organization, I mean what I say.

They might switch up on me. That’s business. That’s basketball. But I will never switch up on the city. I don’t want it easy. I’m drawn to the struggle. When I came here, we hadn’t won a playoff series since 2000. You had so many injuries to franchise guys like Brandon Roy and Greg Oden over the years, and it’s so tough to come back from that. Even going way back, you had All-Stars like Clyde Drexler and Bill Walton who didn’t choose to end their careers as a Blazer.

Well, I’m going to be that. I’m going to carry that. I’m going to bring a ring to this city or go down swinging.

Just to be clear, Cronin drafting the obvious 2nd best player at #3 is not the team switching up on Dame unless Dame is that insecure about an 19 year old that he thinks he can't share the court with him a couple of minutes each half.

[bellsduck]

I tried to say it pages ago. It's a business.
Lillard is no saint. He just has hidden it from those that also didn't want to see it and for some reason still don't want to.

[buckmarkduck]

Dame is quickly getting exposed just like Russell Wilson.

[Duck07]

Dame is quickly getting exposed just like Russell Wilson.

It's really interesting how they are equal and opposite situations in so many ways.

I think we'll look more fondly at the work that Terry Stotts was able to do with the roster he was given.

[pezsez1]

I will say (as the designated "Lillard Defender" here) that Woj was intereviewed on ESPN yesterday and talked about how Goodwin is telling other NBA teams that Dame won't be happy unless traded to Miami... he said the general sense among GMs is that they don't really believe that would amount to anything actionable and that Dame would play (and be all-in) wherever he ends up. Woj said these things happen all the time and that GMs know too much about Dame as a person to take these threats seriously. And perhaps that's why the rhetoric from Goodwin seems to be intensifying, because he knows he has to work extra hard to try to sell this narrative that Dame will go full-on James Harden if he doesn't get his way.

The non-emotional part of me agrees with all of that and thinks this is probably only a huge deal because that narrative goes so counter to everything we've ever known about Dame.

I still think Dame is being an idiot right now, either by his own actions or by taking terrible advice. I kind of hope he gets traded someplace else just so we can see whether he follows through with these threats.


Also, Stotts was cool, but nah. Running your starters into the ground while minimizing time for developing depth is great for the regular season but a proven disaster for the playoffs.