Because Step 1 was lowering his trade value, because Miami offer would be questionable. And Lillard did just that with his offseason comments.
That can be your opinion. That's completely fine. I've certainly asked myself at the start of the offseason if going the rebuild route wasn't the better move. I was ok with trading And and #3 but wanted Sharpe here for sure. What I can't forgive is Cronin not being honest and transparent about the direction he wanted to take. You can't promise Dame that they are going to be "extremely aggressive" (his words) shopping the picks, and build a contending roster, then do jack shit in the draft and jack shit in free agency and act surprised when Dame is legitimately pissed. All I'm mad about is the way the situation was handled by the FO to make Dame take the fall (seems successful too which is disgusting) instead of maning up and telling Dame clearly they wanted to go the rebuild route.
I applaud Dame for playing through his injury....for multiple years, but how smart was that? On top of it, he went and played for the Olympic team, and then said something to the effect of, I have my ring/title. They were NOT winning with Dame playing. 137-173 his last 4 seasons there. As an owner, I'm certainly not investing in Lux Tax payments for that dreck. Playoff push to get swept....we've been there and done that to the point of insanity. And the % of the cap will be the same...correct. But for a player with declining skills at that age. Anyone want to make a bet that he won't be as good the last two years of that contract as he was last season after he was finally fully recovered from the surgery that he put off for 2-3 seasons according to him? No problem with a fan's devotion to a player. Fan is short for fanatic. But being head over heals for the good, means also being realistic about that which hasn't been so great. Dame is letting his agent torch the team on his way out. That is on him.
If we get a good young player (J Allen, Banchero, Claxton...), I'll root for him to win a chip. If we get crap, then he's the 2nd coming of LaMarcus to me.
Joe crushed the draft..if you think that's jack shit well...our talent pool took a big leap around Dame with this draft..hell of an upgrade from Blevins. Since the demand, the best free agents are off the market now..that's screwed us as well Scoot >Tim Frazier Scoot > Shabazz Napier..Scoot > Keon Johnson.
I understand defending Dame as far as who is more responsible for the situation. But we don't know how hard Cronin shopped #3+Ant. Maybe he did push to move them but other GMs knew that Dame was one foot out the door. What we do know is that Dame has had a very public ultimatum for a long time. I can't pretend like that didn't affect our ability to make trades. We don't know if that ultimately made the difference, but I thought from the first time Dame went public that it was a poor choice. Set your hardlines in private and then act on them when needed. Neither side is blameless in my opinion. But I don't feel bad for Dame at this point, and he's my favorite player of all time.
As I said, if they thought they couldn't win with Dame that's fine. It's not being truthful about it that's disgusting
How exactly is it that you know that he wasn't aggressive? The fact that he didn't make a deal doesn't mean that he didn't seek them--simply that none that were offered were deemed acceptable.
that Dame had better talent in this draft than most of our past signings...perfect for him to mentor Scoot as his backup and as he ages turn over the keys to the new guy...my posts have been pretty clear about having something to do with the situation...our roster could have turned into a beast with Dame bringing people here instead of chasing them away. At any rate...he has made his choice and I'm done cheering for him..I respect what the team is doing given the circumstances
the other two guards are not more talented than Ant! Not yet anyway. Ant averaged over 20 points a game - time will tell
buzzkill for the sake of buzzkill? I thought you preferred to trade the picks? Getting Murray and Rupert that late in the draft was the result of great scouting. Scoot changed the game..I think he's way better than the guy picked at 2
What people are saying is that you take the talent upgrade. You don't trade that away for anything less than what you deem an upgrade from Scoot. Do you know of an upgrade that was available, which made sense for the Blazers/Dame, that they turned down? You know, that trade that you claim is making Cronin a liar.
The point is that while Dame wanted "Vets" what he needed was overall talent around him, and with him talking about how he didn't want another young guy and that he would be displeased at cronin for using it even if it was the best option. While I don't think the blazers FO did the best job at trying to surround dame with talent, dame did the team no favors by going to the press or allowing his team to go to the press and voice displeasure with how the blazers were moving as far as talent acquisitions, therefore hamstringing any potential trade because most GM's smelt blood in the water that dame was possibly unhappy and want to try and pry him away from us. As far as FA goes outside of trying to make trades, I was under the impression we had very little outside of what we could possibly offer grant to keep him around to keep dame happy.
Having Scoot would have helped extend Dame's career as he aged..he wouldn't have to play 40 minutes a night. Lost opportunity.
The argument that teams wouldn't want to trade with us to try to make Dame want out is asinine. No team is turning down a good chance for the chance to be one of the multiples team that would want him
It amaze me how Cronin apologists will tell you Scoot is the second coming of Jesus but at the same time that no team was willing to give value for him.
I’m not pissed at him, frankly, I think Cronin is learning a very important lesson. Don’t make promises. Instead of saying, “sit out and unless we get the #1 pick, we will trade it to get immediate help”. Should’ve said “Sit out and, unless we get the #1 pick, we will do our best to look for a trade that can provide immediate help”. Shouldn’t have guaranteed we would trade the pick. He didn’t know what the market would be. Then after essentially lying to Dame about trading the pick, he drafts his replacement. So if anything, I’m not really pissed at anyone, since you can’t fault Cronin for being a moron, but I think Cronin learned a very valuable lesson.
What team was willing to? I've asked you this multiple times and you come up with nothing. If you're going to continuously call someone a liar, give an example of the deal that he turned down (even rumored) that goes against his words in the press conferences about wanting to be aggressive to make the team better. Show me the talent upgrade that was available. It's not being an apologist. I just didn't see a singe deal out there that said "yup, that's the deal to move the 3rd pick for". If you know of one, I'm all ears...
