Picking Doc was on the organization. Nobody thought it was a good idea. I don't even think Doc thought it was a good idea. “Personally, I’ll be honest, I told ownership when they called, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this,’” Rivers said. “One of the things they said was, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter, we’ve done it now, and we want you.’ And so that was a tough one, that’s where the hesitation...” https://www.si.com/nba/bucks/news/d...ks-didnt-understand-why-firing-adrian-griffin
And they make it worse by giving him 4 years/40 million. Oof! If they fire him this year(I highly doubt they will) I believe they'll be paying 3 head coaches, 4 when they hire their next.
I'll state the obvious. Joe Cronin screwed over the Bucks big time. Taking Jrue Holiday from the Bucks (with their help of course) and delivering him to the Boston Celtics. That's called a double-whammy. Maybe a triple whammy or 2 1/2 whammy replacing Jrue Holiday and Grayson Allen from a 58-win team with Dame. And who knows what happens with the Draft Picks / Swaps.
It's funny how Dame talked a while back about the grass not always being greener, and it has been that way for both him AND the Bucks so far.
JG, Simons and Thybulle for Giannis and Brook Lopez works on the trade machine. Give them a couple of 2nds and their pick swaps back and call it a day... The Blazers can start a lineup of Giannis at point, Camara, Deni, DA and Lopez, backed up by Scoot, Sharpe, Kris, Jabari and Cling Kong. Also JoeCro gives Dame the chance to play with JG twice, so that's something.
I question that Doc is a good coach, but their struggles is #1, #2, #3 a roster issue. They don't have any thing of value to make it better either. Coaching change might be what happens. I guess they could try and trade away the 2031 pick for multiple role players. That would be crazy desperate.
He probably wasn't going to waste his time with it unless they did give him 10 million year for a few years...
I'd much rather keep Billups here than have Doc Rivers. It crazy how some coaches just keep getting jobs. Mike DAntoni was one that kept getting jobs everywhere.
I feel for Dame. I know he made his choice and needs to make his bed, but damn. How things have changed from, “Dame will get a ring or two”, to “is Milwaukie even a contender?”, must sting hard and it makes me sad for him.
Yes and no, the Blazers totally failed to give Dame any sort of realistic option to have even a tiny chance of winning in Portland. Not saying Dame didn't make mistakes too. But Cronin saying he'd "be aggressive" and "commit to winning with Dame" and "would push all in" never had actions to backup those words.
Also its not really Dame fault that the Bucks traded away 4 FRP for Jrue then traded away 3 FRP+Jrue for him. How does a franchise build a contender when they lost 7 FRP at one position?
I feel bad for Dame. I also feel angry and hurt that he did the one team trade demand thing to us. It's ok to have emotions that are more complex than like/dislike.
That happened before Cronin, Dame should have understood that it would be a long road with the condition the roster was post NeO. He chose to extend after a major injury, told everyone he believes in JoeCro and is forever a Blazer and requested a trade soon after. I wish for him that it would have worked in Milwaukee, but at the end of the day, this is 70% Dame, 30% Blazers in my opinion, and the fact that they fail to win with Giannis as his teammate shows that the Blazers choosing to not blow the 3rd pick on a sub-par veteran (they would not have got anyone as good as Giannis for that pick) is proving to be the right decision.
I'd feel worse for Dame if he never went through his constant loyalty above everything, if I never win a title, I'll be happy here stuff, and still asked out. And I get that Olshey was shit in building around him, and I would have wanted out long before if I were him. Anyways, don't know any of this really needs to be rehashed, we've all said our pieces.
His defense barely improved in 11 years. He talked shit about other players running from the grind, and forcing their way off a team to join another. Self. Inflicted.
People make mistakes. And who brought what on him first? His demand for a trade, or the organizations inability to pair him up with another all star? and i did address his bed he made.