I think theres a way for nearly all of these things to be true; but it doesn't mean Cronin was a liar or did anything wrong either. Situations can change, and parties can have incorrect assumptions of others, as well as incorrect assumption of informal agreements.
Eric's information is actually tied to the front office. Dame's camp has confirmed a lot of it. That's why I'm confident in the intel.
If he wasn't willing to kick the tires on Jaylen Brown, then all his statements about being willing to be aggressive in building around Dame and being willing to overpay are a lie to me. He made sure to kick the tires on the obviously untouchable Bam Adebayo though.
Not sure I believe he never took the call. But I could see why he would be reluctant to trade Ant and Scoot for an upcoming FA. I thought it was worth the risk for Simons and Miller though. Edit: what they wanted Sharpe too? No fucking way would I do that
It makes sense that Riley would hold a few things back and see what happens up until training camp (which I think is October 3rd). However, once training camp starts and Dame reports to the Trail Blazers, Riley's leverage (if there is any) evaporates.
What if Drexler told us to trade the #2 pick in 1984 draft for Alex English? That’s basically what Dame asked for. You draft Jordan though. Even if he plays your star guy’s position.
Of course he's not going to try and be "stupid", but there's doing your due diligence and I think it's clear that Dame feels like Cronin didn't want to be aggressive.
In the murky corridors of the Portland Trail Blazers' front office, there dwelled a disgruntled executive known as "Frank the Frustrated." Frank had a bone to pick with his boss, Joe Cronin. Picture this: Joe Cronin, sitting in his dimly lit office, surrounded by mountains of unpaid cable bills. He'd stare at his phone, blissfully ignorant of the calls from NBA legends. Instead, he'd spend three to five hours a day haggling with Comcast's hapless customer service, demanding to know why his cable bill was overcharged while ignoring calls from Pat Riley and Brad Stevens. Meanwhile, Frank the Frustrated, in his quest to preserve the sanctity of the Blazers' management, embarked on a covert mission to provide juicy notes to Eric, the Podcaster Extraordinaire. Under the cloak of night, Frank would creep into the under-construction site of the Bridgeport Village Mall, because, well, that's where all the real cloak-and-dagger stuff happens. Frank's first hiding spot was in the cab of a crane, where he left a note tucked inside the operator's manual. Next, Frank ventured into the twisted scaffolding, where he taped a note to a metal beam with the words, "Joe's Trade Secrets" in bold letters. Eric would retrieve the notes by dressing in up in a dog disguise and sneaking into the work area, barking and gnawing at chicken bones for dramatic effect.
I wouldn't do Sharpe too. As far as Cronin, he said that he thought they could win free agent battles but he didn't have enough confidence to bring on a guy in the final year of his deal who wanted to play with Dame and Jerami? So he was confident in winning free agents but not the one that actually wanted to be here? So while making all his statements about being aggressive and willing to overpay and being obligated to make a move for Dame, what was he hoping for then? A GM can always talk himself out of any aggressive move because there's always some risk involved and getting All-NBA caliber players usually involves an element of risk which is why they're available in the first place. There was never going to be a perfect move. From what I can tell, they didn't even try, because they wanted to go young instead. Which also explains why they didn't sign a single guy at the start of free agency, or trade 23, or open up future 1sts.
This is all why it's understandable that Dame has gone scorched earth. That being said, I don't think the way Dame and Goodwin have handled this has had the desired outcome but there's still two weeks.
Yeah, there seems to be some spite from both parties that has made this situation uglier than it needed to be.
Agreed and I'm sure Joe's "aw shucks" routine infuriates Dame every time he sees it. "We did everything we could, we wanted to do it for Dame but just couldn't..." blah blah balh. Joe took the least risk averse path, he's still doing that, that's all the guy has done. I hope it ends up with us having an exciting young team that in a few years another GM can fine tune into a champion under new ownership.
