Dame asks for trade (And there it is) (1 Viewer)

[Strenuus]

We do know that Josh Hart and Nicolas Batum have in the last year said that the organization is a good one.

Yeah. I'm just baffled at this heel turn of Lillard's. Out of nowhere. Though I'm sure we can go back and see the signs.

 

[Natebishop3]

Haynes repeated again that "players are watching."

God I hate this dude.

 

[SwissBlazer]

The Haynes podcast was already difficult to hear with him bragging "I know stuff" during half the time in every fuckin episode. But now I think I will just pass and listen to someone else.

 

[PCmor7]

Haynes said that Dame signed his extension last summer with a promise from the team that they would build a roster to compete for a championship. I don't believe that at all. Firstly, Dame signed that extension because this is going to be his last big contract and he was eligible for a 35% of our cap deal after being on the team for 8+ years. Like he would leave that much money on the table. Get out of here with that bullshit. Second, there's no way that Joe Cronin told Dame he could build a championship caliber team in one year. No fucking way. I'm sorry, I don't believe that.

The narrative keeps shifting. Dame's cronies keep leaking more and more shit to try to make the team look bad.

At this point, Haynes might as well change his title to "Damian Lillard's publicist."

 

[Natebishop3]

The Haynes podcast was already difficult to hear with him bragging "I know stuff" during half the time in every fuckin episode. But now I think I will just pass and listen to someone else.

This ego is so common though. These guys all have this... I'm not sure what the best word is..... arrogant? It's not even the arrogance. It's this vibe that they know stuff and they're being inconvenienced that they have to talk about it. Smug is maybe the right word.

Fentress has it too.

Marang tries to have it...

 

[maxiep]

if he would have simply asked for a trade, listed 3 or 4 preferred destinations, and left it at that, I don't think there would be near this level of vitriol and bile

but he didn't do that, or at least his representatives didn't. He limited the trade demand to only one team and that team just happened to have the worst trade assets of any other contenders. And maybe one of the most arrogant fan-bases

and this came after he had several times criticized other players who wanted to team up on super teams...so Dame demands to go with a team that has 2 high level all-stars and just played in the finals. It seriously undercuts his decade of image building. But more than that, after professing loyalty to the fans, the team, and the city for a decade, his actions over the last 10 days shit all over the fans, the team, and the city. OK, we get it, he has a grudge, maybe justiified, against the Blazer front office and ownership. Understood; but right now it's the fans that are witnessing the damage his messy exit is doing to their team

so yeah, if he didn't expect this kind of reaction, he should NOT have committed to the kind of action he did...action-->reaction is a simple equation somebody needs to explain to Dame in blunt terms

I think this post is exactly right. I think many of us would understand if he wanted to leave to try for a ring. I think many of us would understand if he said he only wanted to go to a contender. ONE choice? I think that's where fans draw the line.

 

[PCmor7]

I mean, seriously, at this point, these guys are directing stuff strictly at Heat fans, Dame sycophants, Blazer/Cronin haters and a few ignorant fans that don't really follow stuff. Stuff doesn't follow any percentage of reality or reason and some of it can be fact-checked in a minute or less.

 

[maxiep]

I agree with Dame. Everyone is acting like they know so much and we really know next to nothing about what’s going on.

How do you know that?

 

[BassPlaya]

I mean, seriously, at this point, these guys are directing stuff strictly at Heat fans, Dame sycophants, Blazer/Cronin haters and a few ignorant fans that don't really follow stuff. Stuff doesn't follow any percentage of reality or reason and some of it can be fact-checked in a minute or less.

It's called drama for sale. Click on my shit...better yet....repost my link....and my life increases. Who makes me the most money? Emotional, drama seeking fans, regardless of who they follow.

 

[PCmor7]

This ego is so common though. These guys all have this... I'm not sure what the best word is..... arrogant? It's not even the arrogance. It's this vibe that they know stuff and they're being inconvenienced that they have to talk about it. Smug is maybe the right word.

Fentress has it too.

Marang tries to have it...

Dunning-Kruger Effect. Say something without knowing with enough confidence, people will believe it, and eventually, with enough cognitive dissonance, you might, too.

I worked with guys like this that thought getting a job covering sports teams made them entitled. I'm sure you did, too, Nate. I couldn't stand them. They actually made it harder to go out and do my job. Especially the columnists. They'd write anything for the views but other guys have to actually go to the games and pressers and deal with the blowback from the people they dragged just based on poorly-researched opinion.

 

[maxiep]

I could understand his wanting to go to a competitive team rather than rebuilding but as each report comes out, I lose more and more respect for Dame.

His agent calling and telling teams not to trade for him and the latest:



So now it is trade me to the Heat for scraps or I won't even report. I'm fine with that. Trade him somewhere else. I assume if he doesn't report he doesn't get paid his millions.

Talk about being a spoiled brat.

Yeah, I used to respect him and yes, I don't know everything but what I do reflects poorly on Dame and his so-called "professionalism".

I wonder if the Blazers don't end up trading him due to non-offers except for the Heat's refuse, if he'll actually report to the Blazers or hold-out.

Would save the team a boatload of money if they could just suspend him without pay due is own petulance.

He'll absolutely report, no matter where we send him. Dame has damaged his reputation with his behavior so far, but it's recoverable with time. If he gets traded and chooses not to report, he KILLS his rep.

Call his bluff.

 

[illmatic99]

Haynes said that Dame signed his extension last summer with a promise from the team that they would build a roster to compete for a championship. I don't believe that at all. Firstly, Dame signed that extension because this is going to be his last big contract and he was eligible for a 35% of our cap deal after being on the team for 8+ years. Like he would leave that much money on the table. Get out of here with that bullshit. Second, there's no way that Joe Cronin told Dame he could build a championship caliber team in one year. No fucking way. I'm sorry, I don't believe that.

The narrative keeps shifting. Dame's cronies keep leaking more and more shit to try to make the team look bad.

He keeps threatening that "other players" will apparently get upset about how we are treating Dame. Like... Foh you hack.

 

[maxiep]

That's funny because I feel like it's the opposite.

All Portland fans are coming together. Portland fans and Dame fans are separating.

 

[noknobs]

The Haynes podcast was already difficult to hear with him bragging "I know stuff" during half the time in every fuckin episode. But now I think I will just pass and listen to someone else.

I don't know how anyone listens to any of that shit. Unbearable. Talk about masochistic. Bunch of know-it-alls that love the sound of their own voices.

 

[Blazers Roy]

Haynes said that Dame signed his extension last summer with a promise from the team that they would build a roster to compete for a championship. I don't believe that at all. Firstly, Dame signed that extension because this is going to be his last big contract and he was eligible for a 35% of our cap deal after being on the team for 8+ years. Like he would leave that much money on the table. Get out of here with that bullshit. Second, there's no way that Joe Cronin told Dame he could build a championship caliber team in one year. No fucking way. I'm sorry, I don't believe that.

The narrative keeps shifting. Dame's cronies keep leaking more and more shit to try to make the team look bad.

This narrative makes Lillard look like a gullible,delusional fool.

Joe told him Portland can build a contender around him in that time frame and he bought it?

 

[PCmor7]

It's called drama for sale. Click on my shit...better yet....repost my link....and my life increases. Who makes me the most money? Emotional, drama seeking fans, regardless of who they follow.

These guys have such an easy job. Some of them, I would bet, talk to next to no sources. Just maybe a guy they know. Nothing from the other side. Their sources are their peers' tweets. And then then sell commentary as investigate journalism, but what you're really getting is either a thinly-veiled op-ed or a PR project.

 

[maxiep]

I wish we didn't have an absentee owner at times like this.

Cronin has no juice.

Chauncey is not in the role even if he has the clout.

Who speaks up for the franchise?

I'm not talking Dan Gilbert and comic sans letter kinda commentary, but at least someone with a backbone who can stop this bullshit with one swift press release.

Say what you want about Olshey, but he did this. A few years back he was asked in a PC about Dame ending up with the Lakers and he laughed it off and reminded the media that he was under contract. No one even remembers it cuz he so quickly shut it down. The characterization above as "bullying" from Goodwin et al is spot on.

You make a great point. Jody could make a statement that Dame Lillard is under contract and we expect him to honor that contract, and that while she will allow Joe Cronin to investigate trade opportunities, she will not sign off on any deal that doesn't return equal value.

It takes the pressure off of Joe and perhaps gives him more leverage.

 

[maxiep]

At what point can NBA Brass step in and say this is BS? Or would they even get involved? Agents shouldn't have this much power

The NBA Brass will step in when one of the glamour franchises are being hurt. Not when the farm team organizations are being damaged.

 

[PCmor7]

I don't know how anyone listens to any of that shit. Unbearable. Talk about masochistic. Bunch of know-it-alls that love the sound of their own voices.

Echo chamber

 

[Strenuus]

I agree with Dame. Everyone is acting like they know so much and we really know next to nothing about what’s going on.

At its face okay

But then you realize he's not refuting anything. He's not defending himself. His silence is complicity. And as human beings that "little we know" is basic human understanding that if you're quiet when being "interrogated" (in the public like this), its very telling based on just how we as human beings are.

In other words, he tried, but he fucked up and belittled the fans and assumed we were too stupid to understand.

 

[maxiep]

Cronin was hired to be the hatchet man and to take the fall for Dame failing to get to the finals (which the team knows they’re more than 50% responsible for). He’s John Nash II.

He might be much better than that; we shall see.

Well, he certainly drafts better than Nash.

 

[maxiep]

I went from wanting Dame to retire a Blazer to giving zero shits about him so fast it almost concerns me.

Yep. Building a brand takes ages. Destroying it can be done in seconds.

 

[BassPlaya]

Im a fan of getting excited about next year. I shall do so regardless of any of this shit.

 

[Strenuus]

And we still no almost nothing about what brought Dame to this point.

I actually think it would be better for Dame to stay completely silent right now but he is right that people should not

So you think he's right to not defend himself, not mitigate the damage being done to his brand, and in turn call us stupid for not seeing the obvious based on common sense?

He's not defendable. And this is coming from a guy who defended him fiercely. Fuck him for putting us in a corner.

 

[blazerkor]

So you think he's right to not defend himself, not mitigate the damage being done to his brand, and in turn call us stupid for not seeing the obvious based on common sense?

He's not defendable. And this is coming from a guy who defended him fiercely. Fuck him for putting us in a corner.

We're like a little over a week into this. I want to see how it plays out before I decide if a guy who showed great character for eleven years completely changed over night without a good reason.

 

[blazerfan11]

You make a great point. Jody could make a statement that Dame Lillard is under contract and we expect him to honor that contract, and that while she will allow Joe Cronin to investigate trade opportunities, she will not sign off on any deal that doesn't return equal value.

It takes the pressure off of Joe and perhaps gives him more leverage.

Took until the trade deadline for Durant.

 

[maxiep]

Haynes repeated again that "players are watching."

God I hate this dude.

Oh, no! You mean the superhighway of top-tier free agents willing to sign for a discount that has been the core of our team for the past 30 years may no longer be bumper-to-bumper?

If there is one organization where this threat is an empty one, it's Portland.

 

[Strenuus]

100% truth!

 

[blazerfan11]

We're like a little over a week into this. I want to see how it plays out before I decide if a guy who showed great character for eleven years completely changed over night without a good reason.

Being lied to about your fake GM position is not a good reason.
Telling him he won't get his guaranteed money is a good reason.

 

[maxiep]

Took until the trade deadline for Durant.

I'm cool waiting until January. We simply tell Dame, "If you want to be traded, prove your worth on the court to another team. Until we get value for you, you're a Blazer."