Jason Quick on Dame/Blazers

[Predator]

I really hope not. Give our future back court the reigns and let Ant get equal minutes off of the bench. We have to be operating with eye towards the future now.
Start Scoot and Shaedon in the back court!

I've got a strong feeling we are going to continue to play 2 players out of position

Scoot
Simons
Sharpe
Grant
Nurk (as of now)

...

We are going to give up a million points per game but maybe Scoot / Simons / Sharpe can re-create "Lob City"

I'd be pleasantly surprised if it were:

Scoot
Sharpe
Murray
Grant
Nurk

Bench:
Simons

Probably still going to give up a million points but at least we would be normal sized

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Did any of you read Zach Harper’s and John Hollinger’s columns in The Athletic this morning? Let’s just say that Joe Cronin is unlikely to ever get constipated again in his life after having two new assholes torn for his mishandling of virtually everything since becoming GM.

I got one good thing from there. The pick that we took Rayan Rupert with came from trading away Gary PaytonII.

 

[Ed O]

Hope he wins somewhere. Not going to miss the meddling

I hope he loses. Not because I'm bitter towards him, but because I want us to get as good of draft picks as possible, and their value is probably inversely proportional to him winning.

 

[tlongII]

I’ve purchased one jersey in my entire life to wear (not counting the many signed jerseys I have as a collector). It’s the Dame PDX jersey. Neighbor kid loved it when he saw it a few weeks back. Gave it to him when he saw me outside mowing today, ran in and grabbed it. Don’t care if he burns it, sells it, tosses it out. It was the first, and possibly the last, jersey buy.

I’ve been so burnt out on the NBA for years, possibly since the Blazers choked in 2000. I’m at the point where I don’t think I care anymore. The “fake” reffing. Players making big money demanding to be traded. The stupid shit players do. Dame was anti all of that. Until he wasn’t.

I have the same Jersey. Only Jersey I own.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

I have the same Jersey. Only Jersey I own.

same other than signed jerseys.

edit: I don’t own it anymore. Jesus.

 

[Mediocre Man]

I hope he loses. Not because I'm bitter towards him, but because I want us to get as good of draft picks as possible, and their value is probably inversely proportional to him winning.

Fair

 

[Ed O]

Did any of you read Zach Harper’s and John Hollinger’s columns in The Athletic this morning? Let’s just say that Joe Cronin is unlikely to ever get constipated again in his life after having two new assholes torn for his mishandling of virtually everything since becoming GM.

From Harper (after breaking down all the Cronin trades):

Essentially, they sent out Powell, Covington, McCollum, Nance, Snell and Payton (after just signing him) and got a return of netting five extra second-round picks, Grant (to whom they agreed to give $160 million a day before the Lillard trade request), Walker, maybe Thybulle if they keep him, Rupert and Murray. And essentially, you could add in that the Blazers’ mismanagement of so much of this retooling of the roster is what led to Lillard deciding he needed to go somewhere else.
​

From Hollinger (key bit):

The point I really want to underscore here is that the Blazers could have traded Lillard at any moment in the last two seasons, and it would have been the 100 percent correct move. That they didn’t and instead engaged in this bizarre dance where they sort-of tried to compete around Lillard without firing lottery picks into the sun, basically wasted everyone’s time for two years and short-circuited Portland’s post-Lillard rebuild.

Compare this to, say, Utah’s approach with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, and the draft capital that yielded. Portland’s haul for Lillard will be nothing like that; the only reason the team is in halfway-decent shape for the next era is due to its own brazen tanking the last two springs.

Not only did Portland fail to make the obvious move and trade him, the Blazers instead doubled down on a contract extension that lowered his trade value. In between, they coughed up other assets on “win-now” moves that weren’t going to be nearly enough for this team to actually win. (Reminder: That extension is for two years and $122 million and will pay a 36-year-old Lillard $63 million in 2026-27).

Hilariously, the final insult came mere hours before Lillard’s trade demand, when Portland agreed to pay Jerami Grant roughly double what he’s worth on a five-year, $160 million deal, the type of contract that would make sense only if he was the final piece on a championship contender. (Narrator’s voice: He was not.) The Blazers, incidentally, had already surrendered a first-round pick just to acquire him and help themselves to a 33-win season in 2022-23.​

 

[RippedCity]

From Harper (after breaking down all the Cronin trades):

Essentially, they sent out Powell, Covington, McCollum, Nance, Snell and Payton (after just signing him) and got a return of netting five extra second-round picks, Grant (to whom they agreed to give $160 million a day before the Lillard trade request), Walker, maybe Thybulle if they keep him, Rupert and Murray. And essentially, you could add in that the Blazers’ mismanagement of so much of this retooling of the roster is what led to Lillard deciding he needed to go somewhere else.
​

From Hollinger (key bit):

The point I really want to underscore here is that the Blazers could have traded Lillard at any moment in the last two seasons, and it would have been the 100 percent correct move. That they didn’t and instead engaged in this bizarre dance where they sort-of tried to compete around Lillard without firing lottery picks into the sun, basically wasted everyone’s time for two years and short-circuited Portland’s post-Lillard rebuild.

Compare this to, say, Utah’s approach with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, and the draft capital that yielded. Portland’s haul for Lillard will be nothing like that; the only reason the team is in halfway-decent shape for the next era is due to its own brazen tanking the last two springs.

Not only did Portland fail to make the obvious move and trade him, the Blazers instead doubled down on a contract extension that lowered his trade value. In between, they coughed up other assets on “win-now” moves that weren’t going to be nearly enough for this team to actually win. (Reminder: That extension is for two years and $122 million and will pay a 36-year-old Lillard $63 million in 2026-27).

Hilariously, the final insult came mere hours before Lillard’s trade demand, when Portland agreed to pay Jerami Grant roughly double what he’s worth on a five-year, $160 million deal, the type of contract that would make sense only if he was the final piece on a championship contender. (Narrator’s voice: He was not.) The Blazers, incidentally, had already surrendered a first-round pick just to acquire him and help themselves to a 33-win season in 2022-23.​

Why does it seem like Hollinger always provides the negative slant towards the Blazers?

 

[Ed O]

Why does it seem like Hollinger always provides the negative slant towards the Blazers?

Because Portland has made bad decisions for most of the last decade and Hollinger has seen it and been consistent in calling them out?

That's my opinion.