Good grief, why is it weird that you're pitching a fit about Dame's career window being wasted years after the fact? Try putting your self in current management's shoes. They inherited a roster void of much talent aside from their aging superstar. They told Dame they'd explore options to upgrade the roster. They did. As predicted by many here, their trade options were underwhelming reflecting a lack of assets and maybe a lack of valuable assets of others on the block as evidenced by no needle movers being traded except for Beal who doesn't fit here. It takes two to tango and no one offered them the moon for their peanuts. I'm sure there were some options, but not enough to be legit contenders so they gathered what talent they could via the draft. No surprise at all.
Bridges is in his mid 20s and had his best year yet last season, Cam Johnson same, DFS is 30 and just a dog, Royce O'Neal also 30 and a dog, Nurk is Nurk, Seth has the same window as Dame, Patty is getting older. Bridges, Johnson, DFS and Nurk are better than what we are putting around him right now and none of them is getting worse any time soon, I think Royce O'Neal should be good at what he's good at for several more years. It all comes down to Ben. If Ben can get back to being good, not even great like he was but just defend every position, make his open layups and make the passes he can make, this is a much better squad for Dame than we are.
I feel like Dame is back. I think he went to France without the fam and was asking his baby girl on IG today if she missed him and I think they were here but I could be wrong.
smh... what dilutional nonsense
Ah yes, I forgot that this is how you respond to everything.
Also just want to point out that while Dame keeps saying he wants to be here, he keeps stabbing Joe in the back by making public comments like “I don’t want to play with another 19 year old rookie.” That immediately hurt our leverage in trades. It signaled to other teams that we were in a dame-or-the-pick situation so of course they’re gonna lowball. And the most absurd part about it is that fans WANTED us to take those lowball offers. It was a no win situation for Joe.
Dame talking completely hamstrung any leverage Joe might have had in trade negotiations. This is fact.
So you talked to all the GM's in the League and they told you this?
lol, hey it's holier then thou back to look down on me again. I regularly have tame exchanges with posters, but your stance here is ridiculous on it's face.
I expect GMs to blow smoke often to keep opportunities open and massage egos. It doesn't bother me at all when they paint pretty pictures of for those they deal with (players, media, fans) as that is part of the job. I also don't kid myself that I'm in the loop on whats said in conversations. I believe a GM's actions not words especially if they have good reason to fudge which is usually. It's not personal, it's business
oh please. They are not close. The roster sucks. What great transforming deal did they leave on the table? Most deals that go down fans never catch a wiff of prior yet you're asserting you know what they did and didn't do behind the scenes. You are crying about a pipedream not happening as if thats his fault and not yours for believing in fantasies... if only he'd have wanted it more.
Despite liking Grant as a player, I'm very much on record for not wanting to part with the Bucks 1st for him and I really wanted Duren. Thats what I was advocating for last summer but they were trying to keep options open and please Dame and see if they could pull off a miracle. It didn't happen & here we are.
reality can be hard, especially if you've deluded yourself into believing in pretend time fantasies. So sorry that I don't pity the manufactured hysteria. Unless this hypothetical star they were to land was Jokic, Embiid or Giannis, Portland was not contending. Adding a star like Brown or Siakam still leaves them well on the outside looking in at the real teams and with no future. Again, the wasting of Dame's time was committed many seasons ago with umpteen poor personnel moves. Today they're dealing with whats what and not we wish for.
Every report was that we were lowballed or teams demanded Sharpe. Why do you think that is?
It is just common sense.
You’re right that teams would know that we preferred to deal the pick, but it’s a world of difference when your superstar player comes out and says he has no appetite to have another 19 year old rookie and that isn’t his path. That gives the impression that we HAD to trade the pick instead of maybe preferring to trade it.
The comparison I use (and it's probably not a good one given how their season turned out and that he's no longer with the team) is Chris Paul on the Phoenix Suns.
Trade the loser! <<green font>>
This is exactly where I am. It is tough for me to see a team to which we could trade Dame where after we got back our trade value that could legitimately compete for a championship. In my mind, he would be better off staying here and being the veteran leader of a team that in a couple of years may be able to compete for that very ring he wants. I think Dame can play for at least another five years at a high level. That's well within our window.
And since we don’t know, and he said Scoot was the best talent that could be acquired with the pick, we go with that