Lillard wants major trade this summer

[BoBoBREWSKI]

...did Dame also mention how he'd be willing to restructure his contract in order to retain such major talent??

I was thinking the same thing. Dame could of signed a little bit of a team friendly contract to help free up $ to bring in better players. As we all know, you need all the help you can get to bring top talent to small market teams.

 

[glazeduck]

I was thinking the same thing. Dame could of signed a little bit of a team friendly contract to help free up $ to bring in better players. As we all know, you need all the help you can get to bring top talent to small market teams.

He also refused to recruit players for the first half of his career.

Dame isn't completely innocent in all of this. He's just looking at some low-level misdemeanors while Olshey is looking at a life sentence...

 

[wizenheimer]

I think expecting him to demand a trade is ridiculous. Or hoping for him to do so.

Dame does everything right as a member of the Blazers and part of the community. As we agree, it's not his job to look towards the franchise's future after he's no longer on the roster. That means that management needs to do its job, and that means that management should not care one iota about his opinions on roster construction, salaries (other than his own), trades, etc.

That means that management should have to make the tough call of trading him, if and when it makes sense, whether he's demanding a trade or not. Would there be blowback if it's a bad deal? Yes. Would some Blazers fans consider ANY trade a bad deal? Yes.

But it's their job to make those calls, and sometimes the right decision is not going to be the popular one.

LOL...funny how the hypothetical "right" decision is the one you've been pushing for years!

 

[BassPlaya]

I don't profess to know what Dame wants. My guess is, he wants all the players and coaches he works with to prepare as hard as he does.

 

[wizenheimer]

...did Dame also mention how he'd be willing to restructure his contract in order to retain such major talent??

he already did that once and Olshey shit the bed

I was thinking the same thing. Dame could of signed a little bit of a team friendly contract to help free up $ to bring in better players. As we all know, you need all the help you can get to bring top talent to small market teams.

how would that have worked?

Blazers would need to have major cap-space and the Blazers have had major cap-space several times in Dame's career and Olshey wasted it making max offers to Roy Hibbert, Enes Kanter, Greg Monroe, Chandler Parsons, and Hassan Whiteside. That's when he wasn't blowing a hole thru major cap-space in 2016 by signing CJ, Crabbe, Turner, Meyers, Harkless, and Ezeli to 344M in contracts....holy overpay batman!

why would Dame think taking less money would result in more talent on the roster? Besides that, what matters is trade-worthy contracts not fantasy cap-space for a team that never signs high level free agents. Dame getting his salary has never prevented the Blazers from adding talent. What has prevented it is idiotic management, almost exclusively by one idiotic GM

 

[Sloth]

Dame has not helped his own cause through the years and needs to take some blame for our current team.However, I can't blame him overall as he does deserve to have a more competitive team around him. It will be a sad day if he leaves Portland, and I hope we do whatever we have to do to ensure that does not happen.

 

[Bingo Bango]

Yeah, you definitely wouldn't care if they sucked for years after saying youre done with them sucking for years.

You missed the point. The team can suck for years without ever winning a title, or it can win a title and suck for a few more years. I prefer the latter.

 

[LayneStaley]

If we trade Sharpe and our lottery pick this year to get Dame another all-star and we get as far as the WCF but never further until he retires and Sharpe and lottery player become all nba type guys I’m gonna absolutely love reading all the bullshit hindsight posts in 5 years.

 

[AngryFan]

I think expecting him to demand a trade is ridiculous. Or hoping for him to do so.

Dame does everything right as a member of the Blazers and part of the community. As we agree, it's not his job to look towards the franchise's future after he's no longer on the roster. That means that management needs to do its job, and that means that management should not care one iota about his opinions on roster construction, salaries (other than his own), trades, etc.

That means that management should have to make the tough call of trading him, if and when it makes sense, whether he's demanding a trade or not. Would there be blowback if it's a bad deal? Yes. Would some Blazers fans consider ANY trade a bad deal? Yes.

But it's their job to make those calls, and sometimes the right decision is not going to be the popular one.

I agree with this. These posts are from a year ago...

I wonder if this is the organization forcing Lillard to be the one who asks out, not them pushing him out?

That is the most likely case.... and it is absolute selfishness from the organization. Damian shouldn't have to be the one to go back on his word when they were the ones that failed to build around him.

 

[Mediocre Man]

If we trade Sharpe and our lottery pick this year to get Dame another all-star and we get as far as the WCF but never further until he retires and Sharpe and lottery player become all nba type guys I’m gonna absolutely love reading all the bullshit hindsight posts in 5 years.

Is it still hindsight if some of us are saying this already? I’m legit asking because I’m so stupid

 

[Phatguysrule]

If we trade Sharpe and our lottery pick this year to get Dame another all-star and we get as far as the WCF but never further until he retires and Sharpe and lottery player become all nba type guys I’m gonna absolutely love reading all the bullshit hindsight posts in 5 years.

If we make those moves to get to the WCF with a legit shot to win it all then I'll be fine with it.

Management and ownership owe Dame that opportunity here in Portland. Go all in and let things fall where they may.

 

[HoopsFanAZ]

31-37
14 games to go.
Houston, Detroit, San Antonio, and Charlotte out of reach or close enough to it. Orlando likely #5.
Portland a 1/2 game behind Indiana and tied with Washington for #7.
Portland in the lottery and the Knicks making the playoffs are the most relevant points, IMHO.

Cronin -- when he took over -- transparently talked about the process of surrounding Dame with talent to contend while swinging big ... and that J Allen will spend the $$$ to make that possible ... translation: paying the tax next season. Why pay it this season when there wasn't the BIG trade they could win? This isn't the decade of Olshey. It's not the chemistry-free-exciting-chaos of TraderBob, or PatterNash, or KP and the Draft Picks. It's been a year. One year with Cronin. Have some optimism ... or not.

The Blazers with a mostly healthy line-up could get the 10th spot for the play-in ... win 2 games and play the Denver Nuggets ... who are not amazing. Yeah, sure.
I hope, instead, for better assets and draft capital for this summer. I hope for that BIG trade. Either way, I'll wait for Cronin to continue doing what he said and what he's done so far.
For people who want to interpret what he's done as more of the same, of mediocrity, it's understandable I guess, but it's not the hill I'm dying on and not one where I'd want to be right.

 

[Ed O]

LOL...funny how the hypothetical "right" decision is the one you've been pushing for years!

It's not funny that my perspective has been consistent with, you know, reality for years.

I say something is true, and people argue. Then facts come out and I reassert the same thing, and people (different? Same? Dunnooo) argue. Then more facts come out and people still argue.

My position (other than a week or so of optimism after the 2022 draft but before we traded for Grant and signed Payton) has been consistent: we don't have the pieces to build a contender around Dame. It's not because of who Dame is or how he plays... the franchise missed on too many draft picks, traded too many draft picks, and hasn't added enough pieces through free agency to have a very good team.

So, yeah, my hypothetical "right" decision is still the one I've felt is right because the real world keeps reinforcing it.

 

[twobullz]

Bleacher reports suggested trade is Ant and Keon for OG Anunoby and Thad Young.

 

[Whyachi]

Blazers will be looking for teams that hold their hand up for a tank next season. Nets might be a partner, the Wizards could detonate.

The problem that goes whizzing by, is many other teams want to be competitive and have been offering more then the Blazers are willing to.

Maybe this summer will be different? Maybe it will be a redeeming time for the front office? So far Cronin has built a team that's a smudge better then the Hornets, then slapped a contending franchise sticker on it as he walks out the door.

 

[blazerkor]

Bleacher reports suggested trade is Ant and Keon for OG Anunoby and Thad Young.

Link? If not did it say we'd have to add a bunch of picks or something. If not that would be fucking great for us. We would still have to acquire a legit second all star though but if that was the trade without draft picks attached then we would have plenty of ammo to try and go after someone... maybe matching salaries would become a big issue though.

I don't think we can draw any real speculation until after we know what our draft position is unless of course it's a trade like this that is just players for players.

 

[Cugel]

Probably 2 FRP or maybe the lotto pick? Doubt it would happen. OKC could offer way more.

 

[blazerkor]

Blazers will be looking for teams that hold their hand up for a tank next season. Nets might be a partner, the Wizards could detonate.

The problem that goes whizzing by, is many other teams want to be competitive and have been offering more then the Blazers are willing to.

Maybe this summer will be different? Maybe it will be a redeeming time for the front office? So far Cronin has built a team that's a smudge better then the Hornets, then slapped a contending franchise sticker on it as he walks out the door.

You're right that we've been too hesitant to possibly overpay in the past but I'm hoping Dame has really put a sense of urgency on this off season. I guess we'll see.

I think you're factually wrong about Cronin slapping a contending sticker on anything. The dude outright said the roster was incomplete when he was done dealing last off season and then said he couldn't get it complete at the trade deadline. I think he's been slapping the tanking sticker on the team since he's been here. As far as talking about the goal being getting to a contending level... what the fuck else would he say?

 

[twobullz]

Link? If not did it say we'd have to add a bunch of picks or something. If not that would be fucking great for us. We would still have to acquire a legit second all star though but if that was the trade without draft picks attached then we would have plenty of ammo to try and go after someone... maybe matching salaries would become a big issue though.

I don't think we can draw any real speculation until after we know what our draft position is unless of course it's a trade like this that is just players for players.

Nope no picks in their suggestion. Ant actually has a higher per then OG. Their theory was the the Raps could loose Trent and VanVleet and Ant could replace the offense for them.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-offseason-trades-to-start-thinking-about-now

 

[wizenheimer]

Nope no picks in their suggestion. Ant actually has a higher per then OG. Their theory was the the Raps could loose Trent and VanVleet and Ant could replace the offense for them.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-offseason-trades-to-start-thinking-about-now

not much of a quibble, but PER is a cumulative kind of metric. Higher the usage usually translates to a higher PER among somewhat comparable players

Ant's PER is 2% higher than OG's, but Ant's usage is 27% higher. OG has a higher TS%, 3ptFG%, FT Rate, winshare, and BPM. And more importantly, is a two-way wing who plays good defense.

if the Blazers could do a straight swap of Ant for OG they'd be fools not to do it. Even adding the Knicks pick would be an acceptable deal. A top-6 pick would be a bridge too far in my view, even though OG is a better player than Ant

 

[blazerkor]

Nope no picks in their suggestion. Ant actually has a higher per then OG. Their theory was the the Raps could loose Trent and VanVleet and Ant could replace the offense for them.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-offseason-trades-to-start-thinking-about-now

Shit! I hope Mike Swartz the writer of that article has some connection and influence with Masai. I don't know what the move would be after that but I think this would make us a lot better.

 

[MickZagger]

Nope no picks in their suggestion. Ant actually has a higher per then OG. Their theory was the the Raps could loose Trent and VanVleet and Ant could replace the offense for them.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-offseason-trades-to-start-thinking-about-now

PER doesn’t take into account OG’s huge impact defensively