Because the people who didn’t think Dame would ever leave have come back around full circle to thinking Dame won’t ever leave.
exactly who are these people?
I didn't think Dame would ask for a trade but I sure didn't think, or say, it couldn't happen
when Dame initially asked for a trade, I thought the chances were about 95% it would happen in the summer. Then, when the reports started coming out about what Dame's agent was telling teams, I thought the odds dropped to around 60% it would happen this summer. And when the reports and rumors percolated that no other teams than Miami were actually engaged in any trade talks, I was thinking it was only about 50-50 it would happen before training camp; maybe even less
I think the current situation is an impasse.
Dame still wants Miami and his agent has not changed tactics; Portland is getting no real interest from any team than Miami; Pat Riley is low-balling Portland; and Blazers have no interest in moving Dame for a shit package....and that's all that Miami can offer. Miami has bad young prospects. They have no available starting level players other than Herro, which Portland doesn't want (
and the Blazers should not want Ant either). And their draft pick assets are either poor or too far in the future. And as I said, I don't think Riley has come close to making all of those assets available
I think an ancillary component of this is that Miami has shopped Herro and received very little interest and very weak returns. Like Portland with Dame, Miami has no leverage in a Herro trade. Portland is looking to trade a Lexus; Miami is offering a Moped.
So yeah, I think the odds are Dame will still be a Blazer opening night. There are only about 2 ways Portland can salvage this situation now and one of them is not in their control: that's Dame adding 2 or 3 more teams to his wish list. The other way is Dame in the staring lineup when the season starts and playing like he did last year, proving what his value is. But again, if Dame doesn't expand his list past Miami....yikes! And the '
sit Dame at home during games' idea is loopy IMO. His value, as low as it is, would only get lower if that happened