Rookie Press Conference

[Chris Craig]

Funny, Joe seems like a super nice guy and I understand his forte is numbers and scout management.
My wife watched the press conference this morning and commented "he's to nice, Mr. Rogers nice"....
I think Joe will losen up some after the Dame ? is answered. I bet he's been overwhelmed with calls and offers....
I personally think Dame will give it a couple years, he has it good here.

Maybe it's just that he is green in the thumb. It's not an easy Job, especially being GM of Portland. It just doesn't seem like GM's around the league respect him and I guess he has to earn that. His moves thus far have been sweetheart deals for other teams. I don't think other GM's had much reason to take him seriously and thus shitty one-sided offers.

 

[Natebishop3]

I really like everything about this post. After the draft, leaks began to seep out. Joe tried for Bam, he tried for Bridges and the Pels made the BS trade offer with no Zion (who I was never excited about). I go back to my argument a couple weeks ago saying everyone Blazers related should have stayed out of the media and not discussed plans to trade the pick, or not trade it. Plans to trade players, or not trade them. Did the Blazers negotiating leverage become damaged? I see it as probable, but concede that it can not be proven. Maybe if you look at the shit offers for the pick and the fact no players were shipped out while Joe, Dame and everyone else got in front of cameras giving the playbook away you might see some damaged leverage. Bottom line is nothing happened outside of the expected based on the picks Portland had. Now they have to deal with Dame. If he wants out what kind of shit offers will they get for him?

To add to this, I'm not sure what people are expecting him to say in these recent press conferences.

If he says something about Dame, it hurts our possible leverage if we have to trade Dame.

If he says something about Scoot, it hurts our possible leverage if we did decide to trade Scoot.

If he says something about Simons, even though everyone in the world knows that Simons is the odd man out, it further damages our leverage in negotiations about Simons.

Sometimes it's best to say less.

 

[Natebishop3]

I really like Murray. The guy just sounds sharp. He reminds me of Channing Frye a bit.

 

[Chris Craig]

I really like everything about this post. After the draft, leaks began to seep out. Joe tried for Bam, he tried for Bridges and the Pels made the BS trade offer with no Zion (who I was never excited about). I go back to my argument a couple weeks ago saying everyone Blazers related should have stayed out of the media and not discussed plans to trade the pick, or not trade it. Plans to trade players, or not trade them. Did the Blazers negotiating leverage become damaged? I see it as probable, but concede that it can not be proven. Maybe if you look at the shit offers for the pick and the fact no players were shipped out while Joe, Dame and everyone else got in front of cameras giving the playbook away you might see some damaged leverage. Bottom line is nothing happened outside of the expected based on the picks Portland had. Now they have to deal with Dame. If he wants out what kind of shit offers will they get for him?

Yep. Teams are going to know he wants out. That lowers the offers right there. Teams have no incentive to offer godfather deals. If Cronin is trading Dame, which I hope not, he needs to play teams against each other to create incentive (the best deal gets Dame) to drive up offers.

 

[Chris Craig]

To add to this, I'm not sure what people are expecting him to say in these recent press conferences.

If he says something about Dame, it hurts our possible leverage if we have to trade Dame.

If he says something about Scoot, it hurts our possible leverage if we did decide to trade Scoot.

If he says something about Simons, even though everyone in the world knows that Simons is the odd man out, it further damages our leverage in negotiations about Simons.

Sometimes it's best to say less.

To be more clear that he tried.

 

[blazerkor]

Yep. Teams are going to know he wants out. That lowers the offers right there. Teams have no incentive to offer godfather deals. If Cronin is trading Dame, which I hope not, he needs to play teams against each other to create incentive (the best deal gets Dame) to drive up offers.

Joe has to be willing to ask Dame to stay until mid season and be telling teams that keeping Dame is an option we always have. That being said if he gets offers from a few teams, I think the Nets would give us an offer that makes sense pretty quickly.

 

[Natebishop3]

To be more clear that he tried.

I guess I don't understand what more he could do.....

Do you want him to get up in front of the cameras and list off all the deals he offered and name/shame the GMs who turned him down? GMs don't do that....

Reporter: Joe why didn't you get something done?

Joe: Well, that Masai Ujiri is a real asshole. You guys thought Neil was a douche? You should try to negotiate with this dude. He wanted #3, Simons, and Sharpe for OG. Would you have said yes to that? I didn't think so.

 

[cheesehoff]

You actually think if Dame was cool right now that his life would get in the way of him letting Joe know what he thinks? You think Dame doesn't have ten fucking minutes to address his future? Do you think that Aaron Goodwin is in constant contact with Joe but not with Dame?

Dame is letting his agent be the go between right now with the team that used to be Dame's team... that's not paranoia and I think it's barely speculative. Dame having not touched base and his agent being in constant contact is about all the writing on the wall that any of us should need but hey maybe I'm way off and Dame actually is too busy on vacation to take a minute and let Joe know that things are still cool.

I don't think it's far off.
Watching how this thing is unfolding, I can't help but think Dame and the FO wanted to make it work. Now both sides are realizing that they can't make the moves necessary to have a shot in the next couple years.
I believe what is happening now is that both sides don't want to blink first. Dame doesn't want to tarnish his legacy here by asking for a trade. He's said all along he wants to be here for his whole career and asking for a trade goes against that.
On the other side, Cronin has to be aware that the backlash of being the guy that traded Dame will follow him as long as he's here. I'm sure he's tried, but the idea that a FO can just build a contender in a couple years is ignorant. If it's that easy, every team would be doing it.
So, it's back to my first point. Both sides have tried, both sides have realized it's not gonna happen and both sides don't want to publicly make the first move. Hopefully, the indecisiveness doesn't lead to burning bridges.

 

[Natebishop3]

Maybe it's just that he is green in the thumb. It's not an easy Job, especially being GM of Portland. It just doesn't seem like GM's around the league respect him and I guess he has to earn that. His moves thus far have been sweetheart deals for other teams. I don't think other GM's had much reason to take him seriously and thus shitty one-sided offers.

Agreed. And I'm sure they were not impressed with the fact that the Blazers didn't open the job up for interviews and just handed it to Joe. A lot of GMs probably look at him as someone who didn't truly earn the job and that he's just a puppet for the Vulcans.

 

[Whyachi]

If Grant walks, it means the Blazers traded

Powell, RoCo, McCollum, Nance, Hart, & a 1st rounder to Detroit (Jalen Duren).... for rookie Kris Murray

Normally that would get a GM fired, but here in Portland, it would get flipped towards building a championship team a.s.a.p.

 

[Chris Craig]

I guess I don't understand what more he could do.....

Do you want him to get up in front of the cameras and list off all the deals he offered and name/shame the GMs who turned him down? GMs don't do that....

Reporter: Joe why didn't you get something done?

Joe: Well, that Masai Ujiri is a real asshole. You guys thought Neil was a douche? You should try to negotiate with this dude. He wanted #3, Simons, and Sharpe for OG. Would you have said yes to that? I didn't think so.

Lol. No.

It seemed in the PC he was short about that part. It felt like he could have made the point that he was on the phone, and in the war room, and working to get trades done, and they just weren't there. He said very little on the matter, and it just wasn't assuring.

 

[Strenuus]

I don't know about you but I don't have to train for my job when I'm on vacation. I'm not obsessed with my job the way Dame is. My job isn't as high stakes.

I guess it's possible that Dame vowed to himself not to talk to anyone about work during this small stretch but it wasn't the whole time he was in France because Dame was in France when he reportedly talked with Joe on Tuesday. So I don't think him not talking to Joe and having Goodwin do the talking is just a matter of Dame taking time off. If Joe is talking to Goodwin constantly I can't imagine Goodwin is making that constant communication without having something from Dame.

Fair. Also possible Dame let his agent know everything on Tuesday and let him know what the talking points were from there.

See? It's all speculation. So wait until the facts.

 

[Ed O]

Comments like that are concerning to me because it means one of the following:

1. Cronin is flat out lying - I hope this is the case
2. Ownership/the front office are unable or unwilling to move up to the late 1st, early 2nd round to draft a guy they have a top 15 grade on.

Hmm... I hear you. I was taken aback by that comment, too, but it actually might be honest AND not incompetent. Why?

Clearly Scoot was a lottery guy. Murray? I don't think so, personally, but he had been mocked in the teens so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine the Blazers had him as a lottery-level guy.

So... Rupert. Is it legit that the Blazers thought he was a lottery pick? That seems crazy for a guy who wasn't especially good in Australia and doesn't appear to be especially athletic (at least not jumping)... he's young and he's exceedingly long, with a reported commitment to defense that seems awesome, but additionally:

• He was invited to the green room at the draft. There were reportedly 19 players invited to sit in the green room. That puts him in shouting distance of the lottery even if he was considered the lowest-ranked dude.
• Schmitz has been following/commenting on/complimenting Rupert since at least January 2022, when he was still 17. Rayan, not Schmitz It's definitely possible that this is a guy that Schmitz REALLY wanted and had as a lottery-level dude

Would I have had all three in my lottery wishlist? No. But I think it's not insane that maybe the Blazers did, and that doesn't necessarily indicate incompetence.

 

[Phatguysrule]

Yeah, I see that. Likely Dame is gone. We likely won't be resigning Grant. Nurkic needs to be moved. Simons might as well stay. Sucks.

I think we'll re-sign Grant if we can. It's a reasonable contract that we'll be able to trade.

 

[Natebishop3]

If Grant walks, it means the Blazers traded

Powell, RoCo, McCollum, Nance, Hart, & a 1st rounder to Detroit (Jalen Duren).... for rookie Kris Murray

Normally that would get a GM fired, but here in Portland, it would get flipped towards building a championship team a.s.a.p.

Couple of quibbles that I have.

RoCo and Hart were going to be UFAs. I don't think RoCo had much value at all and there has been a big debate about whether Hart would have re-signed here.

Also, the trade would have been our TPE and Milwaukee pick for Kemba Walker and Duren. I don't think Dame would have been thrilled with that deal if we had taken that instead of Jerami Grant.

 

[Chris Craig]

I think we'll re-sign Grant if we can. It's a reasonable contract that we'll be able to trade.

If Dame is traded not sure it makes sense to re-sign him unless it's a sign and trade. I don't think he will want to stay either. I could be wrong though.

 

[Natebishop3]

Hmm... I hear you. I was taken aback by that comment, too, but it actually might be honest AND not incompetent. Why?

Clearly Scoot was a lottery guy. Murray? I don't think so, personally, but he had been mocked in the teens so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine the Blazers had him as a lottery-level guy.

So... Rupert. Is it legit that the Blazers thought he was a lottery pick? That seems crazy for a guy who wasn't especially good in Australia and doesn't appear to be especially athletic (at least not jumping)... he's young and he's exceedingly long, with a reported commitment to defense that seems awesome, but additionally:

• He was invited to the green room at the draft. There were reportedly 19 players invited to sit in the green room. That puts him in shouting distance of the lottery even if he was considered the lowest-ranked dude.
• Schmitz has been following/commenting on/complimenting Rupert since at least January 2022, when he was still 17. Rayan, not Schmitz It's definitely possible that this is a guy that Schmitz REALLY wanted and had as a lottery-level dude

Would I have had all three in my lottery wishlist? No. But I think it's not insane that maybe the Blazers did, and that doesn't necessarily indicate incompetence.

Murray and Rupert were all over the big boards. Not sure if they were lottery picks though. Definitely saw both of them in the first round though.

 

[blazerkor]

I think we'll re-sign Grant if we can. It's a reasonable contract that we'll be able to trade.

I just think we'll sign and trade him, we'll recoup the future first we spent on him and Joe will be able to justify it.

 

[Whyachi]

I think we'll re-sign Grant if we can. It's a reasonable contract that we'll be able to trade.

The guy has been stuck on tank squads throughout his prime years. I wonder if he has an itch to play for a competitive franchise? Or is he content with being the goofy guy that's really good at basketball on bad teams? He's a highly skilled player, coming off a stellar scoring season. I would assume good teams would definitely want him.

 

[PCmor7]

That he is in Europe and enjoying a vacation. Joe said they talked Tuesday. These guys do have lives also outside of Basketball.

What? You mean there are people that don't like to work 24/7 for 365 and twice on Sundays?

Seriously, though, the people here adding 1+1 and coming up with 1,549,712 is cringe. You MIGHT be right. Dame MIGHT ask out. Dame MIGHT not give it a chance. And if he does there was no way the Blazers were going to come out on top, because we were either going to get players at their value through the draft or we were going to overpay for a vet to placate Dame, probably end up middle of the pack at best in the West and probably have Dame after all that ask out anyway.

The offseason's not over. I don't think any of us are in Dame's inner circle. Cronin hasn't called Dame in Europe on vacation, or Dame's Insta story is "Welcome to Miami" (which is as likely to be trolling as anything) and Blazers S2 goes all Pepe Silva trying to put it all together.

The biggest takeaway for me is a lot of us are really adept at making ourselves miserable and trying to pass it on to everyone else. For heaven's sake, how many times do the same people have to post a dozen or more times in every thread that "Dame's gone," "Cronin screwed Dame," "We're going to be bad for at least half-a-decade or more," yada, yada, yada. This is the draft press conference thread and it's becoming every other freaking thread for the last two weeks talking about Dame being gone or we need to trade Dame or we lied to Dame and some of the people even taking the thread off topic are moderators.

Well, if you guys are going to rant about that nonsense, this is my rant about your nonsense. Get a grip. Let things play out. Just because you want to be unhappy, stop taking a leak in everyone else's Cheerios for goodness sake. Write a letter to Cronin. I don't care. It's just disgusting to come on to what was a pretty good board every day and read the same dozen people spamming every thread with how the world is ending and arguing with anyone that says it might not be. Yeesh.

 

[Phatguysrule]

The guy has been stuck on tank squads throughout his prime years. I wonder if he has an itch to play for a competitive franchise? Or is he content with being the goofy guy that's really good at basketball on bad teams? He's a highly skilled player, coming off a stellar scoring season. I would assume good teams would definitely want him.

They probably would want him but I don't think any of those teams can sign him. So it would have to be a sign and trade.

 

[B-Roy]

Schmitz 100% had Rupert as a lottery talent. Schmitz had dinner with him during the draft process even though he never had a formal workout with us (I believe).

 

[maxiep]

For those doubting what Joe said about all three being (in their view) lottery picks, I think Chauncey put it better (and in a more provable way). He said we had three picks, all of whom were invited to the Green Room. That says more than what Joe said our impression was. The NBA does not like players sitting and waiting to be drafted.

 

[maxiep]

If you listen closely to Rupert, he currently speaks English with a slight Kiwi accent (he played in NZ last season). It's kind of charming.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

If you listen closely to Rupert, he currently speaks English with a slight Kiwi accent (he played in NZ last season). It's kind of charming.

 

[BassPlaya]

If Grant walks, it means the Blazers traded

Powell, RoCo, McCollum, Nance, Hart, & a 1st rounder to Detroit (Jalen Duren).... for rookie Kris Murray

Normally that would get a GM fired, but here in Portland, it would get flipped towards building a championship team a.s.a.p.

To the bolded....wasn't that more the previous GM.......specifically?

What? You mean there are people that don't like to work 24/7 for 365 and twice on Sundays?

It's just disgusting to come on to what was a pretty good board every day and read the same dozen people spamming every thread with how the world is ending and arguing with anyone that says it might not be. Yeesh.

I like 100+ page threads both years about how the Blazers would trade out of the pick. That's a fuck ton of wrong.

 

[blazerkor]

To the bolded....wasn't that more the previous GM.......specifically?




I like 100+ page threads both years about how the Blazers would trade out of the pick. That's a fuck ton of wrong.

To answer that question I would say no. If @Whyachi said we traded 3 first round picks, Ariza, Gary Trent Jr. and CJ for that return then he would have been talking about Olshey.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Overall the press conference was pretty good. No stupid questions. It might be too early to answer but I wanted someone to ask about where Rupert and Murray felt their best position were. They both are kind of tweeners...weight wise

My guess is Rupert is a guard defensively until he adds some weight....but eventually an SF?
Kris maybe starts out as an SF and eventually is a PF?

 

[Natebishop3]

Overall the press conference was pretty good. No stupid questions. It might be too early to answer but I wanted someone to ask about where Rupert and Murray felt their best position were. They are both are kind of tweeners...weight wise

My guess is Rupert is a guard defensively until he adds some weight....but eventually an SF?
Kris maybe starts out as an SF and eventually is a PF?

Yeah I think Rupert will be a small forward and Murray will be a stretch four.

 

[THE HCP]

Dudes a troll signed up 10 days ago and has done nothing but trashed dame and given weak trade proposals. All with Dame going to Miami.

Bro was already banned from here and is back. That's the 2nd person to do this recently. Not sure the reason to have forum rules and consequences if you don't follow thru with 'em.