DusterBuster wrote:Rainwater wrote:DusterBuster wrote:
And at that point he was telling the truth, Dame hadn't asked for a trade when he made those comments.
Cronin made it clear he wouldn't trade Dame without a trade demand.
Think what you will on Cronin as a GM, but he's been honest to a fault. He's also not shown a lot of willingness to take big swings unless his hand is forced. He doesn't seem to want to trade players without the players input and involvement. He is deferential to a fault with the players, even being willing to take worse deals for the team to get players to where they want to go (this is a backed up fact reporting with the previous trades involving CJ and Norm Powell).
I understand how you would think that from afar, but as someone who's followed the Blazers and Cronin much closer, I can promise you don't have all the facts quite straight or are missing some key context.
I just disagree with this take, the writing was all over the wall that Dame was gone. The heat literally prepared a deal at the time knowing he was gone. The Blazers essentially pushed him out by going young. There is no way Cronin didn’t know.
I am not saying this because I like Simons but it just makes no sense for the Blazers to not trade Simons. If it doesn’t happen this year it’s happening next year before his contract is up. Given the current state of the blazers they aren’t going to resign him and they aren’t just going to let him expire. So they will likely trade. It may not be the magic but it will be somebody.
This isn’t a take… it’s what was reported and the full timeline of what happened from those who experienced it first hand…
I agree with you and if I were in charge, that would happen (trading Simons), but literally everything said and actions made from Joe Cronin back up what I explained in the other post.
And again, your timeline of events is simply incorrect. You can say "the writing was on the wall" all you want, but that isn't backed up by any truth. Dame was with Cronin pre-draft and was at all the Blazers workouts for potential picks at #3. The two were in constant contact about trade offers that were being made for the pick. He wanted to keep Dame and Dame was looking for a reason to stay up until the night of the draft when they made the pick instead of trading it for help. That was Dame's red line, Cronin didn't find a deal he liked and decided to make the pick.
That doesn't make anything he said pre-draft to Dame, to the media, or to fans / season ticket holders a lie.
Again, this isn't "my take", this is fact of the timeline of what happened and you're wrong about it. It's ok to be wrong.
This is where what you are saying makes no sense; if they were in constant contact, if they truly wanted to keep Dame, and they knew what his redline was? Yet still drafted Scoot. How does this not tell you they did not push him out? The Heat literally kept assets knowing that Dame would get traded. I feel like you are giving these reports way too much credit instead of seeing what was actually happening.
Everyone knew that Scoot was the 3rd best prospect in that draft, everyone knew that Portland would likely draft Scoot, and everyone knew drafting Scoot would likely force Dame out. Everyone knew that Portland needed to go in another direction. I find it hard to believe Cronin didn't know any of this.
If you want to believe that Simons won't be traded based off the "reports" fine, but I would be shocked if Simons is still on that team in two years.
