If Portland blows it up...

[d-train]

Dame and CJ are not complimentary in the way Stockton and Malone were. They are allowed to play your-turn-my-turn where Stockton / Malone consistently created easy buckets for each other in the PNR.

No one will be talking about Dame / CJ pairing in anywhere near the same breath as the epic Stockton / Malone combo once the duo has run its course. Its closer to Ray Allen / Glen Robinson in their MIL days if anything.

Malone, Stockton, and Hornacek complemented each other very similar to how Lillard, CJ, and Nurk complement each other. The primary deference is Stockton dominated the ball until he passed to a shooter and Lillard dominates the ball until he shoots. Otherwise, the 2 trios are very similar.

I disagree vehemently with your takes but damn do I appreciate your dedication lol. If a stranger went through your post history on various appraisals of the Blazers talent I'm sure they'd walk away thinking we had several championships in the last decade.

For the comparison, Hornacek is actually similar to CJ offensively, but Hornacek always played decent defense (footage at this point is a bit hard to find but you can scan basketballreference or something for defense stats, its not very close.). Malone is infinitely better than Nurkic, that one isn't close both offensively and defensively. Damian is probably better than Stockton, but they are very different players with Stockton being much more of a distributor and involving his team mates, and again Stockton was much better on defense..

So no, this team isn't going to pull a 90s Jazz. That is the rosiest of rosy glasses you got on there.

After 10 consecutive years of failure, nobody believed Jazz would do it either. Of course, failure being measured similar to how Blazers fans are claiming failure. Nurk may not be as good as Malone, the point is the trios are comparable. And, CJ's defense is at least as good as Hornacek's. The Blazers were one of the teams that beat Jazz because Hornacek couldn't defend Clyde. Any weakness in CJ's defense is directly comparable to Hornacek.

Speaking of Clyde, Clyde often criticized Whitsitt because he believed Whitsitt broke that Blazers team up too early and Clyde cited Jazz as an example to prove his point.

[Norm2953]

It will be interesting to see how Dame's instagram post rattles the cages in Portland's front office. Team is going to have to do more than just firing Stotts

[d-train]

Here it is, bring on the mind-readers, psychics, and prognosticators:

The All-Star guard posted two pictures of himself with the following caption: “How long should I stay dedicated? How long til opportunity meet preparation?”

[Waynearchetype]

Malone, Stockton, and Hornacek complemented each other very similar to how Lillard, CJ, and Nurk complement each other. The primary deference is Stockton dominated the ball until he passed to a shooter and Lillard dominates the ball until he shoots. Otherwise, the 2 trios are very similar.

I disagree vehemently with your takes but damn do I appreciate your dedication lol. If a stranger went through your post history on various appraisals of the Blazers talent I'm sure they'd walk away thinking we had several championships in the last decade.

For the comparison, Hornacek is actually similar to CJ offensively, but Hornacek always played decent defense (footage at this point is a bit hard to find but you can scan basketballreference or something for defense stats, its not very close.). Malone is infinitely better than Nurkic, that one isn't close both offensively and defensively. Damian is probably better than Stockton, but they are very different players with Stockton being much more of a distributor and involving his team mates, and again Stockton was much better on defense..

So no, this team isn't going to pull a 90s Jazz. That is the rosiest of rosy glasses you got on there.

After 10 consecutive years of failure, nobody believed Jazz would do it either. Of course, failure being measured similar to how Blazers fans are claiming failure. Nurk may not be as good as Malone, the point is the trios are comparable. And, CJ's defense is at least as good as Hornacek's. The Blazers were one of the teams that beat Jazz because Hornacek couldn't defend Clyde. Any weakness in CJ's defense is directly comparable to Hornacek.

Speaking of Clyde, Clyde often criticized Whitsitt because he believed Whitsitt broke that Blazers team up too early and Clyde cited Jazz as an example to prove his point.

If Nurk/Dame/CJ are comparable to Malone/Stockton/Hornacek then literally any trio in the NBA is. Harrison Barnes, DeAaron Fox, Buddy Heild, the next Stockton/Malone/Hornacek.

[Case2012]

If we trade Dame, they might as well move the team. If we could find out where neo lives, we could go protest outside his home for his resignation? Peacefully of course.. I mean, you can imagine that pompous moron staying and Dame leaving? I would burn the rose garden down to the ground.

[PDXKnight]

Coming in peace. Some Heat fans want to know what you guys think of a package built around Herro & Bam for Lillard. Do you lean more towards "intrigued, but would like more (if so, what)" or do you lean towards that package being a non-conversation starter/better deals available elsewhere?

thanks

bam and herro for dame is solid

[Case2012]

Coming in peace. Some Heat fans want to know what you guys think of a package built around Herro & Bam for Lillard. Do you lean more towards "intrigued, but would like more (if so, what)" or do you lean towards that package being a non-conversation starter/better deals available elsewhere?

thanks

bam and herro for dame is solid

No it's not. You forgot to add Butler and 5 picks

[Epicurus]

Nurkic wants more touches, believing more touches will release his full capacity. He wants more what Jokic gets, believing he in truth is at that level of performance, if given a chance. I think his self regard is significantly inflated. Plus with Lillard Nurk will not be Jokic center piece for the offense. Yet moving closer to his desire for more touches is simply impossible with McCollum's playstyle. Thus McC needs to be packaged up for someone approximating Jokic's front court running mates in Denver. Or move on from Nurkic altogether, for reasons of not staying on the floor adequately, from health to silly fouling. He and McC might get someone to move the needle.

[PDXKnight]

Coming in peace. Some Heat fans want to know what you guys think of a package built around Herro & Bam for Lillard. Do you lean more towards "intrigued, but would like more (if so, what)" or do you lean towards that package being a non-conversation starter/better deals available elsewhere?

thanks

bam and herro for dame is solid

No it's not. You forgot to add Butler and 5 picks

lol bam is an up and coming stud herro is pretty good as a prospect too. If they added firsts to that package i’d like it

[Norm2953]

Coming in peace. Some Heat fans want to know what you guys think of a package built around Herro & Bam for Lillard. Do you lean more towards "intrigued, but would like more (if so, what)" or do you lean towards that package being a non-conversation starter/better deals available elsewhere?

thanks

bam and herro for dame is solid

No it's not. You forgot to add Butler and 5 picks

Heat have very few draft picks for the next 4-5 years

[Norm2953]

I tend to like the Boston package if Dame was moved. Marcus Smart and Brown would make the team
more sound defensively

[Norm2953]

Nurkic wants more touches, believing more touches will release his full capacity. He wants more what Jokic gets, believing he in truth is at that level of performance, if given a chance. I think his self regard is significantly inflated. Plus with Lillard Nurk will not be Jokic center piece for the offense. Yet moving closer to his desire for more touches is simply impossible with McCollum's playstyle. Thus McC needs to be packaged up for someone approximating Jokic's front court running mates in Denver. Or move on from Nurkic altogether, for reasons of not staying on the floor adequately, from health to silly fouling. He and McC might get someone to move the needle.

Nurk has got to worry more about staying on the court for he's missed a ton of games the past two seasons and
one can argue his broken leg in 2019 much like it did with Rudy Fernandez (when he got hurt) impacted his
game for he's not playing like the Bosnian Beast like he was in 2017. Dame/CJ were here when he was the BB
and would give him the ball if he played like he wanted the ball.

[Sinobas]

If we get into next season, near the trade deadline, and it's obvious whatever new changes we made aren't clicking, I think we should seriously consider blowing it up. That means trading Damian Lillard. The reason being...if we get another 1st round exit, I think Damian is going to demand a trade, so we might get better value before that occurs.

[DusterBuster]

I would prefer to retain Powell over Love every time, even more now that Love is totally cooked.

Agreed. I don’t think Love has much left in the tank either. It could be he’s just half-assing it in Cleveland (actually not could be, seems to be a pretty factual statement based on his time on the court this season), but even mediocre play, he legit cannot stay healthy anymore. I’ll be shocked if he’s still in the league after his current contract tbh.

[Blazinaway]

I would prefer to retain Powell over Love every time, even more now that Love is totally cooked.

Agreed. I don’t think Love has much left in the tank either. It could be he’s just half-assing it in Cleveland (actually not could be, seems to be a pretty factual statement based on his time on the court this season), but even mediocre play, he legit cannot stay healthy anymore. I’ll be shocked if he’s still in the league after his current contract tbh.

if he got bought out by Cle and signed in POR cheap ok maybe, if not forget about him

[PDXKnight]

I tend to like the Boston package if Dame was moved. Marcus Smart and Brown would make the team
more sound defensively

With much respect i don’t like that trade. Picks and rookie contracts are the most proven way to rebuild unless you’re getting a superstar in return. Brown is a fringe all star sort of player imo & this trade would prolong things until we lose brown in free agency and it ends up being dame for nothing. Young assets with rfa rights along with a treasure trove of picks are gonna give us long term stability and room to build the next blazers championship run rather than basically replicate the rockets with the harden deal. Having long term assets and trade chips will give us a good head start as we move into the next era. And the bonus is if we get young players for dame maybe we rank and increase the value of our pick in the interim so we can get our next dame

[DusterBuster]

I would prefer to retain Powell over Love every time, even more now that Love is totally cooked.

Agreed. I don’t think Love has much left in the tank either. It could be he’s just half-assing it in Cleveland (actually not could be, seems to be a pretty factual statement based on his time on the court this season), but even mediocre play, he legit cannot stay healthy anymore. I’ll be shocked if he’s still in the league after his current contract tbh.

if he got bought out by Cle and signed in POR cheap ok maybe, if not forget about him

Yep, pretty much the only way I’m taking a chance on Love at this point.

[DusterBuster]

I tend to like the Boston package if Dame was moved. Marcus Smart and Brown would make the team
more sound defensively

With much respect i don’t like that trade. Picks and rookie contracts are the most proven way to rebuild unless you’re getting a superstar in return. Brown is a fringe all star sort of player imo & this trade would prolong things until we lose brown in free agency and it ends up being dame for nothing. Young assets with rfa rights along with a treasure trove of picks are gonna give us long term stability and room to build the next blazers championship run rather than basically replicate the rockets with the harden deal. Having long term assets and trade chips will give us a good head start as we move into the next era. And the bonus is if we get young players for dame maybe we rank and increase the value of our pick in the interim so we can get our next dame

If the Blazers move Dame, we need to just resign ourselves to the fact that whatever the return, it’s not going to be good enough to replace losing a HOF and arguably the best player ever to put on a Blazers jersey.

Any Boston deal I would want Smart, Brown and Walker out of tho, along with picks. Smart is massively overrated IMO, decent defender but not sure how much he’s got left in the tank in that regard and once his defense falls off, he has nothing left to offer a team since he’s not a good playmaker or consistent scorer.

[PDXKnight]

I tend to like the Boston package if Dame was moved. Marcus Smart and Brown would make the team
more sound defensively

With much respect i don’t like that trade. Picks and rookie contracts are the most proven way to rebuild unless you’re getting a superstar in return. Brown is a fringe all star sort of player imo & this trade would prolong things until we lose brown in free agency and it ends up being dame for nothing. Young assets with rfa rights along with a treasure trove of picks are gonna give us long term stability and room to build the next blazers championship run rather than basically replicate the rockets with the harden deal. Having long term assets and trade chips will give us a good head start as we move into the next era. And the bonus is if we get young players for dame maybe we rank and increase the value of our pick in the interim so we can get our next dame

If the Blazers move Dame, we need to just resign ourselves to the fact that whatever the return, it’s not going to be good enough to replace losing a HOF and arguably the best player ever to put on a Blazers jersey.

Any Boston deal I would want Smart, Brown and Walker out of tho, along with picks. Smart is massively overrated IMO, decent defender but not sure how much he’s got left in the tank in that regard and once his defense falls off, he has nothing left to offer a team since he’s not a good playmaker or consistent scorer.

I think barret + picks from ny is more intriguing to me. Potential superstar plus boatload of picks actually moves the needle on what could pay off in the long run

[GEE]

I think there may be a slight possibility of this actually happening. Dame's use of his power has been less than smart, or helpful. Olshey can't be pleased with getting strong-armed by Dame, by telling him PUBLICLY, who HE wants to hire.

Is Dame untouchable? We'll find out soon, because Dame's actions and ego over the previous and coming hours are likely making the phones ring off the hook. The offers could be very rich, and maybe there is one that makes perfect sense, but the asking price will be really really high for Dame, as it should be, because he is a huge cash-cow for this franchise, and his value is at an all-time high.

I'm equally excited and worried about the Blazers future.