Haynes: Damian Lillard Requests Trade

[manjusaka]

As much as everyone wants to see Portland deal Lillard to a team other than Miami, it’s not that straightforward.
They do or will have future relationships with his agents on other players, so you want to keep them in your good books. You also want to show Scoot, Sharpe and your other young talent that you are an organization that takes care of its own and respects their wishes, not to mention future free agents you want to join you.
It’s all hogwash of course, but players have so much leverage and are so accustomed to being spoiled that you have to play the game.

They will do whatever is best for the Blazers, but they will do what they can to make it work with Miami. Right now I don’t believe Miami has anywhere near the best package to offer, so Portland’s declaration is basically the courtesy of telling Miami, “get more assets to offer if you want him.”

Remember Kawhi demanded a trade and wanted LA. We know the rest of the history.

[Raps Next GM]

As much as everyone wants to see Portland deal Lillard to a team other than Miami, it’s not that straightforward.
They do or will have future relationships with his agents on other players, so you want to keep them in your good books. You also want to show Scoot, Sharpe and your other young talent that you are an organization that takes care of its own and respects their wishes, not to mention future free agents you want to join you.
It’s all hogwash of course, but players have so much leverage and are so accustomed to being spoiled that you have to play the game.

They will do whatever is best for the Blazers, but they will do what they can to make it work with Miami. Right now I don’t believe Miami has anywhere near the best package to offer, so Portland’s declaration is basically the courtesy of telling Miami, “get more assets to offer if you want him.”

Remember Kawhi demanded a trade and wanted LA. We know the rest of the history.

I’m not suggesting that he will get his wish, just that Portland will give Miami every opportunity to be the destination and to beat other offers. Other teams won’t get that.
Kawhi in San Antonio was a different circumstance. Fans were pissed because he was going against the Spurs’ wishes for treatment, he was leaving a model franchise with a history of success, etc.
Dame is a Portland icon leaving on good terms, was “loyal” to the franchise and city and people accept that he deserves better than what the Blazers surrounded him with. It’s more like when Roy Halladay asked the Blue Jays to trade him. No one blamed him and were thrilled when he finally had post season success in Philly, his preferred destination.

[Tor_Raps]

Dame will still end up in Miami. This is all just posturing to squeeze the most out of Miami

yea, Nets did the same with KD. Obviously they can't say we work with him to get to Miami.

However it might not be Miami since Dame seem to like Nets also. They can offer picks and Dame can still get his 2nd round playoff team.

Big difference was that the Suns owner stepped in and gave the Nets everything they asked for.

Only way Miami gets him is if they meet every demand of the Blazers. So thatd be all their draft assets (which isn't much), Herro (sent to a 3rd team), all their expirings while they also take on Nurkic. That's the only way Dame will get to Miami imo.

[agkagk]

I dunno man. They came out after draft night and said there was nothing out there that made them championship contenders.

Sounds like they sat at the table and listened, but ultimately If they don’t think Pascal moves the needle, that’s their prerogative.

Ive been suspicious ever since they flipped josh hart.

Hes cheap (seriously, brooks signed for almost double). And basically the perfect 3 d and 2 guard to play off of lillard.

Suspicious i say….suspicious!

Zach Lowe actually kinda alluded to what you mentioned. Both sides wanted to move on, but just didn’t know how to do it.

We got there now lol

Yaaa it just seems like management played him a bit and burned two years of his prime while being dishonest in a spineless self serving way.

They havent made a single move in 2 - 3 years that supports the theory that they were trying to build around lillard (other than trading for jerami grant for cents on the dollar).

This is starting to look like another cautionary tale the players union will pass along to young players for yesrs to come.


Bluntly, portland has demonstrated zero sincere interest in “doing right” by lillard. Hes just another race horse for sale.

Optically, Portlands management had acted in bad faith and spinelessly self serving.

For people crying over masai: he got fred overpaid by 33%.

The entire player union sees these things. Were highly respected. Portland wont sign a free agent of note for a decade plus because of their treatment of lillard.

We signed a lebron approved talent in schroeder.

From lowry and ddr bringing the lunchpail and staring the disrespect right in the eye for years. To masai’s yeoman work.

Ladies and gentlemen, no bs, i think fred’s new bag, pushed us over the edge.

I think we officially have legit street cred in the players eyes.

Way more important and valuable then drafting 5th.

Tickle me cautiously optimistic.

[ItsDanger]

Did I just read our management deserves props for helping someone get overpaid? Oh man. The effect it has is to accelerate salary inflation. This can be detrimental to your own roster that is up for extensions. Not that all the action recently hasn't contributed to it also but the whole sentiment about it is just puzzling.

Your priority is your own team's on the court product, not to maximize employee's salaries and earning potential. If it is indeed the latter, they need to GTFOH.

[LarSiN]

I can't wait till Dame is traded so I don't have to keep seeing "We should trade Scottie + whatever for Dame!!" tweets. I'd be livid if we mortgaged our future for Lillard

[AkelaLoneWolf]

We need to get a S&T for Fred. It will create a tpe that may possibly help facilitate a deal for lillard to Toronto. Or maybe even harden.

[Ari_Emanuel]

I think we get in and make a play for Simons. Not for Dame.

Simons might be the worst defender in the NBA. DOnt see much interest.

Do we even have the assets to get dame? (Assuming Siakam and Scottie are off the table). I just dont think we have the proper depth outside of those 2 to land Dame

We have better assets than Miami, especially after they've lost Struss and Gabe. The negative side of our fanbase refuse to see it, but our asset base is quite attractive. It's not Masai and Bobby's fault the other 29 GMs have been colluding to drive down the perception of our players and win lopsided deals.

[Raps Next GM]

The negative side of our fanbase refuse to see it, but our asset base is quite attractive. It's not Masai and Bobby's fault the other 29 GMs have been colluding to drive down the perception of our players and win lopsided deals.

Tell me you work for the Raptors without telling me you work for the Raptors…

The Raptors have Barnes and Dick as the only players you can reasonably expect still being here in 5 years. We have Siakam, OG, Poetel and GTG as pieces of value but none as franchise cornerstones.

Every team in the NBA has their own equivalent of Prescious (high-energy guy that can come off the bench and give you something, but not good enough to be a starter) and we have a bunch of completely replaceable bench guys.

We gave up two FRPs for Thad and Poeltl, so that’s two young, contractually-friendly pieces that could have been part of the next generation of this team.

And we just lost FVV for nothing when it was apparent to everyone that he should have been traded at the deadline. Just terrible asset management!

The cupboard is not bare, but it is very lacking.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Out assets are in another tier. We could conceivably trade for both Lillard and Harden, and still have a couple of the best packages in the league. More making a point here about the value of our assets and our flexibility - but fun to think about the lineup.

To Philly
OG, GTJ

To Toronto
James Harden

To Portland
Scottie
Boucher
OPJ
Thad
Flynn
+ Picks of need be

Lineup
Dame
Harden
Precious
Pascal
Jakob

Bench
Schruder
McDaniels
Dick
Koloko
+ Vet min players

[Fairview4Life]

I can't wait till Dame is traded so I don't have to keep seeing "We should trade Scottie + whatever for Dame!!" tweets. I'd be livid if we mortgaged our future for Lillard

Dame will be better than Scottie over the next several years.

Dame/GTJ/OG/Pascal/Poeltl is a title contender. I would not be livid at watching a title contender, personally, instead of hopefully watching one in 5 years instead.

[Raptaurus]

Don’t think we will have much of a team left to remain competitive in any Dame trade. They would want Scottie (who I would trade btw) and we would need to trade enough salary to equal the incoming $45 million.

We can’t trade our upcoming picks either until the Spurs actually take possession of one of them.

[LarSiN]

I can't wait till Dame is traded so I don't have to keep seeing "We should trade Scottie + whatever for Dame!!" tweets. I'd be livid if we mortgaged our future for Lillard

Dame will be better than Scottie over the next several years.

Dame/GTJ/OG/Pascal/Poeltl is a title contender. I would not be livid at watching a title contender, personally, instead of hopefully watching one in 5 years instead.

He sure will, but I'm not that shortsighted. That team doesn't win a ring, then we're back where we started, but watching Scottie play elsewhere. I don't want to pay Dame 63 mill, I want to watch our team develop & grow. But that's just me

[Raps Next GM]

All I know is that if he ends up in Miami, the already insufferable “Heat Culture” BS will be even worse.
All credit to them for the less heralded guys that contribute but they essentially bought Butler and Lowry as S&Ts, and now if they get Dame who is trying to force his way there by openly flirting with the Heat, then it’ll be yet another example of what garbage the Heat Culture narrative is.
Great weather, trendy city and no state income tax… but yeah, regular bums put on the jersey and suddenly become amazing winners as if they’re all nobodies taking the league minimum to play for Riley and Spo.

[Raptors Realtor]

I can't wait till Dame is traded so I don't have to keep seeing "We should trade Scottie + whatever for Dame!!" tweets. I'd be livid if we mortgaged our future for Lillard

Dame will be better than Scottie over the next several years.

Dame/GTJ/OG/Pascal/Poeltl is a title contender. I would not be livid at watching a title contender, personally, instead of hopefully watching one in 5 years instead.

He sure will, but I'm not that shortsighted. That team doesn't win a ring, then we're back where we started, but watching Scottie play elsewhere. I don't want to pay Dame 63 mill, I want to watch our team develop & grow. But that's just me

What's the definition of "several years"?... He's 33yrs old, so maybe 2-3 years max... Scottie will not have even entered his prime by then... I'd hold Scottie all day over trading for Dame.

[execoftheyear]

If we can get in on this and acquire Herro for trash I would be all over it. He has his flaws but he is a legit scorer and his contract isn’t that bad as a percentage of the rising cap. We need a wing scorer better than GTJ if we want to be more competitive. Otherwise we are relying on Pascal to carry the scoring load even more now with Fred gone (which was something they made Fred less effective IMO).

why get Herro when we have a cheaper and potentially similar player in Dick? Getting Herro will just stunt Dick's growth

If we are trying to compete (whether we should be is another discussion) then we need to upgrade the scoring talent. It would be excellent value to get Herro for lesser role players. I can see the overlap with Gradey but I think there is room for both. The Heat have successfully played Herro and Robinson together (not that Gradey is the exact same player). I trust Darko would be able to foster Gradey’s development with Herro on the roster.

Robinson barely got minutes last season until Herro went down with an injury

[deck]

What am I missing here? Doesn't seem to me like the Heat have the assets to get this deal done (unless Bam is outbound). Even if they bring in a third team, I don't see how Portland gets proper value back.

This is probably because you don't have a good grasp on Dame's value. Which is okay but the long and short of it is Dame won't yield a haul.

I have a good grasp on Dame's value. Thanks for your condescension.

Portland needs young talent and draft considerations in return. Miami is not a good trading partner in this regard.

[Rapsfan07]

What am I missing here? Doesn't seem to me like the Heat have the assets to get this deal done (unless Bam is outbound). Even if they bring in a third team, I don't see how Portland gets proper value back.

This is probably because you don't have a good grasp on Dame's value. Which is okay but the long and short of it is Dame won't yield a haul.

I have a good grasp on Dame's value. Thanks for your condescension.

Portland needs young talent and draft considerations in return. Miami is not a good trading partner in this regard.

Not trying to be condescending at all. Not everyone does so I wasn't sure.

He's not going to bring back and bunch of young players and picks and a lot of people think he is.

[Psubs]

New Orleans has all the assets to re-unite Lillard and McCollum.

[JRoy]

Ive been suspicious ever since they flipped josh hart.

Hes cheap (seriously, brooks signed for almost double). And basically the perfect 3 d and 2 guard to play off of lillard.

Suspicious i say….suspicious!

Zach Lowe actually kinda alluded to what you mentioned. Both sides wanted to move on, but just didn’t know how to do it.

We got there now lol

Yaaa it just seems like management played him a bit and burned two years of his prime while being dishonest in a spineless self serving way.

They havent made a single move in 2 - 3 years that supports the theory that they were trying to build around lillard (other than trading for jerami grant for cents on the dollar).

This is starting to look like another cautionary tale the players union will pass along to young players for yesrs to come.


Bluntly, portland has demonstrated zero sincere interest in “doing right” by lillard. Hes just another race horse for sale.

Optically, Portlands management had acted in bad faith and spinelessly self serving.

For people crying over masai: he got fred overpaid by 33%.

The entire player union sees these things. Were highly respected. Portland wont sign a free agent of note for a decade plus because of their treatment of lillard.

We signed a lebron approved talent in schroeder.

From lowry and ddr bringing the lunchpail and staring the disrespect right in the eye for years. To masai’s yeoman work.

Ladies and gentlemen, no bs, i think fred’s new bag, pushed us over the edge.

I think we officially have legit street cred in the players eyes.

Way more important and valuable then drafting 5th.

Tickle me cautiously optimistic.

POR has not signed a quality FA since 1998.