Lillard to Request a Trade Edit: Lillard does not request a trade.

[Epicurus]

I just can't buy that an 82 game season is meaningless. It certainly is not for my enjoyment in watching folks playing at a higher level than I was able to do. I also find wins during the season very enjoyable and not lessened by some 7 game series where anything can happen. Certainly my enjoyment isn't predicated by requiring an NBA championship which only one team can have.

Defensive improvement is needed, but so is the health of your best defender in the key defensive position (especially when his backup needs alongside help to be merely adequate defensively). Yet the trick is not just to improve the defense but keep the offense as one of the best in the league. Improvement in the net is what matters. The team you suggest probably would be a better defense, but perhaps a far worse offense.

[DusterBuster]

I just can't buy that an 82 game season is meaningless. It certainly is not for my enjoyment in watching folks playing at a higher level than I was able to do. I also find wins during the season very enjoyable and not lessened by some 7 game series where anything can happen. Certainly my enjoyment isn't predicated by requiring an NBA championship which only one team can have.

Defensive improvement is needed, but so is the health of your best defender in the key defensive position (especially when his backup needs alongside help to be merely adequate defensively). Yet the trick is not just to improve the defense but keep the offense as one of the best in the league. Improvement in the net is what matters. The team you suggest probably would be a better defense, but perhaps a far worse offense.

Meaningless to what Dame is concerned about. 50 win teams are great for fans, Dame wants more and that's not an opinion or guess, he's made that explicitly clear.

[PDXKnight]

If we can’t add star number 2 I think truly dealing him might be best for us. Yes on one hand he’s a once in a decade type of superstar for the blazers & this is a huge squandered opportunity if olshey couldn’t get anyone good enough around him via the draft or trade but if we aren’t gonna be able to add that second star why (yes we should try first of course) then the logical path is to rebuild with assets that put us on a greater path to glory aka winning a championship

I hope we can win it with dame but is it realistic now? who knows. And if dame goes we better offload olshey as well

[Epicurus]

I think nearly all players and coaches want more, want a ring. Lillard's hopes are not unique. I also doubt if Lillard even with that grand hope is unhappy with seasonal wins. Indeed after winning games he always seems quite happy.

[PDXKnight]

I think nearly all players and coaches want more, want a ring. Lillard's hopes are not unique. I also doubt if Lillard even with that grand hope is unhappy with seasonal wins. Indeed after winning games he always seems quite happy.

If dame was happy with no championship i’d be more worried than i am at this juncture. But clearly we aka olshey has a lot of work to do. And clearly olshey isn’t the best man to fix this mess but we are stuck with him unless it blows up in his face so either way we are kinda screwed

[DusterBuster]

If we can’t add star number 2 I think truly dealing him might be best for us. Yes on one hand he’s a once in a decade type of superstar for the blazers & this is a huge squandered opportunity if olshey couldn’t get anyone good enough around him via the draft or trade but if we aren’t gonna be able to add that second star why (yes we should try first of course) then the logical path is to rebuild with assets that put us on a greater path to glory aka winning a championship

I hope we can win it with dame but is it realistic now? who knows. And if dame goes we better offload olshey as well

Yeah, at this point, I'm not opposed to a PG-style trade to just wipe the slate clean and get a metric s-ton of assets. Just wipe the slate clean and rip the bandaid off.

I'm with you tho, I want that slate wiped TOTALLY clean, so Olshey out too and just a whole new Blazers organization at that point. There's not much worry about going back to the JailBlazers era at this point, the NBA as a whole isn't really in jeopardy of having that come back like it was in the late 90's.

[DusterBuster]

I think nearly all players and coaches want more, want a ring. Lillard's hopes are not unique. I also doubt if Lillard even with that grand hope is unhappy with seasonal wins. Indeed after winning games he always seems quite happy.

Man... have you been paying attention at all this summer? This hasn't exactly been a well-guarded secret or a vague idea. Dame has been about as clear, honest, and open about this as humanly possible.

Literally... a straight quote from his mouth...

There are few reasons: One being I'm not getting any younger. Our environment has always been great. We’re not losing a lot, but we were eliminated by a shorthanded Denver team that I felt we should have beat. I just walked away from that really disappointed. I was like, ‘Man, this just isn't going to work.’ We're not winning the championship, but we’ve got a successful organization. We're not a franchise that’s just out here losing every year and getting divided. We have positive seasons; we just don't end up with a championship. So I feel like at this point, I basically made the decision that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you've always been. Just like I hold myself accountable for a bad performance or hold myself accountable to make sure that I work my ass off when I’m training, I must be accountable for saying what needs to be said even if it's not popular. And that just comes with age. When I was younger, I felt like maybe I'll be out of place, but I feel like I've earned the right to say we must do better. We must do better if we want to win on that level.

https://sports.yahoo.com/damian-lillard-on-trail-blazers-situation-we-must-do-better-if-we-want-to-win-on-that-level-160144638.html

This is very explicitly saying, winning seasons are nice, but I'm not satisfied with that. I don't know how much clearer that can be. It's not an opinion / best-guess thing on our part as fans, Dame is laying it out in black and white when it comes to this topic. The regular season doesn't matter, post-season success and rings do.

[Epicurus]

Yes, I just don't see the black/white that you seemingly do. He or anyone can be very unhappy with the end result, but yet happy at the wins of the season. Not mutually exclusive nor do his words remotely suggest that Lillard believes that the regular season doesn't matter. I don't see how a reasonable person can infer such.

[soobias]

as i said before, i don't want dame to leave i want N.O. fired but that looks like that's not happening anytime soon soooo....
it seems to me that dame is the most talked about player in the last month or 2 and it all stims around trade rumors.
at this point i would sell high before his value goes down like most players value, so right after the Olympics i would trade him but i would move the other pieces 1st and reconstruct most of the roster and try to keep the cap as flexible as possible.

dame is a special blazer and that's hard to come by but he is 31 and most start declining with age and so does the value. plus i don't think he wants to answer questions about N.O. and billups all year.

just too bad Seattle doesn't pay attention to whats going on with the team or there would've been changes long ago

[Norm2953]

Hard to pull off a second superstar type of trade under the best of circumstances but under these
circumstances, its likely impossible.

Let's see how badly those five teams who seem to be pursuing Dame, want him. If trade proposal
that brings back quality draft picks and good, young players is made, make the trade and level
with the fans that this trade is in their opinion, the best move for the team moving forward.

[DusterBuster]

Yes, I just don't see the black/white that you seemingly do. He or anyone can be very unhappy with the end result, but yet happy at the wins of the season. Not mutually exclusive nor do his words remotely suggest that Lillard believes that the regular season doesn't matter. I don't see how a reasonable person can infer such.

Man… are you reading English? Are we in two parallel worlds?

[Epicurus]

Apparently.

[Roy The Natural]

I think Simmons for Lillard even with some picks tossed in by Philly is a horrible deal for the Blazers

Im a 76ers fan, and I think you guys are looking at acquiring Simmons (if Dame requests a deal) the wrong way. It's one of the reasons Houston didn't make a deal with us. Simmons doesn't fit the timeline of a team blowing it up to rebuild. He makes a ton of money and helps enough to hurt your draft position. I think if Dame does request out and 76ers are a requested team I expect any potential deal to be a 3-way where Simmons goes to some 3rd team (Kings, Warriors, etc) and then that team/76ers combine picks/young players to go to Portland. However, even if Portland does acquire Ben, along with picks and lets say Maxey/Thybulle, their goal would be to trade Ben Simmons at some point during the season. So basically youd be getting two really nice young players, picks, and a nice piece to trade to acquire more assets later.

TL/DR People who think the Blazers would trade for Ben Simmons to build around or build for the future is misguided. He'd be used as a trade chip.

FOr example I thought up this deal on the fly: (dont take it serious, just giving you an idea of what Id expect to see in any Dame deal to Philly)

Kings get: Ben Simmons
76ers get: Dame, Covington
Blazers get: Haliburton, Maxey, Thybulle, Buddy Hield (to match salaries and to use as a trade chip later), #9 from Sac, #28 Philly, future draft considerations

Honestly, if I was a Blazers fan I was ready to blow it up this would be the perfect deal for me. You get 2 second year players with a TON of potential with Haliburton/Maxey...Thybulle continues to improve every year, is one of the best defenders in the league, and #9 /28/ future picks is a nice core of picks to use in the future.

Being unbiased, if I was a Blazers fan that would be the type of package I would want. I would then expect to deal CJ somewhere either during this off-season or before the trade deadline to a contender for more young prospects/picks. Then all of a sudden you have a sick core of picks/young players. Will probably suck and get a top 4 pick next year as well. Boom, you're ready to rebuild. Just my 2 cents.

Here in Philly Billy King made a pretty crappy deal when we finally unloaded Iverson. We got 2 picks that I believe were protected (from a good team), Andre Miller, and Joe Smith. Miller actually KILLED us that year by actually helping us win more games than we should have. This was the draft of Kevin Durant and when we traded Iverson we were absolute **** and in the running to get a high lottery pick. Miller joined Iguodala and they managed a meager 35 wins which killed our lottery odds. My point, when you blow it up, blow it up! Get young prospects, picks, and if you have to take any veterans trade them soon after. It's how our process netted us Joel Embiid, Simmons, etc. Could have been better if Fultz didn't forget how to shoot a basketball.

We'll see what happens, I have an uncle who lives in Oregon would love to visit out there one day. Peace

I keep seeing here and on reddit where Philly fans are convinced they will have the best package for trading for Dame. While I agree *if* we traded Dame to Philly a 3rd team to move Simmons would probably make the most sense, that makes me think Philly is one of the least likely scenarios that we'd move him to, simply because of how complicated it would be. I think the most likely scenario of us trading with Philly would be to pair Dame and Simmons, and while I understand most Philly fans think that's not fair compensation, I just don't see us being trade partners outside of that (though Chris Haynes suggests we wouldn't even trade CJ for Simmons, which makes me think we'd try to do some crazy S&T of Powell to Philly, which is definitely one of the more absurd trade scenarios I could imagine).
I think if we trade Dame we're going to want either top end draft picks, top end young talent on controlled salaries, or some combination of the two. GSW would seem to fit that bill in a "trade now" scenario. Knicks don't make any sense to me because it'd end up being the Carmelo trade all over again for them. Maybe Pelicans or Toronto if we make a trade that places value strictly on draft picks. I would have to assume that Portland would have and use the leverage they have with how long his contract is in place for to not just take whatever deal they could get from the exact team he wants to be traded to, but that's just my take on the situation. Point being, I see Philly as a trade partner in an attempt to keep Dame happy, not so much in a scenario where we decide to trade him.

Can you point me to where Chris Haynes implied anything about Simmons to Portland. Never seen I before but would be interested to read it listen to it.

[b33nine]

Can you point me to where Chris Haynes implied anything about Simmons to Portland. Never seen I before but would be interested to read it listen to it.

Watch on YouTube

He didn't imply Simmons to Portland, he seemed to suggest they would be interested in Simmons, but that they wouldn't even want to trade CJ for him.

[DusterBuster]

Can you point me to where Chris Haynes implied anything about Simmons to Portland. Never seen I before but would be interested to read it listen to it.

Watch on YouTube

He didn't imply Simmons to Portland, he seemed to suggest they would be interested in Simmons, but that they wouldn't even want to trade CJ for him.

FFS

[Wizenheimer]

Are we in two parallel worlds?

that's a question I want to ask my wife...but never do...because the world I'm on knows fear

[PDXKnight]

Are we in two parallel worlds?

that's a question I want to ask my wife...but never do...because the world I'm on knows fear

It feels like Men and women are from two different planets sometimes this is true

[Wizenheimer]

Are we in two parallel worlds?

that's a question I want to ask my wife...but never do...because the world I'm on knows fear

It feels like Men and women are from two different planets sometimes this is true

way way back in my formative years, when I was just learning to be an adult, you know, in my early 30's, I spent a few years working in construction in Alaska. That 1st summer up there, it was almost all just men there without their wives or GF's. Yeah, pretty horny days; fortunately, working 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, took all the energy out of growing those horns. No time for trouble.

anyway, we had that often saying: "women! you can't live with them, can't live without them"

well, one good thing about getting old(er) is that you realize only the first half of that statement is true. The point being that if men and women are from different planets, either I need to go back to where I'm from, or they do

[PDXKnight]

that's a question I want to ask my wife...but never do...because the world I'm on knows fear

It feels like Men and women are from two different planets sometimes this is true

way way back in my formative years, when I was just learning to be an adult, you know, in my early 30's, I spent a few years working in construction in Alaska. That 1st summer up there, it was almost all just men there without their wives or GF's. Yeah, pretty horny days; fortunately, working 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, took all the energy out of growing those horns. No time for trouble.

anyway, we had that often saying: "women! you can't live with them, can't live without them"

well, one good thing about getting old(er) is that you realize only the first half of that statement is true. The point being that if men and women are from different planets, either I need to go back to where I'm from, or they do

haha sounds like you were a union pipe fitter if i had to guess

[Wizenheimer]

haha sounds like you were a union pipe fitter if i had to guess

no...residential and commercial framer, mostly