Dame requests a trade.

[DusterBuster]

Dame, Nurkic to Heat
Herro, Little, Johnson to Nets
Simmons, Lowery, Jovic, Robinson, 5 FRPs (3 from Miami, 2 from Nets) to Portland

[DaVoiceMaster]

Simons is only 23 or 24 years old. Do the Blazers keep him or trade him?

Trade him hopefully.

I'm in the same camp, but I'm thinking it may be better to wait until the deadline. Give him an opportunity to showcase and perhaps solidify or drive up his trade value.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Dame, Nurkic to Heat
Herro, Little, Johnson to Nets
Simmons, Lowery, Jovic, Robinson, 5 FRPs (3 from Miami, 2 from Nets)

I want Clowney and Whitehead from Brooklyn as part of the deal. I'm in line with 5 picks. 4 for Lillard and 1 for taking on Simmons.

I posted a trade on the T&T Board between Brooklyn and Portland only.

Trade 1
Lillard fir Simmons, Sharpe, and 5 picks (4 for Lillard, 1 for Simmons).

Trade 2
Nurkic for Harris TPE

Trade 3
Grant for Dinwiddie, Clowney, and Whithead.

I would either trade Dinwiddie for whatever I could get or waive him.

Simons/ Scoot
Sharpe / Johnson / Whitehead
Little Rupert
Clowney / Murray / Walker
Simmons / Sharpe

Showcase Simons and perhaps trade him at the trade deadline.

[Capn'O]

I think him waiting until the morning after getting Grant 160 million over five years was **** for him to do. I think then leaking it to the public via Haynes was also **** to do - because of the aforementioned Grant signing.

I'm a big Dame fan. I do think the organization, specifically Olshey, failed him. And I don't mind the trade request in and of itself. But I don't think they give Grant 5/160 without Dame's signoff and so I think it's **** of him to wait until that's in place then publicly request a trade. I've been a bit frustrated by his comments since the end of the season of not wanting to play with 19 year olds, which I did feel did Portland a bit of a disservice since teams knew Portland was desperate - I think I made a comment about this in early June or late May when I gregariously wrote that he needed to stop saying it, even though I got his frustration.

Each of those components separate and by themselves I don't mind. Giving Grant 160/5 is rough to see and I think a bad contract, but I'm happy for Jerami he got paid. Power to him. Dame requesting a trade, I get it. Sad day, but I get it. Dame leaking it to Haynes, we all knew that was coming if it ever happened. Expected and no hard feelings. Combined together? Feels kind of **** by Dame.

Prior to this I was fine with making sure he got to Miami, but with the Grant stuff in place I now hope POrtland finds the best deal possible. I don't have faith in Cronin to get that done, but I will hope.

Thanks for the eleven years, Dame. Disappointed it kind of ended with him helping saddle Portland to Grant for that length of time.

I give Dame the benefit of the doubt here in that I think Portland was gonna sign Grant anyway. A few reasons for this.

Teams have to hit the salary floor and Grant is a solid enough player that he can still be moved. So the Blazers had incentives not to let him walk. But beyond that, simply resigning Grant with Lillard doesn't make the Blazers contenders.

My guess is there were other threads out there and both parties waited until those loops were closed before Dame made the request.

The timing and optics are suspect but I don't think anyone did the other party dirty here. It's a clean break. I'm gonna miss watching him play here.

There's a big difference, though, of 'meeting the salary floor' versus '160 million over 5 years.'. Now if that fifth year isn't guaranteed, okay, that's a vastly changed scenario. And no, resigning Grant doesn't make the Blazers contenders even with Dame, but it's a piece.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth, but looks dirty from Dame's end at his moment.

Look, endings are messy. Even when both parties earnestly want to make it work.

On Dame's end, I was about 95% sure he was gone when they made the Hart trade. There he was wanting to compete, they were within striking distance of a playin spot (look at the Heat), and they move the guy with the second best impact rating on the team for a crap player and an asset. Then they draft his replacement.

They can say they wanted to keep him but the actions show them going the other way. Which honestly makes the most sense. There wasn't a power move available.

While it would have been nice for him to say it at the beginning of the offseason, he probably needed to see things play out a bit to make the decision.

[The Sebastian Express]

I give Dame the benefit of the doubt here in that I think Portland was gonna sign Grant anyway. A few reasons for this.

Teams have to hit the salary floor and Grant is a solid enough player that he can still be moved. So the Blazers had incentives not to let him walk. But beyond that, simply resigning Grant with Lillard doesn't make the Blazers contenders.

My guess is there were other threads out there and both parties waited until those loops were closed before Dame made the request.

The timing and optics are suspect but I don't think anyone did the other party dirty here. It's a clean break. I'm gonna miss watching him play here.

There's a big difference, though, of 'meeting the salary floor' versus '160 million over 5 years.'. Now if that fifth year isn't guaranteed, okay, that's a vastly changed scenario. And no, resigning Grant doesn't make the Blazers contenders even with Dame, but it's a piece.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth, but looks dirty from Dame's end at his moment.

Look, endings are messy. Even when both parties earnestly want to make it work.

On Dame's end, I was about 95% sure he was gone when they made the Hart trade. There he was wanting to compete, they were within striking distance of a playin spot (look at the Heat), and they move the guy with the second best impact rating on the team for a crap player and an asset. Then they draft his replacement.

They can say they wanted to keep him but the actions show them going the other way. Which honestly makes the most sense. There wasn't a power move available.

While it would have been nice for him to say it at the beginning of the offseason, he probably needed to see things play out a bit to make the decision.

None of us are angry at Dame requesting a trade. It's okay to criticize him for the way he went about it and the timing. Playing out isn't 17 hours. Dame could've easily said, "Hey, if we have no shot at Draymond, then I'm going to want to go." and then when Draymond resigned immediately, Portland could have rethought the deal with Grant.

It very much looks, at least right now, that Dame didn't give a firm answer or set of circumstances and waited long enough for Grant to get his deal agreed to. And I don't mind Jerami getting himself paid at all.

But Dame could've done this better. We will all wish Dame his best on his next team, but that doesn't make him immune from criticisms for the actions he very much chose to take over the last 24 hours. Criticism doesn't mean angry, it just means criticism.

[Capn'O]

There's a big difference, though, of 'meeting the salary floor' versus '160 million over 5 years.'. Now if that fifth year isn't guaranteed, okay, that's a vastly changed scenario. And no, resigning Grant doesn't make the Blazers contenders even with Dame, but it's a piece.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth, but looks dirty from Dame's end at his moment.

Look, endings are messy. Even when both parties earnestly want to make it work.

On Dame's end, I was about 95% sure he was gone when they made the Hart trade. There he was wanting to compete, they were within striking distance of a playin spot (look at the Heat), and they move the guy with the second best impact rating on the team for a crap player and an asset. Then they draft his replacement.

They can say they wanted to keep him but the actions show them going the other way. Which honestly makes the most sense. There wasn't a power move available.

While it would have been nice for him to say it at the beginning of the offseason, he probably needed to see things play out a bit to make the decision.

None of us are angry at Dame requesting a trade. It's okay to criticize him for the way he went about it and the timing. Playing out isn't 17 hours. Dame could've easily said, "Hey, if we have no shot at Draymond, then I'm going to want to go." and then when Draymond resigned immediately, Portland could have rethought the deal with Grant.

It very much looks, at least right now, that Dame didn't give a firm answer or set of circumstances and waited long enough for Grant to get his deal agreed to. And I don't mind Jerami getting himself paid at all.

But Dame could've done this better. We will all wish Dame his best on his next team, but that doesn't make him immune from criticisms for the actions he very much chose to take over the last 24 hours. Criticism doesn't mean angry, it just means criticism.

That's fair. My point is that the Blazers weren't entirely straight with him either but not necessarily intentional. Did you see the clip of his face when Hart told him he was traded? He was not thinking of taking a step back.

Emotions are high here and I just think the benefit of the doubt has been earned on all sides here that there's not a malicious party.

[NotMyKawhi]

Nah. Barnes is the only Toronto piece that makes sense for Portland.

Right now the best offer is Herro lol you ain't getting barnes. Go take Herro

You're probably right, but it always cracks me up when a fan expects to get a super star without giving up a star in return, especially when they speak like they are plugged into the GMs office.

We'd give Pascal. But the market decides the value. So the heat won't give Bam? Nets won't give Bridges? Raptors offer Pascal or OG, 2 players better than anything those 2 teams are offering

[The Sebastian Express]

But my emotions aren't high. I think the only person who's exhibited high emotions here is case, honestly (and that isn't a criticism of case, who is very angry at the franchise). I think many of us expected it. We don't.. have reasons to have a high emotional response right now, I guess? The writing was sort of on the wall with the Scoot pick, despite how we hoped.

We have two great young guard prospects. We have all our picks. We will get more picks for Dame. We will tank for the next 3-5 years probably, yeah. Definitely the next 2-3. But Scoot is a very affable and loveable young man with a great intensity as well who seems happy to be here. Shaedon is smooth and so talented.

I think honestly we probably had more intense emotions/emotions running high yesterday with TWat being waived and the Jerami contract.

Now if fans from the Nets and Heat try to come troll us here on our board, yes emotions will run high. But most of the emotions running high are really over on bedge and probably the ripcity reddit and twitter.

and yeah he was disappointed about Josh getting traded. We all were, no doubt. But I think most of us understand why we traded Josh. And we got a pick out of it. So it is what it is.

[DusterBuster]

I give Dame the benefit of the doubt here in that I think Portland was gonna sign Grant anyway. A few reasons for this.

Teams have to hit the salary floor and Grant is a solid enough player that he can still be moved. So the Blazers had incentives not to let him walk. But beyond that, simply resigning Grant with Lillard doesn't make the Blazers contenders.

My guess is there were other threads out there and both parties waited until those loops were closed before Dame made the request.

The timing and optics are suspect but I don't think anyone did the other party dirty here. It's a clean break. I'm gonna miss watching him play here.

There's a big difference, though, of 'meeting the salary floor' versus '160 million over 5 years.'. Now if that fifth year isn't guaranteed, okay, that's a vastly changed scenario. And no, resigning Grant doesn't make the Blazers contenders even with Dame, but it's a piece.

I doubt we'll ever know the truth, but looks dirty from Dame's end at his moment.

Look, endings are messy. Even when both parties earnestly want to make it work.

On Dame's end, I was about 95% sure he was gone when they made the Hart trade. There he was wanting to compete, they were within striking distance of a playin spot (look at the Heat), and they move the guy with the second best impact rating on the team for a crap player and an asset. Then they draft his replacement.

They can say they wanted to keep him but the actions show them going the other way. Which honestly makes the most sense. There wasn't a power move available.

While it would have been nice for him to say it at the beginning of the offseason, he probably needed to see things play out a bit to make the decision.

The Hart trade was justifiable. It was a good season to tank with Wemby on the market and it damn near worked, at least it got them into Top 3.

When I was like, oh, they don’t care… that’s we when they used every pick in the draft and did nothing else. At that point the writing was on the wall. Especially Cronin’s ridiculous press conference where he was clearly lying poorly.

[The Sebastian Express]

Right now the best offer is Herro lol you ain't getting barnes. Go take Herro

You're probably right, but it always cracks me up when a fan expects to get a super star without giving up a star in return, especially when they speak like they are plugged into the GMs office.

We'd give Pascal. But the market decides the value. So the heat won't give Bam? Nets won't give Bridges? Raptors offer Pascal or OG, 2 players better than anything those 2 teams are offering

But you're only going to give those. And those guys are expiring. Portland cannot trade Dame for an expiring player and have that be the only thing they get. It's why they'll look for young players and picks.

[Capn'O]

...

I meant Dame's emotions.

He's acting like somebody who's legitimately torn.

[The Sebastian Express]

...

I meant Dame's emotions.

Fair, my bad.

[NotMyKawhi]

You're probably right, but it always cracks me up when a fan expects to get a super star without giving up a star in return, especially when they speak like they are plugged into the GMs office.

We'd give Pascal. But the market decides the value. So the heat won't give Bam? Nets won't give Bridges? Raptors offer Pascal or OG, 2 players better than anything those 2 teams are offering

But you're only going to give those. And those guys are expiring. Portland cannot trade Dame for an expiring player and have that be the only thing they get. It's why they'll look for young players and picks.

Expiring OG or Pascal has more value than Herro or Ben Simmons. Dick has more value than any prospect the heat have. And you can get young guys and picks for Pascal or OG

You need to find a team that wants Dame, has 50 million in salary to send out and can stay championship level after giving up young assets for Dame. Has to work for both sides

[The Sebastian Express]

We'd give Pascal. But the market decides the value. So the heat won't give Bam? Nets won't give Bridges? Raptors offer Pascal or OG, 2 players better than anything those 2 teams are offering

But you're only going to give those. And those guys are expiring. Portland cannot trade Dame for an expiring player and have that be the only thing they get. It's why they'll look for young players and picks.

Expiring OG or Pascal has more value than Herro or Ben Simmons. Dick has more value than any prospect the heat have. And you can get young guys and picks for Pascal or OG

You need to find a team that wants Dame, has 50 million in salary to send out and can stay championship level after giving up young assets for Dame. Has to work for both sides

Since you think teams will give up picks and young guys for Pascal or OG, you make that deal. Tell me who the third team is in a trade with Portland and Toronto for Dame.

[DusterBuster]

Look, endings are messy. Even when both parties earnestly want to make it work.

On Dame's end, I was about 95% sure he was gone when they made the Hart trade. There he was wanting to compete, they were within striking distance of a playin spot (look at the Heat), and they move the guy with the second best impact rating on the team for a crap player and an asset. Then they draft his replacement.

They can say they wanted to keep him but the actions show them going the other way. Which honestly makes the most sense. There wasn't a power move available.

While it would have been nice for him to say it at the beginning of the offseason, he probably needed to see things play out a bit to make the decision.

None of us are angry at Dame requesting a trade. It's okay to criticize him for the way he went about it and the timing. Playing out isn't 17 hours. Dame could've easily said, "Hey, if we have no shot at Draymond, then I'm going to want to go." and then when Draymond resigned immediately, Portland could have rethought the deal with Grant.

It very much looks, at least right now, that Dame didn't give a firm answer or set of circumstances and waited long enough for Grant to get his deal agreed to. And I don't mind Jerami getting himself paid at all.

But Dame could've done this better. We will all wish Dame his best on his next team, but that doesn't make him immune from criticisms for the actions he very much chose to take over the last 24 hours. Criticism doesn't mean angry, it just means criticism.

That's fair. My point is that the Blazers weren't entirely straight with him either but not necessarily intentional. Did you see the clip of his face when Hart told him he was traded? He was not thinking of taking a step back.

Emotions are high here and I just think the benefit of the doubt has been earned on all sides here that there's not a malicious party.

Agreed to all this from all sides.

Aside of all that, if the Blazers do keep Grant, I can’t wait for that awkward presser with Cronin trying terribly to sell this mess.

[Capn'O]

...

I meant Dame's emotions.

Fair, my bad.

I should have clarified.


In any event, I remember situations in my own life where I needed to leave a person or situation that I really liked and acted a damn fool. This has that smell to me.

I'm personally sad about it. I loved watching him play for Portland. I moved out here about 11 years ago which basically coincided with his tenure. I'm excited for the young guys though.

[DiegoChara]

We'd give Pascal. But the market decides the value. So the heat won't give Bam? Nets won't give Bridges? Raptors offer Pascal or OG, 2 players better than anything those 2 teams are offering

But you're only going to give those. And those guys are expiring. Portland cannot trade Dame for an expiring player and have that be the only thing they get. It's why they'll look for young players and picks.

Expiring OG or Pascal has more value than Herro or Ben Simmons. Dick has more value than any prospect the heat have. And you can get young guys and picks for Pascal or OG

You need to find a team that wants Dame, has 50 million in salary to send out and can stay championship level after giving up young assets for Dame. Has to work for both sides

Correct. It has to work for both sides. Expiring contracts on win now players don’t work for Portland. Pascal and OG make no sense for us.

[NotMyKawhi]

But you're only going to give those. And those guys are expiring. Portland cannot trade Dame for an expiring player and have that be the only thing they get. It's why they'll look for young players and picks.

Expiring OG or Pascal has more value than Herro or Ben Simmons. Dick has more value than any prospect the heat have. And you can get young guys and picks for Pascal or OG

You need to find a team that wants Dame, has 50 million in salary to send out and can stay championship level after giving up young assets for Dame. Has to work for both sides

Since you think teams will give up picks and young guys for Pascal or OG, you make that deal. Tell me who the third team is in a trade with Portland and Toronto for Dame.

Idk but I do know the heat have no prospects. And not many teams can send out 50 million in salary while staying championship level.

You can get 3 1st round picks from NY for OG.

[Moonbeam]

I'll try to get my emotions out in a single post here if I can help it.

This feels like a massive punch to the gut. It's not entirely surprising, but it sure has taken the air out of the room for me. I'll try not to wax poetic here too much, but I'll say this: Damian Lillard made basketball in Portland worth watching when I didn't think it would be possible after the heartbreak of the Roy and Oden career-ending injuries. He immediately came in and added not just excitement, but incredible value. He has been everything I would want in a franchise cornerstone, and still is. It's going to take a long time to move past this.

Portland absolutely has failed him. Unequivocally. After LMA left, there have been 8 years for Olshey and Cronin to get an All-Star running mate. 8 years. There absolutely have been assets that could have been used in trades that would have returned a star, particularly from 2017-2020, but also the past couple drafts with the #7 and now the #3 picks. But the team never took a single swing. Not one. And for me, that makes the Blazers arguably the worst-managed team in the league. The Charlottes, Detroits, Sacramentos, 2020s Houstons, Washingtons, and Minnesotas of the league have never had anything close to resembling a top-10 player like Portland has had the luxury of having with Lillard. They've been largely at the bottom of the league because they haven't been able to get a top-10 player. But even some of those teams have taken swings. Sacramento trading Haliburton for Sabonis. Minnesota bringing in Jimmy Butler. Detroit trading for Blake Griffin. It didn't work out for Minnesota or Detroit ultimately, and Sacramento may top off as a 1st round team, but they at least tried. Instead, Portland fans have gotten the "not a product of the roster" rhetoric, the "that's proprietary, Sean" arrogance, and now, the "we're committed to building a winning team around Dame" lie when most of the team's moves (aside from the now extremely puzzling Grant re-signing) have said otherwise.

Hopefully Scoot and/or Shaedon can take the reins the way Damian did and give Blazer fans legitimate hope, joy, and reason to watch Blazer basketball. But it's going to be very difficult for either of them (or someone else) to come close to combining the on-court and off-court impact and legacy that Damian Lillard has had.

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I know many fans have been eager for Portland to move in this direction, and I genuinely hope that you're right and I'm wrong. It's going to be a tender time for Blazerdom for awhile, so I'd ask that everyone be as kind to each other as possible. We're united in rooting for a team that has... put us through a lot. If nothing else, let's rally behind that on this forum.

[NotMyKawhi]

The heats best prospect is precious. We have him.

Scoot, Sharpe, OG, Grant, Nurk
Ant, Dick, Naz, precious, koloko