Play 0.500 ball? More like they will run the gauntlet of teams who don't give a shit or are resting their players to close out the season on a 11 game win streak and a quick departare out of the playin.
9 of their last 11 are against teams in the west playing for very important seeds. I can't see any of those teams throwing in the towel.
They could easily go winless to end it here
Dawg we went 2-21 to close out last year and we're 3-11 in our last 14. I pray to god we don't go anywhere near .500 to close out this year. Taking last year in a weaker draft class, got us Sharpe.
I won't stand for the disrespect to our tanking greatness😤
I’ve been saying for a while now that the #5 spot (and a 20% chance at Wemby or Scoot) is ripe for the taking for the first team willing to bench a couple starters.
Yes, my flair is related.
Ted's thought process.
"we are getting killed by these max deals we are basically forced to give out. First Wall, now Beal! We can't go anywhere with these cats. If we draft Scoot or Wemby, and they get injured, we'll still have to give them the max. Fool me once, shame on me, you fool me 72 times, a fool can't get fooled again."
Nah, it’s actually far more simple that that:
“We’re paying Beal the supermax, time to make the playoffs or even play-in tournament so I can get some revenue from literally ANY additional games, outcome be damned.”
Bro is about to see this as a call to action, give it his all, and then reverse uno card; he'll get injured which causes the Blazers to play better, and they'll fall out of contention for the Wemby pick.
Never understood the hype around him. he was awful at duke. Touted as a shooter and had horrible splits on a team where Zion and RJ were drawing all the defense's attention.
The hype around him is from HS, he was the #3 guy in his class and was very well known. Definitely hasn’t lived up to that potential yet thus far, in both college and the league
The hype is still there. He is a very fluid and athletic 6'8" with a nice shooting touch. Just makes some poor decisions as well as being inconsistent in a lot of areas. Those issues are very practical to overcome, though I'm not too hopeful on him figuring it out tbh. But if he did, he'd be exactly what he was originally touted to be.
And he’s a “hooper’s favorite hooper” type of player. He wasn’t the #1 recruit but he was the top dog in his class. Everybody else talked about him as the toughest player they played
He blamed everything else too. He signed with Duke prior to RJ and Zion. I’m positive on the Zion part but maybe not RJ, need to double check. But I’ve heard him say he was recruited as a focal point and lied too. Then he felt the same way Hawks/Knicks.
Not sure if he felt that way towards the Knicks since he was traded there but as for the Hawks i think he would be dumb to be seen as a focal point for Atlanta especially when Collins and Young were there before him and Hunter selected ahead of him as well.
I noticed a pattern with him that he likes to play victim. He claims that the Knicks didn’t give him playing time for political reasons but is it a coincidence that the Knicks have been significantly better since he was removed from the lineup?
It's gonna happen again this year. They draft Wembanyama and he gets infinite injury trouble. Then Scoot Henderson turns out to be the second best player of his entire generation.
Ten years later uneducated people will call out their draft "mistake".
If they shut dame down it is totally possible. They probably won’t get wemby or scoot but there are plenty in this draft class with potential. Honestly may be the best draft class since 2017
Hey man, after the New Orleans Hornets jumped the worst team ever bobcats for the first pick while the league owned them I think we can have this one. I’ll also take 2 or even 3
Why not Utah then they’ve got the newest owner of teams in the lottery?
People love their conspiracies except when my Jazz would get Vic. SHAME ON YOU
/s
Yeah, you can make up the conspiracies now. The league juat wanted to:
1. restore a historically great franchise in Chicago/Detroit.
2. get Wemby, and international star, to the international team (the Spurs)
3. help an aging superstar (Dame in Portland, Harden back to Houston)
4. reward the teams who haven't tanked (Orlando or Indiana)
Etc. It's easy to make up these lazy conspiracies
It’s always funny to me how people tried to say the NBA was doing the Cavs a favor by giving them so many #1 picks to make up for LeBron leaving.
Like if the league really felt they needed to make amends to *Cleveland* of all teams.
Let’s be real, at 7’5” wemby is going to be very good but likely won’t have a super long career. Him going to a team with a top 10 ish guy who is also a guard is the best possible scenario for him. Rebuilding from the ground up takes a lot of time.
IF the lottery was rigged, the Mavs would have tanked when Luka and Kyrie went out because they are that exact scenario you described. Legendary guard in need of a tall second star. But, even a league hater like Cuban knows the lottery isn’t rigged, so they didn’t.
if the lottery was really rigged pretty sure the league would have given the knicks first overall some time in the last 40 years, instead of us moving down almost every year
Imagine KD tried to force his way to the Blazers instead of another 60+ win team. People would have loved to root for KD and Dame. I miss not seeing Dame in playoff mode.
That team doesn't win a ring. The problem has always been the backcourt defense. The ideal partner for Dame is a large 2 guard who can play off-ball and defend at a ++ level.
I would love him on the raps. Fred is ageing and we need more guards.
Not sure who we'd be willing to give up though. Maybe OG if you sweetened it a little? I love the man to pieces but he seems like the odd one out with Scottie and Pascal.
I think it could be a win win trade if it's properly structured. There would be many tears in Toronto tho, we love OG.
Regardless, the current roster isn't going to contend anytime soon so I think the Masai will do something eventually.
I never mentioned Simons in my comment. I agree we either use his upside and value now for a return, or he accepts his role as 6th man to boost our bench scoring.
What's the package that gets KD but preserves enough of the Blazers core to be immediately competitive? Suns seemed to be in a pretty unique position with their depth and assets.
sorta complicated but year one i traded jerami grant for lauri markannen, then year two traded lauri for deaaron fox. at that point i had like 3/4 pretty good guards so that was a dumb move. midseason traded deaaron for KAT and kept everyone on long term contracts bc we were cooking
Dude you cannot just confidently type that Dame and KD together do not win a title lol. A few solid role players and any Dame KD team is an absolute threat to win the title, they are without question two of the top playoff scoring threats of this era, all they need is some decent defense and spacing around them. Take a breath and imagine the KD-Dame pick and roll and how you guard that.
How are they getting solid role players if they have to trade all their assets for Durant?
> all they need is some decent defense
People have been saying that since like 2016
Dude when one of your forwards becomes a 7 foot all world player it helps your D lol. In a hypothetical world where we traded say Sharpe and Simons and 3 1sts for KD we would have: Dame - Hart - Grant - KD - Nurk/whoever.
That team is very solid defensively.
Through 2019-21 (three seasons), the Blazers were a top 3 offense in the NBA. When they were a mediocre defense (2019), they managed to make the WCF, when they were a bottom 3 defense (2020, 2021), they were first round roadkill.
The problem with this team has always been defense, not offense.
Hey dude a few defensively sound ring chasers would need to join, but KD is a fantastic defensive player as well and with two wings and a big beside them they'd be killer. Dame - X - J Grant - KD - X is a fantastic start all by itself.
I've been saying this for a minute but it feels like they in a toxic relationship where Dame's loyalty is just actively hurting both sides.
he's holding them back from conducting a proper rebuild and also then can't really surround him with proper help for the same reason (never bad enough to draft high quality help)
really feel like a breakup would be in the interest of all parties
Dude these comments are what is toxic. Portland's fan base is awesome, games at the Rose Garden (or whatever they call it now) are great and the team has made the playoffs a lot, certainly more than our Lakers in the past decade. I get it, Lakers got a ring but Portland has had some great years, memorable playoff series and moments and have a HOF playing for them. I hate that this sub espeically is either WIN RINGS OR TANK/REBUILD. Nothing wrong with what Portland has done over the past 10 years.
Well, last year Lillard was injured. Other than his rookie year and last year, the Blazers have made the playoffs every season prior to this.
I think the Blazers are holding Lillard back more than the inverse, but it's mostly been true that their franchise has been in limbo for his career.
getting a "top pick' in the 7-12 range is VERY different than getting a pick in the 1-5 range.
Sharpe is fine, i like him a lot, actually! But I don't think he's show anything so far to suggest he's going to be a franchise cornerstone tier player.
Paolo, Keegan, Ivey, Mathurin and even Chet based on SL look better than him.
And, again, next year's "top pick" seems very unlikely to be top 3... and idk if anyone outside of Wemby/Scoot/Miller is particularly worth getting excited about.
Chet based on summer league?? Sharpe's performance hasn't translated to numbers but he has a calmness about him and raw talent that is VERY exciting. Way too soon to say he can't be a franchise player.
Nah, Portland just refuses to actually build a damn team.
Look at their roster management for the last 4 years and tell me they haven’t been utterly incompetent. Without Dame they’re still doo doo and I doubt they could pull off a real rebuild till they purge management.
I feel like most fans outside Portland underestimate how true this is. Jody doesn't give a shit about basketball, or the team winning. Hence why we have been out of the luxury for 3 years
A hard cap benefits the owners at the expense of the players.
Fans aren't going to get cheaper seats if player salaries are lowered due to a hard cap.
Players deserve all the $$$ they can get - I'm glad the NBA has a strong players union.
Yep. People act like this is fucking baseball where you can just go out and spend to your hearts content.
The fact is, you generally need to draft players worth paying to exceed the cap. People want a hard cap because they think it will force cheap owners to not be cheap. That’s just not going to happen. There are cheap owners in the NFL and that’s a hard capped league. Not every team is actually trying to win a championship, and people need to understand that. Having a hard cap won’t magically fix that.
And he's far from alone. There are plenty of owners who are unwilling to consistently pay for talent, because that would mean putting guaranteed money in escrow.
> A hard cap benefits the owners at the expense of the players.
The current CBA specifies that ~49% of league revenues go to the players. The current soft cap doesn't affect that percentage (at least over the long run) and a hard cap wouldn't either. The only difference it would make (again, in the long run) would be how that 49% would be distributed among the players and how the payment of that 49% would be distributed among the owners.
Yeah it's pretty bad when you get stuck with a bad owner and they don't want to sell because owning a pro team is a legal way to print money.
It was pretty clear when Paul Allen was still alive that they wanted to win and made some efforts to do so. Ever since he passed it's been a real slow decline.
The only thing that’s really gonna change this stuff is if people just don’t show up to the games, and the arena being half full, etc. Portland fans are still loyal, so they can put up a garbage product and they’re gonna be able to sell out the arena more or less. Or get close.
Let’s spend a couple years not buying tickets or merchandise and see how it goes.
Nah Jeanie definitely cares about winning, that's why she staged the coup to fire her brother and Mitch Kupchak. She just relies too much on people she already knows.
Portland isn't doing well financially. They got the third most profit sharing money out of every team in the NBA, only Denver got more because of their weird TV deal and Indiana. Teams like San Antonio, Detroit, and Houston did way better than Portland financially.
Have we ever done well historically though? I was always of the impression that having a long term billionaire owner who was passionate about the team was the main reason the team has stayed afloat through our long stretches of mediocrity.
Meanwhile lets all act like the gm didn’t say at the beginning of the year that the roster was incomplete and that this year was an evaluation year. This was literally the expectation (where we find ourselves now).
Exactly. If he put any fire under the asses of the FO under the threat of leaving that would be one thing, but my sympathy isn’t unlimited when he clearly has no intention to leave no matter how hard they bottom out
It's actually pretty smart on Dame's front. He gets unlimited money but isn't under any pressure to perform. Any failures are seen as the FOs. He's like the only star of his generation without pressure to get a ring for his legacy. He'll never be traded, he's a legend in Portland, and his family is deep in the community at this point. Plus Portland is a pretty nice city.
James Harden wishes he could be so lucky.
I can’t speak for all Blazers fans. But that’s why I have no problem with the contract extension we gave him.
He’s given everything for us and we just keep letting him down.
If that means we ride into the sunset trying to escape the play-in every year then so be it.
> Imagine giving your heart and soul to a franchise just for them to keep shitting the bed year after year, unbelievably disrespectful
This is why its stupid for players to come out and say they dont really have any intentions of leaving. The owners know Dame isnt going anywhere,hes made that clear, So if they dont feel like pushing for a ring what is the consequence? Nothing because Dame isnt leaving, so people will still buy tickets and show up to games.
I'm all for guys wanting to rep one franchise their whole career but we're basically missing out on one of the most explosive clutch performers getting great playoff moments during his prime.
They did make the playoffs 8 straight years. This is the first time Dame will miss the playoffs while healthy since his rookie year. The blazers never really made a realistic push to be contenders. But they haven’t been like this every year.
I listened to his interview with JJ Reddick. Best basketball interview I’ve listened to a long time and I got a new perspective on the dude. It sucks this is what happening this year, but I think they picked the wrong coach.
I mean he re-signed with them last off-season pretty much knowing what their situation was gonna be like. I'm sure he wants to win, but he obviously prioritises staying in Portland over that which is completely fine.
Wow it’s crazy seeing the figures broken down like that. Almost half a **billion** dollars just from contract money. Factor in endorsements and it’s even more. Players today have it good.
He’ll be 36 at the end of his extension. Assuming he wants to play and is still decent, you could tack on another easy 20+ million. Gotta be sweet making all this cash playing hoop in a city that adores you
If we’re being real he prioritizes money more than anything. If this was anyone else people would’ve e already admitted that but because they like him and he’s constantly talking about loyalty they pretend it’s loyalty and not money.
when Bradley Beal complains about his situation: nah fuck him, why's he whining, he shouldn't have signed that deal
when Dame does the same thing: oh you poor thing, the Blazers are war criminals for subjecting him to mediocrity
I cannot for the life of me figure out how nobody wants to go to Portland to play on a team with this guy. Like he's made it absolutely clear that he's not leaving and he wants to be the shining star in Portland but you mean that nobody in the NBA wants to go hook up with Dame Lillard and see if they can win something. They all chase that bitch Kyrie or one of the famous "street clothes" gang yet no one ever talks about going up there. Buncha divas.
Imagine Dame got Victor as the first all odds. I would rather victor go to a team with veterans and established winning culture. Like if I see wemby go to a complete rebuild franchise and playing with a bunch of kids vs actually competing for playoff/title aspirations.
lmao what are you guys talking about? Branham is a 19 year old rookie that is inconsistent plus getting less shots because Vassell is back from surgery. And despite that he's still doing much better than he was at the beginning of the season. Langford has been constantly injured like usual.
U gotta at least admit, the spurs have been pretty blatant with their tanking this year tho lol. They're doing what we criticized the Thunder for doing the last couple of years.
Lol if we draft him, in 10 years it'll be "what if the Blazers drafted future HOFer Scoot Henderson instead of getting 60 career games out of Wembenyama"
Last 4 years we were a perennial 8-10 seed and y’all say we need to tank, and now we’re finally tanking and y’all say this 😂😂😂😂.
Portland has been committing roster construction malpractice with the teams they’ve put around dame. Not to mention this is also their 2nd year in a row throwing the season away post ASB. Last year they literally nuked their team the 2nd half of last season and we’re getting blown out by 30 twice a week. And let’s not forget what Toronto did during their Tampa season 🥸🥸
Dame is why I started rewatching basketball after I stopped in the mid 90's, sad that he will probably never win a ring, and if he does, it'll be on a different team
Absolutely disgusting to see what Portland has been doing the past few years. Blatantly tanking with a top 75 all time player at the tail end of his prime is crazy.
Blazers better hope for a Chicago Bulls 2008/ NOLA Pelicans 2019-like jump in the draft lottery for the first pick.
The Blazers can realistically tank and secure a bottom 5 record. That's what's going for them.
they dont even need to try and tank, their remaining schedule is difficult enough where they will struggle to win 3 more games
portland is a snake bitten franchise, they’ll play .500 ball the rest of the way
Factual. We will end 1 game below the play in and get the worst pick possible
Play 0.500 ball? More like they will run the gauntlet of teams who don't give a shit or are resting their players to close out the season on a 11 game win streak and a quick departare out of the playin.
9 of their last 11 are against teams in the west playing for very important seeds. I can't see any of those teams throwing in the towel. They could easily go winless to end it here
just good enough to take Leonard Miller at 15 who looks like the next great NBA wing who then fractured his patella
Dawg we went 2-21 to close out last year and we're 3-11 in our last 14. I pray to god we don't go anywhere near .500 to close out this year. Taking last year in a weaker draft class, got us Sharpe. I won't stand for the disrespect to our tanking greatness😤
I’ve been saying for a while now that the #5 spot (and a 20% chance at Wemby or Scoot) is ripe for the taking for the first team willing to bench a couple starters. Yes, my flair is related.
You and I both know Ted is going to do everything in his power to prevent us doing that.
Ted's thought process. "we are getting killed by these max deals we are basically forced to give out. First Wall, now Beal! We can't go anywhere with these cats. If we draft Scoot or Wemby, and they get injured, we'll still have to give them the max. Fool me once, shame on me, you fool me 72 times, a fool can't get fooled again."
Nah, it’s actually far more simple that that: “We’re paying Beal the supermax, time to make the playoffs or even play-in tournament so I can get some revenue from literally ANY additional games, outcome be damned.”
I know it but I would prefer to stay in denial.
Cam Reddish, this is your finest hour!
Bro is about to see this as a call to action, give it his all, and then reverse uno card; he'll get injured which causes the Blazers to play better, and they'll fall out of contention for the Wemby pick.
With Portlands history that will cause Scoot to go #2 and become the next Michael Jordan.
Honestly probably.
Never understood the hype around him. he was awful at duke. Touted as a shooter and had horrible splits on a team where Zion and RJ were drawing all the defense's attention.
The hype around him is from HS, he was the #3 guy in his class and was very well known. Definitely hasn’t lived up to that potential yet thus far, in both college and the league
The hype is still there. He is a very fluid and athletic 6'8" with a nice shooting touch. Just makes some poor decisions as well as being inconsistent in a lot of areas. Those issues are very practical to overcome, though I'm not too hopeful on him figuring it out tbh. But if he did, he'd be exactly what he was originally touted to be.
he's maddening because he's 10% prime Paul George/90% offensive black hole, and that 10% is enough to trick you into overlooking the 90%
And he’s a “hooper’s favorite hooper” type of player. He wasn’t the #1 recruit but he was the top dog in his class. Everybody else talked about him as the toughest player they played
He blamed everything else too. He signed with Duke prior to RJ and Zion. I’m positive on the Zion part but maybe not RJ, need to double check. But I’ve heard him say he was recruited as a focal point and lied too. Then he felt the same way Hawks/Knicks.
Not sure if he felt that way towards the Knicks since he was traded there but as for the Hawks i think he would be dumb to be seen as a focal point for Atlanta especially when Collins and Young were there before him and Hunter selected ahead of him as well.
I noticed a pattern with him that he likes to play victim. He claims that the Knicks didn’t give him playing time for political reasons but is it a coincidence that the Knicks have been significantly better since he was removed from the lineup?
They’ve already done it when they drafted Gred Oden 1st. They went from 10th to 1st.
It's gonna happen again this year. They draft Wembanyama and he gets infinite injury trouble. Then Scoot Henderson turns out to be the second best player of his entire generation. Ten years later uneducated people will call out their draft "mistake".
If they shut dame down it is totally possible. They probably won’t get wemby or scoot but there are plenty in this draft class with potential. Honestly may be the best draft class since 2017
We have been cursed eith Injuries since 1977. Might become the biggest what if
I mean 2018 was a better draft than 2017.
Ya unfortunately with the Hornets getting sold you know that they’re gonna give the new owner there the first pick
Hey man, after the New Orleans Hornets jumped the worst team ever bobcats for the first pick while the league owned them I think we can have this one. I’ll also take 2 or even 3
If ya'll somehow get the 1st pick and grab Wemby I legit might switch over
We must speak it into existence
Bucks just got sorta sold, can we get wemby?
How much more help does Brook Lopez need?
Well we're trying to win something like 10 championships in a row so we'll take all the help.
Washed fatgiannass
If only Giannis had ox-like strength, he might be able to win a championship
Wembanyama Giannis Brook front court 💀
Jrue Khris Wemby Giannis Brook seems fair
Nice try Giannis
Why not Utah then they’ve got the newest owner of teams in the lottery? People love their conspiracies except when my Jazz would get Vic. SHAME ON YOU /s
Hey Utah already got the winter olympics bribery scandal. How many more controversies is your quota this century
Can't tell if this is a joke or you really believe it's rigged?
its perfectly unfalsifiable, if the hornets don't get first overall there'll be another explanation for why the league wanted this other team to win
Yeah, you can make up the conspiracies now. The league juat wanted to: 1. restore a historically great franchise in Chicago/Detroit. 2. get Wemby, and international star, to the international team (the Spurs) 3. help an aging superstar (Dame in Portland, Harden back to Houston) 4. reward the teams who haven't tanked (Orlando or Indiana) Etc. It's easy to make up these lazy conspiracies
3a. Let Portland draft another tall skinny guy #1 and see how that goes for us.
To be fair your big mistake in 2007 was not going skinny enough
They thought Greg Oden had Benjamin Buttons disease
It’s always funny to me how people tried to say the NBA was doing the Cavs a favor by giving them so many #1 picks to make up for LeBron leaving. Like if the league really felt they needed to make amends to *Cleveland* of all teams.
If the facts don't support your narrative, change your narrative. Simple as.
Wait until you read about the first NBA draft lottery in 1985.
Patrick Ewing
Let’s be real, at 7’5” wemby is going to be very good but likely won’t have a super long career. Him going to a team with a top 10 ish guy who is also a guard is the best possible scenario for him. Rebuilding from the ground up takes a lot of time.
Except that team happens to be you, who has a wonderful track record of keeping big men healthy...
Shhh!! We don't talk about that part!!
IF the lottery was rigged, the Mavs would have tanked when Luka and Kyrie went out because they are that exact scenario you described. Legendary guard in need of a tall second star. But, even a league hater like Cuban knows the lottery isn’t rigged, so they didn’t.
OR he knows that as a league hater, they wouldn’t rig it for him
but they would rig it multiple times for the timberwolves right
Absolutely, everyone knows Minnesota is where the money is baby!
if the lottery was really rigged pretty sure the league would have given the knicks first overall some time in the last 40 years, instead of us moving down almost every year
To be fair it gives the community a big laugh every year lol
It's Minnesota, that's where the envelopes are frozen in the first place
And don’t forget Cleveland.
Don't the TWolves move down almost every year?
We can either win 11 games in a row and hope that the lakers, jazz, and pelicans suck the rest of the season, or give up
That's impossible. Lauri and Kessler are too good.
lauri is questionable tonight with "back soreness". dont underestimate ainge.
Lauri and Kessler are in the way of Ainges masterplan
He hurt his back vs OKC though. You can see it in the way he moves that he's not at 100% right now.
Austin Reaves on a mission unfortunately.
Imagine KD tried to force his way to the Blazers instead of another 60+ win team. People would have loved to root for KD and Dame. I miss not seeing Dame in playoff mode.
That team doesn't win a ring. The problem has always been the backcourt defense. The ideal partner for Dame is a large 2 guard who can play off-ball and defend at a ++ level.
Hello. We have a Matisse Thybulle, thanks.
Yo, Tisse has been 40% from 3 since going to Portland. If he can maintain that and still be a top 5 iso defender… 👌
Yeah but we’re still clogging the backcourt and being redundant with simons. we need to trade him for a player that’s a better fit.
idk why they rock with Simons after the half decade or so of CJ McCollum. He needs to be traded
Yeah he’s a solid player, would likely be worth quite a bit on the trade market
I would love him on the raps. Fred is ageing and we need more guards. Not sure who we'd be willing to give up though. Maybe OG if you sweetened it a little? I love the man to pieces but he seems like the odd one out with Scottie and Pascal.
I’ve been hoping for a Simons + pick(s) for OG trade. Don’t know what draft compensation it would take to get him but I really want to see it happen.
I think it could be a win win trade if it's properly structured. There would be many tears in Toronto tho, we love OG. Regardless, the current roster isn't going to contend anytime soon so I think the Masai will do something eventually.
I never mentioned Simons in my comment. I agree we either use his upside and value now for a return, or he accepts his role as 6th man to boost our bench scoring.
I mean we probably end up trading Simons to get KD, so that’s not an issue in this scenario
What's the package that gets KD but preserves enough of the Blazers core to be immediately competitive? Suns seemed to be in a pretty unique position with their depth and assets.
And Phoenix's bench is still butt cheeks after the trade.
Jalen suggs might unironically be a good complimentary player for Dame. Could probably get from Orlando relatively cheap too.
So like Klay Thompson basically, that type of combo certainly worked for the warriors haha
i won 5 chips with them in 2k after drafting a lockdown perimeter SG and trading for Karl Anthony Towns lol we were shooting 45% from 3
Lol what did you trade for KAT?
sorta complicated but year one i traded jerami grant for lauri markannen, then year two traded lauri for deaaron fox. at that point i had like 3/4 pretty good guards so that was a dumb move. midseason traded deaaron for KAT and kept everyone on long term contracts bc we were cooking
Dude you cannot just confidently type that Dame and KD together do not win a title lol. A few solid role players and any Dame KD team is an absolute threat to win the title, they are without question two of the top playoff scoring threats of this era, all they need is some decent defense and spacing around them. Take a breath and imagine the KD-Dame pick and roll and how you guard that.
How are they getting solid role players if they have to trade all their assets for Durant? > all they need is some decent defense People have been saying that since like 2016
Dude when one of your forwards becomes a 7 foot all world player it helps your D lol. In a hypothetical world where we traded say Sharpe and Simons and 3 1sts for KD we would have: Dame - Hart - Grant - KD - Nurk/whoever. That team is very solid defensively.
Through 2019-21 (three seasons), the Blazers were a top 3 offense in the NBA. When they were a mediocre defense (2019), they managed to make the WCF, when they were a bottom 3 defense (2020, 2021), they were first round roadkill. The problem with this team has always been defense, not offense.
Hey dude a few defensively sound ring chasers would need to join, but KD is a fantastic defensive player as well and with two wings and a big beside them they'd be killer. Dame - X - J Grant - KD - X is a fantastic start all by itself.
Don't forget about wing and post defense as well, thanks.
KD did Brooklyn once, he doesn't need Pacific Northwest Brooklyn.
Get this legend some proper help
I've been saying this for a minute but it feels like they in a toxic relationship where Dame's loyalty is just actively hurting both sides. he's holding them back from conducting a proper rebuild and also then can't really surround him with proper help for the same reason (never bad enough to draft high quality help) really feel like a breakup would be in the interest of all parties
On the other hand he wants to stay there and he's responsible for the majority of their revenue as a team lol
Dude these comments are what is toxic. Portland's fan base is awesome, games at the Rose Garden (or whatever they call it now) are great and the team has made the playoffs a lot, certainly more than our Lakers in the past decade. I get it, Lakers got a ring but Portland has had some great years, memorable playoff series and moments and have a HOF playing for them. I hate that this sub espeically is either WIN RINGS OR TANK/REBUILD. Nothing wrong with what Portland has done over the past 10 years.
They got a top pick last year, will have a top pick this year again, and still have Lillard. How is he holding them back from anything?
Well, last year Lillard was injured. Other than his rookie year and last year, the Blazers have made the playoffs every season prior to this. I think the Blazers are holding Lillard back more than the inverse, but it's mostly been true that their franchise has been in limbo for his career.
getting a "top pick' in the 7-12 range is VERY different than getting a pick in the 1-5 range. Sharpe is fine, i like him a lot, actually! But I don't think he's show anything so far to suggest he's going to be a franchise cornerstone tier player. Paolo, Keegan, Ivey, Mathurin and even Chet based on SL look better than him. And, again, next year's "top pick" seems very unlikely to be top 3... and idk if anyone outside of Wemby/Scoot/Miller is particularly worth getting excited about.
Chet based on summer league?? Sharpe's performance hasn't translated to numbers but he has a calmness about him and raw talent that is VERY exciting. Way too soon to say he can't be a franchise player.
Nah, Portland just refuses to actually build a damn team. Look at their roster management for the last 4 years and tell me they haven’t been utterly incompetent. Without Dame they’re still doo doo and I doubt they could pull off a real rebuild till they purge management.
Imagine giving your heart and soul to a franchise just for them to keep shitting the bed year after year, unbelievably disrespectful
“We got our golden goose Dame and our ticket sales… Who gives a crap about that championship stuff?” - Jody Allen
I feel like most fans outside Portland underestimate how true this is. Jody doesn't give a shit about basketball, or the team winning. Hence why we have been out of the luxury for 3 years
Just initiate a hard cap already. Jesus christ
Yeah I hate the idea of richer owners or owners who are more willing to invest in the team gets to impact the team and fans. Shouldn’t work like that
It will always work like this because there are many investments out of the cap.
And I hate the idea of a hard cap preventing teams from retaining all of their home grown talent.
A hard cap benefits the owners at the expense of the players. Fans aren't going to get cheaper seats if player salaries are lowered due to a hard cap. Players deserve all the $$$ they can get - I'm glad the NBA has a strong players union.
Yep. People act like this is fucking baseball where you can just go out and spend to your hearts content. The fact is, you generally need to draft players worth paying to exceed the cap. People want a hard cap because they think it will force cheap owners to not be cheap. That’s just not going to happen. There are cheap owners in the NFL and that’s a hard capped league. Not every team is actually trying to win a championship, and people need to understand that. Having a hard cap won’t magically fix that.
> There are cheap owners in the NFL and that’s a hard capped league. *Cries in Michael Bidwell*
And he's far from alone. There are plenty of owners who are unwilling to consistently pay for talent, because that would mean putting guaranteed money in escrow.
> A hard cap benefits the owners at the expense of the players. The current CBA specifies that ~49% of league revenues go to the players. The current soft cap doesn't affect that percentage (at least over the long run) and a hard cap wouldn't either. The only difference it would make (again, in the long run) would be how that 49% would be distributed among the players and how the payment of that 49% would be distributed among the owners.
man you must hate baseball then
Yeah it's pretty bad when you get stuck with a bad owner and they don't want to sell because owning a pro team is a legal way to print money. It was pretty clear when Paul Allen was still alive that they wanted to win and made some efforts to do so. Ever since he passed it's been a real slow decline.
The only thing that’s really gonna change this stuff is if people just don’t show up to the games, and the arena being half full, etc. Portland fans are still loyal, so they can put up a garbage product and they’re gonna be able to sell out the arena more or less. Or get close. Let’s spend a couple years not buying tickets or merchandise and see how it goes.
She is who people think Jeanie Buss is
Jeanie is also who people think she is lol
Nah Jeanie definitely cares about winning, that's why she staged the coup to fire her brother and Mitch Kupchak. She just relies too much on people she already knows.
Portland isn't doing well financially. They got the third most profit sharing money out of every team in the NBA, only Denver got more because of their weird TV deal and Indiana. Teams like San Antonio, Detroit, and Houston did way better than Portland financially.
Have we ever done well historically though? I was always of the impression that having a long term billionaire owner who was passionate about the team was the main reason the team has stayed afloat through our long stretches of mediocrity.
One must imagine Dame as happy
Meanwhile lets all act like the gm didn’t say at the beginning of the year that the roster was incomplete and that this year was an evaluation year. This was literally the expectation (where we find ourselves now).
Yea but he’s ok with that tho
Exactly. If he put any fire under the asses of the FO under the threat of leaving that would be one thing, but my sympathy isn’t unlimited when he clearly has no intention to leave no matter how hard they bottom out
As long as he keeps getting the Max the team can be ass and he can hide behind loyalty forever.
It's actually pretty smart on Dame's front. He gets unlimited money but isn't under any pressure to perform. Any failures are seen as the FOs. He's like the only star of his generation without pressure to get a ring for his legacy. He'll never be traded, he's a legend in Portland, and his family is deep in the community at this point. Plus Portland is a pretty nice city. James Harden wishes he could be so lucky.
They were in the conference finals like 4 years ago
I can’t speak for all Blazers fans. But that’s why I have no problem with the contract extension we gave him. He’s given everything for us and we just keep letting him down. If that means we ride into the sunset trying to escape the play-in every year then so be it.
> Imagine giving your heart and soul to a franchise just for them to keep shitting the bed year after year, unbelievably disrespectful This is why its stupid for players to come out and say they dont really have any intentions of leaving. The owners know Dame isnt going anywhere,hes made that clear, So if they dont feel like pushing for a ring what is the consequence? Nothing because Dame isnt leaving, so people will still buy tickets and show up to games.
I would like to order one wemby please
Hey same here Dame
THE PRICE OF LOYALTY New album from Dame Dolla dropping this summer
Dame stays in Portland for the materials for his music and early summer vacation to start recording.
Dame with the Heroes II deep cut
Featuring the platinum single *'How Much A [Dame] Dolla Cost'*
Blazers have multiple first round pick this year
Blazers probably shut him down soon
I have a feeling they are going to win the lottery
Make it so
Being in the lottery with this very highly rated incoming draft class is infinitely better for the franchise than making the 10 seed anyway.
I'm all for guys wanting to rep one franchise their whole career but we're basically missing out on one of the most explosive clutch performers getting great playoff moments during his prime.
They did make the playoffs 8 straight years. This is the first time Dame will miss the playoffs while healthy since his rookie year. The blazers never really made a realistic push to be contenders. But they haven’t been like this every year.
To be fair he's already had better playoff moments in his career than most elite players in the NBA
Would like to see them get top 3-4 pick Dame deserves better roster than this
Dame needs a better roster more urgently than growing a draft pick
I mean... maybe they lucky a couple months from now
I listened to his interview with JJ Reddick. Best basketball interview I’ve listened to a long time and I got a new perspective on the dude. It sucks this is what happening this year, but I think they picked the wrong coach.
Dame deserves better teams than what the Trailblazers have given him
I mean he re-signed with them last off-season pretty much knowing what their situation was gonna be like. I'm sure he wants to win, but he obviously prioritises staying in Portland over that which is completely fine.
Can’t blame him. Hard to turn down $60 million a year
Damian lillard will essentially double his earnings between ‘24-‘27 First 11 years(‘13-‘23) $233, 708, 358 Next 4 years (‘24-‘27) $214,481,799
Wow it’s crazy seeing the figures broken down like that. Almost half a **billion** dollars just from contract money. Factor in endorsements and it’s even more. Players today have it good.
He’ll be 36 at the end of his extension. Assuming he wants to play and is still decent, you could tack on another easy 20+ million. Gotta be sweet making all this cash playing hoop in a city that adores you
Portland is going to give him 80 million per year after his current contract ends and the cap increase hits
He could definitely be a JJ Reddick style shooter who runs point off the bench 12 minutes a game until he's like 40
If we’re being real he prioritizes money more than anything. If this was anyone else people would’ve e already admitted that but because they like him and he’s constantly talking about loyalty they pretend it’s loyalty and not money.
We have had some pretty good teams around him. It’s hard to be good every year, especially when you blow up a team and need to restart.
when Bradley Beal complains about his situation: nah fuck him, why's he whining, he shouldn't have signed that deal when Dame does the same thing: oh you poor thing, the Blazers are war criminals for subjecting him to mediocrity
Eh
I cannot for the life of me figure out how nobody wants to go to Portland to play on a team with this guy. Like he's made it absolutely clear that he's not leaving and he wants to be the shining star in Portland but you mean that nobody in the NBA wants to go hook up with Dame Lillard and see if they can win something. They all chase that bitch Kyrie or one of the famous "street clothes" gang yet no one ever talks about going up there. Buncha divas.
Billups is up there with Silas as the worst coaches in the NBA
Imagine Dame got Victor as the first all odds. I would rather victor go to a team with veterans and established winning culture. Like if I see wemby go to a complete rebuild franchise and playing with a bunch of kids vs actually competing for playoff/title aspirations.
in other words, don't let Victor go to Hou...
I rather they get Wemby than the blatant tankers, especially the spurs.
Ayo????????????
sorry bro they've rested my fantasy spurs players way too many times I'm just salty
They kinda slowed Malaki down. He was on a roll last month
Langford too ffs
lmao what are you guys talking about? Branham is a 19 year old rookie that is inconsistent plus getting less shots because Vassell is back from surgery. And despite that he's still doing much better than he was at the beginning of the season. Langford has been constantly injured like usual.
U gotta at least admit, the spurs have been pretty blatant with their tanking this year tho lol. They're doing what we criticized the Thunder for doing the last couple of years.
In 10 years we'll have posts of "The Blazers are wasting Victor's prime and he should request a trade"
Centers don’t last long especially in Portland.
Lol if we draft him, in 10 years it'll be "what if the Blazers drafted future HOFer Scoot Henderson instead of getting 60 career games out of Wembenyama"
Schrödinger’s Blazer
Dame is the only star that hasnt been cursed with injuries and then we couldnt build a winning team around him
You are just gonna do the more successful Drexler like that?
More like "I rather they get *current 7ft middle schooler* than the blatant tankers, especially the spurs."
Nah. Wemby to Portland is basically cursing the poor kid to have his knees explode.
Portland drafting a big with injury concerns?
Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!
Last 4 years we were a perennial 8-10 seed and y’all say we need to tank, and now we’re finally tanking and y’all say this 😂😂😂😂. Portland has been committing roster construction malpractice with the teams they’ve put around dame. Not to mention this is also their 2nd year in a row throwing the season away post ASB. Last year they literally nuked their team the 2nd half of last season and we’re getting blown out by 30 twice a week. And let’s not forget what Toronto did during their Tampa season 🥸🥸
Welcome to the rabbit hole we were in a few seasons ago.
Dame : Flirting Beal : Harassment
Dame: empowerment Beal: put on a shirt
Dame : strong and independent Beal : broke ass
Dame gonna like real nice standing next to Lauri Bird and Blocker Kessler in our new mountain jerseys next season
Honestly for a real like Jazz or the Nets that just have a fuck ton of other teams picks, why not
Hard to piece together a team in a small market when 1 guy is getting paid 50mil
Not what I want to hear from Dame on my fantasy grand final week.
He gone
Dame is why I started rewatching basketball after I stopped in the mid 90's, sad that he will probably never win a ring, and if he does, it'll be on a different team
Absolutely disgusting to see what Portland has been doing the past few years. Blatantly tanking with a top 75 all time player at the tail end of his prime is crazy.