Reports over the weekend indicated that the Trail Blazers are “open for business everywhere in the league” when it comes to Damian Lillard trade talks and are casting a wide net in an effort to get the best possible return.
However, the star guard has been “unwavering” in his desire to join the Heat, according to Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who say that Lillard has conveyed to the Blazers that Miami is the only place he wants to play.
Chris Haynes essentially said the same thing in the latest episode of his #thisleague UNCUT podcast with Marc Stein. Asked by Stein if Lillard could be talked into another landing spot or if he’s dead-set on ending up with the Heat, Haynes simply replied, “Miami. Miami, Stein, Miami.”
Shams Charania of The Athletic also says that Lillard’s sole focus is on the Heat, acknowledging that the Blazers are exploring other scenarios but suggesting that there’s a “strong belief” around the league that Miami will be 32-year-old’s ultimate destination.
The two sides both appear at this point to be using media leaks to exercise as much leverage as possible. The Blazers’ discussions with other teams can be viewed as an effort to extract as much value out of the Heat as possible, whereas Lillard’s insistence on being sent to Miami may make other suitors wary of surrendering their top assets to acquire him, knowing that he’d be dissatisfied with the outcome, as Jackson, Chiang, and Charania write.
Here’s more on Lillard:
- In the #thisleague UNCUT podcast, Stein suggested that there’s a widespread belief around the NBA that Sixers guard James Harden will end up being traded to the Clippers. Haynes responded by noting that the Clippers have also been in touch with the Trail Blazers to inquire on Lillard, though he adds that L.A. seems unlikely to acquire Dame.
- The Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Celtics are among the other teams who “reached out to see what it would take” to land Lillard, Haynes reports. A deal with Minnesota would have had to involve Karl-Anthony Towns, according to Haynes, who says that idea was “quickly eliminated.”
- Haynes also spoke on the podcast about the timeline that led to Lillard’s Saturday trade request, explaining that after Portland landed the No. 3 overall pick in the draft lottery, the longtime Blazer was told the team would look into trading it for win-now help. However, GM Joe Cronin called him two days before the draft to let him know Portland would likely keep its pick. In Lillard’s meeting with the Blazers this past Monday, he expressed his feeling that “promises weren’t kept,” per Haynes, but vowed to give the team a little more time to see if it could upgrade the roster on the trade market when free agency opened. When that didn’t happen right away, Lillard submitted his trade request to ensure that teams interested in acquiring him – such as the Heat – didn’t make other moves in free agency that would preclude such a deal.
- According to Haynes, Lillard first entertained the idea of requesting a trade out of Portland in 2021. One of the reasons he decided against it at the time was because the Blazers hired Chauncey Billups, whom Dame greatly respects, as their head coach that summer. As Haynes details, Lillard didn’t want to put Billups in a position like Stephen Silas in Houston — Harden and Russell Westbrook requested trades shortly after Silas was hired in 2020, which derailed the veteran assistant’s first head coaching opportunity.
- In case you missed it, we passed along a couple notes on the Lillard sweepstakes in a trade rumors round-up earlier today.
I have followed the league for 59 years…being a fan of a 5x NBA champ (GSW)…and yet I wonder if I am the only one who’s getting way tired of players “dictating” moves while under contract. Don’t sign…if you cannot see yourself fulfilling Your Choice from the beginning.
I’m a couple decades and 1 title behind you, fellow GSW fan, but I’d wish you’d take a look at how some other players in this league get treated, getting traded for no reason 5 times in 3 years by the teams. There’s got to be a better middle ground than this, which I agree, both are extremist “worker-driven” vs “owner-driven”.
I will freely, and fully, admit that my take on this goes way back to Rick Barry ditching the Dubs for the ABA, coming back to GSW only when That blew up for him! Coulda had their 1st dynasty with Thurmond, Mullins and Company. Ancient history :-D
Are we feeling sorry for guys making $40M a season? Guys sitting at the end of the bench making $5-$6M a season?
Are you feeling sorry for the owners making billions? Treating franchises like their personal playgrounds or side projects? The whole argument is a logical fallacy.
No. I would never. But the point isn’t about owners at all. I think the idea that you want to request a trade is fine. But then to dictate 1 team you want to go to? Nah. That’s not how a contract works. I think THAT is bad for the league.
One thing to request the trade, another to put the team in such a crap spot that the get peanuts in return for you while still under a long term deal. If Dame got hurt for the rest of his career last season I’m sure he would want to stay true to that contract! (Side note: this isn’t about Dame as I like him, but I’m a Hornets fan and seeing this sucks).
The players virtually have no choice whatsoever where they play. They get drafted and have no say in where they play. They get a rookie extension that the drafting team can match and the player has to accept it. They hit UFA and finally then they can sign wherever they want providing the destination you choose has the appropriate cap space, then if you do you take a significant pay cut to the tune 10s of millions of dollars to do so. The whole time the team can trade you with having no input.
First part is right, but they sign a rookie extenxion only because it is the easiest path to the most money, if they dont want to play for that franchise they can sign the one year RF offer and become an unrestricted FA the next year, having to settle for a 4 year max deal worth less apv but still way more per year than i will make.
Owners pay the cost to be the boss. London Ball may never play a day of ball again but he’ll collect every penny of his contract. If a player gets traded they still get every guaranteed dollar and in some cases they might have a trade kicker where they earn even more if traded.
I do think however that there should be a rule that a player that signed a max or mine ran over a certain pay threshold can’t demand a trade until after fulfilling a certain amount of years/games of their total contract.
Bad boy, no trade demand for you!
Most owners inherit generational wealth then exploit whatever and whomever needed to get more. No one becomes a billionaire without stepping on people’s necks.
Go to China. Business is about exploiting people and paying them enough to be cool with it. These aren’t migrant workers coal mining to put scraps on the table. Vleet just got $120/3 years as a below average shooter. Zion got $200 mil for missing most of the games scheduled to play. Anthony Edwards just signed for $200 mil and guess not achieved a single mvp or helped win a chip. These players have the BEST deal among the 4 major sports. Majority of their contracts are guaranteed (vs NFL), they get to the money quicker (faster than mlb, mlb and nhl), better marketing opps than most nhl players and non- QB nfl’ers and less wear and tear on the body (vs nfl). The NBA policy is that teams MUST spend 90% of the cap on players. That’s awesome. And while the interest in markets still lean towards the big cities you can get a huge payday from ANY team.
“Go to China” Why so you can get your stepped on by the government? At least in America you can fight to slowly change the system.
Players can always negotiate no trade clauses if they don’t want to be traded. They choose not to because they want to maximize their earnings. Can’t have it both ways. So personally I side with the league on this. If a player willingly signs a contract and willingly foregoes a no-trade clause, they should be willing to honor their side of that agreement.
Owners have to bear all the other risks of the contract. This is literally the only thing players have to do: play.
Except that owners don’t want to give out NTCs in the NBA. It’s not like MLB, where the yearly salaries are lower and there’s no cap; in the NBA annual salary is too high for them to have a contract stuck on their team. The owners have created that situation themselves and have created a market where only the franchises that are considered trustworthy or good at building around players are considered worth signing with. And it’s because of actions like what led up to Lillard’s trade demand. The ownership isn’t blameless here in the slightest.
Wasn’t Bradley Beal the only player in the league with a no trade clause? This isn’t baseball, no trade clauses aren’t really a thing in the NBA as there has only been 10 players in the history of the NBA with a no trade clause.
They aren’t a thing because players don’t ask for them. I just covered that. Any clause has a value, and getting a NTC means getting less money. Players don’t want to lose money so they never push for an NTC.
I’m sure many players ask for it but they don’t get them. Again, only 10 players have ever had one and other than Beal the 9 others are 9 of the greatest players to ever play.
Also, Lillard has never been eligible for a no trade clause as he has never been a Free Agent and you can’t add a no trade clause on a contract extension. So have to be in league for 8 years and at least 4 with the same team and has to be a new contract.
So then don’t sign the contract extension? Again, there are paths to not getting traded. Players keep chasing the money instead.
@slund that’s not accurate. Beal was drafted by Washington and never traded and still was able to sign an extension with a no-trade.
Beal technically reached free agency in 2022, which is how he was able to negotiate his no-trade clause. That contract wasn’t an extension.
“Players can always negotiate no trade clauses” except that they always can’t. They have to play for 8 season in the league and 4 seasons on the same team. Then resign with the team they played 4 seasons with.
His trade value goes down a lot. He is a Blazers “murderer”.
Read
According to Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who say that Lillard has conveyed to the Blazers that Miami is the only place he wants to play.
One of the few good points Retireswith8rings has ever made. A player signs with a team to play for that particular team after that there’s nothing they can do if they get traded. Asking for a trade in the NBA or holding out in the NFL is the only real leverage a player has. Situations change from season to season and despite how Donald Sterling, yourself or other folks might feel these players are human beings not assets. They don’t own them.
Wrong. Human beings is true and so it is in the nba along with them being assets and liabilities. These humans get contracts which is why they are called that and they know how the league works. It slices both ways with all the humans being owners master and slaves. All because they willed it. Not because we said so.
Dame made it clear what he wanted and expected and he was mis led. Portland may have tried to trade the pick but they wanted to much for it. Know they get to trade Dame believing he is worth many picks. The problem is his contracts is a super max and there is few teams willing to trade their super for a super.
Also few willing to even trade now with new cba.
Will see how it goes but Miami wants him for sure.
The jazz and nets are only intrigued. Nets don’t want more supers heheh
The jazz will be stingy but he would be a nice fit. He does like utah as he lived and played ball there at weber st.
If portland smart they get several teams involved. Make this a win win for many. That’s how you do that
I don’t mind players wanting a day where they play, but some of the stars are doing bad faith negotiations. When the last CBA was made they put in the incentive for players to stay that they could get more money from their current team. It used to be choose to stay and get paid more or go to a team you want to be on. Players like Lillard and Beal now are taking the super max deals then wanting trades the next year.
In Beal’s case I believe he signed with full intent to stay. He’s said many times that he loves the D.C. area and didn’t want to uproot his family. Ownership decided to go a different direction and trade him. Lillard’s story is a bit different. He signed another contract hoping the Blazers would work to get better now. They didn’t so he wants to move on. Buly asking a for a trade the team gets to get a return with picks and players and Dame gets paid if he just walks they lose him for nothing and he takes significantly less money.
Beal asked for a trade. The Wiz didn’t decide to trade him.
Dame and portland are fine. Portland tried to trade the pick then decided to keep it. Dame said fine then trade me to Miami. He also said nets too. DAME LIKES UTAH TOO.
The jazz have expressed interest but it’s likely a four team deal or five.
If they do that it’s a win win and will see if teams play fair when dividing up their assets and draft capital.
The best fit is really utah jazz. They can do it themselves but really should get boston suns and nets involved. Will see if they are smart about it all but Dame may be stuck in portland.
I think both those guys would’ve been happy to stay where they were if the media didn’t chastise them for seemingly being content with not winning a chip.
I doubt they’re that thin-skinned, as annoying as it was to watch that nonsense.
Well often times a player signs and then FO switches path. Lillard for example has been super dedicated to winning in Portland and was basically told there wasnt going to be a rebuild. Portland went into rebuild mode and at this point in his career, he doesn’t want to be part of a rebuild. If you don’t want players to be able to dictate their own career are you ok with a GM dictating a players career? GM’s can trade anyone at anytime. Maybe NBA should get rid of the ability to trade so everyone has to abide by the contracts signed.
@slund
How did Portland go into rebuild mode? They had the #e pick because they had a bad season not because they yanked. I don’t think they sign Grant to an extension if they planned to rebuild at that time.
@ dirty I agree but I don’t think that applies to Lillard. He’s been loyal to the franchise and has earned the right to at least ASK management to try and send him to Miami. I think he’d understand If Miami came up with a weak offer but ends up on a different contender instead.
Now go down to Heat only, no bidding at all
Lowry and salary for Lillard
Crazy
Clippers need to understand
76ers have lost Niang McDaniel and Milton
Clippers need to offer a star and good players to 76ers via third team to improve 76ers
Tough
No one is gutting their team to get Dame. He is this years Durant. Lots of talking and fake articles, but no deal.
The Knicks, Pacers, Clippers and the young players on the Rockets are the only realistic pool of players available.
Dame will start the season on the Blazers.
I think the San Antonio and pairing him with Vic+Pop from the jump off is the most interesting landing place for Dame. I think they have enough draft picks to get him (although Im not certain about this, if any Spurs heads want to school me Im all ears).
Nets got a pretty good package back for Durant.
Bridges, Johnson, Multiple 1sts
Here’s a thought- void the contract and sign with Miami in available cap space. Dame signed the contract and isn’t going to honor it.
He signed the contract with the promise that the front office would do whatever they could to build around him. The Blazers have signaled that they want to go young. Staying in Portland isn’t in his or the teams best interest. They need to move him.
Blazers GM also promised they would build around Dame…time after time.. yet have not done so.
In their defense you can only trade for players that are made available and you can only sign FA willing to come to Portland. Same problem Cavs had during LBJ’s first stint. It took him winning with the Heat and ascribing a certain stature for him to be able to draw players to Cleveland.
They NEEDED to move him years ago. He tried to be a class act in a business that changes every year. If he becomes disgruntled for not going to the Heat or having to stay, it’s on him.
He resigned with Portland to be loyal to city, organization etc. Like you said, a class act.
The organization has not acted in kind in surrounding him with a championship team. Which they promised to him when he resigned.
Thats on Portland.
You can’t have it both ways. Either be loyal to the city and eat your vegetables or ask for a trade. This whole thing is happening at least 2 years too late which is why it’s becoming a circus.
He should have put that in the contract then.
Should’ve put in a no trade clause. He has no leverage to make demands.
True but if he is sent anywhere besides Miami, Portland’s destination image/credibility will be destroyed when they try to obtain other Stars in the future.
Stars typically don’t look to play in Portland already, this will worsen that sentiment.
Not quite, if Portland has the money, they certainly have a foundation to add a better-fitting star than Dame.
They don’t have the money. They refused to go into the luxury tax all the time with Dame already, and made bad trades or took back negative assets to duck under it. Consistently. I don’t think you can trust them to build around you if you’re a star player. The last time they honestly tried was in 2015. Then Aldridge walked and they haven’t even remotely tried since. Everything they’ve achieved since has been because Dame carried them. If they do poorly by Dame, it’s going to be a stain on their image for a while. My Cavs faced the same stigma after they parted ways with LeBron the first time, and we can still see it hampering us over a decade later. Stars don’t really trust Dan Gilbert anymore.
Fair point EonADS, I do think they have a bright future and will contend post-Dame if they add another big name, which I guess they wont due because the owners once again are the problem here.
Maybe they will with savvy trades, like how the Cavs got Kevin Love. It’s quite possible they could make a good trade for a star or borderline star and supplement their core, so long as they don’t keep making the same mistakes. But I won’t hold my breath tbh. Winning in the NBA is hard.
I wonder when was the last time a Star was traded to Portland let alone when they signed one via free agency?
They have never signed one. Last one they traded for was Scottie Pippen.
Winning in the NBA sure is hard, for example GSW had far and away the best rotation using +/- by a long way. All Kerr had to do was play Looney, Dray, Wiggs, Klay and Steph together for over 20 MPG and he’d get easy W’s but he got too involved in turning over rotations including ones that didnt work, and he used a stopwatch, not game score, to make his switches.
Me personally, those seems like stupid things to do if youre trying to win games. But like you said, its hard.
The Blazers do have the money, Jody Allen is worth over $20 billion.
Jeez, no. Nobody will care in a year.
Portland has a chance to get as much as possible in this trade and it will dictate how they compete in the future.
IF they feel that loyalty to a player who is basically telling them how to manage their team, then they deserve to be at the bottom of the league.
A GOOD gm would trade to the partner that gets them the most “stuff.” Trading with the Heat for two guys who are overrated, overpaid and cannot guard anyone (oh yeah i forgot the 3 Heat picks that will be in the late 1st), is colossally stupid and your team deserves to stink and you deserved to be fired.
USA is still capitalist and the GM for the Trailblazers is a fool.
False … players can demand trade or sit and that is their leverage. Suns had it happen with crowder.
The reality is Dame and portland both creates their mess. Will see if other teams will help them solve it.
The jazz are the best fit but how it’s done is more important. No reason 4 or five teams shouldn’t be involved.
Everybody is always in favor of player empowerment or player movement until a player wants to change teams because his current team sucks or hasn’t done a good job building around them.
Yeah, I also don’t understand ever siding with billionaire owners either – havent they all been really obviously failing upwards their whole lives? Just look at twitter before and after Elon Musk. The players value is limited and the owners is unlimited, its so dirty how the owners always act when it comes to paying players. We all get their salaries blasted everywhere (a low rent move by itself) but we never hear about how much profit the owners made, weird huh?
Yeezus have you EVER heard of an owner disclosing the details of a deal? It’s almost always info released by the agent.
I am in favor of player empowerment. Damian Lillard was empowered to sign with any team he wanted to for a lot of money, and he chose to sign with Portland. Empowerment doesn’t mean you get to abandoned a written agreement whenever you feel like it.
Contracts always go two ways. And if Lillard feels that Portland hasn’t held up to building around him in good faith (which they haven’t, not since 2015), then I feel his trade demand is reasonable. It’s one thing to say “we’ll only go into the luxury tax for a championship team”, and another entirely to not honestly try and build a contender while sabotaging the product on the floor with trades and signings only meant to save money. Which the Blazers have done constantly.
That’s true, but because FOs pass some lesser players around like joints at a party we have to have this other extreme position. There has to be better meeting in the middle between owners and players and owners refuse every time, because they only care about profiting, not winning.
I’m fine with them asking out. What I’m not okay is with players sitting out or mentally checking out, trying to dictate their specific destination, etc.
As long as the Blazers send Lillard to a contender, he should have no say in the matter beyond his stated preference.
I’m tired of it, sure. But unfortuately, players demanding trades in violation of their contracts is now effectively a part of the NBA personnel system.
It’s the CBA (that toilet paper they just revised). While it doesn’t expressly authorize players to demand trades, it might as well, as it makes it the only practical way that star players can change teams. Free agency still exists, but even if a star, on principle, wanted to utilize free agency so as not to violate his contract, the best case is he’ll pay a price in salary, length of term and security, and the most likely case is he wouldn’t find any kind of real free agency market waiting for him at all.
Can’t blame the players only, its been a joint effort. The star players demanding trades are, at a minimum, being enabled to do this by the system both owners and players agreed to. The players could argue they’re being more than enabled, they’re being directed.
Exactly. The NBA created this and the agents found a new strategy for the players to get max money and play where they want.
A couple of thoughts I could see as options
The same earlier deal I mentioned previously, but instead, Orlando gets Herro instead of Simons, and Portland gets Caleb Houston from Orlando in addition to the others, and the 2024 denver 2nd is the 2025 Denver 1st, which would be 5 1sts instead of 4
Heat get Lillard and Nassir Little
Orlando gets Simons
Portland gets Lowry, Herro, Gary Harris, Bol Bol, Cole Anthony, Orlando 2024 1st, Denver 2024 2nd, Memphis/Boston 2025 2nd, Milwaukee 2026 2nd, Heat 2024 1st (after Heat swaps 2025 and 2026 with OKC to open it up), Heat 2028 1st, Heat 2030 1st
Portland gets salary relief with all the expirings, plus Herro at half the cost of Lillard, 4 1sts, 3 2nds, and the salary relief on the 4 year deal for Little…they also have a lot of movable pieces in that scenario to do other stuff/would still have a pretty good team
Another idea would be to have Kyle Lowry go to Brooklyn, with Spencer Dinwiddie and Edmund Sumner going to Portland, and a 2026 2nd
And then 1 more where Lowry goes to Philly, Siakam goes to Philly
Paul Reed goes to the Heat
Tobias Harris and a Philly 2nd goes to Portland
Harden, Jaden Springer 2029 Philly 1st to Toronto, and 1 of their other 2nds
I could also see a scenario where Jovic gets sent out for the Nets in a deal where they’re involved as a 3rd team and get Herro/Lowry, but I would really prefer him not to be included in a Lillard deal that I already dont think is a good idea
If it was me though, I just wouldnt trade him. I said the same with KD last year. They should just make the last couple of moves they would make if they were keeping him, including trying to trade Simons. They have him for 4 years. It’s not like they have to rush
As a Heat fan, I generally hope they dont trade for him. I would prefer specific types of players, if they were going to make a big trade, and go away from their current trajectory/roster
Dude…are you Bob Myers incognito? One final trade?
If I had the financial stability in life to walk away from 10s of millions of dollars per year, from a franchise as great as GS Warriors, I would probably be a little more condescending about it, like a couple of others on this board I can think of pretty easily…
…also what do you mean by this? Lol any of these hold water, or are they all trash? Just curious about feedback there b/c I see issues with it myself, but its mostly just reflecting on things we know so far about what players are trying to be moved or not. I wouldnt move Siakam, for example. I also think this is significantly more than Portland should get for Lillard, especially on his contract
Honestly, guy: ’twas a compliment as to your aptitude for “juggling” the various aspects of successful trading (figuring out salary-matching, expiring contracts, plus draft choices, et cetera) as if you were a real NBA GM. Just tying in Bob Myers’ recent retirement for humor!
Lol I get what you mean, although I would hope anyone would make sure it’s a legal trade before mentioning it. Should probably also know who else is on those rosters b/c of fits
Without commenting on the nature of player trade requests, the trailblazers sort of have to trade Lillard to Miami for the long term health of the organization. Convincing a star player to stick around for 11 years of non-contending basketball isn’t going to happen again if they treat said star like a draft pick asset. Lillard stayed for years when he had no reason to, and for a team that already can’t convince free agents to join, they absolutely cannot hurt their ability to negotiate extensions with potential new stars in the future. The Oakland A’s model doesn’t work in basketball. Portland should be trying to find additional teams to reroute players if they can, but they have to send Lillard to Miami, not for Lillard, but for themselves.
Business has no sense and feeling.
For the sake of business,
What Blazers need is a star level player AND 4 future first round picks
Compare to Durant deal
You said it already. They can’t draw free agents there already. I truly, truly doubt any player will factor that into their Devon to accept a bag from Portland.
Wolve have offer 4 Firsts to jazz for Rudy Gobert
2023, 25, 27, 29
They can only offer Towns and Anderson for Lillard
Disagree. Players are all closet GMs and will completely understand the POR FO insisting on taking the best deal.
More importantly, it’s never been less important for an organization like POR to have good PR among the players. Free agency is dead, and, if it revives, they’re not a destination anyway. The draft is their method of getting players, and if they or any other team drafts a guy, then he’s controlled for 8-10 years. After that, it will depend on continuely being maxed and/or whether they are winning. Nothing else.
Do you really think a player 8 years down the road (call him Scoot) is going to turn down being super maxed years ahead of time because POR wouldn’t let Dame dictate that he can only be traded to one team? MIA fan?
Blame the NBA and Silver for this, not the players. These max players are encouraged to sign extensions with their current teams instead of enter free agency. The NBA, in good faith, did this to create parody and prevent small markets from getting burned. The players have found a work around by issuing these trade requests when they become unhappy with their situation so they can still make the max money on a new team. It’s a shrewd strategy the players’ agents have figured.
Their is a new cba. Silver is correcting the issue and portland will not get a gobert haul. In fact, portland Lucky to get two or three picks. Good luck on getting nice players too. Want nice players then it’ll be five team deal .
Nets jazz suns blazers boston
The players are half the NBA for this purpose, and own the current system in the CBA as much as the owners.
Yes, they certainly created a parody.
Things were kind of headed in this direction the last couple of times they’ve negotiated, almost for the last 8-10 years or so, its seemed like the league has tried to put these types of signing restrictions in place. It’s clear it’s all designed for certain players at the top to get paid, while most everyone else, especially those in the middle, has to take less. Obviously LeBron, Chris Paul, and now CJ McCollum all had some incentive to move in that direction, and that’s what they did with their power.
These are the types of rule changes that may have made sense if they finally did expansion, as they should
It’s been the same theme since the 2011 CBA. The battles haven’t been between the owner side and the player side, but between the constituent groups within each side. Starting with 2011, control of the owner side moved firmly into the hands of the so-called small market owners, and on the player side firmly into the hands of the superstars. Those two groups have written all the CBAs from then on, including the most recent one, and it shows. These two groups have been horrible stewards of the game. The most clueless narrow minded group to ever have input into a CBA are the small market owners.
Remember when Dan Gilbert and Mark Cuban cried incessantly to get that emergency CBA in place in 2011, and then were guilty of all the stuff they cried about not long after?
Yes. There were many angry/self-entitled owners at that time. Most were newer owners who paid more recent market prices (which were financed) were losing money, and blamed Stern (who enticed them to buy) and the blue blood teams (who they believed were unfairly taking their players in FA).
Gilbert’s team was gifted LBJ a few years earlier, but he saw himself as a victim because now he had to spend up to and through the tax line to win. Cuban was just a shameless self promoter, playing both sides of the ownership group, and kissing players’ butts too. He didn’t know what his own people were doing, exposing himself as an absentee owner, not the hands-on guy he tried to portray. Robert Johnson was the angriest, all towards Stern, and he wanted out. Stern was so afraid of him suing, he brokered a sale to Jordan. In this environment, Stern turned over the keys to the worst elements of the ownership group.
There are contract obligations in this story …… however, if there was anyone in the league who has built up equity with his loyalty and more importantly, has long been doing the heavy lifting for his team, it’s Dame.
The BLAZERS ownership/FO should do right by him, send him to the where he wants to go, while getting the best possible returns via a multi-team trade …… there will be more better returns from other teams (there always is), but it’s about finding the middle-ground with Dame – his starts with ending up with the HEAT.
Or, Cronin can always disregard what Dame wants, but he and his franchise, will have to live with whatever fallout comes after …… the NBA will always be a superstar-centric league, for better or worse.
Either way, hope this things gets done and over with, the media coverage has been insane. I can’t stand one more take from Kendrick Perkins – he looks and sounds dumb.
The Trailblazers should do right by Dame? Why? Because he was nice? Really?
So the franchise takes 2nd place to a star who wants out?
Portland is a bunch of fools. Tyrese Maxey is sitting there…and you want Heat picks and Duncan Robinson….
Portland GM will be fired in a year or two if he trades with the Heat.
Any team giving any player of an All star calibre is going to regret it…
2 years ago completely different story… Now it’s far too much of a risk that the decline could start at any moment…
There are separate issues here.
One is contracts and receiving a no trade agreement.
Another is player asking for a trade.
Another is player demanding a trade.
Another is only wanting to be traded to one or two teams. In this case, the remaining teams do not want to trade and aquire the resistant star.
The teams that players seek out, often demand to go to, are champion level teams with lower drafted existing young players, and have available future lower round draft picks to trade because they are good and will get better in the future with the acquiring player.
For instance, here the Lakers, heat, etc. aren’t loaded with lottery drafted Young players to trade. And their future drafted players aren’t going to be great either. The salaries have to come close also in a trade.
There are many parts not working.
BTW Everyone knows that Dame is doing this NOT for the Trailblazers but because he damn well knows that Miami does not have the best offer and he must put his thumb on the scale to get to Miami.
Sorry but that is lame. So Portland does not get fair price, Miami gets Dame for nothing and they get title contention even though they let the guys who won the East walk in FA.
Yeah 2023 NBA is FANTASTIC
It’s a little hypocritical for one to say they want to stick with their original team, then when they decide to ask for a trade—which in and of itself is fair considering the long-term failures of the front office—they try to screw over said franchise by making them potentially take back a reduced haul of assets.
Do I think the Blazers should try to honor Lillard’s request if possible and the haul would be agreeable? Yes. But if they would be staring down a significantly watered down return, forget his preference and trade him to another contender. That’s more than fair.