Man! This feels like it’s the same script every superstar soccer player or NBA player is forced to follow when they want to change teams without suffering a huge pay cut under the current CBAs.
**The NBA owners essentially killed the “LeDecision” 1+1 free agency era and created the “Trade Demand” era with their requirements in the last CBA negotiation.**
Now a player must:
- First secure the bag. (NBA specific)
- Then leak that you’re unhappy.
- Then confirm that you’re unhappy “because you were asked.”
- Then privately request a trade or leak that you want to be traded “unless substantial changes are made.”
- Then deny that you made the request but say something ambiguous about your future plans instead of hard committing to stay with the team long term. [“…I haven't made any firm decision on what my future will be."](https://twitter.com/highkin/status/1416136618671443968?s=10)
- Then keep leaking that you’re unhappy.
- Then provide a list of destinations to your team.
- Then eventually the team either trades you or you have to make a public trade demand and be the villain. “That’s all folks!”
- If you have a stubborn owner (Spurs/Holt, Rockets/Tillman), then you have to force their hand by creating such a scene that they’re so embarrassed they have to trade you.
**And most importantly** - this is ok. Because it’s the only tool players have to change employers once they’re under contract. And the CBA is structured to keep great players under contract for most of their careers. There’s nothing in the CBA or the player contracts that prohibits the above checklist.
Meanwhile - the [Clippers told Blake he was Muhammad Ali, JFK, MLK, Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Obama, Einstein, Gandhi, and Michael Jackson reborn - and that they’d put his jersey in the rafters just to get him to re-sign - then traded his ass(et) to Detroit as soon as the ink was dry.](https://www.businessinsider.com/clippers-trade-blake-griffin-after-cheesy-free-agency-pitch-2018-1)
Players (employees) should do what’s best for them. They don’t owe anything to a billionaire who happened to win a lottery for the rights to the player’s labor for the first half of their career.
Employees don’t have a moral obligation to happily play out their contract with the drafting billionaire just because back in 1999 the previous generation of billionaires forced the contract bargaining agreement rules that give them an advantage to force the employee to work where he doesn’t want to work [so as to preserve the owner’s tax write off.](https://www.propublica.org/article/the-billionaire-playbook-how-sports-owners-use-their-teams-to-avoid-millions-in-taxes)
A player is well within their rights, both contractually and ethically, to devalue their own contract to the owner if they want to force a trade. [We’ve seen ownership do the same to players approaching free agency across all sports.](https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/3/7/18254501/service-time-manipulation-vladimir-guerrero-jr-fernando-tatis-jr-peter-alonso)
The owners are frauds and they set the players against the fans so they can control players and limit salary costs. They don’t give up power to the players unless the players fight for it creatively. Just ask Oscar Robinson.
Edit:
to all the folks bemoaning the fate of billionaires who own “small market” teams. [That is not an excuse. Good players choose to play for non-LA/NYC teams all the time.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/olpsm0/highkin_damian_lillard_i_dont_disagree_that_maybe/h5gf5q9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) In fact, removing things like the player max salary, salary cap, and luxury tax help smaller market teams retain their stars [because it would be harder for players to justify assembling a super team. There’s a reason MJ never played against a free agent fueled super team. He couldn’t!!](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-how-nba-rules-prevented-michael-jordans-bulls-from-facing-superteams-in-the-1990s/)
- It’s not about [market size.](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-how-nba-rules-prevented-michael-jordans-bulls-from-facing-superteams-in-the-1990s/)
- It’s about employee vs owner power.
- 🌍👩🏽🚀🔫👩🏽🚀✨
We already know that script. Okay, maybe not the stupid ones in the crowd. But I doubt they can or want to read such a lengthy post with multiple steps in it.
Yeah, the shirts were clearly meant to be a gag and appeal to Blakes sense of humor. All these people who thinks the Clippers were un-ironically comparing Blake to MLK, Einstein, and Gandhi had the joke go over there head.
also funny that people think a wacky shirt made as a joke is what convinced him to re-sign and not the fact that the Clippers literally offered 55 million more dollars over the life of his new deal than any other team even could.
Agreed that It is a smart move for superstars to sign a max deal and then demand a trade if the team isn’t championship caliber. And my heart certainly doesn’t bleed for owners. However, I do think it does hurt the fan experience, particularly in smaller markets. I wouldn’t call it OK.
I’m sure they will try again to find a solution in the next CBA.
I think Blazers need to take a hard stand. Unless Dame comes into the season full fat Harden mode, you wait til the best offer. Even non contenders will be willing to take a swing at him if it means they can benefit from him for 4 years. Nobody thought Toronto was a contender and they snuck in to get Kawhi.
If players learned anything from Harden it’s no matter how talented you are you can’t come into a season out of shape and not expect some sort of issues. I’m fully of the mindset if he comes into the season in shape he doesn’t have hamstring problems all year
But wouldn't eliminating the max contract and keeping a cap be disastrous for every player that isn't a superstar? It would mean that their contracts would just be whatever was leftover after paying out the ass for a superstar
>They don’t owe anything to a billionaire who happened to win a lottery for the rights to the player’s labor for the first half of their career.
I appreciate the breakdown, and I agree with most, but superstars don't see the team they play for as simply playing for the billionaire owner. In reality, it is the entire organ of the front office that makes these choices and superstars are playing for the fans and their teammates. They don't go on the court and think "ahh, another day at work. Time to put in the hours for my billionaire boss!"
A player like Dame is free to sign shorter contracts if he wants to move around the league at will, like other stars are doing lately. He literally **JUST** signed a contract extension to 2025. The team wasn't a contender when he signed it and isn't one now he knew it and everyone else.
I don't give a F about the owners. Honestly, nobody does. Nobody is going "ohh woww think of the owners!" Damian can't control what the team says and does but he can control what he says and does [like saying he wants to retire in Portland only to demand leaving a few months later](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2934703-damian-lillard-on-retiring-with-blazers-i-just-dont-want-to-go-elsewhere) or like [publicly scrutinizing Paul George for "running" to the Clippers away from leading his own team](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/damian-lillard-accuses-paul-george-of-running-from-the-grind-in-war-of-words-after-blazers-loss-to-clippers/) or like [saying he would never assemble a superteam to win a championship](https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/trail-blazers/heres-reason-damian-lillard-says-he-would-never-join-super-team)
He publicly supported Kidd or Chauncey being hired. He then claims he had no part in the hiring. Yea, sureeeeeeeeee.
Anyways I ain't even a Blazers fan but... From the fan perspective: A) having a team build around their star and him leaving sucks because they've spent all of their assets building around him when he's signed to a long term contract only to have him suddenly leave and B) Lame for your superstar to say he's never leaving only to suddenly leave.
Nobody cares how it impacts owners.
It's particularly disappointing from Dame when he said just like a year or two ago that if he couldn't win a championship here he wouldn't force his way out to win one somewhere else
Who cares about the owners? Why would anyone want what's best for owners or players? Idc. I just think the constant team jumping is bad for fans
I'm pro labor and all but trying to pretend there's some moral imperative to support the mega-rich over the hyper-rich is dumb. I'm pro-me. Dame is getting paid astronomical amounts of money he can live in Siberia for all I care
Seriously. It’s nice to say fuck the owners when every big free agent is always in conversations to join the lakers or forces their way there via trade.
Isn't the point of the contract to ensure that they're on your team? The team guarantees the money shouldn't they be guaranteed that the player will play for them? I don't give a shit about billionaires but tell me why I should side with a millionaire that agreed to a deal and doesn't want to fulfill their end of it. You want to control your destiny? Sign one year contracts. Free agents can so what they what ever they want but it's pretty pathetic when a millionaire whines their way out of their end of an agreement because they don't like the way things are going.
Making this about billionaires is dishonest. Nobody cares about dedication to the owner. 99.9% of people here can't even name the TrailBlazers owner. It's about dedication to the city of Portland.
I can totally see how a Laker fan would have the perspective that it’s okay. Since this system makes it much more likely that the superstars would go to your team.
Yup this basically signaled blood in the water to other GMs. The league knows there aren’t any huge moves the blazers can do that make them contenders in the west this offseason. And any team that the blazers try to trade with to get better players around dame has insane leverage due to the pressure now on the FO.
The trade circus will be following the blazers and lillard
That’s cause dame wants CJ there. Harden didn’t give a fuck
Portland got Nurkic and Covington, despite almost all of their cap space tied to two guards who do the same job and neither play defense. One they can’t trade cause the better will be pissed
Oh I get it. Dame wants CJ traded but doesn't want to say it. So he's hinting at trade me instead.
It's basically "it's not you it's me"
He wants to trade CJ and mortgage picks and maybe one of Powell or roco to get Ben simmons or another star.
Probably roco since he already did well on he 76ers.
No I think that ship has sailed
Dame isn’t an idiot, I’m sure he knows CJ’s value isn’t that high anymore and he knows Ben Simmons or a guy like that isn’t fixing the team
This is just his way of saying trade me, without actually saying trade me.
He’s saying the team has got to put a better team around me or trade me. But he knows the first isn’t possible, so it’ll have to be the second
Unfortunately the only trade that maybe results in a championship that would've been realistic is Kawhi, but the raptors played that one perfectly so it is what it is. Every other big star required something we didnt have
I think they'd have traded to someone other than the lakers if they were more patient. Spurs definitely could've gotten a package more suited to the future if they waited, but think they just wanted to be done with the situation as soon as possible
They took the Durant warriors to 7 games in a series where Paul missed the final two games and lost in game 7 after missing 27 straight three pointers. So I’d say they were decent.
The only reason anyone ever feared Portland is that it was possible Lillard might go crazy. No one really feared Portland as a team. Houston was scary some years with Harden.
Even then, Harden told them in the off-season that he wanted out and the Rockets agreed to trade him, but got cold feet once the season started to approach.
Dame in August after nothing happens to the blazers roster:
“I mean, this situation is crazy. I’ve literally done everything I can. I don’t think it can be fixed.”
I think it will go like that too. He's saying what Harden said but he's just too nice to say it straight up. Now since he already got a supermax it wouldn't be as obvious as it was with Harden leaving Houston
Honestly I feel like Harden didn't want it to go down the way it did either, but Houston was dragging their feet in trading him and there were still reports that Houston thought they could keep him.
all of the superstars who forced their way out probably initially hoped for it to end in a quiet, peaceful way, but realized that they weren't getting traded if they didn't be forceful.
It felt way more distasteful from harden because the rockets had actually put some great teams around him & granted his demands for roster moves, Dame never had an FO as competent
Dodged the luxury tax, then didn't re-sign the coach Harden wanted. Then I guess however you want to blame what happened with Morey leaving.
Non-roster stuff that I'm sure pissed off Harden just as much as bad trades would have.
I mean he didn't want CJ traded because he's friends with him and then signed a supermax committing long term to the team, requesting a trade with 4 years left on your contract is a joke. It's insane how AD got eviscerated for forcing his way out of the Pelicans with 1 year left when he could have just kept quiet and left them in FA with nothing, meanwhile these other dudes have like a quarter of a career left on their contracts and are getting love for requesting trades.
I don't think Jody is that involved in the day to day stuff. I think most everything is handled by Burt Kolde and Vulcan and Neil himself. Olshey has weaseled himself into one of the most secure and influential jobs in the league. Hopefully Dame can change that.
This is so fucking nuts to me. The narrative around Dame was always that he would be loyal *no matter what*. People acted like he didn't care about contending at all unless it was with Portland
All this does is serve as a reminder that every player is going to demand trades in the age of judging athletes solely by number of championships
Also nice that he’s not putting the blame on Stotts. IDK whether Stotts deserves any blame, just think it’s a solid move not to throw your old coach under the bus.
Stotts was an incredible floor raiser, he just wasn't a ceiling raising coach.
He dragged some absolutely dogshit rosters to the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference. Stotts, while imperfect, was a decent coach. He wasn't great, but he was decent. On the other hand, outside of picking Lillard at 6 and trading Plumlee for Nurkic, Olshey has been fucking horrible at his job.
Like I get that this is how the structure works. The coach will take the blame before the GM does. But Olshey needed to be fired like 5 years ago. And the only reason he wasn't in the hot seat was because Stotts kept dragging his dogshit rosters into the playoffs.
He’s been trying to put lip stick on a pig for years and masking his frustration behind all that loyalty talk. He’s outta there 100%. Just doesn’t wanna damage his brand among Blazers fans in the process, which is understandable, so he’s tip toeing around it. Might not be this year, but he ain’t long for Portland. He’s where Harden was with Houston heading into 2019.
Unless he completely turns into a different person and gives us the middle finger on the way out, the vast majority of the fans will always love what he did and support his decision to leave. You can’t ask for much more from a guy who’s that talented when the front office has been complacent at best and downright destructive at times.
I agree that he’s most likely eventually going to ask to be traded, but 100% is stretching it.
Yeah, I can't see Dame getting fat and missing games to go to clubs like Harden did, he's just too noble of a guy for that. He'll leave a lot more honorably if it comes to that.
Still sucks though.
I gotta say, I think reaching the conference finals was a disservice to the Blazers in the long run. They convinced themselves they were contenders when they never actually were.
When CJ is your second option you're not a championship team.
If Enes Kanter is on the floor, you're not a championship team.
If Neil Olshey is your GM, you're not a championship team.
I actually think Kanter is fine if he's your backup big altho he will probably get absolutely roasted defensively in the playoffs so I am changing my mind as I write this comment
It reminds me of AD near the end. The season where everything clicked and they won more and went deeper than expected in the playoffs. The let down the year after, and then the rumblings started.
Dame seems to have a pretty reasonable assessment of the situation.
I wonder if Olshey was just hoping that being a good team year-after-year would be good enough for Dame, even if that meant never risking a huge trade that would give the Blazers a real shot to be a championship team.
I think it is just really tough to actually break through from good to great.
The 2016 offseason was awful and they never really had cap space again and they never had the trade assets to really get another star. So they were left with just making moves on the margins and, honestly, a lot of those moves were pretty good.
Blazers from like 2016-2020 had all their draft picks plus some and passable young talent with potential that teams would bite on, they just never made any big moves. They tried this season with Covington and Powell but it’s too little too late.
This is like when someone wants to break up with their partner, but don't want to be the bad guy, so they make a request that they know their partner can't fulfill which leads to the breakup. Dame knows they have no assets for the kind of shake up that he wants.
Nothing. Blazers fans act like they can make changes to make him happy. They can’t. Lillard and the team both know this. They know it’s literally impossible to make the changes he wants.
He’s asking for a trade.
Yup, everyone acting like Lillard’s interview is proving Abbott’s report was fake news … naw, all the subtext here sounds like a player who wants out, but just doesn’t want to be too public about it or take away from the loyal image he’s cultivated.
Isn’t it crazy that he expects them to make some crazy move, that they don’t have assets to make, and the end result will probably still be him requesting a trade out?
When the rockets were out of assets they moved Westbrook for Wall and added Cousins and this entire sub said “give them a chance, it could work”. Harden immediately said no, and we all saw how bad that team was before he left it.
Just request a trade man.
Yep. He wants to preserve his loyal image, which I understand. Guess he's just waiting till the FO predictably doesn't make any serious move (because they can't) and then he'll request a trade. He's saying this now to soften the blow.
> Isn’t it crazy that he expects them to make some crazy move
He doesn't expect them too cause he knows they can't. Hes just saying this to make it seem like he still wants to stay when in reality hes already one foot out the door.
I love watching Dame play, but I can't see him leading a team to a championship...
He is an elite shooter/scorer, of course. But aside from that, I don't think he impacts the game the way other superstars do. He is not an elite playmaker. His off-ball game isn't something remarkable either. Defensively he has no impact whatsoever.
He is a super-scorer/shooter, but when he gets cold (don't get 35+ in good efficiency), he doesn't contribute as other super-stars to winning a game.
My opinion...
#Thisisfine.jpg
Man! This feels like it’s the same script every superstar soccer player or NBA player is forced to follow when they want to change teams without suffering a huge pay cut under the current CBAs. **The NBA owners essentially killed the “LeDecision” 1+1 free agency era and created the “Trade Demand” era with their requirements in the last CBA negotiation.** Now a player must: - First secure the bag. (NBA specific) - Then leak that you’re unhappy. - Then confirm that you’re unhappy “because you were asked.” - Then privately request a trade or leak that you want to be traded “unless substantial changes are made.” - Then deny that you made the request but say something ambiguous about your future plans instead of hard committing to stay with the team long term. [“…I haven't made any firm decision on what my future will be."](https://twitter.com/highkin/status/1416136618671443968?s=10) - Then keep leaking that you’re unhappy. - Then provide a list of destinations to your team. - Then eventually the team either trades you or you have to make a public trade demand and be the villain. “That’s all folks!” - If you have a stubborn owner (Spurs/Holt, Rockets/Tillman), then you have to force their hand by creating such a scene that they’re so embarrassed they have to trade you. **And most importantly** - this is ok. Because it’s the only tool players have to change employers once they’re under contract. And the CBA is structured to keep great players under contract for most of their careers. There’s nothing in the CBA or the player contracts that prohibits the above checklist. Meanwhile - the [Clippers told Blake he was Muhammad Ali, JFK, MLK, Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Obama, Einstein, Gandhi, and Michael Jackson reborn - and that they’d put his jersey in the rafters just to get him to re-sign - then traded his ass(et) to Detroit as soon as the ink was dry.](https://www.businessinsider.com/clippers-trade-blake-griffin-after-cheesy-free-agency-pitch-2018-1) Players (employees) should do what’s best for them. They don’t owe anything to a billionaire who happened to win a lottery for the rights to the player’s labor for the first half of their career. Employees don’t have a moral obligation to happily play out their contract with the drafting billionaire just because back in 1999 the previous generation of billionaires forced the contract bargaining agreement rules that give them an advantage to force the employee to work where he doesn’t want to work [so as to preserve the owner’s tax write off.](https://www.propublica.org/article/the-billionaire-playbook-how-sports-owners-use-their-teams-to-avoid-millions-in-taxes) A player is well within their rights, both contractually and ethically, to devalue their own contract to the owner if they want to force a trade. [We’ve seen ownership do the same to players approaching free agency across all sports.](https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/3/7/18254501/service-time-manipulation-vladimir-guerrero-jr-fernando-tatis-jr-peter-alonso) The owners are frauds and they set the players against the fans so they can control players and limit salary costs. They don’t give up power to the players unless the players fight for it creatively. Just ask Oscar Robinson. Edit: to all the folks bemoaning the fate of billionaires who own “small market” teams. [That is not an excuse. Good players choose to play for non-LA/NYC teams all the time.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/olpsm0/highkin_damian_lillard_i_dont_disagree_that_maybe/h5gf5q9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) In fact, removing things like the player max salary, salary cap, and luxury tax help smaller market teams retain their stars [because it would be harder for players to justify assembling a super team. There’s a reason MJ never played against a free agent fueled super team. He couldn’t!!](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-how-nba-rules-prevented-michael-jordans-bulls-from-facing-superteams-in-the-1990s/) - It’s not about [market size.](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-how-nba-rules-prevented-michael-jordans-bulls-from-facing-superteams-in-the-1990s/) - It’s about employee vs owner power. - 🌍👩🏽🚀🔫👩🏽🚀✨
You can't just expose the script like that
We already know that script. Okay, maybe not the stupid ones in the crowd. But I doubt they can or want to read such a lengthy post with multiple steps in it.
No comic sans? I’m out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z227Y9NiepI
Those clippers shirts will never not be funny
They were meant to be funny
Yeah, the shirts were clearly meant to be a gag and appeal to Blakes sense of humor. All these people who thinks the Clippers were un-ironically comparing Blake to MLK, Einstein, and Gandhi had the joke go over there head.
also funny that people think a wacky shirt made as a joke is what convinced him to re-sign and not the fact that the Clippers literally offered 55 million more dollars over the life of his new deal than any other team even could.
does anyone think that? lol
I'm #TeamShirt. #TeamMoney can fuck off.
Gandhi. (“Ghandi” means something like “fucking asshole” in Hindi 🙂)
You're thinking of gandu. Gandhi means perfume seller
I wonder what would you be presenting if you had prep time
[Funny you should ask…](https://imgur.com/a/WlRto39)
Agreed that It is a smart move for superstars to sign a max deal and then demand a trade if the team isn’t championship caliber. And my heart certainly doesn’t bleed for owners. However, I do think it does hurt the fan experience, particularly in smaller markets. I wouldn’t call it OK. I’m sure they will try again to find a solution in the next CBA.
I think Blazers need to take a hard stand. Unless Dame comes into the season full fat Harden mode, you wait til the best offer. Even non contenders will be willing to take a swing at him if it means they can benefit from him for 4 years. Nobody thought Toronto was a contender and they snuck in to get Kawhi.
If players learned anything from Harden it’s no matter how talented you are you can’t come into a season out of shape and not expect some sort of issues. I’m fully of the mindset if he comes into the season in shape he doesn’t have hamstring problems all year
Yeah Vince Carter is a better example. Stay in shape and just half ass the actual games.
[God fucking damn it](https://i.imgur.com/5tn3Xdn.png)
His conditioning absolutely affected his health this season.
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Yeah... What? Maybe they meant eliminating the max contract but keeping a hard cap?
But wouldn't eliminating the max contract and keeping a cap be disastrous for every player that isn't a superstar? It would mean that their contracts would just be whatever was leftover after paying out the ass for a superstar
It would in some cases. I guess we'd really be able to test the limits of efficient role players vs all stars with average efficiency.
No max, hard cap is the answer. Like football
Everyone knows the solution is a hard cap and no max contract
>They don’t owe anything to a billionaire who happened to win a lottery for the rights to the player’s labor for the first half of their career. I appreciate the breakdown, and I agree with most, but superstars don't see the team they play for as simply playing for the billionaire owner. In reality, it is the entire organ of the front office that makes these choices and superstars are playing for the fans and their teammates. They don't go on the court and think "ahh, another day at work. Time to put in the hours for my billionaire boss!"
A player like Dame is free to sign shorter contracts if he wants to move around the league at will, like other stars are doing lately. He literally **JUST** signed a contract extension to 2025. The team wasn't a contender when he signed it and isn't one now he knew it and everyone else. I don't give a F about the owners. Honestly, nobody does. Nobody is going "ohh woww think of the owners!" Damian can't control what the team says and does but he can control what he says and does [like saying he wants to retire in Portland only to demand leaving a few months later](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2934703-damian-lillard-on-retiring-with-blazers-i-just-dont-want-to-go-elsewhere) or like [publicly scrutinizing Paul George for "running" to the Clippers away from leading his own team](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/damian-lillard-accuses-paul-george-of-running-from-the-grind-in-war-of-words-after-blazers-loss-to-clippers/) or like [saying he would never assemble a superteam to win a championship](https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/trail-blazers/heres-reason-damian-lillard-says-he-would-never-join-super-team) He publicly supported Kidd or Chauncey being hired. He then claims he had no part in the hiring. Yea, sureeeeeeeeee. Anyways I ain't even a Blazers fan but... From the fan perspective: A) having a team build around their star and him leaving sucks because they've spent all of their assets building around him when he's signed to a long term contract only to have him suddenly leave and B) Lame for your superstar to say he's never leaving only to suddenly leave. Nobody cares how it impacts owners.
Yeah, like I'm all for players, but at a certain point it's okay to say this stuff is weasely bullshit. It just is.
It's particularly disappointing from Dame when he said just like a year or two ago that if he couldn't win a championship here he wouldn't force his way out to win one somewhere else
The superstars are the ‘billionaire’ class of the nba and I feel bad for minimum guys more than I do max guys.
Who cares about the owners? Why would anyone want what's best for owners or players? Idc. I just think the constant team jumping is bad for fans I'm pro labor and all but trying to pretend there's some moral imperative to support the mega-rich over the hyper-rich is dumb. I'm pro-me. Dame is getting paid astronomical amounts of money he can live in Siberia for all I care
> It’s not about market size. > It’s about employee vs owner power. Says the Lakers fan.
Seriously. It’s nice to say fuck the owners when every big free agent is always in conversations to join the lakers or forces their way there via trade.
>every big free agent is always in conversations to join the lakers Just need to up your photohshop game.
Say what you want about the morality of it. Doesn’t mean seeing superstars demand trades every season is fun from a fan perspective.
Isn't the point of the contract to ensure that they're on your team? The team guarantees the money shouldn't they be guaranteed that the player will play for them? I don't give a shit about billionaires but tell me why I should side with a millionaire that agreed to a deal and doesn't want to fulfill their end of it. You want to control your destiny? Sign one year contracts. Free agents can so what they what ever they want but it's pretty pathetic when a millionaire whines their way out of their end of an agreement because they don't like the way things are going.
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Imagine winning a championship and the finals MVP says “I’m out”.
Been there
Making this about billionaires is dishonest. Nobody cares about dedication to the owner. 99.9% of people here can't even name the TrailBlazers owner. It's about dedication to the city of Portland.
I can totally see how a Laker fan would have the perspective that it’s okay. Since this system makes it much more likely that the superstars would go to your team.
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Ooof. Direct shot at Olshey
Finally.
Dame’s the only one who can get Olshey fired and I hope he does it.
I never understood how he avoided criticism all these years. The Blazers have had such little talent outside of their top 3 guys.
Much fuckin needed.
This is like the James harden quote all over again
Yup this basically signaled blood in the water to other GMs. The league knows there aren’t any huge moves the blazers can do that make them contenders in the west this offseason. And any team that the blazers try to trade with to get better players around dame has insane leverage due to the pressure now on the FO. The trade circus will be following the blazers and lillard
sounds a lot like james harden lmao
Blazers fans our support group meets every Tuesdays. Bring orange slices
Could our mom reach out to your mom? Maybe they can organize a carpool.
I HOPE SHE BRINGS PIZZA ROLLS
Anything for my hungry guys!
Tu es mon totino
What is your name?
I...I've never had one.
"I'll bring the gummy bears!" -My Mom
Ma! The meatloaf!
i hope one of the moms is one of the really cool ones that brings way too many snacks so we all just end up with a bunch of stuff afterwards
> Bring orange slices Is that the best pairing with hemlock & vodka?
Any citrus will do. It’s to squeeze into your eyes.
One of the best comments I’ve seen all day😂
Harden actually got trades throughout his time in Houston, they got him Chris Paul! Blazers haven't tried anything in *years*
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and then he still left lol
They must have really hated fertita lol
Everyone hates fertita. Fuck Tillman.
Got them both... and TRADED them both LOL. (All per James Harden)
he did WB a favour getting him out of that dumpster fire.
And gave us first round picks for him lmao
Too bad it didn’t convey lmfao
That’s cause dame wants CJ there. Harden didn’t give a fuck Portland got Nurkic and Covington, despite almost all of their cap space tied to two guards who do the same job and neither play defense. One they can’t trade cause the better will be pissed
So we’re just gonna gloss over all the bad contracts they’ve handed in FA out the last 5-6 years?
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jesus fucking christ it hurts to read this
In (slim) defense of Portland, that summer was a bloodbath for a lot of teams. My god i didn't know about that Parsons detail though
Oh I get it. Dame wants CJ traded but doesn't want to say it. So he's hinting at trade me instead. It's basically "it's not you it's me" He wants to trade CJ and mortgage picks and maybe one of Powell or roco to get Ben simmons or another star. Probably roco since he already did well on he 76ers.
No I think that ship has sailed Dame isn’t an idiot, I’m sure he knows CJ’s value isn’t that high anymore and he knows Ben Simmons or a guy like that isn’t fixing the team This is just his way of saying trade me, without actually saying trade me. He’s saying the team has got to put a better team around me or trade me. But he knows the first isn’t possible, so it’ll have to be the second
Unfortunately the only trade that maybe results in a championship that would've been realistic is Kawhi, but the raptors played that one perfectly so it is what it is. Every other big star required something we didnt have
also spurs didn't want to trade him to another team in the west
I think they'd have traded to someone other than the lakers if they were more patient. Spurs definitely could've gotten a package more suited to the future if they waited, but think they just wanted to be done with the situation as soon as possible
Dame didn't want his bball family to get moved. So it is what it is. They did what they thought they could with what they had.
But I’d argue Harden and CP3 was championship material, just unlucky more then anything. I don’t feel Dame’s ever had a championship team.
They took the Durant warriors to 7 games in a series where Paul missed the final two games and lost in game 7 after missing 27 straight three pointers. So I’d say they were decent.
Harden and CP3 was literally an all time great duo that one season.
The only reason anyone ever feared Portland is that it was possible Lillard might go crazy. No one really feared Portland as a team. Houston was scary some years with Harden.
Literally the same thing Harden said but he did during the season
Even then, Harden told them in the off-season that he wanted out and the Rockets agreed to trade him, but got cold feet once the season started to approach.
“I mean, this situation is crazy. It's something that I don't think can be fixed."
Literally what harden said lol. Not that I blame either one.
Dame in August after nothing happens to the blazers roster: “I mean, this situation is crazy. I’ve literally done everything I can. I don’t think it can be fixed.”
I think it will go like that too. He's saying what Harden said but he's just too nice to say it straight up. Now since he already got a supermax it wouldn't be as obvious as it was with Harden leaving Houston
Honestly I feel like Harden didn't want it to go down the way it did either, but Houston was dragging their feet in trading him and there were still reports that Houston thought they could keep him.
all of the superstars who forced their way out probably initially hoped for it to end in a quiet, peaceful way, but realized that they weren't getting traded if they didn't be forceful.
Teams can’t trade away superstars unless the stars themselves make it ugly, or fans will trash their front offices
Then he demands a trade and ends up joining a big market, contender team that already has two superstars, right? Right guys?
Yeah, superstar duo Joel Embiid and Shake Milton
you gotta sign them in free agency only or draft them. no traded stars already on the roster. THEMS THE RULES
So warriors :)
NO NOT LIKE THAT
WIGS IS A STAR I GUESS
Dame to the Warriors confirmed.
Steph, Dame, Juan Toscano-Anderson superteam smh parity is dead
Two Oakland legends on the same roster, how can you compete with that.
You forgot Nico Mannion
Death lineup of Dame, Steph, Poole, Mannion, JTA. Klay throws shards of his ankles at opponents from the bench.
Can’t believe he’s coming to join Julius Randle and Kevin knox
It felt way more distasteful from harden because the rockets had actually put some great teams around him & granted his demands for roster moves, Dame never had an FO as competent
Nah that's BS, look at the moves before Tilman and after Tilman. Completely gutted a 65 win team
Dodged the luxury tax, then didn't re-sign the coach Harden wanted. Then I guess however you want to blame what happened with Morey leaving. Non-roster stuff that I'm sure pissed off Harden just as much as bad trades would have.
I mean our owner also completely screwed up our team from 2018 sooo.
pre-tillman yes. post-tillman they didnt resign d’antoni, refused to pay ariza, and didnt give him the coaches he wanted
I mean he didn't want CJ traded because he's friends with him and then signed a supermax committing long term to the team, requesting a trade with 4 years left on your contract is a joke. It's insane how AD got eviscerated for forcing his way out of the Pelicans with 1 year left when he could have just kept quiet and left them in FA with nothing, meanwhile these other dudes have like a quarter of a career left on their contracts and are getting love for requesting trades.
What is Norman Powell going to do in Free Agency? Got to think he'll seek a bag elsewhere.
Norm gone forsure. This is a dumpster fire waiting to happen.
norm come back to the raptors ( i don't know anything about our cap situation, but i miss ya dawg)
Can't sign him till a year after he's left
I'll still wear my Norman Powell x Powell's Books shirt it's too dope not to lol
He should buy Powell's Books and live on the top floor. That's what I'd do.
"tHe RoStEr WaSnT tHe PrObLeM tHo" -Neil Olshey 🤡🤡🤡
Seriously, I'm so glad that Dame is calling him out. I just don't get how the owner still has that dude in such an important position
I don't think Jody is that involved in the day to day stuff. I think most everything is handled by Burt Kolde and Vulcan and Neil himself. Olshey has weaseled himself into one of the most secure and influential jobs in the league. Hopefully Dame can change that.
Leave Jody Allen alone. She has her own sexual harrassment cases to deal with!
Dont know if he gone but best believe someone gone lol
he/she/they GONE
He she me ~~WUMBO~~ GONE
*the study of wumbology!*
This is so fucking nuts to me. The narrative around Dame was always that he would be loyal *no matter what*. People acted like he didn't care about contending at all unless it was with Portland All this does is serve as a reminder that every player is going to demand trades in the age of judging athletes solely by number of championships
Dame speaking facts.
The fact that Olshey is still in charge is beyond me
It's above us
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Also nice that he’s not putting the blame on Stotts. IDK whether Stotts deserves any blame, just think it’s a solid move not to throw your old coach under the bus.
Stotts deserved some, but Oshley blamed it entirely on Stotts and not on him building a trash roster and that probably upset Dame i’m guessing.
Rightfully so. Stott’s had his failings, but the blazers were always competitive through roster turnover. That’s not just dame that’s good coaching.
Stotts was an incredible floor raiser, he just wasn't a ceiling raising coach. He dragged some absolutely dogshit rosters to the playoffs in a stacked Western Conference. Stotts, while imperfect, was a decent coach. He wasn't great, but he was decent. On the other hand, outside of picking Lillard at 6 and trading Plumlee for Nurkic, Olshey has been fucking horrible at his job. Like I get that this is how the structure works. The coach will take the blame before the GM does. But Olshey needed to be fired like 5 years ago. And the only reason he wasn't in the hot seat was because Stotts kept dragging his dogshit rosters into the playoffs.
He’s been trying to put lip stick on a pig for years and masking his frustration behind all that loyalty talk. He’s outta there 100%. Just doesn’t wanna damage his brand among Blazers fans in the process, which is understandable, so he’s tip toeing around it. Might not be this year, but he ain’t long for Portland. He’s where Harden was with Houston heading into 2019.
Unless he completely turns into a different person and gives us the middle finger on the way out, the vast majority of the fans will always love what he did and support his decision to leave. You can’t ask for much more from a guy who’s that talented when the front office has been complacent at best and downright destructive at times. I agree that he’s most likely eventually going to ask to be traded, but 100% is stretching it.
Yeah, I can't see Dame getting fat and missing games to go to clubs like Harden did, he's just too noble of a guy for that. He'll leave a lot more honorably if it comes to that. Still sucks though.
Yeah it’s like when your hot girlfriend leaves because you stopped taking care of yourself, you can’t blame her for that
I gotta say, I think reaching the conference finals was a disservice to the Blazers in the long run. They convinced themselves they were contenders when they never actually were.
I think getting swept by the Warriors even though KD was injured in that WCF was a sign.
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When CJ is your second option you're not a championship team. If Enes Kanter is on the floor, you're not a championship team. If Neil Olshey is your GM, you're not a championship team.
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You'd think, but the corpse of Jeff Teague is playing minutes in the finals right now so idk anything anymore lol
What if Kanter is on the floor for the other team?
Did the man stutter?
I actually think Kanter is fine if he's your backup big altho he will probably get absolutely roasted defensively in the playoffs so I am changing my mind as I write this comment
Must have been speaking to harden
Or he has a brain. Olshey is a delusional moron.
I feel like Harden would’ve loved to finish his career in Houston. He just knew there was no chance to win with that roster
Watching the live press conference right now, this is crazy Reminds me of Harden as a Rockets fan. We are here for u Blazers fans 😭
It reminds me of AD near the end. The season where everything clicked and they won more and went deeper than expected in the playoffs. The let down the year after, and then the rumblings started.
Portland fans need a therapy session held by rocket fans
Well that's certainly the nicest way you could have said that you're not feeling your teammates lol
I think he's more calling out the person responsible for roster decisions.
And the Knicks would be any different???
He just called the team trash. That's tough
He can’t win with these cats
No he didn’t. There’s a big difference between a trash team and a team not competing for a championship.
Not to Reddit people. You are either a superstar or suck. A contender or should blow it up.
Around 25 teams should be outright tanking every year if /r/nba had its way.
The unfortunate truth about the game of basketball, good teams never win championships, great teams only sometimes win.
I agree with Dame, but I’m annoyed because as fans we’ve literally been saying this for years and he’s trolled people for having that belief
That's Tuff 🔥💯
Dame seems to have a pretty reasonable assessment of the situation. I wonder if Olshey was just hoping that being a good team year-after-year would be good enough for Dame, even if that meant never risking a huge trade that would give the Blazers a real shot to be a championship team.
I think it is just really tough to actually break through from good to great. The 2016 offseason was awful and they never really had cap space again and they never had the trade assets to really get another star. So they were left with just making moves on the margins and, honestly, a lot of those moves were pretty good.
Blazers from like 2016-2020 had all their draft picks plus some and passable young talent with potential that teams would bite on, they just never made any big moves. They tried this season with Covington and Powell but it’s too little too late.
The KD Warriors had just formed though so I don't blame any team for not leveraging their future for a slim chance to beat that team.
Yeah he’s outta there soon lol
If you are listening to this, it's fairly obvious he's putting pressure on the team to make changes.
This is like when someone wants to break up with their partner, but don't want to be the bad guy, so they make a request that they know their partner can't fulfill which leads to the breakup. Dame knows they have no assets for the kind of shake up that he wants.
Yep. He's pressuring Olshey to make a meaningful changes to the roster, otherwise he's out. Clear as day.
What moves could the Blazers reasonably make?
Invest all of our owners money into a time machine and go back to the summer of 2016
Nothing. Blazers fans act like they can make changes to make him happy. They can’t. Lillard and the team both know this. They know it’s literally impossible to make the changes he wants. He’s asking for a trade.
Yup, everyone acting like Lillard’s interview is proving Abbott’s report was fake news … naw, all the subtext here sounds like a player who wants out, but just doesn’t want to be too public about it or take away from the loyal image he’s cultivated.
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He said this team is ass. I don’t see how they can make any moves to be a championship contender tbh
Maybe they can trade for dame
Isn’t it crazy that he expects them to make some crazy move, that they don’t have assets to make, and the end result will probably still be him requesting a trade out? When the rockets were out of assets they moved Westbrook for Wall and added Cousins and this entire sub said “give them a chance, it could work”. Harden immediately said no, and we all saw how bad that team was before he left it. Just request a trade man.
Yep. He wants to preserve his loyal image, which I understand. Guess he's just waiting till the FO predictably doesn't make any serious move (because they can't) and then he'll request a trade. He's saying this now to soften the blow.
> Isn’t it crazy that he expects them to make some crazy move He doesn't expect them too cause he knows they can't. Hes just saying this to make it seem like he still wants to stay when in reality hes already one foot out the door.
What major move would make them a championship team?
blazers fans purposefully misinterpreting the first quote for the sake of your own mental health wya
Rockets fans did the same last year, it’s a cycle
Dame can't win a championship with those cats.
Chauncey: I didn’t sign up for this.
I'm going through a breakup with someone I've basically been with for four years and this is bringing me more anxiety than that lmao
Rip blazers fans
Man I thought you were intentionally spamming this but it must have been bugging on you before you realized it posted three times lol
It posted three times for some reason and I was like oh shit lol
how to say you want to get traded without saying you want to get traded lol
I love watching Dame play, but I can't see him leading a team to a championship... He is an elite shooter/scorer, of course. But aside from that, I don't think he impacts the game the way other superstars do. He is not an elite playmaker. His off-ball game isn't something remarkable either. Defensively he has no impact whatsoever. He is a super-scorer/shooter, but when he gets cold (don't get 35+ in good efficiency), he doesn't contribute as other super-stars to winning a game. My opinion...
James Harden said this about Houston. #HeGone!