The Blazers have been a train wreck for the past 20 years. Nothing is going to change until they get a new owner who is committed to winning; something current ownership does not care about.
The high percentage move would be committing to the total rebuild. They are clearly much closer to rebuilding than contending for a championship 🏆. It's clear to see. Mortgaging the future to appease Dame and making him happy is very risky and it would set the Blazers back for many years.
Totally agree. And I would hope Dame would put his money where his mouth is and stay and try and make this team a winner. If he loses while daring greatly, he will be remembered more than if he jumps ship to a team stacked with stars and wins. IMHO.
Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Now I am done asking politely.
Out of curiosity, what competitive advantage will the Blazers have if the team is sold? Serious question. Seems to me the only possible off-court transactions that will have any viable shot of making the Blazers competitive in the next few years has little to do with ownership and will be: (a) winning the next lottery; (b) finishing 2nd or 3rd in the next lottery and somehow managing to package that draft pick in a major trade for a disgruntled star (e.g., Zion Williamson), or (c) somehow finding a really, really, really crazy sucker to trade a Durant, Gobert or Mitchell-level haul for Lillard.
I think the competitive advantage if sold to Phil would be his ability to apply energy to the entire team, both players and management. He would also be will ing exceed the cap and pay the tax to bring top talent. If the Blazers win the lottery they should take Victor Wembanyama. they should also grab a top free agent and be willing to pay the salary cap tax. Dame should be the leader he is and stay and be willing to help Victor be the next Durant (which he will be) and go for a championship in 24/25. Forget Zion to Gobert... they aren't team players. BTW in a trade for Lillard for Durant the trail Blazers would be a sucker there. One injury and Durant is done.
His ability to apply energy? What's some 85-year-old guy going to do, personally add more air to their Air Jordans? The Trail Blazers need a ton of talent, not a ton of really old man energy running around in his slippers with an air pump.
A defense that doesn't stink wouldn't hurt either. The past four seasons, out of 30 teams, they've been 28th, 29th, 30th, and now 27th. Improving the defense by leaps and bounds will require a roster overhaul, these are bad defensive players.
And exceed the salary cap and pay the luxury tax for what? To overpay Jerami Grant? Portland isn't signing any top free agents. Ever. Not unless it's their own free agents. Never have, never will. That's the reality of the city of Portland.
If they're not going to get rid of Lillard yet, then their only immediate hope is their disgraceful tanking worked and their 10.5% of winning the lottery comes to fruition. Otherwise, they're just running around in a hamster wheel and delaying the inevitable, and each season that passes just reduces Lillard's already shrinking trade value even more.
The owner, GM and coach are junk. Traded CJ for what? …. Don’t worry I’ll wait…. Good people want to play and work for Knight, he would attract more than Jody, she hates the city of Portland and is working hard to destroy her brothers legacy. And this is why your correct about not attracting any good talent until she is gone.
Portland needs to trade and draft well, there has not been a single top unrestricted free agent signed in the 36 years since unrestricted free agency became a thing. The city is Portland. Drafts and trades are the only recourse.
The problem with trading McCollum wasn't trading McCollum, the problem with trading McCollum was failing to receive quality draft compensation in return.
It's time to thank Dame for his service, hand him his gold watch, and send him on his way. The Blazers aren't going to win a championship in whatever time he has left in the league. This was clear after the WCF run a few years ago. To me, the Blazers needed to make him ask out on the record. We've finally arrived at that moment.
Huge Dame fan, but you could put some nice, young players with Simons and Sharpe by freeing up $121.77 million. It’s not the popular take, but this team isn’t winning anything with that contract and the defensive liability.
The best thing that could happen to Blazers fans is more local sports competition at the major franchise level. The PNW is an attractive market in spite of how Seattle and Portland political leadership operates. If sports entertainment groups (like the Kroenke group in L.A.) can find the right location outside of King County and Multnomah County (particularly) there could be a MLB or NHL franchise in Oregon (Seattle area is going to get the NBA) that would shake the Blazers' ownership out of their monopolistic arrogance and condescension...take away the Blazers ownership's feeling of "we're the only game in town, take it or leave it" attitude and give Portland area fans some choices and leverage and you're going to get a much better on field/court performance and experience all the way around.
I seem to be on the bogey train today, but, Rich, have you been downtown lately? Have you followed the clown show known as the Portland City Council? And this is going to entice major league interest? Think Oakland. Charlie
Charlie, you're doing fine. And, yes, unfortunately I have to visit Portland occasionally and it's a septic tank.
In my posts I've continually mentioned "outside of Multnomah County". No smart businessman or woman is moving to downtown Portland...nobody in their right mind would set up a food cart in Portland let alone a major league franchise. However, the PNW outside of King County and Multnomah County is very attractive to private money. Gillette stadium is outside of Boston; Met Life is outside of NYC. SoFi is outside of Los Angeles. Those are all private money endeavors. Sure, Allegiant is in Vegas, but Vegas is a different animal - no city in America gets buildings built faster than Vegas because politicians from both sides agree on one thing - buildings equal jobs and money. Even Allegiant and a blood-sucker like Mark Davis gave Vegas taxpayers a terrific deal. I'm saying, simply, that Blazers ownership feels like they own the market...ownership needs to be shaken out of their arrogance - competition is good for the customer. Give Blazers fans more choices and reduce ownership's leverage.
Your comment about the Oakland A's is right on the button, Charlie. At one time the A's and the Portland MLB Diamond Project were much closer than most people know. When 2020 rolled around and people across the world watched the looting, vandalism, destruction, homeless, crime spikes, etc., the A's (and other big-time events) took a pass. Oakland's political leadership - as you pointed out - is as inept as Portland's. It's a shame what has happened to this city.
And Portland already has the equivalent of Gillette, MetLife and Allegiant. That happened in 2013. Naming rights don't benefit anybody but the people who receive all the naming rights money. Or maybe you didn't realize that Moda wasn't Paul Allen's loving nickname for his wonderful sweet Muddah.
Don't recall when I've seen more negativity expressed by a single individual. Did somebody turn you down for a prom date? Yeah...I wonder why...you must be a lot of fun to be around.
The very biggest problem with the Portland Trail Blazers is the people who run the team and the vast majority of the people who support the team live in their own reality. If actual reality is negative, then that's because it's reality.
I lived and worked in Portland for many years and love the city for all it used to be and remain hopeful for better days. Haven't been back in a few years but intel from family, friends and media suggest PDX is at it's lowest ebb, maybe ever. It saddens me.
I lived and worked in Portland, too, after being raised in Canby. It was once one of the finest cities in America. It's instructive to do a little thinking and figure out why it has deteriorated so fast and so far. We have a tendency to operate on only two speeds in this country - complete complacency or sheer panic. Nothing in the middle...no planning, proactive thinking, continuous improvement or consideration for the future - just complacency or panic. When things get worse, which they're bound to do, Portland's citizens will finally say enough. The pendulum will swing the other way one day and Portland will regain its position as a great city...however, sadly, things are going to continue to wallow in misery for a while longer. People haven't had enough yet.
Do not count on the pendulum. Once a great city has been ruined, it takes generations to recover. Detroit was wiped out in the late 1960s. Before then, it was a great city with a terrific waterfront, cosmopolitan downtown, Windsor, Canada was a 15 minute drive over the bridge (before passports were required). The riots in the late 60s and early 70s destroyed the downtown. It has really never recovered. Baltimore has gone the same path. Burned out, crime and drug-ridden. Minneapolis, Seattle, San Fran and Portland are following on this path. Do not think everything will just bounce back. Once ruined, tt could take 50 or more years, like Detroit.
You could be right and that would be a shame. I live in southern California, so I'm not throwing stones. I think California's "thinking", lifestyle and proclivities contributed significantly to where Portland is today...it will only change when people have had enough. No middle class families with children are moving to California today. None. Seriously - I mean zero. There is an exodus of families leaving California. It would be a tragedy if that trend begins in Oregon.
I live in Scottsdale now. The CA families end up right here with me. We have four or five transplant families just on my block. All of the Phoenix area is like this. (they are nice, young families who want a good life, so I don't mind at all).
Gotta disagree with you on this one. We are already making progress and more is on the way. Detroit is nowhere close to the PDX situation. I do agree it will not be overnight, but the lifting will be heavy... and this town is up to the challenge. Progress, not perfection.
Welp, Detroit is in a class by itself. But here's the thing: They already have MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL, each with long and checkered histories. PDX has long aspired to become a major league city on par with other multi-sport franchises, and right now that feels further away than ever.
I grew up in the Valley and got to see Portland transform. In the 60s it was really still a small town. We would cruise Broadway on Friday nights with all the theaters doing "first run" movies. The only semi-dangerous area was from the river to about 4th Ave on Burnside where "the winos" were. The Pearl District was still just old warehouses. It was quaint, and quiet. Then in the 70s re-development happened, big buildings were built, the town grew lively. In the 80s the Pearl District did come into existence, condos started going up and people started living downtown. For the next 20 years Portland was HOT. Everyone wanted to be there. By the 2008 mortgage crisis, the reversal began and ten years later, downtown PDX was becoming unlivable. It only took 5 years to wreck a great city!!
Not a Blazers fan, but I am a Lillard fan from his days at Weber State. I'd love to see the Blazers sit on on their hands and trade him to the Jazz for a bunch of those draft picks Danny Ainge has accumulated.
Draft picks? Drafting talent in the NBA is like playing the lottery. It's fraught with one-and-done projects who are full of potential but low on patience and experience. The Blazers must get a proven, high level player in addition to picks.
Just because you have a draft pick doesn't mean you have to use it to draft a player for your own team. Oklahoma City isn't going to use all of their 30,000 first-round picks they've accumulated. Everybody is chasing hope, which means future draft picks have major value.
For God's sakes, Oklahoma City lost a 28-year-old Kevin Durant for literally absolutely NOTHING. That didn't stop Sam Presti, he got up off the mat and did something about it. Oklahoma City operates with shrewd intelligence and ambition, Portland operates stupidly while frozen solid with fear.
So...we are at time in our lives where this has to be the message to everyone that has a "people who want to run stuff" position. You want to run stuff, get your ass in gear! Listening Pac-10???
Who is available to be a 2 to Dame that would make this team a contender?
Who is willing to be a 2 to Dame? Or, Who would talk Dame into being the 2? LeBron, or KD ain't coming....
Best bet is probably trading him to where he can get a ring, and start with a young team with potential, , BUT, as everyone else says, new ownership coaches, all down the line
Slightly better version of Russell Westbrook, hoards the ball and couldn't make it in the era before Allen Iverson, he's a horrible contract for someone else. Blazers are trying to dump a bad contract.
Wouldn't have been a "bad contract" if the Blazers had surrounded him with a solid supporting cast...one or two NBA titles and people would be lobbying for Lillard to get more...
Lobbying for Lillard to get more? Get more than WHAT? Lillard's contracts made him one of the highest-paid players in NBA history. Every extension has been for every penny he was qualified to earn, he refused to take a penny less. No other team would have been able to offer him what the Blazers were eligible to pay him. No person has ever held a gun to his head to force him to make his supermax money for 35% of the salary cap.
He will be making a ridiculous salary cap-crushing $63 million when he's 36-years-old. His value to an NBA team will not be anything close to that. His agent even got him a no-trade clause that expires July 9, 2023. Now he's demanded that Jerami Grant be re-upped, which leaves Cronin with zero leverage with Grant's agent and mandates that Grant will receive a max salary from the Blazers. Lillard has hamstrung the franchise and continues to do so. But yet Lillard is portrayed as a populist and fiercely loyal patriot as opposed to the low-down and dirty double-agent he really is.
For the fourth time, I'm asking you for your solution(s). No one here is better at finding the fly in the ointment...got a solution to the Blazers' problems?
Okay, here it is. Dame comes to his senses and realizes he is on the gravy train and does what he said he would do last year - stay and build a winner. If he jumps just to win a fake ring with a team that is already a winner, I lose respec if he stays my faith in him is restored . Ownership wins the lottery and gets Victor. Spend over the cap and get a solid #3. There is a reason the captain goes down with a ship. It's called personal integrity. There is a reason the Celtics and Lakers of the glory years became legend. This ain't it.
"Solution" is an illusionary word here. "Options" is the appropriate term.
Kowtowing to Lillard's financial demands already eliminated what had previously been, by far, their best options. So there are only three options remaining: (a) winning the next lottery; (b) making a deal with Chicago to rid themselves of the encumbrance of the future 1st-round draft pick owed to them, thus allowing the Blazers to trade future 1st-round picks as part of a much larger package for a disgruntled franchise-type star (e.g. Zion Williamson); or (c) trade Lillard.
The ownership issue is a scapegoat issue. Point blank. God himself could buy the Blazers. And they'd still be in the exact same Lillard contract hole they are in right now.
Bulls needed to use the zone to beat Malone, drexler's blazers were cheated from a title(s), Webber's kings were cheated. Cities with a financial infrastructure of international trade win titles, la, Cleveland, San Antonio, Miami, Toronto, San Francisco; not the Portland's, Sacramento's, or Utah's. The title argument is mute.
Mute arguments are always the loudest. I think you meant moot. And that financial infrastructure of international trade thing is kinda interesting. Because the sole international trades the cities of San Antonio and Cleveland have made only involved drugs and human trafficking. To the best of my knowledge, LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have never been involved in any of that.
I just looked Jody Allen is worth $20B, a lot more than the ownership of the Warriors, let alone the Kings. Obviously it starts at the top and maybe selling the Blazers reminds me of a widow I once dated...her husband owned a Ferrari and had been dead for a dozen years. She never really drove it but kept it because it reminded her of him and would never part with it, but it sat unused in the garage.
I just don't get these arguments. It's the job of a front office to make personnel decisions. It's the job of the top front office executive to sell his owner as to why that owner should spend a certain amount of money and to persuade that owner that giving the green light is going to benefit that owner in some way. Does having a meddling owner give the Blazers a competitive advantage? No.
I'm not sure paying the luxury tax would make any competitive difference in the short-term. But does anybody here, including Canzano, realize there have been only two seasons the Blazers have paid the luxury tax since the 2010-2011 season, and that both luxury tax payments were AFTER Paul Allen died?
Exactly, sir. Lillard’s not a whiner. He’s an honest, hard working human being who simply wants his team to make steps to improve. I think he expects and appreciated the fans and wants this futility to stop.
You're right, he's not a whiner. What he is is an unbelievably manipulative, shrewd, two-faced, passive-aggressive, negotiating through the media, incredibly PR-savvy businessman who has spent his entire professional career off the court selling snow to the Eskimos. If LeBron James was seven inches shorter, he'd be Damian Lillard.
Is Damian Lillard loyal? No. Will Damian Lillard be a successful business mogul after he retires? Hell, yeah.
Apr 13, 2023·edited Apr 13, 2023Liked by John Canzano
Dame has politely stated what is obvious to all but the most oblivious fans. The Blazers have two choices. Choice 1: Go all in. Mortgage the future. Land a needle moving superstar or an all star very close to superstar status. Accomplish this without gutting the team. Choice 2: Trade Dame. Rebuild around the nucleolus we have. Sell hope to the fans. I don't see the first option as realistic. I would be delighted if Joe Cronin, with an absentee owner. proves me wrong.
My hope is the team is sold after the collective bargaining agreement is finalized and no significant roster moves are made until then. Our new owner has a vision for the team's direction. I don't particularly care what the vision is, so long as we have a consistent one, that all the Blazers moves algin with. It is hard to get somewhere when you don't know how you want to get there or where there is. Let's call the new owner Phil!
Do we really want the consensus #1 draft choice? The blazers history with tall players is not good. On the other hand, when he physically breaks down it will give us the opportunity to moan about another wasted draft pick.
With the Blazers' track record, or lack thereof, for much of this century, they have fallen into my "I don't care" category. I am also disappointed in Damian's grammatical speech, yikes.
The Blazers have been a train wreck for the past 20 years. Nothing is going to change until they get a new owner who is committed to winning; something current ownership does not care about.
There is no ownership. You're right.
Beyond True (think "swoosh"
Define "committed to winning."
And as I observed, don't need to.
The high percentage move would be committing to the total rebuild. They are clearly much closer to rebuilding than contending for a championship 🏆. It's clear to see. Mortgaging the future to appease Dame and making him happy is very risky and it would set the Blazers back for many years.
Excellent point...thinking like a GM.
Totally agree. And I would hope Dame would put his money where his mouth is and stay and try and make this team a winner. If he loses while daring greatly, he will be remembered more than if he jumps ship to a team stacked with stars and wins. IMHO.
Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Please sell the team!!! Now I am done asking politely.
Yes. Totally. Sell.
Out of curiosity, what competitive advantage will the Blazers have if the team is sold? Serious question. Seems to me the only possible off-court transactions that will have any viable shot of making the Blazers competitive in the next few years has little to do with ownership and will be: (a) winning the next lottery; (b) finishing 2nd or 3rd in the next lottery and somehow managing to package that draft pick in a major trade for a disgruntled star (e.g., Zion Williamson), or (c) somehow finding a really, really, really crazy sucker to trade a Durant, Gobert or Mitchell-level haul for Lillard.
I think the competitive advantage if sold to Phil would be his ability to apply energy to the entire team, both players and management. He would also be will ing exceed the cap and pay the tax to bring top talent. If the Blazers win the lottery they should take Victor Wembanyama. they should also grab a top free agent and be willing to pay the salary cap tax. Dame should be the leader he is and stay and be willing to help Victor be the next Durant (which he will be) and go for a championship in 24/25. Forget Zion to Gobert... they aren't team players. BTW in a trade for Lillard for Durant the trail Blazers would be a sucker there. One injury and Durant is done.
His ability to apply energy? What's some 85-year-old guy going to do, personally add more air to their Air Jordans? The Trail Blazers need a ton of talent, not a ton of really old man energy running around in his slippers with an air pump.
A defense that doesn't stink wouldn't hurt either. The past four seasons, out of 30 teams, they've been 28th, 29th, 30th, and now 27th. Improving the defense by leaps and bounds will require a roster overhaul, these are bad defensive players.
And exceed the salary cap and pay the luxury tax for what? To overpay Jerami Grant? Portland isn't signing any top free agents. Ever. Not unless it's their own free agents. Never have, never will. That's the reality of the city of Portland.
If they're not going to get rid of Lillard yet, then their only immediate hope is their disgraceful tanking worked and their 10.5% of winning the lottery comes to fruition. Otherwise, they're just running around in a hamster wheel and delaying the inevitable, and each season that passes just reduces Lillard's already shrinking trade value even more.
The owner, GM and coach are junk. Traded CJ for what? …. Don’t worry I’ll wait…. Good people want to play and work for Knight, he would attract more than Jody, she hates the city of Portland and is working hard to destroy her brothers legacy. And this is why your correct about not attracting any good talent until she is gone.
Portland needs to trade and draft well, there has not been a single top unrestricted free agent signed in the 36 years since unrestricted free agency became a thing. The city is Portland. Drafts and trades are the only recourse.
The problem with trading McCollum wasn't trading McCollum, the problem with trading McCollum was failing to receive quality draft compensation in return.
Which further proves my point, the ownership, GM and coach are terrible at their jobs.
As long as Jody is in charge the future is bleak!
She's absentee. Must let go.
I wonder if she'd consider selling the team to Lillard?...probably not
It's time to thank Dame for his service, hand him his gold watch, and send him on his way. The Blazers aren't going to win a championship in whatever time he has left in the league. This was clear after the WCF run a few years ago. To me, the Blazers needed to make him ask out on the record. We've finally arrived at that moment.
For the sake of everyone, it's time to go.
Huge Dame fan, but you could put some nice, young players with Simons and Sharpe by freeing up $121.77 million. It’s not the popular take, but this team isn’t winning anything with that contract and the defensive liability.
The best thing that could happen to Blazers fans is more local sports competition at the major franchise level. The PNW is an attractive market in spite of how Seattle and Portland political leadership operates. If sports entertainment groups (like the Kroenke group in L.A.) can find the right location outside of King County and Multnomah County (particularly) there could be a MLB or NHL franchise in Oregon (Seattle area is going to get the NBA) that would shake the Blazers' ownership out of their monopolistic arrogance and condescension...take away the Blazers ownership's feeling of "we're the only game in town, take it or leave it" attitude and give Portland area fans some choices and leverage and you're going to get a much better on field/court performance and experience all the way around.
I seem to be on the bogey train today, but, Rich, have you been downtown lately? Have you followed the clown show known as the Portland City Council? And this is going to entice major league interest? Think Oakland. Charlie
Charlie, you're doing fine. And, yes, unfortunately I have to visit Portland occasionally and it's a septic tank.
In my posts I've continually mentioned "outside of Multnomah County". No smart businessman or woman is moving to downtown Portland...nobody in their right mind would set up a food cart in Portland let alone a major league franchise. However, the PNW outside of King County and Multnomah County is very attractive to private money. Gillette stadium is outside of Boston; Met Life is outside of NYC. SoFi is outside of Los Angeles. Those are all private money endeavors. Sure, Allegiant is in Vegas, but Vegas is a different animal - no city in America gets buildings built faster than Vegas because politicians from both sides agree on one thing - buildings equal jobs and money. Even Allegiant and a blood-sucker like Mark Davis gave Vegas taxpayers a terrific deal. I'm saying, simply, that Blazers ownership feels like they own the market...ownership needs to be shaken out of their arrogance - competition is good for the customer. Give Blazers fans more choices and reduce ownership's leverage.
Thoughtful, comprehensive and instructive, thanks Rich for the enlightenment, and I do agree with your assessment. Charlie
Your comment about the Oakland A's is right on the button, Charlie. At one time the A's and the Portland MLB Diamond Project were much closer than most people know. When 2020 rolled around and people across the world watched the looting, vandalism, destruction, homeless, crime spikes, etc., the A's (and other big-time events) took a pass. Oakland's political leadership - as you pointed out - is as inept as Portland's. It's a shame what has happened to this city.
Oh, no, there's your description of forcing the taxpayers to take out a $750 million loan as an example of what an amazing deal Las Vegas is getting. Here a good summary of just how amazing that deal is: https://deadspin.com/the-raiders-robbed-las-vegas-in-americas-worst-stadium-1795475973
And Portland already has the equivalent of Gillette, MetLife and Allegiant. That happened in 2013. Naming rights don't benefit anybody but the people who receive all the naming rights money. Or maybe you didn't realize that Moda wasn't Paul Allen's loving nickname for his wonderful sweet Muddah.
Don't recall when I've seen more negativity expressed by a single individual. Did somebody turn you down for a prom date? Yeah...I wonder why...you must be a lot of fun to be around.
You do live in Portland, right? Perfect fit.
The very biggest problem with the Portland Trail Blazers is the people who run the team and the vast majority of the people who support the team live in their own reality. If actual reality is negative, then that's because it's reality.
I lived and worked in Portland for many years and love the city for all it used to be and remain hopeful for better days. Haven't been back in a few years but intel from family, friends and media suggest PDX is at it's lowest ebb, maybe ever. It saddens me.
I lived and worked in Portland, too, after being raised in Canby. It was once one of the finest cities in America. It's instructive to do a little thinking and figure out why it has deteriorated so fast and so far. We have a tendency to operate on only two speeds in this country - complete complacency or sheer panic. Nothing in the middle...no planning, proactive thinking, continuous improvement or consideration for the future - just complacency or panic. When things get worse, which they're bound to do, Portland's citizens will finally say enough. The pendulum will swing the other way one day and Portland will regain its position as a great city...however, sadly, things are going to continue to wallow in misery for a while longer. People haven't had enough yet.
Do not count on the pendulum. Once a great city has been ruined, it takes generations to recover. Detroit was wiped out in the late 1960s. Before then, it was a great city with a terrific waterfront, cosmopolitan downtown, Windsor, Canada was a 15 minute drive over the bridge (before passports were required). The riots in the late 60s and early 70s destroyed the downtown. It has really never recovered. Baltimore has gone the same path. Burned out, crime and drug-ridden. Minneapolis, Seattle, San Fran and Portland are following on this path. Do not think everything will just bounce back. Once ruined, tt could take 50 or more years, like Detroit.
You could be right and that would be a shame. I live in southern California, so I'm not throwing stones. I think California's "thinking", lifestyle and proclivities contributed significantly to where Portland is today...it will only change when people have had enough. No middle class families with children are moving to California today. None. Seriously - I mean zero. There is an exodus of families leaving California. It would be a tragedy if that trend begins in Oregon.
I live in Scottsdale now. The CA families end up right here with me. We have four or five transplant families just on my block. All of the Phoenix area is like this. (they are nice, young families who want a good life, so I don't mind at all).
Gotta disagree with you on this one. We are already making progress and more is on the way. Detroit is nowhere close to the PDX situation. I do agree it will not be overnight, but the lifting will be heavy... and this town is up to the challenge. Progress, not perfection.
Welp, Detroit is in a class by itself. But here's the thing: They already have MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL, each with long and checkered histories. PDX has long aspired to become a major league city on par with other multi-sport franchises, and right now that feels further away than ever.
Progress? Seriously? What's your definition of progress? Please, it's a serious question. No one else sees it.
I grew up in the Valley and got to see Portland transform. In the 60s it was really still a small town. We would cruise Broadway on Friday nights with all the theaters doing "first run" movies. The only semi-dangerous area was from the river to about 4th Ave on Burnside where "the winos" were. The Pearl District was still just old warehouses. It was quaint, and quiet. Then in the 70s re-development happened, big buildings were built, the town grew lively. In the 80s the Pearl District did come into existence, condos started going up and people started living downtown. For the next 20 years Portland was HOT. Everyone wanted to be there. By the 2008 mortgage crisis, the reversal began and ten years later, downtown PDX was becoming unlivable. It only took 5 years to wreck a great city!!
Not a Blazers fan, but I am a Lillard fan from his days at Weber State. I'd love to see the Blazers sit on on their hands and trade him to the Jazz for a bunch of those draft picks Danny Ainge has accumulated.
yes.
Draft picks? Drafting talent in the NBA is like playing the lottery. It's fraught with one-and-done projects who are full of potential but low on patience and experience. The Blazers must get a proven, high level player in addition to picks.
Just because you have a draft pick doesn't mean you have to use it to draft a player for your own team. Oklahoma City isn't going to use all of their 30,000 first-round picks they've accumulated. Everybody is chasing hope, which means future draft picks have major value.
For God's sakes, Oklahoma City lost a 28-year-old Kevin Durant for literally absolutely NOTHING. That didn't stop Sam Presti, he got up off the mat and did something about it. Oklahoma City operates with shrewd intelligence and ambition, Portland operates stupidly while frozen solid with fear.
So...we are at time in our lives where this has to be the message to everyone that has a "people who want to run stuff" position. You want to run stuff, get your ass in gear! Listening Pac-10???
There you go.
Who is available to be a 2 to Dame that would make this team a contender?
Who is willing to be a 2 to Dame? Or, Who would talk Dame into being the 2? LeBron, or KD ain't coming....
Best bet is probably trading him to where he can get a ring, and start with a young team with potential, , BUT, as everyone else says, new ownership coaches, all down the line
Slightly better version of Russell Westbrook, hoards the ball and couldn't make it in the era before Allen Iverson, he's a horrible contract for someone else. Blazers are trying to dump a bad contract.
Wow.
Wouldn't have been a "bad contract" if the Blazers had surrounded him with a solid supporting cast...one or two NBA titles and people would be lobbying for Lillard to get more...
Lobbying for Lillard to get more? Get more than WHAT? Lillard's contracts made him one of the highest-paid players in NBA history. Every extension has been for every penny he was qualified to earn, he refused to take a penny less. No other team would have been able to offer him what the Blazers were eligible to pay him. No person has ever held a gun to his head to force him to make his supermax money for 35% of the salary cap.
He will be making a ridiculous salary cap-crushing $63 million when he's 36-years-old. His value to an NBA team will not be anything close to that. His agent even got him a no-trade clause that expires July 9, 2023. Now he's demanded that Jerami Grant be re-upped, which leaves Cronin with zero leverage with Grant's agent and mandates that Grant will receive a max salary from the Blazers. Lillard has hamstrung the franchise and continues to do so. But yet Lillard is portrayed as a populist and fiercely loyal patriot as opposed to the low-down and dirty double-agent he really is.
For the fourth time, I'm asking you for your solution(s). No one here is better at finding the fly in the ointment...got a solution to the Blazers' problems?
Jeopardy music continues to play...
Okay, here it is. Dame comes to his senses and realizes he is on the gravy train and does what he said he would do last year - stay and build a winner. If he jumps just to win a fake ring with a team that is already a winner, I lose respec if he stays my faith in him is restored . Ownership wins the lottery and gets Victor. Spend over the cap and get a solid #3. There is a reason the captain goes down with a ship. It's called personal integrity. There is a reason the Celtics and Lakers of the glory years became legend. This ain't it.
Love your fairytale...hope it happens.
"Solution" is an illusionary word here. "Options" is the appropriate term.
Kowtowing to Lillard's financial demands already eliminated what had previously been, by far, their best options. So there are only three options remaining: (a) winning the next lottery; (b) making a deal with Chicago to rid themselves of the encumbrance of the future 1st-round draft pick owed to them, thus allowing the Blazers to trade future 1st-round picks as part of a much larger package for a disgruntled franchise-type star (e.g. Zion Williamson); or (c) trade Lillard.
"Solution" is illusionary when you don't have one.
Your options don't address the ownership issue, which was the point of Canzano's column.
I got it. Your fuel tank says empty.
The ownership issue is a scapegoat issue. Point blank. God himself could buy the Blazers. And they'd still be in the exact same Lillard contract hole they are in right now.
Boom
Bulls needed to use the zone to beat Malone, drexler's blazers were cheated from a title(s), Webber's kings were cheated. Cities with a financial infrastructure of international trade win titles, la, Cleveland, San Antonio, Miami, Toronto, San Francisco; not the Portland's, Sacramento's, or Utah's. The title argument is mute.
Mute arguments are always the loudest. I think you meant moot. And that financial infrastructure of international trade thing is kinda interesting. Because the sole international trades the cities of San Antonio and Cleveland have made only involved drugs and human trafficking. To the best of my knowledge, LeBron James, Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have never been involved in any of that.
That comment is magnitudes more hateful than stupid and it's really stupid.
You gotta be living in Portland...
I just looked Jody Allen is worth $20B, a lot more than the ownership of the Warriors, let alone the Kings. Obviously it starts at the top and maybe selling the Blazers reminds me of a widow I once dated...her husband owned a Ferrari and had been dead for a dozen years. She never really drove it but kept it because it reminded her of him and would never part with it, but it sat unused in the garage.
Excellent point, doubt Jody ever said why she doesn't want to sell now (see my note). Charlie
I just don't get these arguments. It's the job of a front office to make personnel decisions. It's the job of the top front office executive to sell his owner as to why that owner should spend a certain amount of money and to persuade that owner that giving the green light is going to benefit that owner in some way. Does having a meddling owner give the Blazers a competitive advantage? No.
I'm not sure paying the luxury tax would make any competitive difference in the short-term. But does anybody here, including Canzano, realize there have been only two seasons the Blazers have paid the luxury tax since the 2010-2011 season, and that both luxury tax payments were AFTER Paul Allen died?
Exactly, sir. Lillard’s not a whiner. He’s an honest, hard working human being who simply wants his team to make steps to improve. I think he expects and appreciated the fans and wants this futility to stop.
You're right, he's not a whiner. What he is is an unbelievably manipulative, shrewd, two-faced, passive-aggressive, negotiating through the media, incredibly PR-savvy businessman who has spent his entire professional career off the court selling snow to the Eskimos. If LeBron James was seven inches shorter, he'd be Damian Lillard.
Is Damian Lillard loyal? No. Will Damian Lillard be a successful business mogul after he retires? Hell, yeah.
Dame has politely stated what is obvious to all but the most oblivious fans. The Blazers have two choices. Choice 1: Go all in. Mortgage the future. Land a needle moving superstar or an all star very close to superstar status. Accomplish this without gutting the team. Choice 2: Trade Dame. Rebuild around the nucleolus we have. Sell hope to the fans. I don't see the first option as realistic. I would be delighted if Joe Cronin, with an absentee owner. proves me wrong.
My hope is the team is sold after the collective bargaining agreement is finalized and no significant roster moves are made until then. Our new owner has a vision for the team's direction. I don't particularly care what the vision is, so long as we have a consistent one, that all the Blazers moves algin with. It is hard to get somewhere when you don't know how you want to get there or where there is. Let's call the new owner Phil!
Do we really want the consensus #1 draft choice? The blazers history with tall players is not good. On the other hand, when he physically breaks down it will give us the opportunity to moan about another wasted draft pick.
With the Blazers' track record, or lack thereof, for much of this century, they have fallen into my "I don't care" category. I am also disappointed in Damian's grammatical speech, yikes.
Agree...brutal language...did he go to SC?
Modelo didn't put you in a commercial because you can recite Shakespeare?