NBA 2023-2024

HTG said:
He’s done more than enough for Portland. He owes them nothing. He deserves to get his wish.
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Well he’s under contract with Blazers for another 4 years and they don’t have any obligation whatsoever to succumb to his wish of being traded for next to nothing. He’s been paid handsomely for his efforts and had basically had the franchise give in to him at every turn for the last few years.

Many players have asked for trades in recent years, some of them with a specific team in mind as well. None of them got traded for nothing, and none of them went about it in this manner. It’s actually ridiculous when you think about the whole situation. Gobert, Mitchell, Davis, Durant, Harden (twice) all wanted to be traded and they all brought significant assets back, and we are meant to send Dame out for a mediocre package just because.
 
JPRouve said:
It's depressing especially when you consider that the Heat can only trade their 2028 and 2030 first round picks. NBA teams can't have two consecutive drafts without first round picks.
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Yeah the Steplen rule. However they could trade their 2024 pick if they unprotect the pick they owe to OKC and move it to 2026. It is currently a 2025 top 4 protected first I think and OKC would probably need a minor asset to agree to that.

Three poor firsts, Herro and a bad contract is still not good enough though. They need to throw in both Jaquez and Jovic and hope nobody outbids them.
 
I think Portland will just mind their own business and offload Lillard for the best package they are offered.
 
Portland also do not owe Dame anything. They've made him incredibly wealthy. They need to do what's best for them.
 
HTG said:
He’s done more than enough for Portland. He owes them nothing. He deserves to get his wish.
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I agree. but folks need to understand it’s tough enough to attract top talent being a small market team without having to sell one of your best franchise players ever for peanuts.
 
entropy said:
I agree. but folks need to understand it’s tough enough to attract top talent being a small market team without having to sell one of your best franchise players ever for peanuts.
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You won't ever attract top talent either way though
 
ZDwyr said:
You won't ever attract top talent either way though
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Which is why there is no reason for them to not take the best package. Teams like the Blazers have only two viable way to get top talent, trades or draft.
 
Any of you guys been watching the new Cam and Mase sports show? Great content

Around 39:40 in the latest episode if you wanna hear a hilarious joke.
 
calodo2003 said:
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Her security probably do the same to anyone touching her so not sure why she should get more sympathy because she's famous. Not that I condone putting hands on women but she should know how pushy security teams can be.
 
HTG said:
He’s done more than enough for Portland. He owes them nothing. He deserves to get his wish.
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Normally I would agree but the Heat's deal is so bad that honestly it would be a serious crime if the Blazers were forced to accept it. The Heat just don't have good assets and/or are unwilling to include pieces that actually move the needle. I'm sorry but Tyler Herro is not a star player and currently not on track to be an all-star level player. In contrast, the Nets got a future star/superstar in Mikal Bridges and a great young 3 and D in Cam Johnson along with the motherload of picks for KD. If I were the Blazers I would hold on to Dame until either a great offer comes in from the Heat or Dame agrees to move to another team. Make him take the low road of sitting out, you anyways already have your next franchise cornerstone with Scoot so the Blazers wouldn't be missing out on too much.
 
HTG said:
He’s done more than enough for Portland. He owes them nothing. He deserves to get his wish.
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And the Blazers owe him nothing either. Miami can't offer what he's worth, then find yourself another team you wanna get traded to or be stuck in Portland for another year.
 
RobinLFC said:
And the Blazers owe him nothing either. Miami can't offer what he's worth, then find yourself another team you wanna get traded to or be stuck in Portland for another year.
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Absolutely right. If he doesn’t want to be there, he should not have signed the contract.
 
entropy said:
wait, what? I am confused. does he deserve to get his wish or should he not be traded to miami?
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He owes them shit and doesn’t need to appease them anymore. If he wants to leave that’s fine. If he only wants the Heat, that’s fine with me, too.
Portland on the other hand has him signed for one more season. So I don’t see any issue if they were to tell him to go feck himself and go wherever they choose.
It‘s one of these cases where I see very valid arguments for both sides. Dame because he gave them whatever he had, yet the team failed to surround him with any meaningful talent, and the Blazers, because they still have a valid contract with him and therefore have the right to call the shots.
 
HTG said:
He owes them shit and doesn’t need to appease them anymore. If he wants to leave that’s fine. If he only wants the Heat, that’s fine with me, too.
Portland on the other hand has him signed for one more season. So I don’t see any issue if they were to tell him to go feck himself and go wherever they choose.
It‘s one of these cases where I see very valid arguments for both sides. Dame because he gave them whatever he had, yet the team failed to surround him with any meaningful talent, and the Blazers, because they still have a valid contract with him and therefore have the right to call the shots.
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that makes sense. but if you had to choose. would you support the player or the organization in this scenario?
 
HTG said:
He owes them shit and doesn’t need to appease them anymore. If he wants to leave that’s fine. If he only wants the Heat, that’s fine with me, too.
Portland on the other hand has him signed for one more season. So I don’t see any issue if they were to tell him to go feck himself and go wherever they choose.
It‘s one of these cases where I see very valid arguments for both sides. Dame because he gave them whatever he had, yet the team failed to surround him with any meaningful talent, and the Blazers, because they still have a valid contract with him and therefore have the right to call the shots.
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Yeah he has to look out for himself that's fair but I think having your agent calling teams around the league to tell them not to present any trade offers is a cheeky as feck and I would resent him for that if I was a Blazers fan.
 
entropy said:
that makes sense. but if you had to choose. would you support the player or the organization in this scenario?
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That’s difficult. Because there are to different levels from which to judge this. One is the contract. That’s obviously binding. And if Portland says you signed it, you honour it, they are right. No matter what.
But there’s also a moral level to it. There are customs that go beyond the contract. Unwritten laws basically, by which the whole business works. When it comes to those, I am with Dame. Because he gave them his whole career. Waited for the team to fulfill empty promises of competitiveness. Only to get older and remain in competitive obscurity. And there’s a point to be made that these promises themself are some sort of contract. Not legally binding. But they were an assurance given to him in order to sign. So they broke the very promise that made him sign. If Dame takes this as a reason to basically feel that his contract is somewhat void, I agree with him.
I think I slightly lean towards Dame‘s perspective.
 
WeePat said:
Yeah he has to look out for himself that's fair but I think having your agent calling teams around the league to tell them not to present any trade offers is a cheeky as feck and I would resent him for that if I was a Blazers fan.
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Which is fair. But I also get Dame on this one. The Blazers, other than the money they paid, never held up their part of the bargain. All while Dame kept on delivering. If he feels cheated or shortchanged, I understand completely. And if he now says: „feck this. I’m making sure I’ll land with a team that suits me and is very likely to be competitive“, that’s ok with me. Shipping him to another shitty franchise, just so the Blazers can get even more value out of him than they already got the previous decade, feels like watching a naked man getting robbed.
He already gave them everything and now they are asking him to sacrifice the last bit of a promising career they have already ruined? Nope. He deserves to look out for himself. The Blazers can keep on sucking for the next 50 years. Dame will be lucky if he can still play on a high level in five years.
 
HTG said:
That’s difficult. Because there are to different levels from which to judge this. One is the contract. That’s obviously binding. And if Portland says you signed it, you honour it, they are right. No matter what.
But there’s also a moral level to it. There are customs that go beyond the contract. Unwritten laws basically, by which the whole business works. When it comes to those, I am with Dame. Because he gave them his whole career. Waited for the team to fulfill empty promises of competitiveness. Only to get older and remain in competitive obscurity. And there’s a point to be made that these promises themself are some sort of contract. Not legally binding. But they were an assurance given to him in order to sign. So they broke the very promise that made him sign. If Dame takes this as a reason to basically feel that his contract is somewhat void, I agree with him.
I think I slightly lean towards Dame‘s perspective.
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I think that you are mixing NBA stars blackmailing and forcing teams to take certain decisions with unwritten rules. There is no unwritten rule that puts a player immediate wants above a franchise mid to long term prospects. And in this particular case Dame's agent allegedly went as far on the wrong side as an agent and his client would go, he purposedly tried to create a situation that prevents the Blazers from even creating a bidding war between Miami and other franchises.

And it's even more problematic when we are not talking about an under appreciated or disrespected player, the Blazers have tried to follow his wishes for years, they have paid him very well which is one of the reasons why teams can't always put great teams around star players, those star players seldomly not take the maximum amount in order to allow the team to bring difference makers.
 
HTG said:
That’s difficult. Because there are to different levels from which to judge this. One is the contract. That’s obviously binding. And if Portland says you signed it, you honour it, they are right. No matter what.
But there’s also a moral level to it. There are customs that go beyond the contract. Unwritten laws basically, by which the whole business works. When it comes to those, I am with Dame. Because he gave them his whole career. Waited for the team to fulfill empty promises of competitiveness. Only to get older and remain in competitive obscurity. And there’s a point to be made that these promises themself are some sort of contract. Not legally binding. But they were an assurance given to him in order to sign. So they broke the very promise that made him sign. If Dame takes this as a reason to basically feel that his contract is somewhat void, I agree with him.
I think I slightly lean towards Dame‘s perspective.
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yeah, that’s fair. all this drama aside, I am excited to see him play now that he will get the help that he always needed.
 
HTG said:
Which is fair. But I also get Dame on this one. The Blazers, other than the money they paid, never held up their part of the bargain. All while Dame kept on delivering. If he feels cheated or shortchanged, I understand completely. And if he now says: „feck this. I’m making sure I’ll land with a team that suits me and is very likely to be competitive“, that’s ok with me. Shipping him to another shitty franchise, just so the Blazers can get even more value out of him than they already got the previous decade, feels like watching a naked man getting robbed.
He already gave them everything and now they are asking him to sacrifice the last bit of a promising career they have already ruined? Nope. He deserves to look out for himself. The Blazers can keep on sucking for the next 50 years. Dame will be lucky if he can still play on a high level in five years.
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I'd understand this if the difference between the potential offers was marginal but if Miami has nothing meaningful to offer, then that’s too bad, no? For Dame I mean. I’m no cap space guru but doesn’t how much they pay him directly impact how good a team they can build around him?

When Harden wanted out of Houston, if he specifically only wanted the Lakers to team up with Bron and AD, and they had no assets to present a fair offer, then it’s too bad, Lakers would be off the table unless they can get a third team involved. Organisations should definitely work with the players as much as possible to help them land where they want but within reason. You can’t be a top 10 player in the league and then demand to go a team that can only offer a mid player and a can of coke in return.
 
HTG said:
Which is fair. But I also get Dame on this one. The Blazers, other than the money they paid, never held up their part of the bargain. All while Dame kept on delivering. If he feels cheated or shortchanged, I understand completely. And if he now says: „feck this. I’m making sure I’ll land with a team that suits me and is very likely to be competitive“, that’s ok with me. Shipping him to another shitty franchise, just so the Blazers can get even more value out of him than they already got the previous decade, feels like watching a naked man getting robbed.
He already gave them everything and now they are asking him to sacrifice the last bit of a promising career they have already ruined? Nope. He deserves to look out for himself. The Blazers can keep on sucking for the next 50 years. Dame will be lucky if he can still play on a high level in five years.
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That doesn’t make sense. He signed a contract literally one year ago to get the extra dollars so the naked man is not true. He could’ve walked and tried the free agency but he would’ve lost millions.

he had three occasions to walk and chose to sign max deals each time with Portland. Let’s not forget he played like 90 games in the last two seasons. And is 33 next week on a bloated contract.

what did the Cavs (two times) and Miami got for Lebron? If he wanted a trade then he shouldn’t have signed an extension.
 
Dame going all in. Not sure that any other team will go for him if that's the case. Certainly not to the extent that they will be willing to offer a lot of their assets.

No matter of the outcome, it turned ugly and that's a real shame.
 
12 mins of summer league basketball, I know, but Scoot and Sharpe is such an amazing foundation to build on.
 
We have a point guard, ladies and gentlemen. Amen is the truth.
 
HTG said:
He owes them shit and doesn’t need to appease them anymore. If he wants to leave that’s fine. If he only wants the Heat, that’s fine with me, too.
Portland on the other hand has him signed for one more season. So I don’t see any issue if they were to tell him to go feck himself and go wherever they choose.
It‘s one of these cases where I see very valid arguments for both sides. Dame because he gave them whatever he had, yet the team failed to surround him with any meaningful talent, and the Blazers, because they still have a valid contract with him and therefore have the right to call the shots.
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He is signed for four more years not one.
 
Only one game but Leonard Miller does look like a top 15 draft pick which is nice. While Minott keeps looking a steal. Wendell Moore is a bit disappointing though.

Edit: Though I have to share Miller's awful shooting form. :lol:

 
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I really enjoy watching Summer League but the social media discourse about who is a bust or guaranteed star based on such a small sample of (meaningless) games is unbearable.

Just to be clear this is directed at Twitter rather than anyone here.
 
ZDwyr said:
I really enjoy watching Summer League but the social media discourse about who is a bust or guaranteed star based on such a small sample of (meaningless) games is unbearable.

Just to be clear this is directed at Twitter rather than anyone here.
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Wemby put up 2/13 FG, he’s obviously a bust. Scoot and Amen are generational talents.
 
ZDwyr said:
I really enjoy watching Summer League but the social media discourse about who is a bust or guaranteed star based on such a small sample of (meaningless) games is unbearable.

Just to be clear this is directed at Twitter rather than anyone here.
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I struggle to keep in mind that social media is full of people that have no clue about what they are talking about. NBA Twitter and most teams fan websites are a testament of that.
 
WeePat said:
Wemby put up 2/13 FG, he’s obviously a bust. Scoot and Amen are generational talents.
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Scoot is already an All-Star caliber player to be fair and Sharpe is HOF.
 
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