2021 nba offseason draft free agency etc

iirc his camp was trying to maximize his earnings by waiting until he was a 10-year veteran

Clippers could trade pg for a big package and then try and retool around Kawhi once he comes back.

They could trade PG back to the thunder for their pick

paul george is going to make 49 million dollars in 2024-25

just throwing that out there as an interesting fact

lol what

"I don't talk about who's on the payroll." - Mark Cuban on whether Bob Voulgaris is still employed

— The Kobe Beef (@TheKobeBeef) July 15, 2021

i assume that's a yes?

this story doesnt seem to be going away

An OPB investigation finds that the Portland @trailblazers did not contact several primary sources in their probe of a 1997 rape allegation against head-coach hire Chauncey Billups, despite saying they did everything in their power to vet the incident: https://t.co/W2g22zO4GC pic.twitter.com/zShInNy4IK

— OPB (@OPB) July 13, 2021

Is Gary Ridgway on the payroll?

i’m trying to imagine how this could be going worse and… idk

https://www.wweek.com/sports/2021/07/15/the-trail-blazers-private-investigator-shared-pornographic-images-on-twitter-in-april/

On April 2, Hallman retweeted into his feed two GIFs, or short video clips, from a Twitter account called “Cuck helper (online).”

lmao

oh my god

the rest of the stuff in that article is more damning, but ffs what is it with cops and cuc*s

yikes.

lots of dame is leaving rumors today and nurk out there tryin got shoot them all down.

oh hes outta there, portland needs to blow it all up

if portland actually has to trade dame i’m not sure i could come up with an example of a deeper self inflicted wound. i would be dumbfounded

cracks really starting to show with the weird sister of the weird deceased owner who is planning to sell the team.

all these sources seem bad

Damian Lillard would like to be traded to the Philadelphia 76ers or New York Knicks, sources tell me.

— Quinton Mayo (@RealQuintonMayo) July 16, 2021

76ers with dame instead of ben seems like a great fit

i agree it's all randoms

i also don't understand why the blazers would appease his destination requests if he's blowing town w/ 4 years left on his deal or w/e

yah theyll take the best deal possible. does he have a no trade clause, tho?

getting so many panicked text messages today from the casuals and I’m like chill out, idk if going from a ceiling of 5th in the west to being bad for a decade is that big a deal, get into hockey or something

dame always gives you a reason to watch

you take it for granted until that's gone

since this fiasco of an off-season began (which has been, like, worst possible decision followed by worst possible decisions) my pov has been trade dame. they’re going nowhere, he’s 31, get value at the peak. I hope he requests a trade! but the franchise is doomed until olshey and the Jody Allen management team are all gone. There’s no vision, it’s all short-term ass-saving and nepotism. burn it down time.

dame is too special of a player i would never not want him on my team

yah

—-if you love someone let them go—-

I'd trade him but then again I always want to trade everyone

dame in new york would be a sign of the apocalypse but i would certainly welcome it

Damian Lillard: "I don't disagree that maybe Chauncey can change our team and make us a better team. But I think if you look at our team as it is, I don't see how you say 'this is a championship team, we just need a new coach.'"

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) July 16, 2021

yah

"The drama isn't coming from me," Dame said.

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) July 16, 2021

i too, quite famously, hate drama

Washington’s hiring of Wes Unseld Jr. will fill the last of the NBA’s seven coaching openings. Six went to Black coaches.

Boston: Ime Udoka
Dallas: Jason Kidd
Indiana: Rick Carlisle
New Orleans: Willie Green
Orlando: Jamahl Mosley
Portland: Chauncey Billups
Washington: Unseld

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 16, 2021

tried to think of the funniest dame trade and landed on this one

https://imgur.com/a/allu7xj

embed didn't seem to work: https://imgur.com/a/allu7xj

https://i.imgur.com/e4Y75cH.png

here ya go

bless

If lillard is adamant that it has to be a contender then it’s really difficult to do this

philly for simmons+maxey+picks is probably the best package

my gut tells me he'll stick it out one more miserable year and then push for a trade next summer

I’m so sick of those situations. Just get it over with

That’s what she said

the thing with simmons to portland is that it probably leaves them as perennial play in contender sort of team and there’s a strong argument at that point to just go the picks route and fully rebuild in earnest instead of going the middle way. how are the blazers building a contender around simmons at any point if they can’t sign major FAs and won’t have high lottery level draft assets… i think nate duncan has made this point on his podcast. i wouldn’t hate the trade for portland — it would be the home run of home runs for philly — but i do think there’s a strong argument for just being bad bad if you get rid of dame. because if you’re happy with being a first round and out kinda team then just keep dame. i also don’t think maxey is all that personally he seems like a third guy are to me and not particularly a great one, if i’m trading dame he’s close to a throw in to me in terms of value

simmons to portland only makes sense as an experiment playing with dame in a trade for cj+. agree that rebuilding around simmons is just a doom cul-de-sac

as has been pointed out before, there's just not a lot of contenders left with serious draft assets anymore, market is desaturated

if dame’s position is basically “this front office is run by fools, get me out of here” then i don’t care if he goes to a contender or sacramento if i’m them. what’s the point of magnanimity if you’ve already pissed him off so badly that he wants out?

right now it seems like he’s trying to imply “i’m not asking out but the right thing to do would be to trade me to a better team” which puts some onus on the blazer FO to do right by him but i still wouldn’t buy that if i was them

teams may be less inclined to make a huge trade for him if he doesnt want to play there

these sort of contracts should have transfer fees or something

i wonder when okc will start buying

i 100% agree with nate d. that trading for simmons is something of a dead end for portland but at the same time olshey's objective is going to be either keeping this job or setting himself up for another job (though i'd be *very* disappointed if he got another GM job after this) so staying respectable and getting a "star" like simmons may work for him.

i wonder if dame has actually figured out what his next move is....i think the assumption some are making that lifelong west coast guy dame would be jazzed about moving east to play in new york or philadelphia or wherever is at least worth interrogating.

if he really does decide he wants to leave now it's going to be the hardest attempt yet for a superstar to leverage a team. the blazers already did him a solid with that massive extension. i'm not sure why exactly they would prioritize moving him to a preferred destination although if they keep getting bad press for being an inept organization under jody allen's watch that would be one reason.