2021 nba offseason draft free agency etc

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.

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

― pure rim rest (Spottie), Friday, July 16, 2021 2:11 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I would trade so many firsts to make this happen.

What's the better play?

yeah i don't know. it's hard to figure out when a guy whose entire thing has been loyalty to team and doing it on his own is no longer putting those things first.

but if you're calling philly you're also going to be calling boston and miami just off the top of my head.

I get it, I just don't see Boston or Miami ready to get rid of a piece/name that at least justifies the trade the way Philly is with Simmons. Plus, Dame's age/contract matches well with the number of miles potentially left on Embiid's body (i.e. 4 years at best).

I mean if Boston can make the trade without giving up Jaylen Brown then more power to them, but if they trade him that doesn't move the needle nearly as much.

you will find no bigger jaylen brown fan than me but if brown for lillard were an option you'd do more than think about it, you'd think long and hard about it because lillard is that good and would be a really nice fit with the rest of their roster.

I guess if Boston decided they wanted to move Brown, he would be more enticing than Simmons. I don't think Boston is there yet, whereas Philly is all, "where do you want your brand new Ben Simmons delivered?"

If the blazers trade lillard for Simmons they will draft high for a while

yeah, thats not a play-in roster at all, that's missing the playoffs for a minute until they get simmons to figure out what he does

ive assumed brown was off limits but if he's not it kinda makes sense for both teams. altho what else does boston have bc that team feels not deep.

celtics def do not want to trade brown but yeah if a player as good as dame became available they would just have to think about it

this isn't a "we want to trade brown" thing, this is a "we can get damian lillard???" thing. and i think the odds of it are miniscule but again, if you could, you would have to think L&A about it

sorry, L&H

if I were Boston I'd probably make that trade. the question is what does Portland want exactly? they're sort of in NBA purgatory right now

the thing about trading brown for dame is because of his age its a very all in now trade where youd need to put together a championship level roster basically immediately, where if you keep brown and tatum together you have more time to build around them, on the other hand in todays crazy nba really all the time you have is the length of your current contracts and often tbh not even that

also theres just good vibes to keeping your dudes together

i personally hope they do not do that trade tho tbh it could be pretty cool

i really don't want Dame in the East, sorry

the first time I see dame hit a super cool game winning three I am gonna break some stuff in here lemme tell ya

should prob go ahead and get rid of all my stuff so I can’t break it

yeah, thats not a play-in roster at all, that's missing the playoffs for a minute until they get simmons to figure out what he does

― class project pat (m bison), Friday, July 16, 2021 9:40 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he's a chunky

i mean he LITERALLY eats all their points

he needs to figure out what he does for sure