Why would the Blazers take Dame Lillard to camp? | Five on the Floor

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You can follow him at Tropical Blanket, but nothing is done. I was able to follow it on Twitter. If it's not going to get done when I'm there. Well, something got done. Something got done, all right. Today, we got breaking news, Ethan. I don't know what you're talking about. The Heat got it done. And in two years, people will be upset that he got $22 million a year from somebody else. This is another shooter, this 169. He was playing with the Lakers in summer league, and he's another guy they may try to develop. They haven't signed him, actually. They've just kind of given him a verbal promise. But we don't know right now if he's going to be at Exhibit 10 or two-way or how they're going to handle that going forward. And a lot of that does depend on the thing we are going to talk about today, which is Dame. And look, I got some things off my chest on Twitter or X or whatever, but I haven't been able to do it on the podcast. And I just want to come back to this. And I don't want to insult anybody who's trying to do their job. Because clearly, I'm not an NBA general manager. I haven't worked myself up through the ranks like Joe Cronin did with Portland. He's been there more than a decade. He was there when Dame was drafted. And again, there's a reason that he's been promoted all this time. So I'm not going to disparage the man personally or in any other way. But what the is he doing? I mean, that's where I'm at. Because I don't even understand this from the Blazers perspective. Alex, this is where I come down on this. Why do they want Dame Lillard to even play for them this season? That's the question I can't seem to get an answer to. You're holding him against his will. That's one thing. He's not going to be happy about it. It's a weird situation for the fans. It's a weird situation for the young players you're trying to build with. But even in practical terms, you should want to be bad this season. As bad as possible. Because that's the way the NBA works. And you only keep your pick if it's a lottery pick. Otherwise, it's going to the Chicago Bulls. So why do you want any wins with Dame Lillard? You literally shut him down in the last 10 games of last season to get a high lottery pick this time. And even though this was a stronger draft, that worked. You got his replacement. What are you holding him for when there are no offers from anybody else? None are going to come. There's nobody who's going to want his contract $63 million in the last year of it. He's not going to get more valuable as you get up to the trade deadline. It's not like somebody's going to say, oh, Dame's the piece that puts us over the top. That's not what's going to happen. You want to have Dame in training camp if you trade for him and have a full season with him. So that's not a lost season. Can you explain to me, try to put your Blazers hat on here. Try to be any of these. And we've had some of them on the podcast. Aaron Fentress, who I know is more on the side of training Dame, Sean Hyken, who is more on the side, maybe Blazers, others. Why? Why would you keep if you have a reasonable offer now or a better offer than you did for many girls? What is the purpose of taking Dame into training camp and to the season? It's hard to come up with one as far as taking it as far as the regular season, because I think they mean it's just obvious that he helps you with games. Now, that's not to say that they're going to be a playoff team. If Lillard plays, it's not really what I'm thinking about. They can still get to that point of, you know, getting a lottery pick and not having to give it to the Bulls. It'll just be, I think, you know, one later than they want it to be. And I don't think it's a situation where Dame is going to, you know, it's not going to go well. Everything is going to be out in the public. Everything is going to be messy. And I don't think any party involved actually wants to deal with it. I think that the Blazers are just kind of doing their part in the negotiation and just be like, yeah, I mean, if we have to, we'll go into the season. And I and they're just trying to kind of, I guess, push that angle where it's like, there's no deadline for us. You guys are the ones with the deadline. And I don't know if you heard Brian Windhorst comments. I think it was it was on his podcast on The Hoop Collective. And it was aggregated where it was really it was really just Windhorst talking about, you know, the Blazers have every reason to hold on because if they can't figure something out, if there's no, you know, deal that both sides feel good about this summer, maybe a different star becomes available in the regular season. Right. And by the trade deadline, maybe you can add to that. All of a sudden, you have Dane with a star and the young guys in this fantasy land vision that I don't think anybody actually thinks is actually possible like that, because we all know we all know the deal like this. It's so past that point, especially with like, you know, on the last podcast, we talked about the way that everybody's talking about the situation, UD, Bam, even kind of Josh with the hinting, like everybody knows where we're at, you know, so I think the Blazers are kind of bluffing and just doing, you know, everything they can at this point to get a better deal. And look, I don't want to disrespect Brian or anybody else who's trying to come up with with feasible reasons here, but it seems like even Woj has given up the ghost on this. And we know that he was carrying water for the Portland front office, like everybody's looking at this fantasy possibility down the line. Look, if anything was going to change this, OK, that memo is what would have changed it because the whole purpose of the memo, if it came from Portland, right, if it's Portland that complained to the league was to open up the market to more teams for Dame to have to say publicly or his agent to say publicly, look, we'll go and we'll play wherever it is that we're traded. The purpose was increasing the market. The purpose was basically giving Joe Cronin a crutch. Well, it hasn't worked. Everybody went on vacation. Like I had somebody in the front office tell me what I thought I was going to say, don't worry about it. It's not going to do anything now. They have waited till September to issue that memo, maybe right, right before training camp, maybe to open up a little bit more. But again, who's going to make that trade right before training camp? Like we we've talked about the heat of made some trades in the past. Zoe was acquired like the day before the season started. So it wouldn't be the first time. Look, Carrie Irvin was was acquired late into the summer by Boston, right? It was August at some point. So this kind of stuff has happened, but the memo didn't do anything. So what's the next trigger point? So then it was like, well, look, Portland doesn't have to do anything. They could just take him to training camp. I'm going to keep saying this. This is more uncomfortable for the Blazers than it is for the Heat. And I understand when people say, well, the Heat are trying to win something this year. So you don't want Lowry and Hero and Robinson not knowing their status coming into camp. Lowry is collecting 30 million dollars next year. He's going to be hanging with his buddy. He's not going to be a problem. OK, going to camp. He knows that at this point. OK, Duncan's been through this now for three years and Tyler's been going on Twitter spaces with heat fans like it doesn't seem like he and he's in Milwaukee. OK, you know, doing tours and stuff and posting it on I.G. It doesn't seem like he's like crying in his beer right now. OK, like it seems like everybody has an understanding of this. I know you did a podcast on this the other night about Jay Rich's comments. Players are aware of this. They don't want to get traded to Portland. I get it. OK, or anybody else, they want to be in Miami. But I do think that they'll be able to come to training camp. And if that's the case, Fulcher will have an honest conversation with them. I go back to this is a season nobody really talks about. OK, 2009, 2010. We all talk about it in the context of, well, that's when they got the big three, right? They got it after that season. OK. Eric Sposher was very proud of his team that year, and I actually thought Eric did a really good job because he had a ton of guys on expiring contracts. They knew the deal. They knew that most likely they weren't going to get re-signed because the Heat were going after bigger fish in 2010. Right. But that team played pretty hard, like they weren't good enough. They lost in the first round of Boston. Dwayne wanted more help, but they played hard. Like we've had Quentin Richardson on the podcast. He's talked about it. You know, the big problem is where Beasley didn't develop. I know your guy, but didn't develop the way that they wanted him to develop. And they had some injuries over the course of the season and other things that happened, Jermaine, etc. But they competed. Eric will get the team to compete. OK, I don't think he's going to have more problems than he had last training camp when everybody seemed to come in with different agendas because this guy wanted to start and Yurt wanted to start and Oladipo was coming back in and you were trying to plug all these different pieces together. And Lowry was upset about the whole conditioning thing and all the rest of that things that was happening. And Eric and others were dealing with some personal stuff, too. And so I don't think it's going to be harder than it was last training camp. But Portland keeps saying this ESPN, they're going to go to Portland if Dame is in camp or he isn't in camp. That's going to be the story, just like it was when Jimmy wouldn't report in Minnesota. And I've said that I do believe that Dame needs to make uncomfortable. And I think at some point he will. Maybe it's not the Chris Haynes interview, but he's going to say something OK, that is is going to make things worse intentionally because he has to. OK. And so, Alice, that's what I come to. Like, to me, the clock ticks for the Blazers. Dame's not getting younger. Yeah. And I just don't believe in that other side that, for example, Windhorse is pointing out where they'll be able to, you know, at some point, attract another star who is upset or frustrated, you know, whatever verbiage you want to use, you know, with their situation. I just don't believe it's going to happen. I don't see any star wanting to, you know, sign up for going to play for the Portland Trail Blazers while Dame is actively trying to get out of there. I just don't think it's. Yeah. With Dame there, you know, like you said, and I know that they have shut him down early in past seasons, but, you know, those teams were barely headed for the play in. So I just don't see the promise for any sort of situation like that, like everybody would have to be on the same page for something like that to happen. You know, maybe they snag a Levine type of star. We're not even talking about a real star. But I think the ship. I mean, what is it? There we go. Me screwing up commonly used phrases again. The ship has sailed right like that. That ship has sailed. It's over. It's not going to happen. And you just look through the teams, which I know we're going to go through. It's just hard to come up with reasons. I mean, you could come up with, actually, on the other hand, about 12 different reasons why they should not try to keep Dame and just go straight to kind of stockpiling and absolutely embracing the rebuild. After the break, I want to ask this question. So let's think about this. Can you think of a star who wanted to leave, who was later convinced to stay and it worked out? Because I had seven days on a cruise to try to figure that out, and I can't come up with a name, but maybe you can. I do want to mention a couple sponsors here are the five reasons. Sports Network, our friend Lynette. Well, this will work out if you need insurance, you need car insurance, you need life insurance, you need retirement programs, anything. 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So use the code five F-I-V-E, get that initial deposit matched up to a hundred dollars. All right. Is there a name? Is there anybody you can think of who's asked for a No, I mean, you put me on the spot with that one. And no, I can't come up with, I can't come up with one right away. Like it's, because usually once you get to that point where a trade is requested and it either leaks or becomes public, like, it's just hard to, I think, go back from that. And, you know, it's just so funny that they would try to even, you know, bluff with it with something like this, considering what just happened, what just took place with KD and Kyrie in Brooklyn. And, you know, obviously Harden, it was a part of that too, earlier in the, in that saga. It's just like, nobody actually, actually believes that that's a path worth taking, a path worth going down for the Blazers. I just think, you know, I wish there was something that they can do to hurry this up already, but, cause it's just dragging out and I, and hey, Joe Cronin might've been right about months and months. Well, it may be right about months and months, but again, I just don't see how it gets any better. And it's, there's so many factors involved in that. But the one crazy idea is that they'll convince Dame that this is the place to be, because like you said, he wants a star to play with. No star is going to go to that situation under these circumstances. They would have to get a guy who's under contract for the next three plus years, right? Who's going to fit with Dame. Are they going to get a player who is any better than CJ McCollum was when they traded him, which means that they've done a complete reversal from trading McCollum in the first place, which was that they were pivoting to try to build a different kind of team. Who are they getting? Pascal Siakam, long-term. What does that make the Blazers? And that's the other point to this. I said that they need to try to keep that pick because otherwise it goes to Chicago, right? But under the best case scenario, how high can the Blazers get in the West? Best case scenario. Like if they don't get a star, what's the highest that they could get? Playing team? Maybe if they're fortunate, they had Dame healthy the entire season. Well, I mean, I was actually looking at that not that long ago and referenced it on a pod that it was about 66 and 67. So relatively healthy, 15 so miss games, but no, but the 15 missed games though, Alex were, were 10 of them were forced. Oh yeah. That's, that's, that's true. I don't have the timeline on how many of those, you know, where they kind of the last 10, they saw it, they sat him to soft. So he played 67 out of the first 72. Okay. So I mean, yeah, like I'm looking at it right now. I just don't see any of those teams that are in the plane race at the Blazers are going to hop over, which, you know, just to remind everybody, okay. See the Pelicans, the Timberwolves and the Lakers. I think the one scenario that you can kind of look at and say, maybe, you know, you can kind of hope that they just have another terrible season with injuries is the Pelicans. Right. But even then like the Mavericks are right there, you know, the Mavs are going to have a full season now with Luca and Kyrie and, and they, they had a good draft. They, they, and they, they seem to upgrade the I mean, a lot of people like what they've done. I want to see how it looks with Luca and Kyrie, but I would anticipate that they would be better. So what's their best. So maybe I guess Cronan isn't worried about losing the lottery pick because he doesn't think they have a chance better than the play in the begin with, even with Dame, then what is the point? Exactly. All you're doing is just worse. It's like worsening where your, your, your pick is going to be work. Cause right. That team should be one where like you already, like I've mentioned on so many pods before I've hammered this point to so many times. It's just, you kickstarted that rebuild and you did it while promising Dame that you were trying to get them help. You did it by, as everybody has pointed out, drafting is quote unquote replacement of somebody who was a 19 year old point guard. And you know, getting screwed at three is great for them. Also, when you add the shade and sharp and the other picks that they've got in these past couple of years, like you've got something there, you've got a foundation there. They should be adding to adding other insane talents and like getting games to play. And maybe they go from having the second pick, you know, potentially to, I don't know, like the eighth or the ninth pick, like, what are you doing that for? Like, I just don't see the vision. I they've already got what they need to, to transition. You know what I mean? It's not going to be an ugly transition where you start from scratch. You already have these exciting young players and you know, that is, you know, everybody loves them and everybody says the Blazers fans are great. And they, you know, they fill out the rose garden if that's what it's still called. But I think they just got to do it at this point. Cause like dragging this into training camp, it's just, it's going to get ugly, man. Everybody at that point, think about that training camp is late September, right? Around that point. Okay. So when was the first, when was the I mean, we're 37 days today, so it was made. Yeah. I mean, June 30th, July 1st, somewhere around that timeframe. Yeah. I mean, is there going to be any happier thing? Wasn't happy to begin with. Is he going to be any happier having to share the ball now with a 19 year old, no matter how talented that player is. And then how happy is Anthony Simon's going to be having to move to the three and how happy is sharp going to be after he had a breakout in the second half of last season, sitting behind all of these guys while they're getting bludgeoned on the boards with the exception of Nerkich. They don't have any front court players. And so this is not Jeremy Grant locked in at five years. You're right. They do have Jeremy Graham, but there's not a lot of depth there. I'm just saying like best case scenario, there is talent there, but the talent is all over the place. It were actually, it's mostly at the guard position and it's, these are players. Dame is getting in their way and they're going to get in his way. And so I understand that like, there's this, this narrative and we're going to try to bring some of these people on. Okay. Whether it's Matt Moore, HP basketball, et cetera, who, you know, which is like, he fans are spoiled. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. But it's, it's not like this is coming from nowhere. Like I'm trying to put myself in the blazer shoes. And the only thing I can say is they're waiting on some fantasy deal to come along that is not going to actually happen, or they're waiting to convince Dame to stay, which is not going to actually happen where he's going to be happy about it because there's no precedent for that. And he digs his heels in as we saw, because he just stayed for 11 years with a franchise that didn't give him much to play with because he didn't want to run from the grind. Well, now he wants to run from it. So he's going to run as fast as he freaking can. And that's kind of where we're at. And so I come back from the trip and I'm kind of like, okay, nothing happened except it just seems to me like the blazers lost the only leverage that they had, which was this stupid memo, which now we're two weeks out of this. And now there's been reports as well that there's no way that the league, and I know there's only Sam and Miko and a couple others speculated this. There's no way the league is going to veto a trade. So really that was never a possibility from the first place because it's not the same as the crisp all thing because the league owned a team in that case. And so there was a lot that was going on there that has nothing to do with this. And so I'm just going to close here and I appreciate you guys holding it down for this. This thing just got stupider since I left. I mean, seriously, it just did like, that's it. Okay. Dame is going to be with the heat. Eventually the heat players know it. That's why BAM UDNL because really it is complete malpractice at this point for the blazers to take this guy into training camp. It is, it makes no sense for them. It makes no sense for him. Has nothing to do with the Miami heat. Thanks to our sponsors, mosaics.com stones and more. You can find them also prize picks. Use the code five F I V E and a aggressive insurance, insurance by Lynette.com. We're doing a Dwayne Wade week. We're going to go through five different areas. We're going to do it on playback. We're going to do it on the podcast. We've got Norris Cole coming in. We're going to have some others coming in. We're going to celebrate Dwayne this week. I, and we're not going to try to talk about Dame quite as much. I know I'm sure it'll come up. Have a good night everybody.