Miami Heat: How the Blazers messed up Dame Lillard's tenure | Five on the Floor

Welcome to latest episode of five on the floor of the five reason sports network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app. We're on Google podcasts, Apple podcast, Spotify, and red circle. Also check us out on the five reasons YouTube channel. Make sure hit like subscribe, turn the notifications on, not just heat content, but dolphins, messy Panthers, hurricanes, Marlins, and more. Also check out off the floor. That's where you get texts directly to your phone from the four hosts of five on the floor. Go to winnow with two N's winnow.app backslash off floor, $3 and 5 cents per month free for the first week. You also get price fix contests, special Q and A's columns from Mateo Mayorga. We just posted one and more his latest column on what Tyler Hero would look like at point guard, which is something we've discussed here on five on the floor. If Tyler Hero is here, we'll be getting into that as we go forward here. Also check out the great sponsors of the five reasons sports network. First quickly, I just want to mention if you're listening to this before Sunday at eight o'clock Eastern, we're going to be at the Biscayne Bay brew house. That's Biscayne Bay brewing brew house right in downtown Miami, down the street from Casaya center. First beers on us. Just mention five reasons is a great place. They've got foosball. They've got pool. They've even got a video game that kept my daughter entertained for about, well, 15 minutes before she wanted more ice cream. But the first beer is on us. Mention five reasons. Biscayne Bay brew house giveaways, all kinds of cool stuff. Check them out. And we will be there starting at about seven o'clock. And now today's episode. Welcome to five on the floor, a daily insider show on the Miami heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander and Alex Toledo, plus others from the five reason sports network. Welcome back to five on the floor. Here's today's floor plan. I've got Greg Sylvander. You can follow me, Greg Sylvander. And we are going out to the great Northwest again. Our third third journalist host personality from up in the Portland area. Save me a beer from out there as well. I've been out there many times. You can follow this guy over at Blazers Uprise. It's Blazers Uprise. Introduce yourself to the people, Mr. Brandt. Hi, I'm Eric Brandt, been a lifelong fan of the Blazers. And back in 2019, a friend of mine asked if I wanted to help him start a YouTube channel. And so we've covered a team for four seasons now. Unfortunately, we started right after their Western Conference finals run. So I'm a little jealous of you guys that you've gotten to actually have a show talking about deep playoff runs and things like that. We've had two years of tanking now to talk about. And it gets kind of boring. But yeah, so just started doing that. And we have a couple twice weekly shows on there and also do postgame shows and all kinds of video content as well. I will say this. We did not expect a deep playoff run this past year. Took us by surprise, dragged us through it for two months only to fall flat at the feet of Mr. Jokic, but we were the best ones, though, right? They are. They build up the hope. They're unexpected. But with this organization, winning tends to be expected. And that's part of what we're going to get into today here with you, Eric. And I know there are different perspectives in Portland. It's clear. Whereas in Miami, there seems to be one perspective. Dame belongs here. Go get Dame. Even heat fans who are frustrated with the process and fell in love with Nikola Jovic and maybe might want to keep Tyler Hero. They're still in favor of going to get Dame. I think they understand that with the heat, that's what they do. You know, they've done it with so Tim Hardaway, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, you know, Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic. You go get the guy who's disgruntled somewhere else and then you figure a way out a way to make it work. But there are different perspectives in Portland. It seems like some of the media, some of the fans are sympathetic to Dame to what he's kind of gone through over the past 11 years and his loyalty to the franchise, the way that he presented himself to the franchise and the way that that's being handled. And there are others who are like he signed a contract. Not only did he sign a contract, he signed a lucrative extension. He's got four years on that contract. He should honor that contract. Where do you stand on this before we go into some of the history of it and kind of how we got to this place? I am 100% team Dame. I believe not only has he given his all to the city of Portland and absolutely deserve that money. There's no question about that. But he didn't want the situation where Portland was rebuilding. He wanted to finish his career here and he wanted to be a lifelong blazer. And it was not his decision. And I feel like based on everything they told him, which we'll get into, he deserves to go where he wants to go and finish his career. And I believe he should be a Miami Heat. And I know I'm one of the few blazer fans that feel absolutely that Dame deserves to be a Miami Heat player. And that's going to rub a lot of blazer fans the wrong way. But I think that man has absolutely deserved to pick where he wants to go. And I don't think the package is as bad as people make it out to be either. But, yeah, I just think Dame deserves to be a Miami. And I would love to see it because that would be a damn good team, in my opinion. So Heat fans are already on your side, right? But not placating. That's how I really feel. And I know you're not. But but kind of the behind the scenes, how how we came together to do to do this episode is we really were interested to hear the perspective of how the heck they got here, because, you know, we'll we'll finish with where we think this finally ends up, all three of us. But the value to to you coming on our show is that we don't know what the hell the ins and outs have been with Dame. I mean, we've heard stories. We obviously know that the list of superstars and all stars that got traded to Portland to play alongside him is non-existent, and that's a tough pill to swallow. So I'm going to shut up and I'd like Eric to take the floor and kind of give us an idea of what the heck happened over the last two years. And if we need to stop at some point and unpack a situation, that's cool as well. So so no need to rush. But where the hell do you start two years ago? Well, feel free to interject if you want to say anything about anything I bring up. So basically in the summer of 2021, there were rumors that Dame was unhappy. He was playing with Team USA, and there were even reports that he was going to demand a trade at a press conference after one of the practices. And Dame never actually got that far. He says that was the first time he ever contemplated it, but he had to talk with his dad and his dad kind of reassured him that, you know, that's not in your character to go against what you've been saying for years. And so Dame wanted assurances from the Blazers that he would be staying to a team that's committed to winning a championship. That was first and foremost, because he didn't want to stay and make that dedication to them, despite flirting with maybe wanting out if they weren't also still committed to building a championship. So that summer was kind of weird, and ultimately he ends up staying. Neil Olshay had been the person in charge of the roster since he got there in 2012. And, you know, he was kind of known as a guy who didn't take a lot of huge risks and just made some, you know, minor moves around the roster, but always believed in Dame and CJ and kind of kept the same team together that lost in the first round to the Nuggets the year before. And early on into the season, our president ends up just quitting all of a sudden, and they promote a person below him, Dwayne Hankins, to president. So we have a brand new president, has very little experience in that regard. A few years prior, Paul Allen, the longtime owner of the team, passed away and his sister took over the trust when when he passed away and has been our owner. So we have a very inexperienced owner who doesn't really know the ins and outs of basketball or anything like that. And then fast forward a month into the season and the GM, Neil Olshay, gets investigated for workplace misconduct. And that investigation lasted about a month. And he was ultimately fired. Some say this was a witch hunt to basically not have to pay the rest of his contract because the new ownership has been very cheap to this point. And but I mean, the guy was not a nice guy, so I could totally see him not being a fun guy to be around around the workplace as well. But in steps Joe Cronin as the interim general manager. And this was back in December of 2021. And right away, he's talking about, you know, winning around Dame and doing all this stuff. And he's going to do things differently. And he's the interim GM. So everyone's thinking, oh, he's just going to finish out the year. They'll hire someone or do a search. Or maybe if he does a good job, they'll they'll consider keeping him. They didn't interview a single person for that job. Not one didn't make any kind of, you know, like form a search party or whatever. They just hired from within. The guy had been there since 2006. So at that point, 15 years and had just been behind the scenes guy helping out the general manager in the front office. And they just hired him to be the general manager. He has no experience once again. And that was Chauncey's first year. He had just been hired that summer as well. So we have a new owner, basically, who doesn't know what she's doing. We have a president who's brand new, who has no experience. A general manager who's brand new with no experience and a coach who has I mean, obviously, Chauncey's very well experienced in the NBA, but he had been an assistant coach for one season before being hired by the Blazers. So very little experience. And I mean, obviously, just, you know, when you when you have a normal company and you hire people off the streets with no experience, you're basically going the cheap route. Right. So very opposite of what you guys deal with with Pat Riley and Andy. Well, Eric, I want to stop you there before you continue to go with this, because this some of this is kind of bringing up things that have been said to me by folks inside the Heat organization as they've tried to deal with this process. Yeah. Which is that the Heat have one voice. You know, you can agree with that voice or not agree with that voice. But that voice essentially is Pat Riley's voice, but it is also the people around him that he's assembled and promoted people like Andy Ellis Berg, you know, Eric Spolstra, Adam Simon, and then above them, the Arisons and then Alonzo Mourning by his side. That crew is they essentially are now Ruth Riley's in that a little bit as well. That's it's one voice like that. You know who you're dealing with. And what keeps getting said to me is we don't know what do the Blazers voices like. We don't really I mean, they have a lot of voices like and that's why, you know, I reported last Monday that when they had conversations at Summer League and then essentially, you know, the Blazers were saying, we're not going to give you a roadmap. We're not going to tell you what we want. And the Heat are like, just tell us what you're looking for. But we're not going to throw a bunch of names out there to devalue our own players and get them out in the space if you don't know what you want. And essentially, just say, listen, call us when you get your own house in order. And that was mid-July. And now we're now we're in mid to late September. We're two months later. And now all of a sudden we're getting the Woz reports, which obviously are coming from the Blazers front office. And everybody knows that. And, you know, now that there's some more movement or at least maybe the Blazers are talking to other teams, maybe not about Dane, but maybe about, you know, getting more value out of this trade in a multi-team possibility, which we've been discussing now for months. Who is the Blazers voice? Eric, I'll just ask you that before we get into the things that are more stuff that they promised Dame or didn't. Like who's is it? Cronin, is it the Allen family? Is it this new president? Is it Chauncey? Like who who's speaking? Who wants Dame there and who's holding out for only the perfect deal at this stage? Well, they will tell you it's Joe Cronin. They will say that he has full authority. But someone I have not mentioned yet. His name is Burt Cold. He was the longtime friend of Paul Allen. I feel like this is the usual suspects. Like, you ever see that movie? You just keep rolling out more and more people. Kaiser. Exactly right. So the the the long answer is it could be any of these people. And I think they're all trying to have their say. And no one quite knows if they should say, like, tell the other person there. No, that's not the right path. Like, we need to do it this way. And so they're all kind of like kind of going with what each other say. But like the Heat's voice, Pat Riley, they're all going to fall in line and agree with him ultimately. Right. And he will say, OK, I appreciate that point of view, but I think we should still do it this way. And so everyone's like, OK, well, maybe we should kind of do it this way and then kind of do it that way. And then and then it just becomes a mess. And then you have no idea who you're supposed to talk to or who's who's in charge or who has the final say or who ultimately will even like accept the damn trade or whatever. And and so, yeah, like, I really don't know. Like, I think it's Joe Cronin. I think he has full autonomy to go after and and talk to the Heat and all these other teams. And present the trade to Jody Allen and Burt Cold. But I think they meddle, too, and don't want him to do certain things they want. They don't want him to make the fans mad. So that's also playing into this, like the court of public opinion. So the fact that like a lot of fans are Joe Cronin supporters, but the group that really likes Joe Cronin also are amongst the biggest vocal fans that hate this Miami package or whatever. So like you're basically going to make the one group that's like had your back this whole time, like mad if you make the Miami trade like so. There's just a lot of weird dynamics and it leads to confusion. And it's really hard to understand exactly what their plan is, because a real and an experienced GM would have sat down basically on July 1st or whatever day they finally talked to Miami and said, look, I know you don't have the best assets to trade for a superstar right now, but this is like the minimum to bring to the table if you want to discuss Dave and then just leave it at that. And then the Heat know exactly what they have to do if they want to call Joe back and talk to him about a trade. And then that's fine. They can choose whether to engage with that or say, no, that's way too much. And but like, no, it's just like, oh, no, you better just come with your best offer, just come with your best offer. Give us more. Give us more. It doesn't say what you want that to be. And that's that's got to be frustrating for the other problem with that. And we're going to go to break. And then I want to get more into the Dame backstory with the Blazers. And then we'll kind of project forward. But the other problem with that is that, you know, if Tyler Hero is a piece on this trade, but and is the best asset that the he can offer. And we can argue about whether he is or he isn't. Greg and I have done that many on many podcasts. But but the the if that's your best piece and the Blazers don't want that piece, well, then, OK, the Heat could shop Tyler for for things. But if the Blazers aren't going to accept what the Heat shop Tyler for, then the Heat are doing all of that legwork for nothing. And again, they're devaluing their own asset in the open market. It's not it's not for the Heat to go around to try to find something for it's it's the Heat to be told to hear this is what we need. If you get it, we'll make a deal. And and that has not been done to any degree. And so it paralyzes the entire process because, again, it's not for the Heat to go to Brooklyn and OKC and San Antonio and all these other teams and say, OK, what will you give us for Tyler? And then all of a sudden you've got reports that the Heat are shopping Tyler Hero to San Antonio. And then maybe Dame Lillard's never available to them. I mean, it's it's on Portland. So after the break, I want to get a little bit more because I cut you off there. But I want to get a little bit more about what exactly Dame was promised by the organization prior to the end of last season when he was shut down for the end of it, which was in one of his healthiest recent seasons and his most productive recent season shut down so that the Blazers could soft tank and what that was supposed to be for. And then exactly how then after what he was told, you expect him to come to camp, I'm not you, but the Blazers. And then also expect this team to be turned over to the number three overall pick in the draft who plays the same position and why the Blazers would even want Dame there when they want to keep their lottery pick, make it as high as possible and again, turn their team over to their young guard. So we're going to get into that stuff as we go forward, stuff we've discussed. But I want to get Eric's perspective on it. I do want to mention a couple of great sponsors of the five reason sports network, our friends over at prize picks. Use the code five F.I.V.E. Get that initial deposit matched up to one hundred dollars. Catch our prize pick shows on the YouTube channel. But again, use the code five F.I.V.E. You get your initial deposit matched up. One hundred dollars is the official fantasy partner of the five reason sports network and of five on the floor. And of course, you can play NFL for NFL Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, NBA, MLB, NHL. It's all there. Go to prize picks. Also want to mention water cleanup of Florida. We always talk about what you can do after the fact, what they can do after the fact, when you have leaks, mold damage, et cetera. They're based in Boca Raton, but they service all counties down here. But you want to get in their preventative program because we know the insurance companies don't always take care of you. So check them out at WCUFL.com WCUFL.com. A reach out to Michael Robert and their team. Nine five four five seven nine zero three five six nine five four five seven nine zero three five six. And maybe Michael can listen to the episode and you won't have to ask me directly when Dame's coming. You can just listen there when if you got the schmutz, Greg, they got the guts. All right. Let's get to it. Next part of this. All right. So now we're at the point where we're talking about all these voices behind the scenes, Eric. What are these voices telling Dame Lillard during last season? You talked about twenty twenty one, but during last season, towards the end of last season, when he sat and into the draft this year? Yeah, well, actually, it's it goes back to twenty twenty one because Joe, it is an intro press conference said that he talks to Dame all the time. Dame said he'd been talking to Joe just in passing. They've been here the whole time together. And so they said they had a really good relationship and were completely transparent with one another. And this whole time, Joe's telling him his plans for how he wants to compete and and he's super competitive and he doesn't want to be good. He wants to be great and burst through that ceiling and all that. So fast forward to the twenty twenty one trade deadline where the Blazers trade away Norm Powell, Robert Covington, CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., a bunch of quality rotation players and get back very little. No offense to Justice Winslow, who you guys probably know very well. But like he had barely been playing on an injured Clippers team at the time. And we get Eric blood so back who never even plays a game for us. And that it was supposed to be set up. So he's telling the fans at his press conference that trade deadline and Damian Lillard, don't worry. This season has been a disaster. You got your surgery finally. It's just one season of tank. We're going to move on and we have set ourselves up with this financial flexibility. We have all of these trade exceptions and cap space and blah, blah, blah. We're going to we're going to build the foundation of a championship team over the next few years using those assets from the trade, which I'm still questioning what assets you really got in those trades. But so Dame's like, OK, perfect. I'm I'm hurt. We take one year off. We'll go we'll go through the process starting this summer. I'm going to start recruiting better. I'll get you some players as well. And so Dame actually goes on the mic last game of the season and tells the tells the fans, I promise this is one season. We will never do this again. We are not about that. We we thank you for bearing with us for this one season. But I I will not let this happen again. OK, Mike, drop the leaves. And so go into the offseason. And Joe's promising, you know, big moves and all this stuff. And but he's also kind of hedging his bets at the same time. Like, he'll say that and then he'll say, but it's really hard. And it's it takes two to tango. And you have to it's a process. It might take years and and all this stuff. But he also says, like, you got to do it now. And we got it like we don't have a lot of time to to waste because because Dame's getting up there and stuff. So like, it's just all kinds of mixed messaging and stuff. But so Dame goes out and actually speaks to Jeremy Grant, who has been he had been trying to recruit for a while. And Jeremy Grant, I have to give Troy Weaver, Detroit's GM, a lot of credit. He signed there when he was being offered the same contract by the Denver Nuggets, and he actually went there. And Troy Weaver allegedly gave him the promise that if because he was willing to go there when no one else really would at the time, he would take care of him if he ever wanted out. And Jeremy, to that point, had not wanted out at all. He had like lots of teams that had called about Jeremy. And he was happy in Detroit. But finally, that summer, he was like, OK, it's time I want to go play with Dame. And so Dame recruits Jeremy to come here. And it was the perfect situation for Joe Cronin, because they're all worried about the tax and all that kind of stuff. Jeremy's only making 20 million, so you don't have to worry about paying him. He's got one year left on his deal. So you can get out of it if something happens. Now, we we know it ends up being to where they resign him. But at the time, you know, like a lot of superstars or I mean, Jeremy's not a superstar, but like if you trade for a player that you're talking about winning with, it's a lot of times a max contract or things like that in the Blazers. Another thing that goes against trying to build a winning team is it's really hard to do if you're constantly worried about, oh, next season will be a little bit into the tax if we make this trade this season and stuff like that. So a lot of their moves have been based on years down the road, staying out of the tax for multiple seasons. And I mean, the Heat have done a great job over the last couple of years of ducking the tax around the trade deadline. But you can't really make all your decisions based on that. It might change in the new CBA. But so they get Jeremy Grant and they head into the draft in 2022 and they have the seventh pick. They were hoping to move up, but it didn't happen. But they end up drafting Shaden Sharp. And the reports that Dame at that time didn't want to draft or whatever. I've heard that wasn't true. I heard that Dame when he saw what it would take to get like a OG in Anobi or something, that he was fine with keeping it. And then he also started to like Shaden Sharp. And some of the workouts actually had like a second secret workout. And he was fine with doing that as long as that in free agency or then in trades in the future, you then make those win now moves. You can't just keep making the young moves if you're not going to make also sign some veterans or or do something. So they go into free agency and they end up signing Gary Payton, the second who's another guard after drafting Shaden Sharp, who's a guard. And they already have Anthony Simons, who they just traded CJ and Norm away to clear a path to play for so he could get playing time and ascend. And he had had a great stretch before he got shut down before the tank the year before. And so, I mean, Dame like Gary Payton, but he's he's not a big man. We we've needed front court length and defense and stuff like that. Now he's a great defender, but he's still he's still a guard at six to or whatever. So then they sign like Drew Eubanks to be the backup center. And no offense to Drew Eubanks, but that's not like turning the knee to doing anything for for us like long term. And so they don't make any other moves, really. That summer, it's all just like little stuff like that. And they go into the season once again, ducking the tax. And not only that, but the signing of Gary Payton hard cap them. And they they they didn't say anything until I think it was like September that he was hurt and was going to miss training camp and stuff like that. So they signed an injured player, but then they get off to a good start. And they're like ten and four and things are going great. Everyone's happy of, you know, Dame's happy. He had tweaked his calf and missed a few games, but the team won a couple of games without him and things were going well. And then this roster just Joe had promised that he was going to balance the roster is something that they we've been talking about for a decade here in Portland with Neil O'Shea, how he never balanced the roster. It's always too guard heavy and not enough defense and all that kind of stuff. And he he had a completely imbalanced roster. And he once they started having a few injuries like justice goes down, they missed a few games like they had no depth and they really had no bench. And it's like those are things you can control as the GM, right? Like you're used to Miami, who they find these guys who come in and can fill roles and stuff. But the Blazers really didn't have any of those guys step up last year. And so the injuries and and stuff started to take a toll on them and they started to struggle. And, you know, the rest of the season up until a trade deadline, they were, you know, sputtering around 500 and stuff. To this time, Cronin still preaching, winning around Dame and still we're still going for it, we're not tanking or whatever. And then we get to the trade deadline of twenty twenty two and we trade away our starting small forward and we get a draft pick and we get I mean, Matisse Seibel came back. But other than that, it was all like project guys like Cam Reddish and Kevin Knox and stuff like that. It wasn't anyone that would go on a you think would bring in to go on a playoff run or try to make the last playing game or whatever. And at this time, you know, it might have been the smartest decision to to like do that. Right. So but Dame is true to his word. So he said he wasn't going to do this again this year. And he meant that he wanted to go for the playoffs. And he he thinks as long as there's a mathematical chance of doing it, I'm going to do it. And oh, we've completely glossed over. Sorry, there's so much stuff to the story. But the extension happened that season, that offseason as well. And in the press conference for the extension, Dame said he went to to everyone. Chauncey, Joe, the ownership. Are you dedicated to winning before I signed this contract? Because I only want to be here if we are all on the same page and are not going to do this crap ever again. The tanking from the year before. I want to win here in Portland. Are you all with me? And they all said 100 percent. Absolutely. We are in this with you. Wow. And so the rules are, I don't know why it's like this, but if you sign an extension, you can't really get a no trade clause. But like Bradley Beal got one because he waited till he was a free agent and then they signed him to a contract so he could have a no trade clause. I was told like for those watching, you can believe it or not. But I was told that they basically told Dame that you don't need a no trade clause because like we respect you so much that you basically have a no trade clause in our eyes. Anytime you want out of this situation, you've earned it. We'll take care of you. And Dame's like, I mean, I really need you guys to be on the same page because I want to win here. I don't want to get in the exact situation that we're in right this second. Like, I don't want that to happen. I want you guys to all be with me here and want to win, or I want you to, you know, let's just end it now, you know, and let's just decide that now. And they all said they wanted him here and wanted to win. And so he signs the extension. And that's why I think it's so silly when people bring that up that, oh, well, he's sorry he should he should stay. It's like, well, the guy wanted these things like you can't. Yeah, it was conditional. Right. There's context behind it. It's not like the Blazers were just like, oh, this guy sucks, but we're going to give him 60 million and he's bound to us forever now. You know, like that's not how sports work. And this guy has been incredibly loyal up until this point. And all he wants is it's not like he wants them to trade for like LeBron James or something or Giannis. He just wants like a team that he feels comfortable that can be a playoff team and he has a legit chance to make a run like the Heat did last year. You know, like you get hot, maybe you upset a team and you go on a run like that's all he wants right now. Like eventually he'd like that to be built into a contender. But that's that's all he was asking for. He wasn't asking for like one trade to make it. Oh, we're definitely winning a championship right this year. And so but like every move and everything goes against that, what the Blazers started doing from that point forward. And and then we go to the trade deadline. And like I said, they don't make any moves. It's like they don't even set themselves up for the next summer either. Like they get one first round pick for Josh Hart. It's like it ends up being like in the 20s. It's not going to be like a huge trade ship or anything. Well, that's funny to me. That's funny to me, Eric, because one of the big things that's been put out there is that the Heat's picks won't be valuable enough because they're too good an organization, which again, they are good organization. But how do does anybody know when Jimmy Butler's contract is up and Pat Riley may not be running the organization again and then, you know, in four years, what those picks are going to actually look like? And I've never heard that used as logic before, particularly for picks so far out. And yet you look at it, the Blazers knew when they traded Josh Hart, where the Knicks were basically going to be and they took the pick anyway. But now all of a sudden the Heat's picks are not high quality enough. I want to go to some Greg, you got one, but we got some rapid fire because we don't keep you too much longer. But I do have some a few things I want to get to quickly. Greg, you had one. Yeah, I just I want to make sure that you articulate to our audience the trade demand and what took place there. Just quickly run through that scenario, because I thought on your show that you did a great job of putting the context behind how that went down based off of the information that you've received. And so I think our audience would be interested to hear that. Yeah, real quick, though. Twenty twenty one Miami unprotected first got traded several times for players like Mikhail Bridges, Paul George. Like so a future picks, you have several years to use those as an asset, whereas if you trade for a pick one that that following draft, you only have a few months in that case to use it. So that's that's the problem. It's if it's caught like that, I completely agree. Like picks in twenty twenty eight when Dame is is in his late thirties and Jimmy's in his late thirties and Pat Riley's in his mid eighties, like those could end up being good picks. And if not, you still have unprotected picks or should be unprotected to trade. But yeah, so then we get to the trade deadline. And Dame's like, what the heck? Like we're pulling the chute on this season. Like, oh, what what is going on? And so they actually go to him before a game in New Orleans and say, hey, we want you to sit this game. And it's like, what the heck? I'm not doing this crap again. And they're like, dude, like we need as good of an asset as possible this summer to win for you, right? To imagine, can you imagine the heat doing this to Jimmy? No, I mean, Jimmy would take it off anyway because he just say, but they'd be going to the playoffs. So right, right. It's a little bit of a different situation. Anyway, continue. I'm sorry. But Dave's like, you know, we're three games out of the plan or whatever. Like, I can't take a game off if we want to go for it. So are we not going for it then, you know? So they convinced him that it's best for them or for him starting next year because they're not going to win a championship next year. I mean, we all know what happened with the heat. They almost win a championship in that almost similar situation. But like they weren't going to win. So they wisely, I think that was smart. Like, you know, get as good of an asset as you can and use that to your advantage to win that summer. And I started hearing rumblings that Joe and some other people were starting to get really enamored with Anthony Simons and Shaden Sharp being kind of the backcourt of the future. And I was like, there's no way this dude Joe is like every press conference. He's just I'm in super duper wind now mode. We're we're going all in for Dame and we owe it to him. And we're going to be so aggressive and creative this summer, blah, blah, blah. And I keep hearing these rumors like he he's really, really intrigued by going young and rebuilding and doing all this stuff. And I'm like, there's no way that can be true. And so they convinced him to sit and he plays a couple more games because at the time there was a rumor that you had to play like 58 games to be eligible. And he wanted to play a few more games so he could get all NBA and stuff like that. So, yeah, like so he plays a few more games and then they sit him the rest of the season completely healthy. Ends up costing him probably first or second team all NBA, but he still makes third team and the Blazers win one out of their last ten games or something like that and end up getting the fifth best odds. And so they had already talked about this. So people bring up all the time. Well, they didn't know they were going to get scoot or whatever. They had talked about all like games, not dumb. He's not going to be like, oh, well, if they get scoot, they can't pass up on that. He brought that up. Like, well, what happens in this scenario? So short of getting Wemby, according to what I've heard, they told Dame they were moving the pitch unless it's Wemby. And Dame agreed, if it's Wemby, you have to keep it, obviously. But they're they're trading it. They're going to trade it and they're going to do it. So do what you did last year with Jeremy and go recruit. So Dame and Jeremy, Jeremy is actually really good friends with Jalen Brown. The Celtics are down three. Oh, you know, in the there, these are Converse Vitals. Yes. And but before the playoffs even started, apparently Dame and Jeremy had, you know, kind of talked Jalen into considering leveraging his one year left on his contract to come to Portland. And Boston historically has been, I wouldn't say cheap, but they do. They don't like go super deep into the the luxury tax. And Jalen's a good player. But they knew they would have to pay him what they ended up paying him five years, 305 million. And that's like any team's going to question whether that's best for your team to win a championship if you're paying guys that much. And then you have to do the same with Tatum next year, who's going to make even more because it goes up each year. So they're in a situation where they might have. It might have seemed weird as a championship team. But, you know, Scoot and and Anthony Simons or something with with Tatum that they could have still been really good and had a longer window to win. So I don't know if it would have happened because Joe just like basically refused to even talk to the Celtics about this, even though Dame came to him and said, Hey, I think we have Jalen. And and Cronin's like, OK, OK. But like he never actually engaged with the Celtics about it and and stuff. And and the same goes with multiple other players that they could have potentially gone after. But every rumor you heard was players that were pretty much untouchable for the third pick. And that was BAM. Like you guys aren't trading BAM, right? So that rumor comes out, right? And then McHale Bridges, they like tried to get their fan base, Mad Brooklins, that they wouldn't trade him for the third pick or whatever. That's silly. But they basically Brooklyn was like in love with McHale Bridges. He was completely untouchable. They weren't going to consider trading him. And and the Blazers knew that. So they start leaking this stuff. And Paul George was another guy that was mentioned for the third pick. Balmers opening a new stadium or a new arena in L.A.. He's not going to rebuild and trade Paul George this summer unless it's for another star player where they can they can prop up. They're not going to go into that new arena with like a young rebuilding roster. That's not good. So it was all guys who were not attainable, really. And so they purposely leaked all this stuff just so it looks like they really tried hard. Look at all these guys they went after. They tried to get Paul George BAM out of Iowa. Like they like what are they what is Joe supposed to do? No teams will trade with them. Right. And that's the kind of messaging there. They're trying to tell Dame and stuff like that. And Dame's like, nah, man, like you promised me you're trading this pick. It's it's either the pick or me. And they chose the pick. They chose they chose Scoot. He fell to third. I don't know what happened if if the Hornets take him at two like they should have. But yeah, so then Dame's like, what the heck? And then we had this awkward press conference that night where Joe's still saying he's 100 percent committed to winning with Dame and and all this stuff. And Dame's just like, dude, quit saying that, man, like quit saying that. You keep saying you're committed to winning with me and then do nothing to show that you are committed to winning with me. And now we have three rookies. You didn't even try to trade the 23rd pick, which Joe said in his press conference that as long as Chris Murray was on the board, they weren't trading that pick. And so like he didn't even try to trade that pick. He didn't take phone calls on the third pick since Tuesday. The draft was on Thursday. He told Dame on that Tuesday that they were likely trading or keeping the pick, even though they were for sure keeping the pick. So, yeah, they didn't even try. It was rumored like Heiken, Sean Heiken, who you said you've had on your show before, he was saying that if that pick is going to be traded, it's going to be the five minutes of the draft time, right? Because that's when it has the most value. They didn't even take calls during that time because they had already decided that they were they were in love with Scoot and keeping it. So Dame's like, OK, we've talked for two years now about transparency. We've been in each other, like I've been in your office. We talk all the time. You've told everyone we talk all the time. You've told everyone you're committed to me. But every single thing you've done since you've taken over is basically against that. It's like the opposite of what you're saying. So what is going on? And so he asked for a meeting and he goes to that meeting on June 26. And basically, Dame says, I want out. I'm sick of this. You you you told me you were trading the pick. Now you're keeping it. And not only did you keep it, but it's a guy who plays the same position who needs minutes and should get the keys right away if you're rebuilding. Like, it's stupid to have me around. And so he he listed several teams that he would be willing to go to. Obviously, Miami is his preference. It has been his preference all along, but there were other teams on his list. And Joe was still saying, oh, don't worry, we have a bunch of stuff lined up. It was there still things that could happen between now and and the trade deadline or not the trade, the free agent period starting and all this stuff like just wait, like, well, we'll trade for someone. But like, so Dame's like, dude, just stop with the frickin trying to win with me and all this stuff. Like, quit telling the media that that's what you're you're wanting to do. Like, just come on, man. Like, what is like you say you're transparent. Let's be honest or whatever. And so Joe was like, no, no, I still like Dame. I still want to win with you and all that. Like, give me some give me a week or whatever. And Dame's like, fine, but don't say anything about wanting to win with me anymore. And Joe's like, oh, I have these teams lined up still. Like, blah, blah, blah. So the press or the meeting ends and an hour later, there's a report that Joe Cronin thought the meeting went well and he's 100 percent committed to winning with Dame or whatever. And Dame and his agent are just like, to what? That's when they knew they couldn't trust the guy anymore. They could absolutely not trust him. Dame has not spoken with him since June 26th after they talked almost every day. Like, like Dame didn't just switch up overnight or anything like that. So, yeah, go go forward to then this is kind of funny. Apparently, Dame's agent, Aaron Goodwin, called some of the teams that Joe had been saying he was close to deals on, and they said they weren't even talking to the Blazers at the moment. So those were all complete lies to Dame's face. Someone who has been loyal to you for a decade and you've been promising that you are going to win a round. And you told him to his face that you had stuff lined up and they called and did that. And so why did Dame switch up? And all of a sudden, like, I don't agree with his agent coming out and saying only Miami. I still think that was kind of a mistake on their camp's part. If he really wanted to be in Miami, that probably wasn't the best because it kind of made it like a thing like, well, now we can't do it. Right. Because Dame wants it so bad. But they absolutely felt like, OK, now we have we have to do something. We can't just we we promised him we'd keep it private as long as you wouldn't like as long as they would, you know, somewhat keep it private, too, and stop saying there. They're still trying to win with them. But the minute they started making him because then it looks bad. The minute it comes out that he requested a trade, it looks bad because what what do you mean you requested a trade? You said you were going to be a blazer for life, blah, blah, blah. And so they totally pin that on him and tried to make that him a villain. And so finally, he just he had enough. And he was just like, you know what? I'm not really the type person to does this, but I'm going to go public with it. And so he gave him the first day of free agency just to make sure Joe didn't pull off a miracle. But he had already made up his mind by that point. And, you know, Joe does nothing but resign his own Jeremy Grant and and does nothing else that day. Like itself, Dame ends up requesting the trade. And yeah, shortly after, find out that Miami is his only spot. And and Dame absolutely is going to use his power, everything he can, despite having that no trade clause to make sure he gets there. Then the leave memo comes out, right? Saying, like, you can't you can't force yourself to one team and you can't talk about this kind of stuff. And so what I've heard is they went silent there. They haven't said anything. Dame's been asked about it by like Mark Spears and stuff. And he's I mean, kind of smiled or nodded his head or something. I forgot what he did, but like he basically said, no, I'm not going to comment about the Blazers or whatever. And that's where we stand now. Dame's still just very upset that he basically wasted two years of his career, of two years of his prime. Just thinking that this team was going to go all in for him. And quite frankly, if you look back like I just. Laid out for you guys, it doesn't really feel like at any point they were anywhere close to actually pulling the trigger on anything that would have made sense, despite how many times Joe Cronin will say they were close on so many trades just didn't happen. They have never actually gotten close to even putting a competent rotation around Dame, let alone. It's a shame for a championship. Right. That sucks. And so now going back to 2021, Dame feels like now, like, why didn't I just request out? Like, I, I trusted you guys. I, I went to you guys and you told me that you were dedicated to winning. And so I would have just like you could have just traded me then. Like, what the heck? And up until the July 1st, you know, trade demands, Joe had never even allowed someone to call and talk about a Dame trade. He shut all those down. So he he didn't do any betting of what would happen. Like, you have to do that. You have to know how that situation is going to play out. If you decide to do over Dame and want to go that route, you have to know what you can get for Dame and then weigh that against what you can get for scoot and find out what the difference is. And he did none of that. And and so unfortunately, we have a super inexperienced guy who seems somewhat incompetent in charge of, like, the most important decision in Blazers history. And I have no idea how this is actually going to end. Yeah, well, that's where I want to go with you here, because it does seem like so much of this is optics. It's a lot of what you talked about here, kind of perception of what you're doing to try to help Dame or what you're not doing and coming out to the public and the media and saying something totally different from what's going on behind the scenes. I mean, once that trust is broken, it's broken. There's nowhere that that goes after that. And I like them. Exactly. I mean, as someone who has been loyal to you as long as he is and does dig in his feet one way or the other, he dug in his feet that he wasn't going to run from the grind and he was going to stay. And then when he was betrayed, now he's dug it in that he wants to leave and he wants to go to one place. So we'll just close here. And we appreciate you outlining all of this, because, again, I think in Miami, we suspected all of this, but we're not used to all of this, because with the exception of the Dwayne Wade situation in 2016, there's not a lot that the heat of kind of bungled in terms of negotiations. And with that one, they admitted it and later corrected it as best as they could. So I'll just say this. What do you think it is as the final question? What do you think it is that would be enough for Joe Cronin to save face? Because it feels like to me that that's what this is about now. It's not necessarily about upgrading the Blazers long term. It's not about taking care of Dame and doing what's best for him. It's just saving face. And this is why I've said that I'm waiting for that Wall Street tweet when the trade is made, because it's obvious where he's getting his information. That says something to the effect of the brilliant young executive Joe Cronin managed, held his ground and managed to squeeze out an additional asset. Fill in the blank. Caleb Martin, additional second round pick Nicola Jovich, whatever. Pick swap from the Miami heat and still do right by one of the best players in franchise history and trade him to the place of his choice. The Miami Heat, who don't give me any information, period, end quote. What? How do you think Joe Cronin saves face? You nailed it, man. That's like that. Yeah, I think that's that's what he does. He says, given the circumstances, I did the best I could. He we got no offers from other teams that were legitimate offers because of Dame's insistence on only playing for one team. So I got the most I could. From the heat and it's Dame's fault, basically, that I didn't get more because we would have gotten more if he would have opened up his list or or, you know, been more receptive to go into other teams. So I did the best I could, given the circumstances. I think that's how we'll play it. And it'll end up being a guy that the Heat were willing to give up all along, but just hold back the cards. I mean, it's it's going to end up being Hawkins or Highsmith or something, or, you know, somebody that Miami was willing to put out there. Well, Eric, we appreciate it. Thanks for taking so much time with us to explain all of it to us. Follow him on Blaze Uprise. Also, we're going to obviously tweet out the episode and get it out to everyone so they can follow your work. We thank you for the impartiality and the honesty. Like I said, when the when the Heat make bad decisions, we try to call it like we see it. I've just never seen a situation quite like this. And frankly, in my conversations with them, neither have they. Thanks to everybody for listening. Thanks to our sponsors, Biscayne Bay Brewing, Water Cleanup of Florida. And of course, Prize Pigs. Have a good day, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Five on the Floor on the Five Regional Sports Network.