LogFAQs > #976462921

Leonhart4 posted...

Nah, don't put this all on Dame. Reportedly when it was clear he wasn't going to Miami, he said he wanted to stay in Portland, and he was told it was too late for that. Portland did him dirty by blatantly refusing to do business with his preferred destination, regardless of whether you think Miami's offer was good or not. They weren't sending him there.

Also I don't want to hear that "Herro didn't fit" what the Blazers wanted to do. Then just flip him like you just did with Holiday. You could have gotten a good return on Herro, too. They just didn't want to send Dame where he wanted to go, so I don't want to hear that he's the bad guy here.

If anything, the problem is that Dame wasn't willing to be more of a bad guy and a bully because he didn't want to alienate himself from the Portland fanbase. Portland called his bluff, and he folded.

i disagree wholly with this. herro is a dime a dozen type, there are loads of guards that can get around 20 ppg but can't play defense. that is much harder to find than a legit two way guard who has a championship pedigree and is on an expiring contract. herro isn't a bad player by any means, but him making 30 million a year makes his contract a negative asset and the blazers have loads of guards and there is no reason to think they would be any more successful in trading him than miami has been considering miami has been trying to trade him for two years.

portland would have absolutely dealt with the heat if they had made a serious offer, but they reportedly never did out of arrogance that they were bidding against themselves. none of miami's assets were anything the blazers were interested in, they would have needed a third team like the bucks found.

the trade made the bucks better in the short and longterm but most importantly for them it will make giannis happy and almost certainly make him willing to resign considering dame seems to have been the main guy he wanted to team up with lately.

it worked out great for the blazers because they were able to get a good big who wanted a new situation and loads of assets they have and will be able to continue flipping for more stuff for their rebuild. they have a bright future imo

the suns didn't get better on paper but they got rid of the disgruntled player they have been trying to shop for two years and they absolutely added valuable depth that they desperately needed. i think in practice the suns are better now, especially if they can keep nurkic healthy.

the celtics also inadvertently (from the bucks perspective) improved considerably by trading for jrue. they now have a proven champion to run the point after getting rid of smart and they somehow massively upgraded at pg while also bringing in a good veteran/leader after they got rid of smart for porzingis. them losing timelord definitely isn't optimal, but overall i think they definitely improved and are my pick in the east despite losing two solid defensive players. even if jrue can't score at the same clip he could a few years ago the leadership and being the defensive anchor in the backcourt will be super valuable.

i think it is obviously a four team race between celtics/bucks and nuggets/suns assuming everyone stays healthy