stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

I don't understand what leverage Lillard has. They have him under contract. They have his replacement on the roster. They have a poor man's version of Herro on their roster already. They have no real mandate to win this year. I find it super hard to believe that he'll show up and be a bad influence. I don't think he's capable of pulling a Harden. And it's hard to be a media distraction given that no one pays attention to Portland in the first place.

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Tuesday, September 12, 2023 3:20 PM (thirty-three minutes ago)

the degree to which dame is willing to be unpleasant is definitely an unknown. but his leverage derives from the fact that, at the end of the day, joe cronin needs to improve the blazers via the picks & players he would get in a return from a dame trade much sooner than dame lillard needs the salary he would be docked by not showing up. or to put it another way -- the clock on dame's savings account is running a lot slower than the one on joe cronin's job

It would be good for them to win this season given that they don't have their draft picks and it would be a nice carrot for their poor fans, but I think they're pretty clearly a lottery team either way. They certainly could get a better deal at the deadline, though with every passing day they risk Lillard injuring himself by rapping too hard or whatever. Are Blazers fans clamoring for the deal to get done?

Did last year's Harden rumor affect the 76ers at all? It was annoying and typical Harden bullshit, but they played well before and after, Harden had a great season, they're quite familiar with his tactics, and they still want to keep him anyway.

They certainly could get a better deal at the deadline

yeah i wouldn't assume this to be the case. it's possible but not a certainty

i think you have to keep in mind that dame is basically on two contracts -- this year and next year at not so insane salaries before the subsequent two years where he jumps into the $60m per year range. so these first two seasons are extremely valuable -- he almost certainly will not have plus value in those final two years, so the first two seasons are essentially what you're paying for in this trade. which means that lost games next season are actively eating away at his trade value

of course teams, esp contending ones, don't care all that much about december and january. but the trade deadline is 70% of the way into the season. even accepting the fact that we just saw a team make the finals from the play in spot, those 55ish games of not having dame should factor into how teams asses his trade value. they're not meaningless. the blazers might be right that a feeding frenzy would occur at the trade deadline and the offers would be better bcuz of that regardless of the fact that teams would be getting a half a season less than they would be now. but if that feeding frenzy doesn't materialize and it's still the same cast of characters in there as now, it would stand to figure that the offers will only get worse

like... what if the current moment actually represents the nadir of tyler herro's value? if he comes out smoking hot next season looking really motivated and healthy and is being talked about as a 6th man of the year candidate again... that wouldn't help portland's leverage at all. there's just a lot of variables out there that they would be hoping mostly fall their way

i assume portland is making a big wager that dame ends up increasingly frustrated being sidelined on fake injuries or just playing like 25 mpg on a team that's trying to lose and decides he'll accept getting shipped to whatever eastern contender that finds a way to ship out the motherlode

which as you said earlier, who the hell is that even and what can they offer that miami can't? ultimately very curious why a third team hasn't come in to offer to take in herro for whatever, he'd make some real sense on one of the okc/utah/etc teams that are so asset rich and can't sit on the gold mine forever

Are the Heat better off if the trade goes through?

theyve got a team that made the finals twice and needs to get over the hump, theyre not sacrificing any of their window by taking on the old dame since jimmy is old too, agree with dame that its the perfect spot for him

and dame is a great fit rosterwise

i think theyd prob be really good but they also could collapse in a pile of injuries decrepitude and shallowness

hard to know exactly when these guys are gonna fall off, if neither do this year then they'd be really good

there's been a lot of posts today and sorry if this has been covered but isn't the flipside of the portland stuff the fact that miami isn't going anywhere as a trade partner?

that does seem true

that actually sounds like a real take clay & it's one that i agree with

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, September 12, 2023 2:24 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean certainly if we can find a way to tie this into a player empowerment narrative that isn’t totally embarrassing *and* just happens to benefit the miami heat we have to run with it ;)

from the perspective of a lackey like marc spears I suppose dropping cryptic hints that dame (who it just turns out I’d love to secure an exclusive sitdown with for andscape) is destined to land in miami (who my puppetmasters would love to continue to be relevant for the next several years) makes sense. as it turns out the blazers ownership seems to feel differently which is why the deal which was supposedly a lock two months ago has yet to materialize

seems like the simplest explanation is that the blazers aren’t crazy about the deal and they feel like the market for dame might improve. a lot can happen over the course of the first couple of months of the season, someone tears an ACL, someone demands a trade... maybe it’s a bit of wishful thinking on their part, but evidently their tolerance for “getting uncomfortable” is higher than people thought

Kevin Porter Jr. is rumored to have damaged a DJ's laptop during a team event two seasons back

“They were out at a club apparently and there was a disagreement I guess with the DJ in the club and KPJ took the laptop of said DJ and smashed it on the floor. Just completely… pic.twitter.com/Xsw8rSTmWu

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 13, 2023

seems like a bad guy

https://x.com/espnnba/status/1702047017432678461?s=46&t=delhXlmZBYazm252j4iaFA

i’m glad he just outright said it

hes gone girl

the milwaukee bucks have died

honestly from a pure basketball spectacle standpoint would love to somehow get dame on the giannis bucks

he would not report or so he claims

giannis wemby duo should happen imo

Rockets working to trade Kevin Porter Jr. along with draft compensation in wake of charges of felony assault and strangulation due to alleged attack on girlfriend, per sources.

Details at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/2ddHr7wBjT

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 13, 2023

the hell??

cash for trash

i just came here to make the same post as kevin. good lord

holy shit just fucking waive him????

theyre just trying to pay someone to deal with it

there cant be any disciplinary action voiding of contract etc until the league finishes its investigation iirc

this is the type of thing you finish doing before the media reports on you doing it

so dumb theres no way anyones going to trade for him anyway

They formatted his contract for like basically this exact situation just cut him immediately it’s not hard

honestly from a pure basketball spectacle standpoint would love to somehow get dame on the giannis bucks

― Clay, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:20 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

hmm yes I would be down for this

balance of power in the west just shifted

https://x.com/Twolves_PR/status/1702404716678836406?s=20

Let the Krejčíaïssance commence!

Kyrie stepping into a SAS Terrell Owens social media beef cos why not

https://x.com/kyrieirving/status/1703131258270949824?s=46&t=mohDpDAFl5F45rFjzYedvA

#Therearemoreimportantthingstodo

classic instigator whos pretending to above it

https://x.com/ClutchPoints/status/1703849817925943528?s=20

hard to see someone beat miamis offer without dame being into it, tho maybe theres some deal/player that the blazer could be unreasonably stoked on

i think dame would be down if the team was good

i wouldnt be surprised if his resolve was weakening tho we did just get that leak re him not showing up for other training camps so idk

nba news is in the dumps right now i really cant get myself to care about this very much. if this happened a couple/few years ago it would be way more interesting.

its the same story every offseason we need new writers

dame's agent has been issuing plenty of double-talk on the question of whether dame would honor his contract if he's traded somewhere that's not miami

nba news is in the dumps right now i really cant get myself to care about this very much. if this happened a couple/few years ago it would be way more interesting.

― nobody respects the chair (Spottie), Monday, September 18, 2023 4:50 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

its the same story every offseason we need new writers

― ciderpress, Monday, September 18, 2023 4:56 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Seriously, I needed something mindless to listen to while I was doing some housework today, and I put on the Hoop Collective with Windy and the Tims... the storylines they were trying to get themselves excited about were just going through the motions to an intolerable degree, sounded like AI

Free agent G/F Kelly Oubre Jr., is expected to sign a one-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, sources tell ESPN. Oubre — who averaged 20 points for Charlotte last season — could get significant opportunity on the wing with the uncertainty around James Harden.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 18, 2023

embiid will stay now

Yes, for instance, the Blazers want Lillard to stop leaking every six days that he won't report to camp unless he's traded to Miami, and he doesn't want to do that. https://t.co/IBpXft38y3

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) September 19, 2023

a fun game to play whenever one of these posts gets a lot of angry replies/QTs is to check the location and/or team loyalties of the people replying. for all the shit we hear about the regressive politics of the state of florida, there seems to really be a groundswell of pro-worker sentiment!

ha