HC Terry Stotts out at Portland...

I like Stotts a lot and I think he's a great person and coach but there is absolutely no way the pelicans hire him lol.

Id guess he does to the mavs as an assistant or maybe boston

They get Vanterpool, Dame stays...

We get Vanterpool as Lead Assistant...

The bigger story here is that we can close the Dame trade thread.

This is loud and clear signal #1 that the Blazers are going to move as many deck chairs on the Titanic as they can unti the ship is lost under the abyss and Leo is dead and floating away.

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This is loud and clear signal #1 that the Blazers are going to move as many deck chairs on the Titanic as they can unti the ship is lost under the abyss and Leo is dead and floating away.

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I mean the rockets did the same thing for harden and he still left. I get Dame is much more loyal but can’t help but think he’s done there. Stotts was gone regardless

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The bigger story here is that we can close the Dame trade thread.

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Hey man, my thread has been gold! But yeah....this is their last ditch effort to keep Dame invested. They will pretty much consult him on any offseason moves if they intend to keep him there.

I definitely feel like Dame is frustrated right now, but I still think it's a VERY LONG shot that he actually tells the org to trade him. And Portland isn't going to trade him if he doesn't ask out. He puts butts in seats and he is a great teammate. Despite what we fans think, I'm sure Portland's owner would rather be a perennial playoff team indefinitely and keep fan interest hight versus going through a two or more year rebuild to hopefully one day surpass this ceiling of a 2nd round team.


It's not like they are a pels type of team where they are fighting tooth and nail every year just for a shot to make the post-season.


I think the only way portland even considers trading dame is if they either unequivocally win the trade (virtually impossible) or if Dame demands it. And I just don't see Dame doing that.

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I mean the rockets did the same thing for harden and he still left. I get Dame is much more loyal but can’t help but think he’s done there. Stotts was gone regardless

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It’s not so much loyalty as the Blazers have the leverage here.

Lillard is there 5 years. The only way a trade was ever happening is if:

1.) Dame was utterly fed up to the point he decided to go scorched Earth

2.) The Blazers saw this sort of exercise as pointless and believed a hard reboot was the wisest path forward(it probably is).

Without both of those components you aren’t getting Dame this season. People can downvote away and live in their magical thinking, but it’s the truth. And frankly, as we come up on Zion’s next contract. We should probably not be so quick at wishing players that are highly leveraged to once again drastically shift the norms in that sort of way.

I really don’t understand why everyone says a hard reboot is the best way forward. The Pelicans have been obscenely lucky by winning the lottery and getting Zion. Can you imagine how crappy it would be if we wouldn’t have won the lottery? Can you imagine how crappy it must be to be a Rockets fan right now, assuming they don’t win the lottery?

Obtaining players at Dame’s level is the absolute hardest thing to do, especially in a market like Portland. Dame is also very special in his mindset compared to other star level guys. He hasn’t bought into the Lebron/KD aau way of thinking. If he doesn’t go scorched earth, and I sincerely hope he doesn’t because that’s what makes him special, the worst case is Portland makes the playoffs for the next 4-5 years and they have a guy they build a statue of in front of the arena. Best case is they luck into a rebuild around dame where they hit every move and they compete for championships for 4-5 years. Either way, it is much better than staring into the abyss with no guy like dame to captain the ship.

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In the red corner, a domestic abuser. In the blue corner, a person with a rape allegation.

Who will win the super woke league coaching tournament?!?!! stay tuned to find out.

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Tweet from Brady Klopfer (SB Nation reporter)