[Fischer] Damian Lillard has been “behind the scenes”, “trying to make” a Giannis Antetokounmpo to Portland deal happen.
A Giannis/Lillard pairing would break the league.
Just imagine it.
Imagine Giannis and Holiday together
They could probably win a championship.
Giannis bringing both Milwaukee and Portland their first championships since the 70s would be pretty cool
Go on….
I am interested and I would like to hear more.
I wouldn’t even be mad
For real, Portland would just borrow Bucks fans the same way we borrowed Blazers fans when Dame was here.
Plus, they’ll still be borrowing Bucks money to pay Dame!
The Bucks fans were very hospitable to me for those 2 Dame years ❤️
y’all were great, i’m still upset that things didn’t end up working out, but at least i watch Blazers games now and then as a result
Milwaukee 🤝 Milwaukie
Since you are ALREADY paying him, and just to help this POR-MIL love fest complete a full circle, would you guys consider taking Dame as part of the trade? Of course you’d waive him immediately so he can come back to Portland on a vet min.
What’s another 30 million bucks when you’re already paying him 100 mil?
I put the Bucks on my feed when Lillard got traded
C’s fan. I know the pain of your fo trading Jrue.
Now think about a young Giannis with this team… wait I mean Yang Giannis..! 😂😂😂 I kid I kid but work be hilarious if they do end up landing Giannis, however improbable that is
imagine those pick and rolls! the league isn’t ready
Unironically, that’s the entire reason the pairing never worked. It would’ve been nasty if they actually ran it.
Unfortunately Dame is a PnR PG…but Giannis doesn’t screen
It feels like Lillard & Giannis fans solely blame the other for the pairing not working, either Dame fans saying Giannis sets soft screens that don’t allow separation, or Giannis fans saying Dame can’t play off ball & Giannis’ played better on ball than Dame did.
I stopped watching Bucks games when Rivers got hired so idk which fans are coping or if both sets of fans are coping.
I’m willing to split the difference and blame Doc
I think that’s legitimately the right answer. Dame likes high PNRs. Giannis likes to set lower screens and/or doesn’t want to be the role man often. Those are minute details that should be easily reconcilable differences for an NBA coach. To not be able to figure out how Dame and Giannis can be great together is such a ridiculous failure for doc.
Yup Dame likes high PnRs naturally as a volume 3pt shooter and Giannis likes them lower so he can slip and be a lob threat. Him slipping early on high screens made my eyes bleed, that action would almost always end up with him getting brick walled. The easy solution is make Giannis fight to actually get Dame open instead of slipping every single time or run some actions lower but neither ever happened. Doc was perfectly happy taking what the defense gave up like some vet min guy being left open and catch and shooting.
Was scrolling looking for this answer. Doc has never struck me as a tactician. He’s a great players guy but I don’t think he can scheme things up.
Good to know other fan bases do the same shit of blaming everything on one star and claiming the other one is literally perfect lol
Yes but lakers still do it more obnoxiously
We just do everything to the extreme, idk what to tell you
It’s on Giannis way more than Dame. Dame was the one that did try to adjust his game, but when it was clear it wasn’t working, Giannis should’ve tried adjusting…and he just didn’t. Every screen was a slip so that he could get the ball back. He never had any intention of getting Dame open with his screens.
The real problem is that Giannis obviously should have been the one to adapt: Dame has always been an offense first player, and he’s especially great in the halfcourt, whereas Giannis is a transition guy. It makes so much more sense to play in a way that maximizes Dame’s strength on offense than to just make Dame a spot up shooter. As much as Bucks fans want to pretend otherwise, purely offensively, Dame is the better player, even if he’s obviously worse overall when you include defense.
Would you trade for Luka then sit him in the corner? And then when he’s just okay, would you blame Luka for not performing? You can’t trade for a pure on-ball PG and be surprised that he’s not as good playing off ball.
Regardless, Giannis screening would have been good for everyone. Suddenly the floor is spread and the lane is open. When Giannis has the ball, no one can cut and the offense gets stagnant
Both are kinda true. Dame is not great off ball and i’m a big dame fan.
I mostly think they “didn’t work” because they barely played together. and by didn’t work i mean they were a 50 win team with a pretty bad roster around them.
lmao they never played together!! it looked like it could work when they were actually on the court together, but they never had a chance in the playoffs.
They played together in the regular season plenty. It didn’t work. Giannis doesn’t want to run the PnR.
Dames entire game is PnR and Iso
You can’t iso with Giannis, because there’s no spacing. And you can’t run the PnR if the dude won’t screen. And if you get someone else to screen (Lopez), then again, it’s tough to drive because they play off of Giannis
Even when Giannis set screens (which was rare), he would slip early which doesn’t help the team at all if he’s coming off a high screen and defenders have the time to adjust.
Imagine if you added a championship winning coach to that mix
2014 NBA Champion Tiago Splitter
Doc rivers is their man
Something something tired bucks photoshop joke
33-13 before Doc Rivers got a hold of them.
People like to point out how Dame And Giannis weren’t great together. Like you said 33-13 until Doc Rivers took over. Also ignoring how much of a drop off Middleton and to a lesser degree Brook Lopez took that year, while also getting rid of Grayson Allen who was an underrated catch and shoot player.
Yea they had a record a little better than SA or Denver right now. Then Doc came in and ruined it. Also they were injured every post season
Giannis the one who wanted a coaching change
LeBron wanted Spo gone too but they told him to stfu.
they don’t got a Pat Riley
Heat also didn’t owe anything to Lebron. Giannis had cache built up in Milwaukee
It went so bad I actually almost forgot they teamed up
It’s not because of the quality of the players tho. They were injured and arguably their game didn’t mesh.
You forgot about Doc as the coach.
It’s funny but this Blazers team has been surprising people all year. Get Giannis with Avdija and it’s a whole new ballgame
Ehhh maybe. Giannis and deni’s games are a horrible fit alongside one another.
Giannis and Khris Middleton. Absolute OP fantasy combo right there. I’m telling you, they would dominate the game. League would never allow it.
The real funny part about this is people were claiming there was bad blood between them when Dame was on the Bucks.
It failed in Milwaukee surely it will work in Portland with Dame coming off an Achilles
Dame is maybe the 6th or 7th most important Blazer now. Anything they get from Dame beyond this point is just a bonus.
Say that again
Plus, it would literally involve the picks involved in the Dame trade from a few years ago. Portland only feasibly needs to trade two of their own picks, plus return the Bucks picks, and possibly give up sharpe, Grant, and Scoot while keeping the TRIPLE Ds (Dame, Deni, and Donovan.
So essentially they would have traded Dame for Giannis and Dame.
and then some lol, 2⁄3 of our most important pieces are from that trade
Returning the Bucks picks is the most valuable thing on the table by far. They don’t need to give much else
Start with Grant and Williams for salary matching, then 2 portland picks and bucks 1st round and pick swaps back
Thats probably better than the Warriors offer already. Can do Scoot to sweeten the deal, but definitely don’t need to include Sharpe.
We without a doubt have the ability to put the best offer on the table. It’s just do we want to and will Gianni’s resign
I just cannot see Giannis doing that. He’d probably wait out the rest of the season and see what the summer brings
Totally that’s the question. If he doesn’t resign then we’re definitely out. I’m sure the bucks would really like him to commit though cuz I imagine they’d really like the picks back lol
fully agreed. Grant + williams + thybulle is enough salary, add in the picks and maybe scoot and it’s done. Already a better offer than any team can reasonably come up with before even thinking about shaedon.
So they have to gut their depth and future assets. Making it harder to team build or pivot in the future.
At some point the market has to adjust to the superstars who want to win now, because when they get traded for a haul the team they get traded to doesnt have all the attractive pieces they do now. Making them thinner and prone to being a mediocre team with no flexibility again.
I mean we’d really be giving away maybe 2 of our our own FRP’s and like one young high potential guy. We’d still likely be keeping one of Shaedon or scoot, then Deni, Toumani, Clingan, Hansen, etc. wouldn’t really gut anything frankly
Giannis + Clingan would be unbeatable.
What is Portland trading to acquire Giannis?
The bucks own picks
I know about that, I meant players
not much. /u/tore_a_bore_a already told:
Start with Grant and Williams for salary matching, then 2 portland picks and bucks 1st round and pick swaps back Thats probably better than the Warriors offer already. Can do Scoot to sweeten the deal, but definitely don’t need to include Sharpe.
I don’t even offer Scoot in the mix. it’s almost 5 picks and Bucks can control their destiny. much better.
Grant, Shaedon, Scoot, RW3, 2028 Mil swap back, best of 2029 picks (Bos, Mil, Por), 2030 swap and 2028 Orlando unprotected first round picks
The Bucks are going to need Yang Hansen. They need the China fans views once Giannis leaves.
Alright we keep Scoot and you take Hansen haha
Rooting for the kid but yall can have him over Scoot lol
Bit of an overpay, but the Bucks would jump at that
Yea I mean you can adjust from there. I’d love to keep Scoot or the Orlando pick or something. Mostly pointing out we have the assets and can field a competent team after
The Bucks picks alone are worth more than all the other offers
Dame
The team would theoretically be a lot better around them than what we put out there
The Bucks are taking all those guys that would be great to surround Giannis and Dame with.
The two teams would essentially just be switching places just with a better coach.
I mean I would be perfectly fine with Sharpe, Scoot, our picks back and filler. That would still leave the Blazers in a really good spot
This isn’t even close to true. They could just trade Scoot and Grant and give the bucks picks back. Deni and Toumani are so much better than everyone the Bucks had. Sharpe potentially can be too.
This trade would be better for the Bucks than a lot of the deals I’ve seen floated from GSW and Miami.
You’re just making things up, there’s no way the trade happens if the blazers have to give up Avdija
Not necessarily. The Blazers have all the Bucks’ picks so if you want to tank, getting your own picks back is way more valuable than anything anyone else can offer you because you can guarantee they’re high picks by sucking. So probably you get one of Scoot/Sharpe/Camara and then some combination of Grant/Jrue as salary filler and then your own picks back. That’s a way, way stronger offer than anyone other than the Thunder doing the godfather offer of J-Dub + 7 picks or whatever (which I don’t think they would ever do) can give you. And it would still leave the core of the Blazers intact.
They’ll take Shardon and Grant and all the picks including Milwaukee’s
That’s it really
There’s no way we’d have to trade all of our picks and the Bucks picks.
Bucks picks on their own are way more valuable than anything Miami or GSW are offering.
Injuries played a big part in MKE
Yeah while it wasn’t perfect, Dame and Giannis only got to play 3 games in the playoffs together. And Dame was hurting in the first 2 then tore his achilles in the 3rd one. Only 55 total games of Dame/Giannis/Khris as well
As a neutral it was a bummer we didn’t get to see more of them playing together.
Only 55 total games of Dame/Giannis/Khris as well
And for most of those 55 games, Khris was super hobbled…still wonder what 2024 would have looked like if he hadn’t rolled his ankle on KD’s foot and then destroyed whatever was left of his ankles trying to will us in the 1st round series against Indiana after Dame got injured
That whole season was cursed. Khris missed so many games and was on minutes restriction in the games he played which probably put more wear and tear on Giannis and Dame. Both Giannis and Dame got injured, maybe that doesn’t happen if Khris was healthy, then Khris was no longer the same after trying to hard carry the team.
Dame not on a max makes this much better.
They won’t have Doc Rivers this time around.
The pairing to think about isn’t Giannis and Dame, it’s die Deni and Giannis work with the rest of the squad?
I think Deni and Giannis could play well enough off each other. Deni’s a solid shooter at this point and they could run interesting 3⁄4 actions. We need more shooting overall though
Idk with Jrue Deni Camara krejci and Clingan that’s an upgrade of a supporting cast
including vit in this is hilarious but i respect it
Exactly, I am not convinced rehashing the Dame/Giannis pairing is even a good idea but holy shit would I buy in if Cronin actually pulls this shit off.
It’s the Deni/Gianni’s pairing we should be thinking about
Lmao bucks of the west
Careful, podcast p
Portland have a signifcantly better second tier than the Bucks
Better than Bulls West.
Deni is better than the whole Bucks roster combined
Last time we let Lillard have any input on the team he made us hire Chauncey, asked us to keep CJ around until his trade value was garbage, & had us give Jerami Grant $150 mil before dipping. Idgaf what Dame wants, his input means less than zero when it comes to roster construction.
Its probably safer to do the exact opposite of what Dame wants at this rate
George Costanza tried this once
Must be a redditor
I think you could reasonably say that getting Giannis would not be like those other moves lol
Superstar player does not mean good GM.
Steph famously liked Mark Jackson as a head coach and publicly chose Avery Bradley over GP2 for a roster spot (before the Warriors chose GP2 and won a championship).
Steph also fought to get Bradley Beal
Fucking facts
Sooooo you DON’T want Giannis?
lol you are probably right.
I was cool with Dame coming back when it seemed like he might have accepted that he would be acting as a veteran steward to this young core. I am substantially less cool with him trying to act like he’s still the face of the franchise that the team has to bend over backwards to accommodate.
Why is everyone dismissing this? They have the bucks picks which are the most valuable ones to Milwaukee whether Giannis likes it or not
Because it’s funnier to meme how the pairing failed in Milwaukee than actually look at the possible transaction objectively.
It failed because doc sucked ass and giannis didn’t fully buy into setting some solid screens
Even that is dwarfed by the fact that they played only two playoff games together
I’m actually hyped for a Giannis to Portland trade
Because players generally don’t come back better from achilles injuries. This would fail
Bc even if by some miracle it actually happens, we’ve already seen it not go very well
Think I’ve seen that one before
What do you mean? It’s brand new!
GOAT movie.
lol why?
They would just be Bucks West
Worked for us -Kings fans
Yeah bucks of the west is still better than bulls of the west
Ha you wish your team had players like Derozan and Lavine and like Doug McDermott or something
Not if they keep deni.
I’m honestly surprised it’s taken this long for Portland to enter the chat. They have assets to make this very interesting l. Especially because they could give the Bucks back their own picks…
Blazers have always been in play, it’s really just that the FO would rather build organically and get some real good pieces with these Buck picks out of the deal, than bet it all on black rn. They have signaled their willingness to bet it all on black if it comes to it though. This is just the first real report that ANYONE in the org is really pushing for it to happen rather than waiting and seeing if it’s the best option
It’ll be more expensive to get done or be involved with in the off-season, that can be good or bad for the Blazers
Bad roster fit. They are 29⁄30 in the NBA in 3P%. Giannis can’t shoot.
Portland makes more sense for a shooter like MPJ or Lauri.
That being said, they did just pick up Krejci, who has scary high 3P% on low volume…
Dame hasn’t even played yet
Nor has Vit. We will be WAY better at shooting next year.
Yup and Giannis is supposedly injured anyway so this season is a wash. This trade isn’t for this season it’s beyond
I don’t think mid 30s Lillard off an Achilles is a building block for Portland. If he comes back next season and plays well then that’s great for them, but they are building around the young guys.
If they’re trading for Giannis, they’re no longer rebuilding around young guys. They’re contending.
Still sleeping on Giannis’s midrange shot. Just doesn’t have the 3 shot naturally
This lets me know they realized Doc is trash
has tiago been good?
I think he’s been solid for what he was thrown into. The injuries have been pretty gnarly all year. The defense has slipped a bit but hard to say if it’s injuries or what really.
thats valid, is he ur official coach now or is it technically still billups lol
cuz i think we can confidentially say billups isnt any better than doc
Not sure officially but billups will never coach blazers again regardless of outcome. That ship sailed. If they grab Gianni’s (very unlikely) then I’m sure they would 100% do a full on coaching search
They have a substantially better roster of guys besides Giannis
And another all star now 👀
If they keep Advija, Camara and Clingan they’re good
Scoot/Sharpe/Grant/Rob Will, Bucks own picks out
people don’t understand that the Giannis/Dame was actually not bad and that the roster around them was horrendous and they were coached by Doc Rivers
And injuries lol. Pretty sure they never even played together healthy in playoffs. The second year lilliard was limping around
The other thing is we literally have another all star now and we aren’t building around dame anymore. He’s a 6th man at best going forward on 10 million/year
And injuries lol.
Both are injured now
Right but I was saying that in context to their playing days on bucks. People dunk on the pairing regardless that they were never both healthy in post-season.
Yeah two full games together in the playoffs.
Jrue Holiday would like a word 💍
Supporting cast is better in PDX then it was when they played in MKE
If they ask for Sharpe and Camara do you still do it?
Yes for Sharpe, but not for both. I’d want Toumani to play alongside Giannis
Yeah send Scoot, Shape, and picks instead.
Sharpe and Camara both signed extensions this summer, so they have poison pill provisions making them very difficult to trade (their outgoing salaries will count as the average of the new contracts while only counting for their current salaries for incoming salary matching).
Out of all the teams that could land Giannis, I like this one the most. Portland has a solid young core
Deni and Giannis feels redundant. Both guys that drive and need to kick it out to shooters
yeah but now you get 48 minutes of all nba level rim pressure and playmaking. Not to mention both guys are solid defenders and smart players. Sure the shooting will be rough but we just traded for one, toumani isn’t bad, clingan is developing there, shaedon has shot over 40% since coming off his minutes restriction to start the year, caleb love looks like a real piece, he’ll even jrue and scoot are ok shooters, not to mention next year with dame
Deni / Giannis would be a low-key bad fit together
They’d be fantastic. Both are great passers and excel in the open court. And Deni can shoot. They’d be hell to deal with.
Really? A lot better than Giannis and Kuzma though
Everyone saying Bucks West jokes ala Bulls West with Demar/Zach but Giannis/Avdija/Sharp is dangerous as hell.
im tired jennifer
Dame: Giannis, do you want to be my teammate again? Check one:
☑️ Yes
☑️ No
Giannis:
✅ Maybe
I had to check the ripcity post to make sure you’re the same person commenting this. Super funny to me both times. lol.
All I can hope for is a few chuckles from either sub. 🤣
That would be fantastically funny.
Might as well try. They have the expendable assets, including the Bucks’ picks. Dame/Jrue/Deni/Giannis/Clingan is a lot of talent on paper.
Thanks for trying, dawg. No way Giannis agrees to an extension though and I don’t want to gut the team for one year of Giannis.
Bucks getting their picks back isn’t the worst thing…
Portland is cooler than Milwaukee i guess
Grant + Thybulle + Scoot + Yansen for Giannis and Turner works salary wise
Holiday-Sharpe-Avdija-Giannis-Turner
With Dame, Camara, and Clingon coming off the bench could actually be nasty
Giannis and Turner is a tad under 80m of payroll. Your Blazers offer is around 60m. Am I missing something because the Blazers can only take in 125% of their outgoing salary which would put them at a max of 75m of salary coming in for those 4 outgoing players.
This sounds like a 2K trade. Why would Milwaukee not demand Sharpe, Clingan, prob even Yansen and then picks?
competing aside, they have the best offer. being in control of your destiny is king. you never want to be at the mercy of another team when tanking
He wants a Pt.2??
Blazers are in the unique position of having arguably the most valuable assets to the Bucks. They can tank this year and still have a good pick because they got the less favorable of theirs and the Pelicans pick, both of which will be valuable. Problem is it commits them to like 4-5 years of tanking
Hard to take this guy serious. 🧐
This would only happen if the bucks value their picks way higher then anything the other 3 teams are offering right? I imagine this would just be the bucks picks back, sharpe and grant?
Why wouldn’t they value their own picks more than anything?
Imagine they pair Giannis with Dame and Jrue as well as Deni, the guy they essentially got back from trading Jrue away lol.
Cronin is just playing with his food. He’s got 29 other GMs being served up hot and ready on a platter, just waiting to take that first big bite. It’s gonna taste so good.
Who would they trade? Jerami and jrue have the latest contracts at 32m so one of them would have to go, neither of whom the bucks need or care about.
I like the jokes about Dame and Giannis pairing not working when it kind of did when they weren’t injured. And it ignores that Dame is likely only our 3rd may be 2nd best player when he comes back with our current team.
If he’s the 2nd or 3rd best player it’s a huge win
Sure for rupert
I love Lillard, but it didn’t look like it was a huge success the first go around. I know injuries and what naught but even when both were healthy it didn’t really live up to the hype did it?
It worked so well the first time!
For what lol.
I get people memeing, but it really isn’t the same situation as Milwaukee at all
I’m here for this chaos because MIL would still be paying Lilliard right? Lol
Yes, we’d have traded dame to them to pair with giannis and would end up getting giannis, dame, jrue while adding toumani and deni (mostly) from the trade
Option A - Get Doc fired.
Option B - Move your star duo to Portland where Doc is not the coach.
Seems like the long route to me.
Please no