He’s on salary. Dundon wouldn’t risk having to pay time and a half for overtime.

Nori never said this. Just Quick trying to get people to read him

The ownership is so cheap they pay him in canadian dollars when they play in toronto

Joe Cronin: You can’t start Holliday at guard tonight. You’ll have to start Morant.

Micah Nori: Yeah, I don’t want to go fifteen rounds, Joe. The lineup card is mine, and that’s all.

Joe Cronin: That lineup card is definitely yours. I’m just saying you can’t start Holliday at guard.

Micah Nori: Well, I am starting him at two guard.

Joe Cronin: I don’t think so. He plays for Detroit now.

Yeah, who do they think they are, the Warriors? sigh

The Ja trade makes a ton of sense to me from a fit perspective. Jrue is trade bait. Dame is there to sell tickets. Scoot isn’t where he needs to be so he’s still gotta work on everything.

It’s a bad fit, but a great value. They basically took a gamble in a former All-Star, and all they gave up was Jerami Grant (an underwater contract) and Kris Murray. Both Morant and Grant have two years remaining, and Ja only has about $16m more owed to him over that time. The Blazers have a good squad, but are arguably missing a true number one or a high-end second option to pair with Deni. They’re not a premium free agency destination (and are soon going to have limited cap space anyway) and probably would rather hold onto their young guys/Milwaukee’s picks at stage. If Ja can bounce back, you have a great player for very little; if he doesn’t, you have a monster expiring contract after this season.

Makes sense if Dame is cooked. If you take the two 36 year olds off the team you just have a young group of guys that actually somewhat fit together.

Fit is bad for sure, but the buy-low upside def seems worth it.

Dame and Ja probably play very little together overall and both might still end up with 20 to 30 minutes a night (I could see Dame being played less on back to backs).

If Ja plays well in close to starter minutes he would be very tradable, or look to extend and take over PG once Dame is done. If he’s washed then we try to salary dump his contract similar to Jeremy Grant and hope the next trade hits. Not much else to it for a small market team with a sleezeball owner.

I believe Ja and Deni will not share the court as much. Both Ja and Deni struggle without the ball in their hands and Dame can play off ball very well, as can Jrue.

Dame can start and play less minutes

Nori never said this. It’s just Quick being a shitty reporter

Mean while scoot henderson is off in the corner with his little fishing hat and rod wondering why the team doesnt love him anymore

Imagine if someone told us 3 years ago that Deni would be the best player on a team with Dame and Morant. Who would have believed it?

Yeah, it seems like the best case scenraio for Portland will be to sell high for more they gave up after he ball out from the bench, or as a starter.

i think it’s less about fit this year and more about the reality that if dame isn’t washed already, his days as a major player are numbered, and getting ja was a buying low on a guy with the potential to bounce back as an all-star level guard who fits their timeline better

Damn, you’re right. The only thing in quotes is “nothing is set in stone..” Initially I was going to say after reading that the Blazers are already in trouble. I hey this type of bullshit

That is some extremely backstabbing reporting if Nori did not actually say that about Ja/Dame.

Like he must’ve been on the record saying something pretty close to that, even if it’s not quoted…

This needs to be higher up!!

“Nori said that starting Morant and Lillard doesn’t make sense.” is maybe attribution. But then everything that comes after seems like speculation from the writer.

“Both are undersized, and both have never excelled on the defensive end. The more analytically sound option would be to start Holiday — a bigger guard who is an exceptional defender — and have either Morant or Lillard come off the bench. But in a league with huge egos, asking an All-Star to come off the bench is a delicate and difficult task for any coach, let alone Nori, a first-year coach operating on a one-year contract.”

Are you sure it didn’t happen off camera? Because if he actually made this up wouldn’t Nori push back?

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They traded Jerami Grant for him, it’s not like they gave up anything worthwhile.

I think he’s referring to Lillard. Dame is 36 years old coming off a major injury.

It’s still a solid buy-low move imo. Maybe Ja has a bit of a comeback this year and they can flip him for someone who fits better

We traded two players of legitimate negative value for one player of potentially negative value. It was a good trade even if we never play Ja.

They barely gave up anything and salary isn’t rlly an issue for them cuz they aren’t anywhere close to competing rn. They are making a gamble on Ja potentially returning to all star form, if he does they can flip him or have him as a piece in the future and if he doesn’t turn out good his contract is a minor problem and they barely lost anything.

Here’s something I don’t understand: is there actual strategic value in having your best players start? Is it necessarily a bad thing to have a second unit with an overpowered point guard?

Starting feels like a prestige position, not one driven by strategy. Opening the game with your best players vs your opponents best players does not strike me as a strategically optimal move.

It was a potential play. We traded Jerami and Kris Murray both of whom came off the bench anyway. With Dame’s $13.4m salary I don’t think it totally matters that much either.

Idt it really matters which one does come off the bench. Dame has never not started in the NBA (all 900 career games) while Ja has only done it 2 games out of 327.

I literally can’t imagine literally anything about Portland’s situation at all, it seems so theoretical and hodge podge.

Grant wasn’t starting either

I feel like the most likely scenario is we get the two first, it probably doesn’t work, we see all three a bit, it probably doesn’t work either. Lillard slowly goes to bench cause I don’t think he’s gonna be the same coming back from his injury…. And well we finish out the season with Lillard off the bench, Ja and Jrue starting

If they bench Ja in favor of broken down Old Dame, his career is basically over right??

They just wanted any star power. Fuck the team comp.

Now imagine having Jerami Grant making 40M coming off the bench

No matter what Micah Nori does with this team, he’s getting fired.

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They trying drop his value so they can sign him cheap in the future.

this seems like the obvious answer. if that experiment work, you at least put the younger $40M/year guy into the lineup and make changes.

tbh this is just a non-problem

there will be bickering and bitching about this for like three games…until one (or both) of them gets hurt again

Sharpe is injured and out for the season.

one thing i’ll question is if starting morant but closing with lillard over him would really help him build confidence or value. imo, closing the game is at least as much of an “honor” to players as starting, they’re just kinda lumped together because most starters also close. taking morant out to close games with any regularity would signal to him and the rest of the league that they don’t trust him enough in high leverage minutes

in general, i do like bringing older players off the bench even if you want to close with them, since their minutes can be limited more easily that way without having them sit on the bench for like 20 min stints between playing. i’m just not sure it’s the move in this case if the plan is to rehab morant’s image

in saying all that, i kind of get the impression nori is the kind of coach who is just going to try to do what he thinks is best for the team regardless of money and images and all that, which i respect. hope the blazers FO let him cook tbh

Feels no brainer to everyone outside but seems like Dame wants to start and probably feels he deserves it over Morant/Jrue because he’s got history with the Org.

that spacing is so bad in the lineup though. Good defensive unit to surround morant still

Didn’t realize you got rid of Thybulle.

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I feel like, ironically, the instability of his contract is giving him room to act like a real coach. I hope he crushes it this year and gets a shot at an actual job somewhere else.

My guess is this. He’ll play the best lineups possible without worrying about being politically correct, and hope that another owner will see how much he did with the cards he was dealt and give him a good deal.

Maybe he’s just actually honest, and is sending a message to the team that he’s going to do what he thinks is best.

Dame fits better with the starters by a mile. We desperately need shooting.

Ja and Deni fill the same role, so they’re better off staggered, though Deni is a perfectly respectable catch and shoot guy (just bad off the dribble as a shooter)

him calling two stars out for their D is a ballsy move, hope he does well this year

He deserves better than a cheap ass owner lol

Difficult roster to manage but he now has NBA coaching experience on his resume so he good.

to be fair he’s only head coaching because Blazers owner is so damn cheap. Any other owner would’ve just kept Splitter and I don’t think he has much chances with the Bulls who were looking for a young coach.

He voluntarily signed up for a job that only 29 other people in the world have and gets paid over a million dollars to travel the country and see the greatest displays of athleticism ever put on film every day of his life.

I implore you to not feel bad for him lol

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What “that” are you specifically claiming Nori didn’t say?

Sounds about right

Dame is 36, coming off two serious injury leaves (DVT, Achilles) and hasn’t played competitively in over a year.

I believe that he’s going to come back and shoot really well, but why do so many assume he’s a 30 minute a night starter? Why do we even think Dame thinks he’s a starter?

Its not going to work

They’d be spending… 80 million a year on their 6th men? lol.

Deni prevents them from being a bad team though in this situation. The guards stockpiling was odd, but Deni can make enough plays to at least somewhat counteract the bad fit.

I’d rather have one of them coming off the bench and learn like big boys than have both of them on the court at the same time.

Not only that but having this play out in public before the season even started isn’t a good look at all

Pillars is coming off of serious injury and will be on minutes restriction and load management. Morant will play most minutes.

They cannot be that bad starting Toumani, Avdija and Clingan. The frontcourt defense is very solid

GM’s no longer require common sense.

Pelicans fan throwing shade

They’ll definitely play all three just spread out their minutes/play scoot at the 2

I don’t think it’s that “wild” for the coach to say. It’s more wild for Dame. Buddy’s coming off an Achilles tear, is cooked physically, and thinks he’s gonna start over Jrue. The disrespect lol.

I mean he is right tho. If I’m the Blazers I’m probably gonna try to bring Dame off the bench and start Ja. Asking Ja to come off the bench right away would hurt his ego. They screwed themselves over with the trade, may as well try to make it work as long as they possibly can before Ja inevitably becomes a locker room cancer or gets injured too often

Yes. Even if it works out, whatever that means, they jumped the gun too quick but hey if you want to compete why not we should not reward tanking

Portland should have just waited a year and seen what they hand before making a move.

They don’t have that much time. Starting 2028-29 they’ll need to pay Advija (likely the max or close) and Clingan. They also need to pay Scoot next year, although that’ll probably come to near the mid-level or less.

They have salary space now, and Morant is who the market made available.

The coach is telling the players who is in charge and that defense and lineups matter, nothing more

What about this implies that anything is really bad? Did people actually expect two 6’2 guards to play 82 games together?

What they have with what?

Pretty certain that’s going to be the message, cuz that’s red meat for Scoot, too. And they’re probably penciling in all of these guards for 65 games played, they know depth matters.

Also, there’s the super obvious ego fix sitting right there where you start Dame + Ja, then after 3m you rotate one out and Jrue or Scoot in. Then you work the 48m rotation so you have 1 on, 1 off so there’s always a creator at the guard spot through 48 minutes. This is just the coach getting real about the messaging – guard spot needs a defender, prove me wrong if you don’t like it.

Is this like the tryout scene in the Dark Knight? Whoever makes it out alive gets the spot?

Hope they pat Ja down first!

I think you meant to say Dame

Edit- I get it now

Dame might be absolutely cooked. 36 years old the majority of NBA players have retired. Stars become role players. This generation having multiple all timers player high level ball close to their 40s makes fans think someone like Dame has 2-3 more all star years. He might have nothing. Ja is 27 and fits the timeline with the rest of the squad minus Jrue who they should trade anyway

Did you guys think the Blazers were gonna start 4 point guards? So confused why this is notable to yall

If dame is still a good.shooter and scorer thats a far better with the deni than ja is

His ego won’t allow that

I agree. The ball should be in Deni’s hand when applicable. He is clearly their best player, and still likely has not yet reached his prime. Also Dame and Deni would be the better duo when on the court in my opinion. I feel like you are slightly limiting both players with Morant.

How about… Just hear me out… Scoot, Lillard, Jrue, Ja, and Deni? Starter level guys for sure.

corner the market!

tbh if there’s a playoff team who needs more playmaking mid season, they might be able to sell high on someone for a nice return. some teams are really hurting for guard depth. unfortunately some of them like the heat rly have nothing to trade

It’s kind of our thing. Oops… all guards!( the sequel)

I think this speaks to a secret a lot of people on both sides of the analytics debate don’t like to acknowledge: analytics and traditional wisdom/eye test line up way more than they don’t.

Good. Nori can come back to us then.