{"id":145164,"date":"2025-07-03T21:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/145164\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T21:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:48:10","slug":"resurrecting-the-faith-of-a-collapsing-blazers-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/145164\/","title":{"rendered":"Resurrecting the Faith of a Collapsing Blazers Fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA Free Agency<\/a> is slowing down now. Drips and drops will come through, but nothing like the hectic first 48 hours of the annual event. As the smoke clears and teams take stock, the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> have once again remained silent, signing nobody off the market despite clearing enough space under the luxury tax to credibly do so.<\/p>\n

That result led to a pressing question in the Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag which we\u2019ll address today.<\/p>\n

Dear Dave,<\/p>\n

Two part question here. I need your help because I honestly feel I\u2019m about to give up on this team.<\/p>\n

Why do we keep not signing players? You say this team needs talent. I agree. So why is there only quiet in free agency year after year? I thought surely this year they\u2019d do something but mostly we\u2019re losing players not gaining them.<\/p>\n

And with that, how am I supposed to feel when the team buys out [former center Deandre] Ayton and then tells us that he wasn\u2019t a good teammate? But all along when he was here they were telling us to cheer for him and praising his accomplishments. The story changes based on convenience I say. I don\u2019t know what to believe. I\u2019m having a harder time believing in anything about this team anymore. I wish for the days when Dame was here or Brandon Roy. How do you keep going through all of this?<\/p>\n

Braedon<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a LOT to unpack here!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s tackle free agency first.<\/p>\n

The Blazers actually did something. They traded Anfernee Simons for Jrue Holiday. You may not like that move, I\u2019m not sure. But there\u2019s no arguing it\u2019s a major one considering their roster. There may be more coming too on the trade front. Just because Portland didn\u2019t make any early free agent signings doesn\u2019t mean they were inactive.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a tidbit you may not be aware of too. Under the new CBA, teams can use their mid-level exceptions to acquire players in trade, not just free agency.<\/p>\n

Did you see all the players signing for contracts under $14 million per year in the last few days? Practically every non-star did. There was barely a $20 million contract to be found. Because of the MLE trade option, the Blazers could end up getting some of those players in the long run, or players just like them. That\u2019s true even if they didn\u2019t, or couldn\u2019t, make a move on them in free agency. In fact, one strategy might be to hold onto that MLE until other teams start figuring out they need to dump salary and then scooping up a really good player with it.<\/p>\n

I would also remind you that the new year for trades and such doesn\u2019t start until next week. Portland could still be involved in deals that we don\u2019t know about yet. Who can tell for sure whether they\u2019re a part of that big, seven-team Kevin Durant deal that\u2019s supposedly coming down the pipeline?<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m not here to sell you on the recent moves or lack thereof. For all we know, the Blazers might be making bad decisions all over the place. But we don\u2019t even know if they\u2019re done yet and we haven\u2019t seen the final results. It\u2019s not time to put a pin in this off-season yet.<\/p>\n

As for the Ayton thing, I get it. Switching stories upon parting with a player is a tale as old as time around here. But I\u2019d hasten to point out that the Blazers themselves didn\u2019t release that report, though some of their personnel may have become sources for it. A story comes out that Ayton\u2019s habits were shoddy. Other people who knew him in Phoenix nod affirmatively. A teammate speaks out to defend him. And so it goes.<\/p>\n

Transition is inherent in the business of professional sports. In the midst of it players remain players and teams, teams. It\u2019s only natural that incoming players will have their best assets highlighted and outgoing players their flaws. You do the same thing every time you date and then break up with someone. Listening to an ex-partner is one way to find out about a person, but you\u2019d be foolish to take their ex\u2019s description of them as gospel truth. You know once upon a time that same ex was idealizing them and describing them as the best person in the world. It\u2019s the same way with reports like this.<\/p>\n

NBA players are who they are. You can tell most of what you need to know about them by their performance on the court and their effect on the team around them. If you want to believe more than that, it\u2019s up to you. But that doesn\u2019t define them. Nor should you let such reports redefine a player for you completely. If you liked that player, you can keep liking them. They\u2019re still pounding an orange ball and earning millions. They\u2019re just wearing a different uniform color while doing it. Everything beyond that is PR…interesting to discuss, but hardly central to our existence, or theirs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting that you cited Damian Lillard and Brandon Roy as pillars of your fandom. There are two things to remember here.<\/p>\n

First, I\u2019m guessing by those citations that your fandom grew from 2006 onward. Remember that just before that, from 2001-2005, the Blazers went through a horrible downturn, languishing much like they\u2019re doing now: rough PR, dumping salaries, confusing moves, the works. In fact, that period made this one look like kindergarten by comparison. Lots of fans rode through that era and came back strong through the Roy and Lillard resurrections. People will today as well.<\/p>\n

Second, circling back to free agency, you know who\u2019s not available for an MLE signing in July, 2025? Brandon Roy and [prime, uninjured superstar] Damian Lillard, or anyone like them. That\u2019s the ingredient this team is missing right now. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll find it eventually, but the chances of them picking that star up off the open market for $9 million are small. That means we have to be patient while waiting for our San Antonio moment to hit. Or, failing that, for something else to happen that makes us think we don\u2019t need one.<\/p>\n

The process is the same either way: hold on. Tides change in pro sports all the time. Someday the Blazers will be on the upswing again. It\u2019s all the sweeter when you understand all the texture and history behind it because you\u2019ve lived through it.<\/p>\n

How about you, readers? Come to Braedon\u2019s aid by sharing how you get through droughts like this. Tell us in the comment section and have fun reading each other\u2019s thoughts too!<\/p>\n

If you have a question, you can always send it to blazersub@gmail.com<\/a> and we\u2019ll try to answer as many as possible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA Free Agency is slowing down now. Drips and drops will come through, but nothing like the hectic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[241,7,41,601,28019,43,3384,1836,28,6,169,687,471,3967,28018,42,64,1617,6487],"class_list":{"0":"post-145164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-a","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-blazer","11":"tag-blazers","12":"tag-collapsing","13":"tag-edge","14":"tag-faith","15":"tag-fan","16":"tag-front-page","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-of","19":"tag-portland","20":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","21":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","22":"tag-resurrecting","23":"tag-s","24":"tag-the","25":"tag-trail-blazers","26":"tag-trail-blazers-edge-mailbags"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114791508337334379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}