As a Blazer fan who has thoroughly enjoyed watching Dame and thinks he's been a model star for the franchise and the league this needed to happen and I don't understand why it came to the point that Dame had to make the request. Ownership/management is so out of touch with actually building a winning team and has instead been stuck on trying to scrape together the best possible team every year to the detriment of the franchise actually being able to move forward.

A real rebuild was required when Lamarcus left and instead they half-assed it trying to produce a successful team immediately and could never get over that screw up.

Glad for the franchise and for Dame that someone came to their senses and will force the correct move for once.

Any ideas on what the difference is for the franchise signing Grant to potentially trade him vs not signing him at all? I really thought resigning Grant was the sign that everyone was in on running it back to at least start the season and look for potential trade deadline deals to pull in a star so I'm surprised this announcement comes out today.

Wow. Insiders seemed to expect that Lillard wouldn't publicize a specific demand like this. This really hurts Portland's chances at a good return.

Heat moves making sense now with all the cap they have

Wow, actually asking for out now? It happening, off to the Heat.

It would've been cool to see him stay. I think I'd rather watch a player stay with the same team without winning a championship than see them force a trade to a better team in order to win one. The championship has been cheapened by superteams.

Not a Blazers fan but grew a soft spot for ‘em after moving out here and seeing his loyalty to the city and the fans. You don’t get that in modern ball that often so I’m sure it’s a hard call on his part but they’ve made no attempts to build a winning team around him. Really surprised it took this long to get here.

Never thought I'd actually see it

On the one hand Dame is the coolest guy in Portland and it would suck to see him go.

On the other hand I live within walking distance of the Moda Center and $5 tickets close enough to air my grievances directly to the team rocks.