Damian Lillard confirms he has asked to be traded but avoided questions regarding the Trail Blazers and its management team in an interview with Andscape’s Marc J. Spears.
Loyal to the organization since he entered the league in 2012, Lillard finally grew weary of the franchise’s direction and requested a trade, which became public on July 1. Shortly thereafter, Lillard’s desire to be traded to the Heat became general knowledge.
“I can say that there was [a trade request] and I would just prefer not to speak on the Trail Blazers,” he told Spears.
Lillard hoped that the Blazers would add several impactful veterans to the bench, according to Spears. Lillard’s request came at the start of free agency, after Portland had declined offers for the No. 3 pick in the draft and used it on Scoot Henderson, another point guard.
Lillard wouldn’t budge when asked what motivated him to be dealt.
“I’m not going to speak on the Blazers. It’s lot of love and respect, but I won’t speak on the Blazers,” Lillard said.
It remains to be seen what Lillard would do if he’s not traded before training camp. The guard’s friends and confidants have advised him to sit back and let the process play out.
“The best word of advice is just that, ‘Everything will come to pass,’” Lillard said. “When you in a little bit of a storm, a lot is going on and you’re being talked about, you get a little bit antsy and you feel like you got to react to stuff sometimes, but I know me. I know the type of principle I stand on. I know that I’ve been solid in everything that I’ve done every step of the way.”
The NBA fined James Harden $100K this week for “indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team.” Lillard hasn’t gone that far, but the Collective Bargaining Agreement gives the league the latitude to fine a player up to $150K for making a trade request public.
Of course, that would be a proverbial drop in the bucket for a player who will make $45.64MM next season and nearly $48.8MM in 2024/25 before his two-year, $121.8MM extension kicks in.
What’s paramount for Lillard at this stage of his career is to get a ring.
“I would say the desire for that now is as high as it’s probably going to be. That’s literally the thing at the top of my list,” he said about winning a title. “When I wake up and I got to get up and go do what I got to do, I got to train, I got to make time for my kids, I still got to lift, I got to do all these things and I got to make sure that training and the preparation is still my priority. Even with being a father of three now, not one, and having all these other responsibilities, you need something that you feel pretty strong about to stay committed the way I’ve been committed. It’s as high as it’s going to get. That’s ultimately what I want to experience and that’s what I want to get done.”
I had no idea he wanted out. I wonder if he has a preferred team he wishes to play for.
I guess I’ll have to wait for another story that might shed some light on that situation.
Lillard certainly knows how to to get those backdoor compliments in. Unfortunately for him, that may continue to fool some people but the rest of us know that stuff like “I know the type of principle I stand on. I know that I’ve been solid in everything that I’ve done every step of the way.” now rings hollow.
Him not ending up in Miami and Harden not ending up in LA would be a great way to end the offseason (or, perhaps, start the season).
That’s like me hoping that you don’t get that job at Subway and you stay flipping burgers at McDonalds. I couldn’t be bothered in giving two sweet effs, you go to Subway and do your darn destiny brother man.
Gosh, offended by a random person on the internet. Whatever shall I do? This has never happened before.
(Not that your example even remotely fits, but whatever).
Pot calling the kettle black.
That’s dangerbone. He comes in and criticizes posts without having basketball takes. It’s okay, we all have hobbies.
Yeah I’m still waiting on him to respond back on another topic. He only knows how to insult people
I get that everyone is going to hate because Lillard decided to request specifically to go to Miami, and because his agent is a dipsh*t and made those unnecessary comments, but I personally feel that if any recent franchise has done enough mismanagement to warrant losing their star for little to nothing, it’s the Blazers.
Minny and Sacramento have pulled themselves out of the worst of their past idiocy and look like they can improve (more Sacramento than Minny, but they still have Edwards, McDaniels, and Naz), but the Blazers have spent the last seven seasons straight failing to build around Dame nonstop. Only Nurkic and Grant were positive trades, every other trade they made since letting Aldridge walk in FA for nothing was for salary purposes. And while the extensions for CJ and Simons had value, they weren’t good fits next to an equally small and defensively mediocre guard. I get that there’s turmoil with Olshey being canned unexpectedly and the owner’s death in 2018, but the degree of incompetence is massive. Lillard deserves good things for trying to stick with that sh*t sandwich for so long.
I don’t really get the hate for Lillard but it’s most likely a here and now thing. In time they’ll forget. Three of the most revered players in NBA history did pretty close the the same thing.
Kareem gave the Bucks a list of teams to be traded to, reportedly the Lakers were his third choice but he still demanded a trade. Chamberlain told Philly he wouldn’t play for them and met with the L.A., Seattle and San Diego to see who offer the most money then forced a trade to L.A. Hell Kobe’s camp told teams he wouldn’t play for them before he played one game in the NBA.
The Lillard thing is perceived as different because he openly criticized other players for forcing their way off of teams before he did the same thing. But has he? He’s stated he plans to play no matter what. That’s not forcing your way off a team, it’s asking for a trade.
No hate,just hard to justify signing a super max without a gun to his head then wanting out first year in. Oh yea I want you to send me only here. Miami a team that has nothing of value.
Can’t really disagree there. If we were purely factoring in karma, that’s exactly what would happen for their ineptitude.
That said, you can’t really blame the current front office for the mistakes of its predecessors. Cronin has had his hands tied from the start.
At least, unless Cronin strung Lillard along while he angled for a rebuild from the beginning, which isn’t impossible. But even if so, I get that would be a tough decision for any front office. With such a beloved player, you’re damned if you do, damned if you dont. Start a rebuild as soon as you should and the fans revolt over Lillard leaving. Start one later and the fans say you didn’t start one soon enough.
Cronin was assistant GM before Olshey got fired, and had worked for the organization for years in leadership positions.
The way he handled the Covington/Powell trade was poorly executed. The CJ McCollum trade was also mediocre at best. Both were just pure salary dumps, as I said earlier.
He had the 2022 offseason where he was basically free and clear, afterwards. Trading for Grant was a good, win-now move! Signing Simons was questionable because of the aforementioned fit issues, and they could’ve done better by working out a S&T with any of the several teams in the market for a young PG/combo guard. Not trading Shaedon Sharpe or even just the pick? Not a win-now move in the slightest. The Gary Payton signing? Only looked good because we didn’t know he was injured. But Cronin knew. And the Eubanks signing didn’t really move the needle despite him being an ok player. I’m not willing to cut Cronin much slack on any of that.
True, but it’s hard to know how much blame to attribute to him regarding some of those deals and how much to put on a cheap ownership in flux mandating salary be cut. Although, to be clear, I haven’t been a huge fan of the job he’s done overall, including for some of the reasons you’ve cited.
That’s why I said Cronin might very well have been leading Lillard on a bit regarding the win-now mindset. Frankly, I think he likely wanted to trade Lillard years ago, but didn’t think the fanbase would tolerate that. So he made a few so-so moves to placate Lillard, hoping to be somewhat competitive in the short-term, while beginning the quasi-rebuild in anticipation of Lillard eventually asking out. And to be perfectly honest, when I consider his other possible options, it’s hard for me to blame him too much if that was his gameplan. Just one possible theory, of course. More importantly, I would like to see what he can do when fully committed to a rebuild rather than walking such an awkward and impossible tightrope.
In any event, I do hope Lillard ends up on a contender and wins a ring. I just think it’s hypocritical when he constantly refers to him as this upstanding citizen when he’s trying to strongarm his way to one specific team with limited assets. He’s really no different than a lot of guys in the league, which is fine if he considered himself as such, yet he markets himself as this uniquely loyal and innocent guy. And I don’t think that type of guy would be trying to see his original team get a crappy return just so he can go to Miami.
I feel that if Cronin was doing as you suggest, it’s two-faced at best. Lying to your star and the fanbase about trying to build? That’s really weak. Unless it’s ownership’s directive to do so, that’s a really crappy way to run a team as a GM. There are no sports where failing to commit fully to a direction is a viable strategy, and certainly not in the NBA. The only reason the Blazers haven’t ended up like the 2000’s to early 2010’s Bucks is because of Dame. The Bucks got lucky that Giannis and Middleton panned out the way they did, because their “unexpected” #2 pick turned out to be Jabari Parker. If Scoot becomes a superstar, that’s good! But stumbling a**-backward into a rebuild is a poor way to run a team.
Dame probably realizes that and feels the same way, which is why he’s refraining from commenting.
Also, it’s not like there’s a massive market for Lillard. Only a small handful of teams are both in a position to trade for Dame (either in terms of competitiveness or not having an answer at PG already), and have the assets to do so. It’s basically Miami, Utah, NO, and Toronto.
A lot of truth about the mismanagement of the Blazers during Dame’s time in Portland – but one point of clarification. The Blazers didn’t let Aldridge walk. They offered more money and Dame even reached out at the 11th hour to him – with both later admitting they had an unnecessarily chilly relationship – but Aldridge wanted to go home to Texas. After that, yes, the Blazers made one horrible decision after another in trades, drafts and contracts.
That’s interesting, didn’t know that. But could they not have worked out a sign and trade? If that info is out there, the Blazers probably were aware that he preferred to return to Texas.
They went to the conference finals like three or four years ago, what are you blathering about? Teams like Portland are perennially at a disadvantage compared to mid to big market teams in free agency. They’re forced to dump ungodly sums of money on one or two stars they get in the draft because they know they stand zero chance of signing the big fishes of free agency.
Portland has made Lillard a rich man and it’s all good that he wants a trade to seek a title (which I legit don’t think he’ll ever get with the Heat, but don’t care either way). But they don’t owe him anything above the ridic money they’ve paid him. No one forced him to sign the extension. That was his choice and now he doesn’t get to try and dictate where he goes. That’s why he’s alienating himself with many of his current teams fans.
Maybe he winds up in Miami, maybe not.
Sounds like he wants a title and there are an awful lot of teams that are as close as MIA to getting one. So if that’s his priority, he should duct tape his agent’s and his own mouth, act like a professional, and let the process play itself out.
Portland is well within its rights to bide their time for the right deal, which in my opinion is at the trade deadline.
Lillard proves he was never loyal to anything but his workouts and a ring for his legacy of selfishness! It’s all about the $ $ $ and his false image of greatness! That’s shallow and hollow! Dropin dimes lame-time!
That franchise did no favors for Lillard over the years with the team they constructed.
Lillard played for Portland for 11 years. That’s rare in these days.
Harden/Lillard swap. Win/win/win/who cares what Harden thinks.
Whether he gets traded or not, dude will go to work. Respect (hope this doesn’t age poorly)
It’s hard to believe he hasn’t been fined already. The “request” was already made public (his agent doing it on his behalf counts).
“Loyal to the organization since he entered the league in 2012”? I understand that this has become Lillard’s middle name in the media. But what does it mean? His relationship with the team is contractural. Compliance with his contract (which includes the CBA) is not loyalty. Nor is signing every max extension made available to him over the years.
What else would you call signing every extension offered? He could’ve left or asked for a trade before this but he didn’t, he tried to make it work in Portland.
I would call it what it is: a business decision. A good (and obvious) one too. Few turn down a max extension offered up many years before it will take effect. Signing it gives the player more $$ per year, more years and the security of having that in place years before it otherwise could be. Even the most disloyal player would likely sign it. Particularly, if the intent is to ignore the one downside of signing it (giving up the flexibility to leave if things don’t go well). His basketball situation isn’t optimal, but it’s one of his own making.
Dame is essentially a hypocrite. Still like Dame.
Unfortunately Dame and his agent misplaced their hand.
Will see if portland trades Dame before season starts. Suspect they will just hold until the heat offer their very best and max offer. Perhaps another team will swoop in and get a deal done.
Lots can happen but Dame really steeped in some poo
The league should issue fines and suspend the agent. Really bad stuff that was happening
Dame can do what he wants. He’s never been anything but a professional. He’s made it clear to Blazers.
Still I don’t blame Blazers one bit for taking Scoot. He could be the best player in this draft ten yrs from now. Plus just think if. Blazers sign Wood. Get more depth like McGee and Griffin. They’re not that far off. Especially if Scoot is ROY. Not a bad team
Often I sit, and yearn.
Lillard should be traded to the Timberwolves for Anthony edwards straight up. Minnesota might be dumb enough to do that, but I doubt that’d be viewed as enough for Lillard going to Portland.
It literally wouldn’t be enough, Lillard makes $35 million more per season.
They can add other players to match salaries then, but would either team do that trade? Lillard for edwards+ salary filler
If they added other players then it wouldn’t be Edwards for Lillard “straight up”
Ok I know the math now. I didn’t know edwards was on his rookie deal still and not his extension. Other players would be needed as salary filler but the main pieces would be just Lillard for edwards.
You copied my trade ideas. Stop stealing people’s ideas and taking credit for it
Where did you post it? If it isn’t posted in an article I comment on then I didn’t steal it.
In the original Lillard trade request a couple months back. I am sure you didn’t see it. It was basically Conley and Edwards for Lillard and Keon Johnson with a pick but everyone laughed at me. I think it’s a good idea and. Minnesota should just go for it again. Best return for Portland or just make the Miami trade
This was my idea. Look back at the chats
Trade these 2 bums to china. I’m tired of seeing their names in my social media feeds. They have a chance to win rings there
At this point these spoilt millionaires need to stop and look at their decisions…
Lillard took the contract…
Now he is trying to break the contract but keep the money…
The idea of getting the bag now and asking for a trade later needs to be punished… Greed shouldn’t be rewarded…
Although I doubt Lillard would win a ring in Miami, the moment that a destination is made known publicly that team should be unable to trade for them…
They drafted his replacement. If they traded for a star or drafted Brandon Miller, then him wanting out wouldn’t be warranted.
This is Packers drafting Jordan Love instead of a WR type of stuff.
Sounds like winning a title wasn’t always number one on his list