The Raptors are now the frontrunners to land Damian Lillard, two high-ranking executives told ESPN’s Marc Spears.
Reports of genuine interest by Toronto’s front office to land the perennial All-Star guard have surfaced in recent days. It’s almost been a foregone conclusion since Lillard requested a trade at the beginning of July that he would inevitably end up with the Heat, his preferred destination.
However, there haven’t been any substantial trade conversations between the Trail Blazers and Heat, according to Spears. Meanwhile, the Raptors have had recent conversations with the Blazers regarding Lillard, though there’s nothing imminent in terms a potential blockbuster deal.
That could change soon. Those same unnamed executives believe Lillard will be dealt before media day next Monday.
Toronto’s package could include some combination of Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes and/or OG Anunoby. The Blazers are also highly interested in the Raptors’ first-round pick, Gradey Dick. The Heat initially offered a trade package that included Tyler Herro and two first-round draft picks, according to Spears’ sources.
While the Raptors front office has long admired Lillard, Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports isn’t quite sure if it will go all-in on a 33-year-old point guard with a four-year contract worth upwards of $216MM. Lewenberg doubts the Raptors would include Barnes in any deal and doesn’t see the 29-year-old Siakam as a fit for the Blazers.
He speculates a Lillard package from the Raptors could include Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr., Dick, salary filler and multiple first-round picks. In that case, Toronto might need to lift the protections on the 2024 pick it sent to San Antonio in the deadline-day trade for Jakob Poeltl last February.
Whether Lillard would be happy to go north of the border is a major question mark. He believes he’d have a great shot at a ring by joining forces with Heat stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. The lack of a state tax in Florida, greater marketing potential and the Heat’s renowned culture also intrigue him, according to Spears.
In 10 days I expect the Raptors to file a grievance against PDX for this (acting in 100% bad faith)
If I were Lilliard I would be absolutely furious to go to Toronto over Miami, Raptors players make minimum wage and Miami players don’t pay 1 dollar in taxes
You pay taxes where you play, not which team you play for.
@joparx you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. There have been multiple in depth dives on how ultra high earners can use various tax loopholes to make it almost irrelevant where they live. So the impact is much less than most economically uninformed sports writers make it out to be.
Also, while Florida has no INCOME taxes, they have taxes out the wazoo elsewhere (sales taxes, property taxes, ect.). Same with Texas. For example, living in the Dallas area, you pay more in total taxes than you would in LA.
There is no way a person in Dallas pays more taxes than somebody in California. Alot of ppl have moved their business in texas, Florida for a reason.
Go look it up if you don’t believe me. I was shocked too. But businesses aren’t individuals, for one thing, so they get extra tax breaks and accommodations that individual people don’t.
I have lived in Florida , texas & canada(equivalent to California with 50% tax). Trust me my checks in canada were getting eaten up by that tax. Not so much in Texas & Florida.
So did I. And when I went to the hospital in Canada I didn’t get a $25,000 bill after 3 days there.
Nor did I have to pay for my doctors appointments. Not for the kids’ schooling either.
As I mentioned earlier. Canada and the USA have a joint program whereby citizens of one country working temporarily in the other are not subject to the same tax burdens. Basically you get credit for any tax paid in one country while citizen of the other. So any Canadian tax paid by a US player gets credited to him in the USA. They get much of it back. Plus add a roughly 35% exchange rate in favor of the US dollar and that money goes just as far, if not farther, than in major US markets like Cali, NYC, Chi, etc.
I hope it happens. I loved when San Antonio sent kawhi to Canada after he wanted to go to California, and sending someone who wants to be in Florida to Canada would be even better.
What’s wrong with Canada?
South Beach vs Lake Ontario same same.
Well if you want to compare it to the most basic denominator then, sure. Don’t realize a lake was the deciding factor.
How about the weather and taxes?
Yes, who wouldn’t want to be in the oppressive heat and high crime city: Miami.
Oppressive heat during basketball season? It’s actually perfect down there at that time. It’s the brutal Summers that are tough. These guys go to Europe in the summer.
Weather granted. Taxes are a bit of a misnomer. American players have a Canadian program whereby they get back a large chunk of it at the end of the year. Also, not much different than playing in most other US states like California. Weather however, they can’t do much about lol.
It’s cold and players don’t want to be there. Nothing is wrong, but when players try to force trades to nice weather it’s nice when they get sent to Canada instead.
Guessing Milwaukee isn’t any warmer than Toronto. Actually seems like it’s colder there than Toronto. Also not as diverse or big a city. I suppose your weather predictions were wrong. Don’t become a weatherman please. Lol.
Sounds like a huge upgrade over the pathetically weak offer Miami is trying to get over with .
He can still goto Miami in 2 years once that contract is starting to look even worse.
Or he can just ask for a buyout
Buyouts don’t happen with multiple years on contracts. That is why MB81 said 2 years. Dame will have 1 year and a player option. He could be bought out by declining the player option.
He could have did that already but he wants to get paid AND dictate his team
The way basically every other star who got traded in the last ten years has done? Shocking.
Also, asking people to give up on literal hundreds of millions of dollars for a *buyout* is delusional at best. Doesn’t matter how rich an NBA player is, that’s a big chunk of change. It would be like you giving up ten percent or more (sometimes as much as 50%) of your life savings for literally no reason, because you don’t like the way your boss handles things at work. Let’s have a little perspective here.
Portland would want Barnes I guess since he is more positionless. They will still be light in the cakes though because they have to play Grant regardless. They will have some of the worst rebounding. I don’t think Trent will be involved, Portland had him last year.
Scoot, Simon, Sharpe, Grant and whoever they could trade for. Unless they flip Simon for someone.
They already said Barnes isn’t involved, it’ll probably be OG, Dick, salary filler and two FRPs and a swap. OG would probably be flipped elsewhere for 2 more FRPs or they look to sign him LT. Bottom line that offer is the equivalent of 5 FRPs and a swap.
If the Raptors are about to give up a bunch of assets and OG… They value OG internally at what 3 or 4 1sts? I don’t see them also giving up Dick, since they have no shooters.
The only way the Blazers accept this offer is if they are willing to commit a 5 year deal to OG. He’s going to get a big offer from someone, so they’ll likely have to overpay him, either max or close to it.
Is this a smokescreen to get Miami off their butts? 60-40. But, what’s they motive for Toronto to ramp up trade talks unless they’re legit going to make the move and confident they can land him?
It’s a move that makes a Siakam reup a lot more likely too. This trade likely takes the top 2 FAs off the board. (Kawhi, PG13, LeBron, and Maxey aren’t going anywhere). Could mean an actual pay day for Harden and more money for guys like DeRozan, Tobias, Quickely, Claxton, etc…
This coupled with a potential Giannis trade request if they don’t win. Could mean a very light trade deadline.
If they traded for Lillard they would have at least one shooter.
Portland can also flip OG for a couple FRPs. Surely TO knows what every team is willing to offer for him by now.
Raptors could easily land Dame without giving up the farm. Could also see the blazers moving og to jazz for more draft capital.
The blazers have real movable assets that the raptors have failed to trade last year.
Maybe getting Dame equals a title? Hmm
Raptors should go for it.
They should only go for it, if they think they can’t resign OG. Dame isn’t making this team a contender.
This is exactly what Miami needed to save face and not be seen as having bid against themselves. Now they can sweeten the pot enough for Portland’s liking, and Dame will get his way. Then, next year, Giannis will demand and receive a trade trade to wherever TF he wants to go because this is the new normal in the NBA.
The problem is Miami doesn’t have anything else to sweeten the pot with. Herro and some late 1st’s is all they can offer which pales in comparison to the kind of offer Toronto can put together.
Well it may force them to get assets for Herro vs just trading him to the Blazers.
As a Raptors fan I don’t really want this to happen, though I guess it might be more entertaining than just rolling out the same mediocre roster as last year.
The Raptors went on a 50 win pace after the Poetl trade. Lillard is definitely an upgrade over VanVleet, if they could somehow keep Anunoby, Siakim, Barnes and Poetl after making a trade for Lillard they would open up a 1-3 year window of being actual contenders for a championship. Of course this is a big if because they’d have to talk the Blazers into taking Gary Trent.
If the offer doesn’t include Barnes (unlikely), Siakam (unlikely) or OG (probably the most likely player to be involved), the offer will be as weak as what Miami puts on the table. And the Blazers were the team that traded away Trent in the first place.
OG > Herro and the Raptors can include Dick along with some 1st’s
Unless it’s a draft heavy offer with Dick, future FRPs and swaps, plus salary filler.
You raptors fans keep on talking about this on pace for 50 wins BS , but never mention that y’all lost in the play in games lol. If your team was that good you guys would have atleast been an 8th seed.
Would rather see Dame to Milwaukee with Jrue Holiday leaving to a third team
Dame and Giannas just seem like such a great pairing. A genuine 30+ points per game scorer at the point guard spot, shooting threes from half court and Giannas the unstoppable force, who teams throw 2 or 3 guys when he’s got the ball.
Would be like the modern day Shaq and Kobe and I mean that in the most respectful way possible. In todays NBA you don’t have centres that just score 25 points in the paint and overpower guys and the closest thing to that would be Ginnas, although not an oversized centre. And with Kobe, he’s just the assassin who could score how ever he wanted inside or out and with that killer mentality. Dame has that same killer mindset, definitely not as athletic but also not as selfish, suits the modern game being more of a 3 point threat than inside the arc presence like Kobe.
Milwaukee would be set to win title after title. You’ve got Kris Middleton as your third piece, BLopez Jae Crowder Bobby Portis etc you’d still have enough talent around these guys.
As for making the deal and looking for that third team…
Maybe New York, Jrue to help lead Brunson and Randle with them giving up RJ Barrett and Evan Fouriner plus a couple picks…
Jrue to Pheonix to add some defence, DeAndre to Portland with additional picks ofcourse …
Jrue to Minny to help young ANT, KAT for Portland with picks….
Even funkier, Jrue back to Philly and paired with Maxey. Harden to a fourth team and even more for Portland lol
Interesting thoughts, Giannis + Dame would be tough to take; also some reasonable ways to make it work
Imo the Raptors should simply acquire everyone
Team effort between Portland and Toronto, so that Miami sweetens the deal. Herro flipped to Toronto, Dame + some bad Toronto contracts to Miami and OG and draft capital to Portland.
Torontos bad contracts are all expiring though and less than $10M which are valuable in trade negotiations. OG is > Hero, so Toronto probably needs more than 2nd RPs.
OG , Dick, and a couple of draft picks should work. Portland does not want Siakam. no one else does either but he should be better with Lilliard at point guard.
The Hawks and several others have been in talks for Siakam, they just haven’t found much traction.
Spurs will have something to say about that small “lifting the protections” detail… Toronto will have to pay up for that.
Adding Dame in the fold means that 2024 TOR FRP the Spurs currently own will become less valuable even if became fully unprotected.