Damian Lillard has said repeatedly that he wants to contend for a championship. After 11 years in Portland, he has decided he needs to move elsewhere to make that happen.
Lillard asked the Trail Blazers for a trade, according to Blazers GM Joe Cronin, a move that would end his tenure with the only NBA team he’s ever known.
The Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets are high on the list of teams to land him, per multiple reports, while ESPN reports the LA Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers and San Antonio Spurs could also be in the mix. Per The Associated Press, Lillard’s preference is Miami — the reigning Eastern Conference champion — though that hardly guarantees the Trail Blazers will work to facilitate that specific move.
MIAMI AND BROOKLYN ARE PREFERRED DESTINATIONS, SOURCES SAY. HTTPS://T.CO/QHIA3ICDDB
— CHRIS HAYNES (@CHRISBHAYNES) JULY 1, 2023
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reports Lillard made his decision to ask for a trade last night.
He had met with Portland multiple times in recent weeks, asking for the roster to be upgraded to the point where he can compete for a championship. But those efforts, evidently, did not go to Lillard’s liking and led to him asking to be moved elsewhere.
Shortly after the NBA Draft, Blazers general manager Joe Cronin made it clear that the team wanted Lillard to stay with them and build a winning team around him.
“I would say that my goal is to keep both of them,” Cronin said then. “I would love to see Dame retire a Trail Blazer. I have zero desire to trade him. I really hope this works out here. And I think you can tell how excited I am about Scoot Henderson. He has a chance to be a special player in this league.”
However, that seems to have changed as trade chatter surrounding Lillard began to swirl in the offseason.
Lillard became the all-time leading scorer in Blazers history, passing Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler for the mark, in a Dec. 19 game in Oklahoma City. He is the only player in franchise history with seven All-NBA honors and one of three players to be named All-NBA first team while with the Trail Blazers (2017-18). He is a seven-time All-Star, a 2021 Olympic gold medalist, the 2012-13 Kia Rookie of the Year and a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
The Blazers missed the playoffs last season for the second straight year, finishing 33-49 for 13th in the Western Conference. That was despite the best efforts of Lillard, who averaged a career-high 32.2 points per game, third-best in the league. But in the end, Portland was plagued by inopportune injuries and inconsistent play.
For as great as his resume is, Lillard hasn’t enjoyed much in the way of postseason success. The Blazers have won only four playoff series in his 11 seasons, making the Western Conference Finals once during that span. He remains a dynamic player who has averaged at least 24 ppg in each of the last eight seasons and career average of 25.2 ppg ranks fourth among active players (trailing only Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid and LeBron James).
The 2022-23 Blazers season wasn’t without some high points — namely Lillard’s 71-point game. He set the franchise and career record in a late February game against the Houston Rockets. He also finished the game with 13 3-pointers. That was one shy of the NBA record set by Golden State’s Klay Thompson in 2018. Thompson’s Warriors teammate Stephen Curry (2016) and Chicago’s Zach LaVine (2019) also made 13 3s in a game.
Aside from being the Blazers’ top scorer, Lillard is also No. 1 in 3-pointers made and attempted by a large margin as well as Portland’s all-time leader in free throws made and free throw percentage. He ranks in the team’s top five in games played (769), assists (5,151) and field goals made (6,281) and attempted (14,299).
In an interview with Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com a day after the 2023 Draft, Cronin was asked if the franchise was in danger of losing Lillard and said the following:
“No, I don’t. I think Dame badly, badly wants to win and he’s probably being more vocal about that than ever but I don’t look at that as a negative. I look at that as he’s passionate about this, it matters deeply to him and it matters deeply to us. I think the reason you haven’t seen major issuers from us or the reason you still see Dame in our gym everyday or still meeting with [coach] Chauncey [Billups] and I constantly is because he wants us to work. He’s bought in, he wants it to work here and he’s challenging us to get it done, which I think is more than fair and he’s earned that.”
The only glaring omission on Lillard’s resume: a championship. And now he’ll seek a move to change that.
“I would say I want to be remembered for who I was, not as a player, but the principle that I stood on regardless of how successful I was, how major the failure was, the criticism, what people thought I should have did, what people think of me … no matter what was happening, I want to be remembered for who I was,” Lillard said in an interview with former teammate Evan Turner for the “Point Forward” podcast earlier this year. “I stood tall. I’ve stood tall in every situation and I want to be remembered for that.”
Portland was busy on the opening day of free agency, reportedly agreeing to a five-year, $160 million deal with Jerami Grant to keep him on the team. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Lillard’s reported trade request does not change the Blazers’ intention to re-sign Grant.
The Blazers have a young core to build around, beginning with rookie Scoot Henderson, whom the team drafted No. 3 overall in the 2023 Draft. The Blazers also have second-year swingman Shaedon Sharpe, the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft. He averaged 9.8 points but wowed fans with highlight-reel dunks, showing his potential at the end of the season when many of the starters were shut down.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
