Ever since he made it to the NBA, Damian Lillard has vowed to stay faithful to the Portland Trail Blazers. He’s said that he’d rather lead a team to a ring than ‘running from the grind’ and jumping boats.
Nonetheless, given the way the Blazers have failed to put him in a position to succeed and the backlash he’s faced over Chauncey Billups’ signing, a lot of people believe that he could pull off a James Harden kind of move and force his way out of the team:
“Portland has the leverage contractually, for sure, but Dame could pull a [James] Harden and make it messy to gain leverage,” the unnamed NBA agent said, as quoted by Eric Pinus of Bleacher Report. “He’s a star [and stars have a lot of power in the NBA],” a former Western Conference executive said. “I think [a trade] will be agreed to mutually, but Portland will direct it.”
That’s not the first time we hear something like that over the past couple of days, as Farbod Esnaashari of Sports Illustrated also reported that Lillard has been in touch with multiple stars:
“Sources tell myself &
@AdamNBorai: There is a growing rift between Portland Trail Blazers ownership, Damian Lillard, & the front office. Dame has been in touch with players on other teams this off-season & monitoring Portland’s future before committing to anything. More to come,” Esnaashari tweeted.
Sources tell myself & @AdamNBorai: There is a growing rift between Portland Trail Blazers ownership, Damian Lillard, & the front office. Dame has been in touch with players on other teams this off-season & monitoring Portland's future before committing to anything. More to come.
— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) June 27, 2021
Lillard still has another four years left in his contract so any trade offer for him would have to be massive. Perhaps even historically large.
Adding Damian Lillard to any contending team would drastically improve their chances. He’s not injury-prone, he’s one of the greatest performers in the clutch, and he’s just an unstoppable scorer at every level. So this is definitely a story to follow closely.
