Truths about the Blazers' power to decide Damian Lillard's next home
Truths about the Blazers' power to decide Damian Lillard's next homeGetting under the surface of the debate on how Portland should approach Dame's specific requests.Good morning. Let’s basketball. The Harvest; Camille Pissarro; 1882 Since Damian Lillard’s Saturday morning trade request to the Miami Heat, there’s been some hubbub about what the Blazers owe Lillard in terms of his preferences and how it could impact the team’s future to ignore those wishes. I touched on this only briefly on Sunday morning:
Let’s ignore the ethics of all this and talk about this from a business and team-building perspective. The worst-case scenario when a player expresses a preferred destination and you trade him somewhere else? A believable threat that the player will not report or will sulk Harden-in-Houston style when he reports. Such a threat has not been made in this case, and it would simply not be believable if it were. This is Damian Lillard we’re talking about. So the worst-case scenario is just not in play. One thing some folks have trotted out is that the Blazers may, by trading Lillard to the team with the best offer instead of his preferred destination, risk alienating potential future stars who could come to Portland. This has received proper pushback from folks who remind us that the Blazers have never in their history signed a top-tier free agent from another team. All the best Blazers in history have been drafted or acquired via trade. There’s no risk if losing out on future free agent stars here because free agent stars have historically not considered Portland anyway. Another argument for giving Lillard what he wants: his agent will be less likely to work well with you if you don’t. Lillard is represented by Aaron Goodwin, who is widely respected but doesn’t have an extensive client of NBA superstars. Goodwin’s other big-name current clients include DeMar DeRozan, Matisse Thybulle and Gary Payton II. Thybulle’s restricted free agent status in Portland is a somewhat interesting wrinkle here, but it’s importance in the Blazers’ foundational future team-building pales in comparison to the Dame drama. In other words, there’s relatively little downside risk in alienating Goodwin here. So all of that adds up to the Blazers being in position to completely ignoring Lillard’s destination desires and simply trading him to wherever they can extract the most value, right? Not necessarily. Here are some truths pointing in the other direction. Homegrown Blazers are watching I’m not saying that a protracted drama with Lillard means that, say, Scoot won’t sign an early extension in three years. Not at all. I’m indicating that when it comes time to prioritize player options or, in the deep future, no-trade clauses, this whole thing could end up being a factor. In other words: if Scoot or even Sharpe think they are the next Dame Lillard, then how the Blazers break up with the actual Dame Lillard might be relevant. Dame’s future team wants a happy Dame Let’s say the Blazers work out a deal with the Jazz and send Dame to Utah. ... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Good Morning It's Basketball to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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Older messages
Dame over
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Damian Lillard ends one melodrama and starts another.
A stable, mostly surprise-free start to NBA free agency
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Either the leaks were all high quality, or the status quo reigns in the league.
Hard out
Friday, June 30, 2023
James Harden opts in to opt out. What now for the Big Fella and the Sixers?
NBA trades are not competitions
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Trades in the NBA don't have to result in winners and losers, because "winning" trades is not the point. Winning games, now or later, is the point.
Is that all Marcus Smart meant to the Celtics?
Thursday, June 22, 2023
Set aside sentimentality and gaze in wonder at how Boston decided what guard to move. And for what.
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