Damian Lillard Business Rumors: Two Surprising Lottery Teams Interested In Blazers Star, Compared

Damian Lillard is the kind of superstar who very rarely arrives in the commercial market. In addition to his remarkable record as a player, Lillard stands out with the three guaranteed years remaining on his contract. Acquiring Lillard would not have to be a rental. A new team would have time to put the right roster around them, and according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, that idea has encouraged some very surprising teams to make a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers.

O’Connor lists five teams as being the most aggressive in pursuit of Lillard. The New York Knicks, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers are all among the usual suspects, playoff teams who could send big commercial packages to Portland in hopes Lillard can get them into the championship. The other two teams on the O’Connor rosters, however, are in a very different position. In addition to the Knicks, 76ers and Heat, he also writes that the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets have aggressively pursued Lillard.

On paper, neither team seems to make sense. The Rockets not only had the worst NBA record last season, but got there after James Harden requested a trade from Houston. After factoring in all the other assets it would take to acquire Lillard (a package that would almost certainly include overall pick # 2), it seems unlikely that the Rockets will be able to immediately put a list of competing calibers around. from him. If they couldn’t, they would run the risk of Lillard causing as much disruption as Harden did last season.

The Kings are better than the Rockets at this point. They have the No.9 pick in the NBA Draft, but they haven’t made the playoffs in 15 years. Their top player, De’Aaron Fox, is Lillard’s point guard. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t fit together, but if the Kings were to give up everything else to get Lillard, they would likely be in the same position as Portland for several years. They would have a large backcourt and not enough elsewhere to win at the highest level. They could include Fox in the offer in the hopes of keeping everyone in the logic that the upgrade to Lillard could finally bring them back into the playoffs, but it’s hard to imagine Lillard being happy with the arrangement. after so many years out of the championship image in Portland. Lillard has made it clear that his priority at this point in his career is to win the championship.

“Right now I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” said Lillard after recent Team USA practice. “My intention, my heart has always been to wear a Trail Blazers uniform throughout my career. But I think over time you want to win it all. I want to win everything in a Trail Blazers uniform. We all do. progress in this direction. “

O’Connor reiterates that executives he’s spoken to don’t expect a trade with Lillard this offseason, but the fact that Houston and Sacramento have actively pursued him speaks volumes about the rarity of his situation. Superstars usually use their impending free agency as leverage. Anthony Davis could force the Pelicans to trade him to the Lakers because no suitor would risk paying what it would take to acquire him to lose him for nothing in free will. But this risk does not exist for Lillard. With three years left on their contract, virtually any team could pick it up, and if that didn’t work, return it a year or two later.

This apparently convinced teams like the Rockets and Kings to try to get into the mix. Even though their rosters seemingly make no sense to Lillard at the moment, the opportunities to acquire All-NBA players with so much lead are so rare and valuable that they might be willing to ignore their own shortcomings just to have a chance to get this first. star in the building. It opens doors. When you have one star, that star can recruit the second. As Chris Paul has proven in Phoenix and Oklahoma City, he can also value the players around him. Lillard, revered as one of the best teammates in the NBA, could have a similar impact on a younger team.

But his preference if he is traded would obviously be to join a ready-made competitor. They will not fail, eager to take care of him. If the wrong team tries to get Lillard, they risk adding a player who wouldn’t want to be there. Few teams have had the courage to try such a move before, but for a player like Lillard it could be worth the risk.