Damian Lillard will finally demand a trade
All seems quiet on the Damian Lillard front, but there’s no question that his camp is preparing for two scenarios to possibly play out over the course of the next few weeks. On one hand, the Portland Trail Blazers could end up re-signing Jerami Grant and ink another big-name free agent – perhaps Draymond Green, who Lillard is a fan of. In that scenario, the Blazers would have done enough to “build a contender” in Lillard’s mind.
On the other hand, there remains the scenario in which the Blazers don’t make any big moves other than potentially re-signing Grant. In that case, Lillard would have to make a decision. Would he bite the bullet and return to the Blazers after taking an offseason of losses? Maybe I’m a bit naive, but I find that hard to believe. I think this could finally be the year where Lillard has had enough of Portland’s transactional failures.
I predict that the first few days of free agency will pass, perhaps even the first week, and then Lillard will see the rest of the NBA landscape and come to the realization that he isn’t contending in Portland.
He will then quietly ask for a trade and we’ll see a bidding war commence in the middle of free agency.