One NBA insider believes Damian Lillard will remain with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Brian Windhorst said on ESPN’s “Get Up” he’s hearing the Blazers and Lillard are all in together.
“The indications I have out of Portland are that they are still all in together,” Windhorst said. “The moves that the Blazers are looking to make involve building around Dame Lillard. He obviously did put them on the edge a little bit with what he said at the conclusion of the season, which is that he didn’t look for any more developmental players. He wanted players that could help him right now, and that really got fascinating when they jumped up in the lottery to the No. 3 pick, which is why a lot of people think the No. 3 pick could be in play by next Thursday. But I have no indications that the Blazers are doing anything with Dame, or that Dame is pushing in that direction.
“The conversations that they’ve had are to retain Jerami Grant, probably on a huge contract, which would be to support Dame Lillard, and to go out into the marketplace to look to add players that fit around him. Guards that are bigger than him that can help him defensively, and big men who can help them defensively, because that’s been an issue for them over the last few seasons.”
The Blazers have the third overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. They are expected to try to trade that pick and players on the roster to acquire more talent around Lillard, who averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 2022-23.
A future Hall of Famer, Lillard signed a two-year, $121.8 million maximum veteran extension in July 2022. Portland general manager Joe Cronin told Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports that he wants to maximize Lillard’s timeline.
“We’re a team that’s trying to win and trying to maximize Damian’s timeline. This was an important night for us,” Cronin told Yahoo Sports. “Front offices around the league think highly of this draft, so you would think that a lot of teams that were sitting (on stage) tonight will be getting a lot of calls from teams trying to move up and maneuver.”
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