Damian Lillard 'has expressed interest' in playing with Ben Simmons, Jaylen Brown, Aaron Gordon?

The Portland Trail Blazers are in a rough spot right now.

Damian Lillard has been injured. The team’s offseason moves, as unimpressive as they appeared, have somehow produced even fewer results than expected. And the West seems to be passing the Blazers by.

Naturally, this has restarted trade rumors involving the organization.

Both in terms of moving Lillard and the pieces that could potentially be placed alongside him.

According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, there are three prominent players Lillard is interested in playing alongside.

“Swapping McCollum for Ben Simmons has been a popular idea among league figures,” he wrote. “Simmons was one of several defensively minded wing players who Lillard has expressed interest in playing with since the 2020 offseason, along with Jaylen Brown and Aaron Gordon, sources said. Olshey did have conversations with the Magic for Gordon, but a deal never came to fruition. Portland instead traded two first-round picks for Robert Covington ahead of the 2020-21 season.”

Lillard is in an interesting place right now. If the Blazers keep losing and he finally gets fed up, there are three teams waiting in the wings for him to demand a trade.

Meanwhile, Lillard still has one specific team he would love to end up with should things in Portland not work out.

Where will Lillard be playing come this time next year? And with whom? Time will tell.