“Willing to Take On $60,000,000”: After Agreeing Insultingly Low Contract With Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard Trade Saga Has a New Entrant

Damian Lillard is done staying loyal to the Portland Trail Blazers. He wanted to be a Blazers player for life, but losses have been piling up at a high rate. His announcement has intrigued many franchises. However, the Guard has been specific about his demands. If they do not trade him to the Miami Heat, he won’t even show up for work. 

Such a scenario means that the Trail Blazers will have to craft a contract pertaining to the Guard. Will this process take a long time?

Damian Lillard has thrown a challenge to the Trail Blazers

Trail Blazers GM Joe Cronin addressed the trade issue during a presser after the team’s Summer League. He stated that they’re going to be “patient with it” and “if it takes months, it takes months”. Since the demand for the Guard is down to a team, Portland is having a deep look into what they can get. The NBA Draft is gone so the incentive for picks in the short-run is absent. The trade deadline is far away and the NBA will go on the snooze mode till September, when the training camp will begin. 

NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski also addressed the Lillard situation. He sat down with SportsCenter’s Kevin Neghandi to discuss the whole matter. He asked, “Where are we with these talks?”. To this, the veteran inside replied, “Very early, Kevin. These processes are often built around having deadlines in place. A trade deadline. The NBA draft. The start of free agency. There is not a deadline in place really until training camp opens in late September.”

He argues that since a lot of squads are already intact and free agency has closed as the league heads to the sleep mode; it is difficult to build a trade package.

Therefore, the process is going to be slow. He talks about the team that can play a role. He states, “Miami is the team certainly that is the most motivated to trade for Damian Lillard. That’s the most willing perhaps to take on the $60 million average in the last two years, at 35 and 36.”

Read more: Amid Damian Lillard’s Potential Exit, Trailblazers Eyeing to Replace Him With a 5x NBA All-Star

Why only Heat is emerging as the prime candidate?

He also brought another desperate suitor in LA Clippers. He goes on, “There are other teams like the Los Angeles Clippers who would love to be a part of this process but don’t necessarily have the assets to really get involved. Portland doesn’t love what Miami has but may be the best that they can get. Now it’s gonna be a process, maybe August or September, for Portland to extract as much as they can from Miami”.

He also says that Miami is also going to gauge what the Trail Blazers can give to them in addition to the elite guard. So the process is going to take a lot of time and the picture is going to be clear after a couple of months. The Clippers tried to maneuver some run, inking All-Around Guard Russell Westbrook to just $8 million for two years to keep the cap space open. The Guard was commanding a salary similar to Lillard at one point. 

How do you think the Trail Blazers will work this out? Do share in the comments below.

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