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With back-to-back seasons of his prime wasted, Damian Lillard recently made it clear to his front office via interview that he has no intention of spending another year nursing a rebuilding roster.
While the Portland Trail Blazers recent seventh-overall pick in Shaedon Sharpe has shown signs of becoming a future superstar and primary scoring option, Dame has no interest in adding another project to the team in the tail-end of his prime.
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While he made it clear that he wasn’t trying to send a threat to General Manager Joe Cronin and the rest of the Blazers brass, Lillard did go on record to say that this upcoming offseason will be paramount for Portland:
"Not only will I have a decision to make, but I think the organization will too because at that point, it’s like, ‘Are you gonna go young or are we gonna get something done?"
Damian Lillard Stats:
| STATS | MPG | PPG | FG% | RPG | APG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Season | 36.3 | 32.2 | 46.3 | 4.8 | 7.3 |
After trying to compete for the playoffs and seeing their team sputter out midseason, the front office made clear moves to tank the remainder of the year in favor of boosting their lottery odds: going so far as to shut down the majority of the main roster in effort to accrue as many losses as possible.
The result? The Trail Blazers finished with a record of just 33-49 and wound up with the fifth-best lottery odds, with a 42 percent chance to jump into the top four and a 10 percent chance of landing the number one overall pick and the opportunity to acquire French phenom prospect, Victor Wembenyama.
Lillard’s comments made it clear that if Portland weren’t able to land Wembenyama, that he’d prefer for his organization to trade the pick in return for win-now talent, someone along the lines of the Toronto Raptors’ OG Anunoby or the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown.
Having a premium draft pick in one of the most top-heavy drafts in recent history gives the Blazers an outside shot of landing a "needle-mover" via trade, not to mention the New York Knicks non-lottery pick that they acquired as part of the Josh Hart-Cam Reddish trade they made before this season’s deadline.
Would it be technically wiser for the Trail Blazers to continue building towards a future post-Lillard? Of course, but is it worth pissing of the greatest talent they’ve had in franchise history and possible bringing on that era sooner rather than later? That remains to be seen.
Damian Lillard:
“I want to win right now. The Blazers tell me that they want to win right now. So for right now, I’m going in trusting that we’re all on the same page and that they’re going to do things to… put this roster in position to be a championship contending team.”… pic.twitter.com/x07EcuYwqY
— Above Th3 Rim (@AboveTh3Rim) April 15, 2023
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| Title: Damian Lillard pressures Portland Trail Blazers to make win-now move this offseason
| Author: Andy Quach
| Date: Apr 14, 2023
