Damian Lillard trade request is ‘unsettling’ for Blazers, but Chauncey Billups says he’ll always support him

The Portland Trail Blazers are in limbo. Franchise participant Damian Lillard needs to be traded to the Miami Heat in particular, and, as basic supervisor Joe Cronin said at a press conference in July, incessantly greater than one vacation spot is required for a staff to get a good go back for a famous person. There is no make it possible for this case will likely be resolved sooner than media day, which is just a week and a part away.

If not anything adjustments quickly, then Portland trainer Chauncey Billups’ activity right through coaching camp, which starts on Oct. 3, will likely be tough. With the Lillard scenario placing over the staff, different Blazers know that they might be integrated in a blockbuster trade or see their roles trade later on. They additionally know they will have to reply to questions on all this, preferably with out feeding into what generally is a circus-like surroundings. Billups, a former Finals MVP, and five-time All-Star who performed 17 years within the NBA, said in an interview with NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner that none of this is simple:

Your staff is ready for a mighty giant shoe to drop, with Damian Lillard’s standing nonetheless unresolved. That cannot be ideally suited. How does it now not change into a destructive, a distraction?

Yeah, yeah. Obviously it is unsettling, it is tricky. But for me, all I will do, I’m accountable for giving my very best to who we’ve got. I do not understand how it will play out. There’s not anything I will do to keep an eye on it. But I know who we’ve got on our staff at this time and who I’ve been operating with this summer time. Who I’m fascinated by. All I will actually do is pour myself into our guys. And see what occurs on every occasion that occurs. I’m fascinated by Shaedon’s growth. And training Scoot [Henderson] and Ant [Anfernee Simons].

Figuring out what occurs with Dame? Everybody is aware of how I think about Dame and my alternative to train him. We’ll simply see. I do not know what will occur, but I’ll be in a position to do the most efficient I will.

Billups has had a courting with Lillard dating back to when the previous was once close to the tip of his profession and the latter was once simply getting began. The trainer informed NBA.com that “100% of our fan base will be Dame fans” without reference to what occurs, and, given a possibility to expound at the destructive impact Lillard’s unresolved trade request will have at the staff, Billups as an alternative praised Lillard’s professionalism and stated that the drama should be weighing on Lillard:

Any sense that Lillard lobbying publicly for a trade and the place he prefers to head may just drain the goodwill he is constructed up there?

Dame has been implausible. To the lovers of Portland, to our group. He hasn’t been destructive in any respect to any one in our group. Dame has been a stand-up man. A qualified the entire method via. It’s the trade handy. I don’t believe there may be power on both sides.

As this drags on, although, would it not be onerous for him or the instances to now not harm your staff’s scenario?

I’m now not certain. Dame is one of the solid human beings I’ve ever been round. He’s now not about any form of drama. So this complete procedure most likely weighs very heavy on him. It’s simply now not who he is.

But he is at a crossroads in his profession, and he is doing what he feels is very best for him and his circle of relatives. I’m always going to be supportive of that.

In many ways, the Lillard tale is difficult. Lillard virtually requested out in 2021, then signed an extension in 2022 and time and again expressed his loyalty to the town and his need to spend his whole profession with the Blazers, simplest to request a trade to Miami the next summer time, mere months after he and Cronin had stated they had been at the similar web page in regards to the course of the staff. (They were not mendacity, but, when Cronin’s entrance place of business could not pull off the type of win-now strikes that Lillard anticipated early this offseason, they had been now not at the similar web page.)

In different ways, although, it is easy: Lillard has spent his whole 11-year profession in Portland and is usually liked via his teammates and individuals of the group for each his play and his management. Even although he is asking to be traded to 1 explicit position, whilst signed to a freelance that can pay him roughly $63 million within the 2026-27 season, no person within the group is about to badmouth him. This is Damian Lillard we are speaking about.

Everybody concerned would have most well-liked a blank, fast, rumor-free breakup (or a endured partnership), but that was once always going to be tricky in those instances. The truth is that Lillard knew the Blazers were not a championship contender when he signed his extension, and they have got had little leverage in trade talks since then — all the league knew they had been beneath power to support the roster sooner than Lillard made his request, and all the league is aware of now that Lillard simplest needs to visit one position. Billups is without a doubt proper that the saga is weighing on Lillard, and Cronin was once without a doubt trustworthy when he said a couple of months ago that he felt like he’d failed Lillard. All of this is awkward, but if Portland’s simplest selection is to make a foul trade, then it should undergo the awkwardness.

Time is operating out, but it is nonetheless theoretically conceivable for the Blazers to show the web page at the Lillard generation sooner than media day and coaching camp. Last week, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that they have got been involved with extra groups in September, and, on Wednesday, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports reported that the Chicago Bulls are looking to get within the combine. Maybe Portland can get a staff just like the Bulls to place in combination a viable be offering, after which perhaps Miami will likely be prepared to provide completely the whole thing it could actually for Lillard, after which perhaps this complete factor will also be put to relaxation and Billups can spend his time understanding how Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe will have compatibility with whoever arrives within the Lillard trade as an alternative of fascinated about how one can navigate a scenario no person needs to be caught in. 

Maybe.