An NBA executive says teams weren’t lining up for Damian Lillard before his agent requested only Miami.
An NBA executive says teams weren’t lining up for Damian Lillard before his agent requested only Miami
“There’s not that many teams that are going to give you a bunch of players and picks for a 33-year-old who can’t stay healthy and has a giant contract sitting there…it was… pic.twitter.com/l68stawiBJ
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 31, 2023
by BlazingSaint
15 Comments
Just goes to show that some NBA executives have their heads up their asses and don’t know what they’re talking about. Dame does not have problems staying healthy. He has had one major injury in his entire career, he underwent surgery to deal with it, and had his career best season last year following that surgery. Framing it like an ongoing issue is either dumb or willfully misleading. Makes me think it’s Miami feeding this bullshit to the media for leverage.
“Can’t stay healthy” no exec is saying this unless they want to drive the price of dame down.
And that executive? Pat Riley!
“Sean Deveney
Journalist and writer
Springfield, Massachusetts, United States”
Can’t trust any NBA news this time of year
Not surprised. He’s 33 and on a supermax. With the new incoming CBA that basically punishes teams for having too much salary, its no surprise that Dame didn’t have many suitors around the league. You also have to remember that most teams are already set at PG so the ONLY teams that would be interested are contenders with weak PGs. That makes the market even smaller.
A list of teams that would have interest would be the Lakers, Raptors, Heat, Nets, Celtics, Pelicans, and Timberwolves(won’t work since they traded all picks for Gobert and Blazers don’t want KAT). When you break down the potential trade package for the teams above it’s mostly just young role players and 2-3 picks that Portland would get back. Toronto probably has the best offer but it appears that they themselves are considering entering a rebuild instead of contending since they keep trying to trade away Siakam.
If the Blazers wanted a haul for Dame, then they should have traded him right after they traded CJ. That was the time to do it and maximize the return. They’ve just been soft tanking since then and now the brutal reality is that they WILL get a subpar package for Damian Lillard. It is what it is.
“Can’t stay healthy” is incredibly unfair. The guy spent 9 years barely missing games.
The rest, though, I get. 33, very expensive (and getting moreso), one dimensional small guard.
Oh, NBACentral. Yeah, I muted that account on Twitter. Consistently shitty.
I don’t think Dame falls off as quickly as people around the league seem to think he will. He keeps himself in great shape and has always been highly self-motivated. Heat fans will deny this, but Dame on the Heat immediately becomes their best player and would be a legit MVP candidate. It would not surprise me if he plays at an elite level for the entire four years of his contract.
Great insight, thanks NBA executive Pat Riley!
It doesn’t take many teams to be interested, just more than one, which I’m certain there are, or at least were before the threats.
I think it has to do with the teams that might need him arent set up to make a realistic trade, so they haven’t tried. If it were any other year though…
Portland doesnt even want him anymore
This executive was a big man, and he came up to the reporter with tears in his eyes and said “sir, reporter, sir, I just don’t think Dame is a fit for any other team besides Miami.”
Pat Riley probably provided the “NBA front-office rep’s” quote hahaha
Yeah, because he wasn’t available and everyone knew Portland wasn’t going to trade him unless he demanded it lol