Then & Now

It is time to run from the grind — or rather, it has been for the last three seasons.

Damian Lillard just wrapped up his eleventh season in the NBA, posting career-high averages in points per game at 32.2, field goal percentage at 46.3% and free throws per game at 8.8. Add on a 71-point outburst and a three-point contest trophy and Lillard has had a career year.

However, basketball in the city of Portland is on the downturn.

The Portland Trail Blazers, the team he has been with since day one, failed to make any headway in the wild Western Conference, effectively wasting a spectacular season with the 6-foot-2-inch guard out of Weber State. The Blazers went 33-49, good for 13th place in the conference.

With seven games remaining in the season, Portland shut Damian, or "Dame", down for good, citing “right calf tightness” as the reason for doing so. The Blazers were also hit with the injury bug this season. Three of their top scorers behind Lillard – Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic and Jerami Grant all missed significant time.

Portland did not even make it to the Play-In Tournament, and they missed the playoffs for the second season in a row.

All things considered, Lillard has never won it all, or even gotten the chance to really compete for a title. The Portland management has built “around” Lillard, meaning quite literally the team simply acquires players for the sake of adding players. The Blazers' higher- ups are willing to pay Dame the big bucks, but the rest of the money goes nowhere else in terms of building a competent roster.

There is some hope, one might say. Portland has some decent young talent in Simons and another guard, Shaedon Sharpe; but they need more than three good guards.

Now, more than ever, it is necessary Dame goes somewhere where he is actually appreciated and can contribute to a championship-winning team. However, there is a slight bump in that road.

He is on the Blazers’ books until 2027 when he will be owed a whopping $68 million. For anyone with an understanding of the current NBA market, acquiring him is virtually impossible.

There are a few teams that might try to get him: the Los Angeles Lakers, the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat, but the assets they would have to give may be too much for rings they may not get.

The Lakers are the most interesting option for Lillard to land, but it also has one of the worst rosters to try and acquire him. Los Angeles signed many of its players to cheap oneyear deals, and they have to match the $45 million Lillard will make next year.

It is safe to say this probably will not pan out unless the Lakers give away everything they have. If it works, they will have Lebron James, Anthony Davis and Lillard; an insane Big 3. That is about all they will have.

Lillard won championships in L.A., but at what cost? He has been a Portland mainstay for the last 11 years, but if winning is what he wants, he seriously needs to leave “Rip City.”