Trade back for Lillard?

[Sinobas]

An article came out recently where Giannis insinuated he's more comfortable playing without Lillard. And the Bucks are on a 5 game winning streak. I have to believe they have buyers remorse over Lillard, who is going to be making over 100 million dollars 54/58 over the next 2 years, and the Bucks haven't looked like contenders with him.

Would they be content to dump his salary? We have expirings. Including players at positions they'd need like Ayton and Simons. Maybe they'd take Grant if we sweetened the pot and gave them their swaps back.

Lillard would only be an extra financial burden for us for 1 extra year, and it won't really be a problem because the only guy due at that point would be Sharpe. And if Grant were included, it would be even less of a problem.

Now we finally have a legit 2nd star to play with him.

[oldfishermen]

The Buck's unprotected frp, and the 2 unprotected frp swaps look very good right now. And, will land at a very good time to fuel this core with quality low cost help.

[BlazersBroncos]

For cheap? Sure. Grant and Simons. Or Grant and Ayton.

Not giving picks or core youth.

[Norm2953]

It'd be fascinating to think about for with Miami's season, would Miami be where Dame would really want
to be? If asked, would Dame ask to be traded back to Portland?

[Sinobas]

It'd be fascinating to think about for with Miami's season, would Miami be where Dame would really want
to be? If asked, would Dame ask to be traded back to Portland?

I think Damian would love to come back to Portland. But I also could see him wanting to chase a ring. But he'd finally get to play with a legit 2nd star in Deni. And if we trade for Sabonis as well, we'd have a contending team.

[DusterBuster]

Read on Twitter

Dame is still pretty locked into the Blazers and Portland. Seems the Bucks situation is going south fast.

I would be open to them trading for Dame back under the right circumstances. That said, I also don’t think the Blazers brass would be open to that at all. One of the sports radio midday shows was talking about this a week or two ago, that being the Blazers FO (I.e. Burt Kolde) has in the past shown very little interest in revisiting Blazer players. There’s a reason Clyde still holds a grudge against the Blazers FO, there’s a reason Brandon Roy - until recently - was pretty much a no show around the franchise after he retired for a decade or more, there’s a reason they declined to bring Aldridge back to Portland multiple times after he left for SA and openly expressed he wanted to come back and regretted leaving…. The franchise has historically not embraced reunions of former players or coaches. It’s reportedly largely the doing of good ol’ Burt “I have this job because I was a roommate and smoked weed with Paul Allen in college” Kolde.

So even if Dame wanted to come back, I would kind of be shocked if the Blazers brass would even be interested.

[DusterBuster]

It'd be fascinating to think about for with Miami's season, would Miami be where Dame would really want
to be? If asked, would Dame ask to be traded back to Portland?

According to Danny Marang of 1080, who likes to tout he has a good enough relationship with Dame that they can text each other, he claims Dame does have some regret asking out of Portland. Seeing how Miami went sideways and is a massive dumpster fire, and the Bucks are just really old and don't have assets to make good moves, it's a rough spot. Marang said he talked to Dame last time he was in town and Dame flat out said the team the Blazers currently have is the exact team he wishes he had been surrounded by in his prime Portland years.

If you could get a deal like Dame and Kuzma (hot trash, I know) for Grant, Simons and Rob Williams, maybe just see what that could do?

Dame/Scoot
Sharpe/Thybulle
Camara/Kuzma
Deni/Kuzma
Ayton/Clingan

I actually think Dame and Ayton would be a really strong match together on the pick and roll, similar to OG Dame and LA for the pick and pop. Dame could take Scoot under his wing a bit if we're still holding out hope there. Maybe Portland goes with that Essengue kid out of France at their pick and he could be the backup to Sharpe to push Matisse to the backup 3. Kuz would be a lost-cause deal, but so is Jerami, so thats just kinda garbage-in garbage-out sorta swap there and I would hope taking Kuz off their hands would be considered a positive for them to maybe get out of having to give up any pick incentives?

Also, before anyone wants to get in the weeds on this, know I don't really care all that much and completely know this is unrealistic for a million and a half reasons (including points I made in my previous post), so I'm just brainstorming for the hell of it here.

[Norm2953]

It'd be interesting to see what would happen with the Blazers were finally sold and Bert Kolde was finally
out of the picture.

[JRoy]

Bringing back Lillard would slow progress and cost assets.

He wanted out. Bon voyage.

[Pattycakes]

Suggesting to give them their picks/swaps back is asinine. We have moved on

[DusterBuster]

Bringing back Lillard would slow progress and cost assets.

He wanted out. Bon voyage.

Blazers are kind of killing the whole “slow progress” thing.

[Norm2953]

It would take a sale of the Blazers before any such trade was possible.

Perhaps after his present contract was finally done, he could sign a one year deal to finish his career
in Portland

[m0ng0]

Vet min deal? Sure

[BlazersBroncos]

It would take a sale of the Blazers before any such trade was possible.

Perhaps after his present contract was finally done, he could sign a one year deal to finish his career
in Portland

Dame is owed 112.57M over the next 2 years.

Simons (27.67) + Grant (102.61) are owed 130.28M over the next 3 years.

The trade would be worth it just to get off Jerami's contract IMO.

MIL would demand assets to save face and that is where my interest ends. Then again, given the salary and age I dont think it would be insane if MIL didnt get many if any offers better than Simons and Grant.

End of the day I think Dame to Denver in a big shakeup is going to be the trade that happens.

[zzaj]

If I'm honest, I never really loved the way the team played with Lillard running the show. He's a half-court PG and is anathema for a team that wants to run. It's no wonder Giannis may be struggling with Lillard at PG.

Outside of a role as a shooter, I struggle to understand what his role would be on the team moving forward. He never seemed to embrace an off-ball role (even though he was good at it as a shooter), and with Deni here I would expect a lot more of that.

It's no surprise that Lillard would like to play on the current team. He'd have his boy Chauncey and the team is operating right now as a top 5-10 defense. Perfect for covering up how bad of a defender he is.

If the Blazers could somehow get off of Simons and Grant without giving up ANY assets, I would consider it...but something tells me this ship has flown with this front office. I can't think of an example of a player asking out and then coming back to a team when the player is still playing well.

And there is the blood clot issue--is there any real clarity on that long-term? What happens with the 1 position player, Scoot Henderson?

...just too many holes to have the idea make sense at the current time.

[Sinobas]

The Blazers problem under Lillard was poor defense, lack of size, and sorry CJ, lack of a 2nd star.

Now those problems are eliminated, and the Blazers problem is offense. We've had one of the worst TS% in the league for year and Dame is superbly efficient. And his defense wouldn't be a downgrade from Simons/Scoot.

If all it costs is contract want to be rid of anyway, and a couple of swaps, I say do it. The Blazers are already moving past that "get a high lotto pick" phase.

It would be a popular move with the fans, and Cronin would look like some kind of super genius.

[Walton1one]

At his salary and the cost it would take to acquire him? No thank you. He is owed $54\$58 over the next 2 years....yikes.

If Dame really wants to come back, he can when his contract expires after 2 more seasons, he will be 37 then. He could sign a cheap deal to come off the bench, would be a nice story...

[Butter]

Ironically, Dame is a perfect fit next to Avdija. I was actually thinking about the idea if sending the Bucks Scoot with Grant to get to a salary dump the other day

[m0ng0]

Ironically, Dame is a perfect fit next to Avdija. I was actually thinking about the idea if sending the Bucks Scoot with Grant to get to a salary dump the other day

Not an f*ING chance... none, zip, nil, nada

[DusterBuster]

Ironically, Dame is a perfect fit next to Avdija. I was actually thinking about the idea if sending the Bucks Scoot with Grant to get to a salary dump the other day

Not an f*ING chance... none, zip, nil, nada

You're a classic Dame hater, so I get this response, but seriously, if the Blazers are just going to keep not developing Scoot as they have for the past 2 years, what's the point of keeping this going with Scoot? Ignoring Dame, but if you aren't going to ever trust Scoot, then trade his ass for whatever you can still get and take the L on that pick.