By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Damian Lillard, after spending 11 years with the Portland Trail Blazers, has requested a trade, with the Miami Heat as his preferred destination. Blazers‘ general manager Joe Cronin addressed the trade saga, acknowledging that it may take some time to reach a resolution.
“We’re going to be patient. We’re going to do what’s best for our team. We’re going to see how this lands. And if it takes months, it takes months,” Cronin stated during a press conference where the team officially announced its new five-year, $160 million contract with Jerami Grant.
Portland is focused on maximizing the return in any potential trade.
“In any deal, the goal is to come out with the best outcome. It could involve acquiring a win-now player, a young player, and picks, or just picks. There are no set parameters. Dame is obviously a very important person and player to us. What the rest of his career looks like matters to us… At the same time, we have to do what is best for us.”
Cronin took responsibility for not creating a championship-worthy squad around Dame.
“Building around Dame has always been the goal, even through the draft. The difficulty we encountered was finding the right deals. We kept scouring the market in search of more win-now players, but unfortunately, those players weren’t available. I don’t feel that I did everything I could because I wasn’t able to accomplish what was necessary. In that sense, I do feel like I failed Dame. Our objective was to win as quickly as possible. If he didn’t feel that way, it was a failure on my part.”
Damian Lillard, a seven-time All-Star, boasts impressive career averages of 25.2 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.2 rebounds across 769 regular season games. In the postseason, spanning 61 matches, he has maintained a strong performance with 25.7 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.2 rebounds.