Dame Time in Milwaukee!

 

        After a whole summer of waiting, anticipation and rumors it finally happened. The Portland Trail Blazers have traded their leading franchise player Damian Lillard. Lillard was drafted by the Blazers back in 2012 after playing four college seasons at Weber State. The city of Portland quickly fell in love with the guard who would later become a massive piece of the organization. Lillard quickly became well known for his clutch genes and any time he hit a clutch bucket he had a famous celebration where he would point at his wrist, like if there was a wrist watch, and referred to it as "Dame Time". 

        The Western Conference has always been known as the tougher conference with more competition. Also, the Blazers have always been a small market and constantly dealt with the challenges of signing big players or keeping them. Lillard and the Blazers were consistently in the mix of making the playoffs and competing for a championship but year after year the Blazers fell short and never got close to making the Finals. However, in 2019 the Portland Trail Blazers did make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in nine years. The Blazers faced a very dangerous Golden State Warriors team but did not have Kevin Durant for the entire series. The Blazers could not get passed the Warriors and lost the series in four games. The thing that stands out is the Blazers were up by double-digits in games two, three and four so they had opportunities to win games but could not hold on. 

        The Portland Trail Blazers never made it back to the Western Conference Finals. A couple seasons later there were signs that the Blazers were heading into a rebuild. On February 8th, 2022 the Blazers traded CJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr to the New Orleans Pelicans. McCollum and Lillard had been teammates for 8 seasons and for majority of it they played as the Blazers' starting back court. Earlier on February 4th, 2022 the Blazers traded Normal Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers. From there the Blazers' roster was only looking younger. These past couple seasons the Blazers have missed the playoffs and end up in the NBA lottery. 

        This past summer the Blazers missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season and finished with a 33-49 record [13th in the Western Conference] and ended up with the third overall pick in this years' NBA draft. They used that pick to take Guard Scott Henderson from the G League Ignite. Many anticipated that if the Blazers took Scott or did not trade that third overall pick, then Damian Lillard would request a trade. On July 1st, 2023 Damian Lillard requested a trade but he only had one team in mind, the Miami Heat. The Heat are coming off a second Finals appearance in four years and acquiring Damian Lillard could have potentially put the Heat over the hump. 

        Throughout the entire summer there was minimal serious conversations between the Heat and the Blazers so a deal never happened and were never remotely close. On September 27th, 2023 Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a blockbuster 3-team deal. The Bucks acquired Damian Lillard, the Blazers acquired Deandre Ayton (via. Suns), Toumani Camara (via. Suns), Jrue Holiday (via. Bucks), 2029 first-round pick (via. Buck) and two first-round pick swaps with the Bucks (2028 & 2030). The Phoenix Suns, the third team in this trade, acquired Grayson Allen (via. Bucks), Keon Johnson (via. Blazers), Nassir Little (via. Blazers) and Jusuf Nurkic (via. Blazers). While for the most part Damian Lillard only had Miami on his mind it was recently reported that his agent, Aaron Goodwin, met with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets and told them that Lillard is open to playing on either team. The Blazers had no plans on keeping Jrue Holiday and recently traded him to the Boston Celtics. It is the start of a new era in Rip City.