It Does Not Appear That Damian Lillard Will Be Demanding His Way To The Lakers

Andrew D. Bernstein. Getty Images.

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I'll be honest, I didn't know there were Lakers fans out there that still thought Dame to LA was something that could happen? I figured once they brought in Westbrook that dream died, but it's good to see come out and squash that on Twitter. That's the last thing I need to watch. In my humble opinion the Lakers should be more focused on actually following through with this roster move

But back to Dame. Everyone is wondering what the deal is going to be with his status on the Blazers. We went from having that "report" that he was days away from demanding a trade to…….nothing. Not a peep. The Blazers didn't exactly blow everyone's socks off with their free agent signings, and he seemed pretty deflated about that 

Yet here we are 6 days later and we still haven't heard much outside of Zach Lowe reporting the other day that he is not currently available for a trade and has not requested one yet. Doesn't mean he won't, and honestly when it comes to his potential destinations it's not about the Lakers.

If he's going to be traded, Lowe suggested there are two spots. Either to the Sixers or the Knicks. The problem there is Portland has to actually want any of the players those teams have to offer. As we've seen, teams aren't exactly lining up to give away their best players for Ben Simmons. The Knicks might have intriguing young players, but none you would want to really build your franchise around. I will say though, since that tweet a bunch of people have responded with the same thing only this time about the Sixers and as of the writing of this blog Dame hasn't responded. Could mean something, could mean nothing. 

What makes things even more confusing is what their new head coach Chauncey Billups just had to say about his preference in style

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He knows who his best player is right? Dame was 2nd in the NBA in 3PA at over 10 a game and 2nd in 3PM. It's not like they remade their roster, and the Blazers had the 2nd best offense in the NBA last season! Shooting threes isn't their issue. Their problem is on the defensive end of the floor. Why does it seem like nobody, from the front office to the head coach, has any fucking idea what is actually wrong with this team and how to improve it? Truly bizarre stuff.

It's hard to predict how this saga will shake out because it was pretty clear Dame was sending a warning shot to the franchise for them to get their shit together and they responded by bringing in Ben McLemore, Cody Zeller, Tony Snell, and then gave Normal Powell $18M a year. Then their coach comes out and says he doesn't want to do the one thing his roster is good at doing. That makes sense! At the same time we know Dame is extremely loyal, so who the hell knows. 

My guess if he's on their roster on Opening Night and if there is a trade it comes next summer, but it's really anyone's guess at this point until we learn for sure that he's demanded a trade.