The NBA world was rocked on Friday when Henry Abbot of TrueHoop reported that Damian Lillard was planning on requesting a trade soon. The Los Angeles Lakers are a team that’s been keeping an eye on the star guard for years but he hasn’t wanted to leave Portland. There’s no doubt that Friday’s report piqued the team’s interest and their fans.
One fan who took notice of the rumors was Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr. He’d like to see Lillard in Los Angeles.
Carr is a noted Lakers fan and as luck would have it, Lillard is a massive Raiders fan. The two have gone back and forth on Twitter in the past. It’s a longshot that the Lakers will have any shot at Lillard. The best chance they have is if the All-Star specifically asked to get sent to Los Angeles. Having a player like Carr in their corner could help with recruiting efforts without the risk of tampering.
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Lillard Refutes Rumors
Abbot is a veteran reporter and a reliable source so he wouldn’t report such a major news story on a whim. However, Lillard isn’t showing his hand at all. In fact, he denied that the report was true.
“Right now I’m not sure what I’m going to do. What I can say is my intentions and my heart has always been set on being in a Trail Blazers uniform for my entire career,” Lillard said after Team USA practice Friday, via ESPN. “But I think over time, you want to win it all. And I want to win it all in a Trail Blazers uniform. But we all have to be making strides toward that.”
While he’s clearly stating that he hasn’t planned to request a trade quite yet, he also doesn’t sound very committed to the team right now. The Trail Blazers likely still have a shot to keep Lillard but they need to play this offseason carefully.
Lillard Needs to See More From Trail Blazers
Lillard has done a lot to make the Trail Blazers relevant. He consistently puts up epic performances when the team needs him to. Unfortunately, he’s had to do a lot of the heavy lifting on his own. He’s become very blunt regarding the fact that he needs to see improvements from the team.
“The best way to put it is to be more urgent about what our next step is and how we move forward,” Lillard said. “We’re not a bad team; we’re a winning team. We’ve got a great environment, we’ve got a great city, we’ve got great fans, there’s a lot of positives.
“I just think we’ve reached that point where it’s like, OK, it’s not enough. Do we actually want to win it all? Is that what we’re shooting for? We’ve got to do things to show that. We’ve got to put action behind that. That desire to win at that level – that’s been my only thing this entire time.”
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