LAS VEGAS — The Portland Trail Blazers plan to proceed deliberately as they explore potential moves involving Damian Lillard after the seven-time all-star guard requested to be traded July 1.
Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin, who met with Lillard and his agent in the days before NBA free agency opened June 30 and then again July 1, said Monday that his organization wasn’t necessarily seeking a speedy resolution to the ongoing saga with its franchise player.
Cronin said he hadn’t spoken with Lillard since the trade request was made, but he wasn’t surprised by the development because the sides had shared clear communication in the past.
“We’re going to be patient and do what’s best for our team,” Cronin said. “We’re going to see how this lands. If it takes months, it takes months.”
Player trade requests have become increasingly common in recent years, with Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons among the stars who have attempted to force their way to different teams since 2019. Teams, in turn, have pursued various strategies to resolve the standoffs.
Davis issued a trade request in January 2019, but the New Orleans Pelicans waited until that June to send him to the Los Angeles Lakers. When Simmons refused to report to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021, General Manager Daryl Morey waited until February 2022 to send him to the Brooklyn Nets for Harden. And the Nets, in turn, waited until February to honor Durant’s trade request to the Phoenix Suns, which he issued last summer.
“I’ve learned, more than anything, that patience is critical,” Cronin said. “Don’t be reactive. Don’t jump at things just to seemingly solve the problem. The teams [dealing with trade requests] that have ended up in the most positive situation post-trade have been really diligent in taking their time. They’re not impulsive, and they kept their urgency under control. I think that’s how my approach has been and will be with this.”
Lillard, who turns 33 on Saturday, signed a contract extension last summer that keeps him under contract through the 2026-27 season. At that time, Cronin, who was named Portland’s full-time general manager in May 2022, said he was focused on building a winning team around Lillard.
But those plans didn’t materialize as the Blazers went 33-49 last season. Portland shut down several key players for the stretch run and landed the No. 3 pick in the draft, which became Scoot Henderson, a 19-year-old point guard. Lillard said in April that he wasn’t interested in a youth movement, putting Portland’s new roster at odds with its star’s goals.
“It’s been a whirlwind for the last six weeks,” Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups said. “[Lillard] is in a spot where he has to make decisions based on what he needs. … You can’t control fate. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Cronin said the Blazers had weighed whether to trade the No. 7 pick in the 2022 draft, which they used to select Shaedon Sharpe, and this year’s No. 3 pick but concluded the picks were more valuable than the packages offered.
While the Blazers re-signed veteran forwards Jerami Grant and Matisse Thybulle in free agency, they made no other major additions of consequence as Lillard’s trade request loomed. Cronin said he had pursued several impact players over the past two seasons, but the efforts hadn’t panned out.
“I wasn’t able to get done what we had hoped to get done,” Cronin said. “The effort being there is one thing, but actually following through and getting the results is another. To that extent, I do feel like I failed Dame. Our goal was always to build around him and to be a high-level [team] as quickly as possible.”
Portland’s front office previously traded CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans and Josh Hart to the New York Knicks in deals it felt were beneficial for both parties. Lillard’s expressed desire to play for the Heat could complicate the possibility of a similar trade.
“As a team, you always hope that you’ll have more options,” Cronin said. “To have limited options like that prevents you from seeking out the best return. That’s something we’re going to have to work through.”
That said, Cronin made it clear he was open to a variety of return packages that could be centered around a high-level player, a combination of a rising player and draft picks, or a deeper package of picks.
If a deal doesn’t materialize before training camp opens in October, Cronin said Portland was “very open-minded” to welcoming Lillard back into the fold.
“The goal is always to have Dame as a Trail Blazer,” he said. “It always was and always will be. We wanted him to retire as a Trail Blazer.”