Dame over

Damian Lillard ends one melodrama and starts another.

Good morning. It’s Sunday! Let’s basketball.

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The Sower With Setting Sun; Vincent van Gogh; 1888

On Saturday, Damian Lillard asked the Portland Trail Blazers to trade him. Specifically, according to multiple reports, Lillard asked the Blazers to trade him to the Miami Heat. So he wasn’t just actually listening to Will Smith solo work!

Apparently, the Blazers have agreed to trade Lillard but won’t guarantee him his preferred landing spot.

From ESPN:

The Miami Heat, LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers are three teams that will have interest in exploring trades for Lillard, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne.

Lillard's preference is to be traded to the Heat, a source told Andscape's Marc J. Spears. Lillard also has deep respect for the San Antonio Spurs organization, sources told Shelburne.

Front offices talking to Portland on Saturday were left with the impression that Cronin is pursuing a star-level return package for Lillard, and that the GM plans to look well beyond the Heat to find one, sources told Wojnarowski.

The biggest question around all of this is why Dame waited until Day 2 of NBA free agency — after the Blazers had already handed 29-year-old forward Jerami Grant a $160 million contract — to break the news. Some wisdom from The Athletic’s Sam Amick:

Truth be told, Lillard was ready to ask for a trade Monday. After all those good times in Portland, where the kid from Oakland, Calif., spent the better part of 11 seasons thriving and thrilling in the Pacific Northwest, he was finally ready to say goodbye to the Trail Blazers and hello to a late-career chapter with a true title contender. There was nothing acrimonious or unsavory about their looming split, but [Blazers GM Joe] Cronin had made it clear at every turn that their priorities were no longer aligned. Not with his words, mind you, but with his deeds.

The Blazers had held onto the No. 3 pick in the draft that had come four days before, taking Lillard’s eventual replacement in Scoot Henderson and ignoring the message he had sent about his desire to use the asset as a way to land another high-level veteran player. According to a source who was involved in the situation, Lillard was still hopeful that the Blazers would find the kind of deal that would make him want to stay. But nothing of substance would emerge.

Retaining Grant never looked like enough — the Blazers finished seven games out of the play-in, as far away from contention as you can get without tanking. Per Amick’s reporting, it appears Lillard was willing to see if Cronin could work some real magic in the early hours of free agency. But if Cronin never intended to mortgage any amount of future for Lillard’s present, why did he sign Grant to that massive deal? In the new NBA salary cap environment, is that a movable deal? Or does Cronin believe that whatever he gets for Lillard, plus Grant, plus Scoot, plus Shaedon Sharpe, plus what else the Blazers cobble together will be a decent team soon?

Anyways, we’re about to see how militant Lillard will be about his preferences.