The Blazers and Damian Lillard are acting in self-interest? What a scandal

Give me a break.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Two Young Peasant Women; Camille Pissarro; 1891-92

The temperature appears to be rising around the Damian Lillard vs. Portland Trail Blazers trade request. Adrian Wojnarowski published a big piece on ESPN+ on Thursday basically leading the team’s point of view. And by “team” I mean Joe Cronin, the Blazers’ GM. Cronin is probably one of the 10 least-known GMs in the NBA, but his name was in the headline of the story on ESPN.com on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Lillard is doing some cryptic tweets, and you have some folks turning this into an ETHICS OF SPORTS JOURNALISM discourse when they aren’t hollering about the ETHICS OF TRADE REQUESTS.

Here’s my take: it sounds like the Heat have the best offer on the table right now, but that their offer could be better and that might require other teams to increase their participation via interest in Tyler Herro.

Yes, Woj leads with Cronin’s positioning. But Woj also gets deep in the nitty gritty. You have to read the piece to see it. Once you do, it’s fairly clear what’s going on here.

As unappealing as the Heat's prospective package might be to the Blazers, can they top it in the marketplace? And if they can't, do they dare keep Lillard and wait out the process to see if offers fluctuate? Brooklyn didn't have the deal on Durant in July that it had at the trade deadline in February.

He says it right there: no one has actually offered a package better than the Heat. Later in the piece:

The Jazz made a call to check on Lillard, sources said, but that isn't a significant development. An offer would be a development.

The Jazz are one of those teams that can theoretically blow away Miami’s offer. But that’s theoretical until the Jazz decide they want to make a legitimate offer, risking that the Blazers actually accept it and send a disgruntled Lillard to SLC.

Later in the piece:

Between now and then, Lillard's reps warning teams of a public relations nightmare can give them pause. Some could steer clear of trade talks, while others could limit the assets they're willing to offer Portland.

Teams don’t actually want to trade lots of assets for a star player that has clearly indicated that he doesn’t want to be there. This is why teams accede to 100% of trade requests by star players! Lillard doesn’t want to be in Portland, so Portland has agreed to trade him. If Lillard is traded to a place he doesn’t to want to be, and tells them that, wouldn’t they then need to trade him? Who wants to trade real assets for someone else’s problem?

It’s miserable to have a high-profile employee who wants to be somewhere else, especially in the NBA where everyone has a social media voice, there is tons of attention on the situation and, eventually, coaches and players get microphones shoved in their faces three nights a week.

And so it’s no surprise that while the Lillard camp’s stated position is that he only wants to go to Miami, no other team is producing a competitive offer for him. This is very clear in Woj’s piece: the situation is such that Lillard’s one-team preference is making this a very tricky and perhaps patience-requiring process for the Blazers. I’ll go ahead and take this opportunity to pat myself on the back for calling this shot in Wednesday’s piece on Dame:

Lillard’s new team doesn’t need to convince him to sign an extension or re-up in free agency because he’s under contract for three more years. But they need to be convinced that he won’t request another trade in a few months or next summer. And if they cannot be convinced of that — if they can envision how this goes sideways — then they are less likely to put out their very best offer.

Meanwhile, Cronin is smart for staying patient. He has no need to get this done before September. The Blazers aren’t competing for anything next season either way. And Lillard is smart for insisting on Miami, if that’s what Lillard truly wants, because he’ll probably get it. Why should he voluntarily give up whatever leverage he has to land where he wants to land?

The sentiment that Lillard’s professed loyalty for Portland in the face of multiple losing seasons means that he shouldn’t have or express a preference for a destination makes no sense to me. You want him to lie about what he wants? Deny what he wants? For what? So that the Blazers, a team he will no longer be a part of when this is resolved, gets an extra future draft pick or a player better than Herro? Read that back to yourself and understand how ridiculous it sounds. Lillard signed a contract extension with the Blazers, one the Blazers gave willingly. It wasn’t a blood pact.

Look at how it played out, as expressed in this dramatized text chain.

[last summer]

Blazers: contract extension?

Lillard: sure

Blazers: bet

[last season]

Blazers: (lose 49 games, miss the play-in)

[this summer]

Lillard: what’s the plan?

Blazers: draft a 19-year-old, keep the other young players, re-sign jerami?

Lillard: trade me, please

Blazers: ok

Lillard: to miami

Blazers: uhh

There’s no rule or norm that players like Lillard shouldn’t have stated preferences for trade destinations. There’s no rule or norm that teams should accede to trade destination preferences when there isn’t a no-trade clause in play. Everyone yelling at the Blazers or Lillard are making up ethical guidelines that simply don’t exist in this business. Lillard has some power here, and the Blazers are well within their rights to wait it out to see if circumstances change. Everyone is acting in their self-interest, which is wholly appropriate for a billion-dollar business and a millionaire employee. There isn’t actually a problem here.

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Meanwhile …

It is the professional opinion of GMIB that Tyler Herro is a lot better than most fans seem to be implying. He’s not a great fit on a team with Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe, but he’s pretty darn good. The contract, of course, is perhaps a bit larger and that matters (albeit less for a rebuilding team).

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Wemby Time

Victor Wembanyama is expected to make his NBA Summer League debut (Spurs vs. Hornets) at 9 PM Eastern on ESPN. Scoot’s debut will also be on ESPN (Blazers vs. Rockets, 7 PM Eastern). Full schedule for Summer League here.

Meanwhile, in “Welcome to America” news, Britney Spears alleges a member of the Spurs security team backhanded her in the face after she touched Wembanyama’s shoulder in a crowded restaurant in Vegas to get his attention.

My big take on the situation: this sucks!

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Links

Great piece in The Athletic on the history and legacy of the New York Renaissance.

Dejounte Murray, who has been at the center of some trade rumors this summer, has agreed to a 4-year, $120 million extension with the Hawks. That seems like good value, but it’s unclear that Murray and Trae Young work together so this is worth monitoring!

The Blazers matched the offer on Matisse Thybulle.

The Suns traded a future first-round pick swap to dump some salary and pick up some seconds. The old me would have gone 800 words on this. The new me isn’t sure whether I care at all? We know the Suns under James Jones do not care about the draft at all.

Brian Windhorst on Team USA’s young FIBA World Cup roster. This is how it should be going forward: kids for the World Cup, add some vets for the Olympics.

And finally: this is a hella cool innovation led by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart to create a women’s 3x3 league that will operate in the WNBA offseason and give more players an opportunity to make money without going to Europe or Asia so they can stay around their families. Can’t wait to see how it goes.

That’s it for this week. Be excellent to each other.