‘Dame Time’ in Milwaukee as Portland Trail Blazers trade Damian Lillard to Bucks

LOS ANGELES – Damian Lillard is headed to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he will team up with two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo after a blockbuster trade from the Portland Trail Blazers.

ESPN was among multiple media outlets reporting the trade on Wednesday, less than a month before the season’s Oct 24 start.

Lillard, a seven-time All-Star and the 2013 Rookie of the Year, confirmed the move on social media platform X.

“The casuals won’t be addressed but the trailblazers fans and city of Portland that I love truly will be... and they will be addressed truthfully. Stay tuned. Excited for my next chapter! @Bucks,” he wrote.

ESPN and The Athletic said that Lillard, who has spent all 11 of his NBA campaigns with the Trail Blazers but requested a trade in July, was headed to Milwaukee in a three-team trade deal that also included the Phoenix Suns.

Portland will receive point guard Jrue Holiday and draft picks from the Bucks. The Trail Blazers also land the Suns’ Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara, while Phoenix get Grayson Allen from Milwaukee and Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson from Portland.

Lillard averaged a career-high 32.2 points and 7.3 assists, and matched a career-best by shooting 46.3 per cent over 58 games last season. However, Portland finished 33-49 and missed the play-offs for the second season in a row.

His move to Milwaukee goes a long way to satisfying Antetokounmpo’s recent call to the Bucks to do everything they can to maintain their status as top Eastern Conference contenders.

The “Greek Freak” led the Bucks to the NBA title in 2021. They had the best record in the league last season at 58-24 but were stunned in the first round of the play-offs by eventual runners-up Miami Heat – the team who were reportedly Lillard’s preferred trade destination.

Antetokounmpo upped the pressure on the Milwaukee management in August when he indicated he would not sign a contract extension until he was convinced the team were committed to maintaining a championship-calibre team.

“I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing,” he told the New York Times.

The Trail Blazers will visit the Bucks on Nov 26 and the Bucks play in Portland on Jan 31.

In Milwaukee, Lillard will also reunite with Terry Stotts, the former Portland coach who joined the Bucks coaching staff in June. Stotts is an assistant to Adrian Griffin, who was appointed coach after Mike Budenholzer was sacked in the wake of the team’s abrupt play-off exit. AFP