Portland Trail Blazers willing to wait ‘months’ for right Damian Lillard trade
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Las Vegas – Trading the franchise centrepiece was not an assignment Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin requested. But Cronin seems to understand that is his reality.
Speaking during National Basketball Association (NBA) Summer League in Las Vegas on Monday, he called for patience as Portland hit reset and await an offer the Trail Blazers consider a good one in exchange for All-Star Damian Lillard.
“We’re going to be patient. We’re going to do what’s best for our team. We’re going to see how this lands. And if it takes months, it takes months,” said Cronin, echoing statements he made after the 2023 NBA Draft, when Lillard formally requested a trade.
Cronin has not talked to Lillard since the meeting to discuss the guard’s future in June.
“In any deal, the goal is to come out with the best outcome. It could be more of a win-now player. It could be a young player and picks. It could be just picks. There are no set parameters,” Cronin said of what kind of return he wants in a trade.
Lillard and his agent informed the Blazers that there is only one acceptable outcome: Lillard playing for the Miami Heat. Cronin would not comment on trade talks with any team.
Cronin said a trade that works for everyone will require more than one preferred destination. He also acknowledged Lillard, nicknamed Dame, does not see Portland as a place where he can win now and, at 32, wants to find that opportunity. He said he gets that “Dame would look at (the Blazers) and see why this isn’t a win-now opportunity”.
According to reports, Lillard was frustrated that Portland did not add a player in free agency who can help the Blazers contend for a championship. Instead, the Blazers held on to the No. 3 pick and selected Scoot Henderson, who also plays as a point guard.
Cronin said he emphasised in conversations with Lillard that Henderson, 2022 first-round pick Shaedon Sharpe, 20, and 24-year-old shooting guard Anfernee Simons will be “win-now players very soon”.
Meanwhile, French teenage star Victor Wembanyama, the top pick in June’s NBA Draft,
The Spurs shutting down the 19-year-old centre was not a surprise, as Wembanyama said last week he did not expect to play more than twice in the Las Vegas gathering of young talent seeking NBA roster spots.
The San Antonio Express-News and ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported the Spurs have decided to stick with the plan and sit out the NBA’s most highly touted prospect since LeBron James in 2003.
The Spurs have Summer League contests on Tuesday against the Washington Wizards and on Friday against the Detroit Pistons.
Wembanyama enters his break after a busy 12 months that included a French league season, a whirlwind arrival in America, the NBA Draft, his first taste of life on the court in the NBA and even a controversy when a Wembanyama security guard was involved in an incident with Britney Spears.
After a lacklustre Summer League debut game a team-high 27 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Wembanyama said late on Sunday he was looking forward to a holiday and mapping out the best plan to prepare himself for the start of the NBA regular season in October.
REUTERS, AFP
