(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
It looks like Damian Lillard’s days with the Portland Trail Blazers are just about over.
He recently asked to be traded, and he has identified the Miami Heat as the team he most wants to be sent to.
Many are supportive of Lillard’s desire to be traded, as they feel it would be beneficial to both sides, but analyst Sam Quinn feels Lillard should’ve simply left as a free agent in the past.
The NBA has a mechanism for players to pick their own teams. It’s called free agency.
If Damian Lillard wanted to pick his own team he had opportunities to get himself to free agency. He never did. I’m therefore not especially sympathetic to his desire to pick his own team.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) July 6, 2023
Quinn has a point, as Lillard has been loyal to a fault to Portland, even though the team has failed to build a championship-caliber roster around him.
In his 11 seasons with the Blazers, they have gotten past the first round of the playoffs just three times and reached the Western Conference Finals only once.
Despite the presence of incoming rookie Scoot Henderson, who seems to have legitimate star potential, and good players in Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant, the team is nowhere close to winning a world championship anytime soon.
For years, Lillard has been not only one of the league’s best players but also one of its elite men come crunch time.
Where Quinn seems to be wrong is the fact that plenty of superstars have been traded over the years when they were faced with the type of situation Lillard finds himself in.
The most notable example is Kevin Garnett, who finally tired of playing for a mediocre Minnesota Timberwolves franchise in 2007 and asked to be traded.
He was sent to the Boston Celtics that summer, who won it all in his first season with them.
The post NBA Analyst Illustrates 1 Side Of The Damian Lillard Debate appeared first on The Cold Wire.