Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard recently liked a tweet on Twitter that suggested his team should trade the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft for ready-now players like Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Lu Dort.
Looks like Dame would be open to playing with Lu Dort pic.twitter.com/9sSdjr1Mkw
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) May 25, 2022
The full details of the hypothetical trade by Twitter user Thunder Moneyball includes the Thunder shipping out the 12th overall pick and Dort in exchange for the seventh overall pick in a three-team trade with the Trail Blazers and Pistons.
If Oklahoma City are thinking of moving up inside the Top 10, a team we should target is Portland.
They want to win now & they are rumored to be interested in Jerami Grant. Here's a deal:
POR receive Grant, Dort
OKC receive #7
DET receive #12Share your thoughts 👇👇👇
— Thunder Moneyball (@geola388) May 18, 2022
Lillard, who is 31, is in a win-now mode of his career and cannot waste another season hoping young players eventually develop. If the Trail Blazers are serious about retooling with Lillard, then they should seriously consider trading for players who can contribute right now instead of drafting someone with the hopes of contributing down the road.
This isn’t the first time Dort has been linked to the Trail Blazers as Bleacher Report recently wrote an article that included a hypothetical trade that would pair both parties together as the Thunder acquire the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft. Lillard called Dort one of the best perimeter defenders in the league this past December, so his respect for him is pretty high.
Unless a contract extension is agreed upon, which doesn’t sound like it from Thunder general manager Sam Presti, the 23-year-old will enter a contract year for the 2022-23 season. If the Thunder are hesitant on extending Dort, then a trade is the only logical conclusion to the pairing unless the team is willing to lose him for nothing in the 2023 offseason.
