Cleaning out the notebook after a few days at the NBA’s annual end-of-season—or is it beginning?—event …
- Damian Lillard’s future was a hot topic among team officials. While Trail Blazers GM Joe Cronin claimed to be in no rush to make a deal—a position we covered earlier this week—most league-types believe it’s inevitable Lillard winds up in Miami. What’s worth watching is if someone will emerge as a competitor to force the Heat to sweeten their offer. Boston’s interest is believed to be nominal, while Philadelphia has to sort out what it’s doing with James Harden before it can even consider a Lillard trade. Right now Miami is all the Blazers have got.
- At the Blazers’ media availability, I asked Chauncey Billups for his thoughts on Lillard’s trade request.
“It’s been a whirlwind over the last, I don’t know, six weeks, however long it’s been,” said Billups. “And I have a very, very close relationship with Damian, and he’s in a spot right now where he has to make decisions based on what he needs in his career and his life. Those decisions are not only basketball decisions when it comes down to family; it comes down to a lot of things. I have a lot of very intimate, detailed talks with him about these things that I would never share with anybody, obviously, but it’ll play out how it plays out.”
