This is the on-site version of FTW’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
NBA free agency starts on Friday, but that’s not what everyone will be paying attention to once the clock strikes 6 p.m. ET.
We will all be watching the Damian Lillard situation out in Portland.
Obviously, this is a thing that’s been culminating for years at this point. And, let’s be honest, folks, the “will they, won’t they” vibes that we’re getting from both Dame and the Trail Blazers has definitely worn on most of us.
The dance between the two sides continues with the news about the meeting between Lillard and the Blazers’ brass. Lillard isn’t requesting a trade … yet. He’s waiting around to see what the Blazers do. And most people are just asking why at this point. Either do it or don’t, Dame.
But, honestly? If I’m the Trail Blazers? I think I might just hold firm on Dame Lillard, y’all. It might not be the right time to trade him.
Lillard is easily one of the best 15 players in the NBA right now and one of the best at his position. Typically, you’d get a whale of a return for a player like Lillard. I’m talking draft picks out the wazoo. All the pick swaps. A young prospect to kickstart a rebuild. That’s typically all on the table.
But The NBA trade market is zapped.
Obviously, circumstances were different, but the best draft pick compensation the Wizards could get out of moving Chris Paul, Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis was a 2030 top-20 protected first-round pick. The Hawks had to salary dump John Collins.
Lillard is better than all of them with a different contract. But still, it’s very clear, NBA teams are not here right now for offering up the farm for a single player.
It’s the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement. Player trade values have shrunk because teams aren’t willing to circumvent the salary cap for a massive talent like Lillard anymore. They’ll lose key roster-building tools if they do like the taxpayer mid-level exception, for example. Some teams aren’t even willing to part with draft picks anymore because they know they’ll lose guaranteed cheap salaries.
So if you’re the Trail Blazers looking at that market, why would you trade Damian Lillard? This is one of your best players in franchise history and you might get pennies on the dollar for him. Absolutely not.
That’s not what a lot of us want to hear and I get that. People are tired of hearing legacy-building propaganda about how Damian Lillard isn’t running from the grind or how he doesn’t actually want to play on a stacked team or whatever. It’s almost cartoonish at this point.
But, hey, man. We might be getting another year of this. So buckle in, folks. More Lillard memes are coming.
Quick Hits: The top 32 NHL prospects … 10 NBA players who could be traded … and more.
— Our Mary Clarke ranked her top 32 NHL prospects ahead of the draft. Get ready for a good time.
— Along with Damian Lillard, names like Zion Williamson and others could be on the move this summer. Our Charles Curtis has more.
— Robert Zeglinski ranked every Black Mirror episode and, honestly, I think this might break me.
— Baseball fans are roasting this umpire for a terrible strike call to end the Nationals game and I can’t blame them. This was bad.
