There are three hot spots for rumors in the NBA: Right before the trade deadline, right before free agency, and right before the draft. Since we are here with the draft tomorrow, let’s sift through the real and the fake around the league to get a feel for what might happen tomorrow night.
DAMIAN LILLARD LEAVING PORTLAND?
The biggest question in the NBA right now is what happens with Lillard in Portland. With Bradley Beal off the board, teams are turning their focus to the Blazers.
Portland, meanwhile, is nowhere near where Washington was organizationally. The Wizards are resetting, the Blazers are trying to hold on. Lillard is one of the biggest stars in team history and not only a driver for success but also a big money-maker for the team.
It’s easy for us, with our big market and legacy team, to look at Portland and scream “Blow it up!” It makes sense because there is a cap on their potential right now, and it’s hard to believe adding anyone to play next to Lillard is going to get them anywhere close to Denver … or even the top half of the West in general. But a rebuild would be costly, and Portland would rather push that off as much as possible.
However, they are going to do what Lillard wants to do. He doesn’t have a no-trade clause like Beal did, so technically speaking, it’s all wide open should he ask out. However, the Blazers aren’t going to ship him to someplace he doesn’t want to be.
So let’s get this next part out of the way: Lillard has made it clear he doesn’t want to play in Boston, so get that pipe dream out of your head. No matter what the package, he doesn’t want to be here.
Does he want to be somewhere else, though? He hasn’t avoided questions about his future, but Lillard makes it clear that he’s just speaking honestly and not publicly angling for a move.
“I’ll tell them what I really think. I’m not in there trying to make a decision or anything like that,” Lillard told HoopsHype. “I do my job. If something’s presented to me or a question is asked to me, I give an honest answer. I try not to be a part of the player empowerment because we’ve seen enough situations where guys who were at their peak and at the top of their game had that power and influence, and when they weren’t at that level anymore or the back end, people remember that. They’ll remember how you used that power and how you leveraged that power. It could determine how you go out. It can affect you towards the end of your career when you might feel disrespected or dealt with in a way that doesn’t represent the kind of career you had. I think in this era, you’ve got to be careful how you handle that position. I think we’ve seen cases where people have handled it in a way that wasn’t the best for them. Hopefully, we learned from that.”
The Blazers are obviously trying to signal that they're trying to build around Lillard, floating a ridiculous rumor that they're putting an offer together for Bam Adebayo. It was a rumor that smacks of desperation -- a front office version of fake hustle after dying on a screen -- to convey they aren’t pivoting to a rebuild.
Will the Blazers move Lillard? It might depend on how the draft goes. If Scoot Henderson is selected second by the Hornets, then Lillard might stay in Portland. If Henderson is available at 3, then the New Orleans Pelicans might swoop in with a Zion Williamson offer that satisfies Lillard and keeps him there.
That brings me to …
ZION WILLIAMSON DONE IN NEW ORLEANS?
Williamson has played 114 games in four seasons since being drafted with the first overall pick in 2019. When healthy, he’s a game-changing phenom. But he’s never healthy.
Add to that now this very messy, very public, personal life drama that has spilled onto social media, and the Pelicans are fed up.
On a recent Lowe Post podcast, Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks outlined the history of basketball discontent Williamson has displayed. He has always been outspoken at every level of basketball, and the Pelicans have spent a lot of time trying to coddle him and make sure he’s happy because of that.
That seems to be coming to an end. It’s put up or shut up time for Williamson, who has to work very hard to be in the kind of shape he needs to be in order to make it through a full season. And this is all coming to a head during a draft where generational players are believed to be available.
The Pelicans love Henderson, and if the stars align for them, they could dump their incredibly talented problem child on a city desperate for established talent while pivoting their plan to another young franchise cornerstone. This could be the one chance for two teams in situations that could be problematic to make a deal that solves both their problems.
It’s like a hungry person with water trading some to a thirsty person who has a loaf of bread. They’d each die without finding each other, but now maybe they can move on and be okay.
At the same time: No Scoot, no Zion trade. They’ll just have to figure things out themselves. Maybe a hard-line stance will wake the wunderkind and he’ll realize that just being a monster athlete isn’t enough.
THE OPT-OUT CROWD
Draymond Green: Prevailing attitudes around the league are that he’s going back to Golden State and that opting out of his final year is a chance to get a little more over a few years.
Bruce Brown: I wanted Brown in Boston last summer and I think he could have made a real difference on this team. He opted out of his $6.8 million option in Denver but it also seems that he’s most likely to return on a raise. Someone might throw the full mid-level at him, which is likely more than Denver will pay him, so he might have a tough decision to make. However, if he stays and has another good season, then his early Bird rights kick in and Denver can make him a bigger offer that basically equals a mid-level exception deal this summer.
Kyle Kuzma: He was making $13 million and he’s coming off a nice season. I’m not sure he’s the type of player a cap space team will covet with their money, so he might be angling for a raise in D.C.
All these guys just show that free agency is kind of dwindling. Most moves are made through trades, and the only real free agent movement is a few mid-level and veteran minimum guys moving.
Boston isn’t getting help on the mid-level market this year. They don’t have the money to sign any of these guys, and they can’t accept any of them in a sign-and-trade because they’d be capped at a number that's not sustainable for them.
CELTICS TRADING UP IN THE DRAFT?
Kevin O’Connor suggested Boston is exploring deals to move up in the draft, dangling the 35th overall pick and Payton Pritchard.
I think they're just gauging interest in that package to see how high up in the draft they can get with it. I don’t think they have anyone specific in mind, but they probably have a few names that, if they were to somehow fall far enough in the first round, they’d maybe like to jump up and grab.
This is like a chef doing prep work. You can’t be slicing up vegetables in the middle of the dinner rush. That stuff has to be done ahead of time so you can grab them if you need them. This is Brad Stevens slicing veggies, figuring out how high up he can go with the 35/Pritchard package just in case. If a player they really want slips into that range, Stevens can pick up the phone and ask if that deal is still possible.
With only a few minutes in between picks, pre-negotiating is necessary. When you do that, then word gets out that you’re “exploring trade possibilities.”
There are a few other minor Celtics notes
- The Celtics are still looking into Malcolm Brogdon trades in hopes of getting a better backcourt/frontcourt balance
- Jaylen Brown is NOT getting traded
- Grant Williams is most likely coming back unless he gets an outrageous offer somewhere.
I talk about all those in the latest Locked On Celtics podcast, which you can listen to below, or wherever you get your podcasts.
