Report: Damian Lillard Has No Plans to Force Trade From Portland
Take a breath, Rip City. There won't be a definitive answer on Damian Lillard's long-term future with the Trail Blazers, clearly, unless a blockbuster trade actually comes to pass.
Hours after TrueHoop's Henry Abbott reported that Lillard will request a trade "in coming days," a source told Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian that the 31-year-old has no plans to force his way from Portland.
Damian Lillard is not planning to demand that the Portland Trail Blazers trade him, an NBA source has told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
A source has told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Abbott’s report is not true.
Rumors of Lillard's frustration with the organization possibly boiling over into a trade demand came last month, shortly after reports emerged that the Blazers settled on Chauncey Billups as the team's new head coach. Though Lillard publicly vouched for Billups' candidacy early in Portland's coaching search, blowback he personally received from fans regarding a 1997 rape accusation against Billups reportedly left him more disgruntled in Portland than ever.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports also reported that Lillard's concerns about the front office's ability to build a title-worthy roster around him factored into his lagging confidence in the Blazers. Lillard hinted at as much after Portland was eliminated from the playoffs by the short-handed Denver Nuggets, and went on the record about the Blazers' need for personnel changes with Haynes again on Friday morning.
"We have to look in the mirror and say I have to be better because whatever it is we’re doing is not working and it’s not giving us the shot to compete on the level that we want to compete on," he said.
According to Yahoo, Lillard plans to personally address reports that he wants to be traded during media availability on Friday afternoon with USA Basketball.
[Aaron Fentress, The Oregonian]