Damian Lillard has been traded by Portland to play alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, in a deal that ends his 11-year run with the Trail Blazers and a three-month saga surrounding his wish to be moved elsewhere in hopes of winning a NBA title.
The seven-time All-Star goes to the Bucks in a three-team deal that sends Jrue Holiday from Milwaukee to Portland, Deandre Ayton from Phoenix to the Blazers and Jusuf Nurkic from Portland to the Suns.
“The casuals won’t be addressed but the trailblazers fans and city of Portland that I love truly will be … and they will be addressed truthfully. Stay tuned,” Lillard wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Excited for my next chapter!”
It became known on July 1 that Lillard asked the Blazers for a trade, wanting to join Miami. Portland decided not to accommodate that request, and instead, it’s the Bucks who now have an incredibly strong 1-2 punch of Lillard and Antetokounmpo heading into the new season.
Also included in the deal: Nassir Little, Keon Johnson and Grayson Allen are headed to Phoenix, and Toumani Camara goes to Portland. Trading Ayton means that Devin Booker is now the lone player from the Phoenix team that played Milwaukee in the 2021 NBA Finals still on the Suns’ roster.
“I want to express my gratitude to Damian for 11 storied years with this franchise and for his loyalty to the Portland community,” Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said.
“From becoming the all-time leading points scorer in franchise history to his dedicated commitment to youth across Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest, Damian is and will remain a titan and a true trailblazer to this city.”
The trade continues the Bucks’ dramatic off-season makeover in response to their surprising first-round playoff loss to the Heat.
They followed that by firing coach Mike Budenholzer and replacing him with Adrian Griffin. Now they’ve traded away the two-time All-Star Holiday to obtain Lillard.
The acquisition of Lillard comes after Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP, told The New York Times over the summer that he wanted to see how committed the Bucks are toward winning another championship before deciding whether to sign a new long-term deal.
Bringing Lillard to Milwaukee certainly suggests the commitment is there.
“Yo, NBA, man, y’all need to look into the Bucks for tampering,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said in a video posted to Instagram shortly after details of the trade became known.
“Y’all do. I’m just gonna put that out there.”
Lillard became just the seventh player in NBA history to score more than 70 points in a game when he finished with 71 against Houston in February.
The 2020 Olympic gold medallist averaged 32.2 points this past season, has a career average of 25.2 points per game that ranks 11th among all players in NBA history who have appeared in at least 500 games. He’s had 17 games of at least 50 points in his career.
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