In the aftermath of a series of blockbuster trades, Damian Lillard is now a new member of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jrue Holiday is with the Boston Celtics and DeAndre Ayton is with Portland Trail Blazers.
The shakedown from these big trades will shape how the respective teams approach the upcoming NBA season and a few campaigns beyond the one that commences later this month.
With Lillard and Holiday on board, the Celtics and Bucks are the clear favourites to win the Eastern Conference title.
While Portland is posturing about staying competitive and battling for a playoff spot with Jerami Grant and Ayton fronting the push, the team will eventually bottom out into a full on rebuild.
Ayton is young enough to stick around for Portland’s bevy of lead youngsters, Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Anfernee Simons to play through their mistakes en route to becoming elite.
That aside, Ayton is eager to show he can play his way into an All Star and potentially an All NBA player that he is likely to stick around Portland for a while.
For the soon-to-be 30-year-old Grant, this is very unlikely and he is sure to be traded to a title contender as soon as he shows off scoring consistency and solid defense for more draft picks.
As expected, Damian Lillard, in his first official presser as a Milwaukee Bucks player, said all the right things. Between greeting Milwaukee fans three hours later than scheduled and holding on to his sons to avoid waving at the crowd and greeting them reportedly, it is clear Damian Lillard doesn’t want to be in Milwaukee but definitely wants to be on the Milwaukee Bucks roster.
After all, he spoke about his desire to play with Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo in years past to this effect. Saying “I’m supposed to be here and I’m excited for what’s to come” in an interview with NBA reporter Chris Haynes isn’t necessarily an endorsement of Milwaukee.
Two (opposite) things can be true at the same time while the context varies with Damian Lillard’s situation, basketball and Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell lived what Lillard is likely to go through.
Russell infamously stated, “I played for the Celtics not for Boston” after experiencing marked racism in his time in the Eastern coastal city despite winning 11 titles in his 13 year run with the team. So while Russell had an absolute blitz with Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy and company on the Celtics, he went through absolute hell living in Boston.
Beyond this, he also spoke some absolute truths too at his presser with his thoughts on how he fits into the Bucks mix. “I definitely thought about it and i just don’t know how you handle that” he said in response to how his pick and roll game with Giannis will play out.
After taking a fleeting round of photographs with three of four other members of the Bucks starting unit-Giannis, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez- Lillard couldn’t help but acknowledge the depth in quality of the group stating, “I ain’t never been in no photo like this, man”.
The best group Lillard played with in his 11-year tenure at Portland Trail Blazers was that unit that featured young versions of Wesley Matthews, Nicholas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez. It is safe to say Lillard’s new starting crew is hands down better than the best Portland ever put around him.
Lillard reportedly pushed for a trade to the Miami Heat but didn’t get his wish as Portland opted to trade him to Milwaukee instead. It was always going to end up like this for Lillard as the teams with the best trade offers weren’t necessarily the destinations he wanted to head to.
Minnesota Timberwolves, Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder offered the trade deals and all had one thing in common; give Damian a better chance to challenge for the title than Portland.
In Minnesota, pairing Lillard with Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert looked like a very good step just as pairing Lillard with John Collins and Lauri Markkanen in Utah and pairing Lillard with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren.
Effectively, Lillard got the treatment San Antonio Spurs meted out to Kawhi Leonard when the latter pushed for a trade. Looking to land in Los Angeles or a big market team, Kawhi ended up getting traded to Toronto Raptors in a one-year rental before his contract expired and rendering him an unrestricted free agent who eventually signed for Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard ended up winning the NBA title in a remarkable run despite the remarkable odds stacked against that feat from happening.
Unlike Kawhi, Damian Lillard’s move to an “undesired” location has massive upside as Milwaukee is just two seasons removed from celebrating an NBA title and still has a solid attention pull plus a history of winning a title.
The Raptors hadn’t won a title before Kawhi landed in Canada and unlike Leonard who played without a star in Toronto, Lillard gets to play with a star in Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Having just Lillard and Giannis is enough for any team to be a worthy title contender but having a top wing scorer in Middleton and a Defensive Player of the Year nominee in Brook Lopez takes Milwaukee to a tier above any team bar Phoenix Suns.
In Portland, opposing teams double-teamed Lillard and forced the ball out his hands and played the same tactic on former playmate CJ McCollum who had overlapping skills to Lillard’s.
In Milwaukee, opposing teams can’t double-team Giannis or Lillard since Middleton and Lopez are more than capable scorers inside and outside the painted area.
While Lillard had success running the pick-and-roll with Jusuf Nurkic in Portland, Nurkic isn’t as athletic or as strong a finisher at the rim as Giannis. Boston Celtics look to be the biggest threat to Milwaukee but Boston’s big man Kristaps Porzingis has extensive health issues and easily tunes out when plays aren’t heavily run through him.
He pouted when he had to “stay in the corner and shoot three-pointers” while playing with the ball-dominant Luka Doncic. Transitioning to play with not one but two ball-dominant wings in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum aside from having a Point Guard in Holiday who will dictate the pace and flow of the game is hard to see ending well.
That aside, Boston doesn’t match up defensively to Milwaukee and size, especially inside the paint where Bucks have an advantage with the Brook Lopez-Giannis combo over Boston’s Kristaps Porzingis-Al Horford duo.
Had Lillard ended up with the Miami Heat, his defensive flaws would have been covered up by the Heat’s defensive studs like Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo but landing in Milwaukee means Lillard still gets upgrades here too.
Lopez has been a top defender in the NBA in the past three seasons and Giannis has a Defensive Player of the Year title to his name, something neither Adebayo nor Butler has.
In his 11-year NBA career, the closest Damian Lillard has got to the NBA title is a Western Conference Finals appearance that ended in a gentleman sweep in the finals series.
In contrast, making the Conference finals is regarded as the least achievement for Milwaukee Bucks due to the factors listed above and then some.
With a distinguished career in the bag, Lillard needs consistent runs in the playoffs and maybe an NBA title win to ensure his career gets the credit it deserves and that is what the Bucks guarantee even if the team’s host location isn’t on top of Damian Lillard’s destination list.
