Report: Damian Lillard to request a trade from Trail Blazers in coming days

Henry Abbott of TruHoop reports that Damian Lillard will request a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers “in the days to come”.

Source: Blazers star Damian Lillard to request trade in the days to come.

If this is a surprise, you haven’t been paying attention. https://t.co/FS7KL1pPPm

— Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop) July 16, 2021

Abbott’s report is yet another moment in the turbulent offseason for Dame and Rip City, as rumors have constantly circulated about the future of the Trail Blazers star.  Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports published his own conversation with Lillard from Team USA camp in Las Vegas on Friday morning, and asked him about his feelings with the franchise.

“I think that’s the stage we’re at as a team where we all, not just me, not just my teammates, not just our new coaching staff, the front office, everybody in this organization must look in the mirror because we’ve constantly come up short. 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.”

Lillard added:

“I feel like at this point, I basically made the decision that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve always been. Just like I hold myself accountable for a bad performance or hold myself accountable to make sure that I work my ass off when I’m training, I must be accountable for saying what needs to be said even if it’s not popular. And that just comes with age. When I was younger, I felt like maybe I’ll be out of place, but I feel like I’ve earned the right to say we must do better. We must do better if we want to win on that level.”

Haynes says Lillard will address the report that he plans to request a trade during Team USA media availability on Friday in Las Vegas.  We will carry Lillard’s comments live on 750 The Game, estimated to start around 12:30 pm.

Update: 11:02am:  The Oregonian’s Aaron Fentress reports, citing an NBA source, that Lillard has no plans to request a trade. (Link)

An NBA source has told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard has no plans to request a trade. #RipCity https://t.co/XDlEiLinbG

— Aaron J. Fentress (@AaronJFentress) July 16, 2021

Update: 12:20:  Frank Isola of ESPN/New York Daily News says Trail Blazers GM Neil Olshey and head coach Chauncey Billups are flying to Las Vegas today to meet with Damian Lillard in the wake of reports that he plans to request a trade.

Portland Trail Blazers new head coach Chauncey Billups and GM Neil Olshey are expected to meet with Damian Lillard today in Las Vegas, according to a source.

— Frank Isola (@TheFrankIsola) July 16, 2021

More to come.

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