Damian Lillard makes it clear he’s happy with Portland Trail Blazers

Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers, NBA Trade Rumors, Celtics
NBA Analysis Network

Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard has had a fantastic 2020-21 NBA season. He has a legitimate case to be in the running for the MVP award as he has cemented his already strong case among the elite point guards in the league.

Playing without C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic for a majority of the season has not slowed Damian Lillard and the Blazers down. They are 21-14 and fifth place in the Western Conference and Lillard has been the driving force. On the season, he is averaging an efficient 29.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game.

Despite that, he still seems to be disrespected and underrated. Just look at some of the headlines from the NBA All-Star game this past weekend. It was Lillard who knocked down the game-winning 3-pointer, his eighth of the game, to seal the victory for Team LeBron. Yet it was Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the game’s MVP, garnering the headlines.

It is part of the reason many people believe Lillard would be better off in a big market so that he becomes more noticeable to fans; he is tucked away in the great Northwest in Portland, playing a majority of his games after the East Coast has turned in for the night. Imagine how different the coverage would be if he was representing a team such as the New York Knicks on All-Star weekend.

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Lillard recently spoke about that, as he pointed out that there are plenty of cons to moving to a big market despite people always focusing on the pros.

“I think, for every person that says you know I want to see him on the big stage, and I want to see him go to a bigger market and all these things, of course, those things have pros, but nobody ever wants to think about the cons,” Damian Lillard explained. “If you take that step and it’s not what it seems to be, and it doesn’t work out, or an injury happens, and you haven’t established as much of a rapport with that team, and they chose one guy over the next guy and now you’re traded to a third team, things can fall apart. That may never happen, but it’s just a lot of things you can’t control. You got to consider both sides. But for me, it would have to come down to my team saying look, we’re going in a different direction, and we don’t want to hold you, hostage, basically, and what route do you want to go.”

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That sound you heard was a collective sigh of relief from Trail Blazers fans and the organization. Damian Lillard makes some great points in that quote, and it is something we have seen other players have to deal with recently, Russell Westbrook is a prime example.

Sometimes, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Unless something changes from the Blazers’ perspective, it sounds like it is going to always be Dame Time in Portland.

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