Damian Lillard will enter his 12th season with the Portland Trail Blazers and remains adamant about staying with the team to compete, as opposed to meeting the same fate Russell Westbrook had when he went to the Los Angeles Lakers.
He has arguably been the most consistent star for an NBA team over the past decade, but deepest he ever went in the playoffs was a Conference Finals appearance in 2019. Lillard and the Blazers have been in the playoffs from 2014 to 2021, but they have missed it over the past two seasons, both seasons marred by injuries and roster changes.
While Damian admits that it's been tough not being in the playoffs on The Last Stand podcast by SHOWTIME Sports, he uses Russell Westbrook's time with the Lakers as a precautionary tale towards leaving a team to join another and compete for a title:
“I want to have an opportunity to win in Portland… We got an opportunity, asset-wise, to build a team that can compete. If we can’t do that… then it’s a separate conversation we would have to have”
Damian Lillard on the Blazers' future
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“They could trade me to somewhere that we all say, ‘This is a contender.' But I mean, how do we know if everybody's gonna be healthy? How do we know if it's gonna work out?” Damian Lillard asks. “Like, when [Russell Westbrook] went to the Lakers, everybody was ‘Lakers!' you know what I mean? Then they got Russ coming off the bench like he's not a Hall of Famer, and try to put a battery in his back, like, man, if you come off the bench, that'd be like, man, that's Russell Westbrook. Like, what? But like, neither thing is guaranteed, you know what I mean?”
Currently a free agent, Russell Westbrook's infamous time with the Lakers will go down as one of the most forgettable moments of his career. The 2017 MVP averaged well below his usual numbers in 130 games with the Purple and Gold and the experiment was viewed as a colossal failure. Damian Lillard uses this case to show that nothing is ever guaranteed. A team may look good on paper, but if the pieces don't fit on the court and if the ultimate goal is not achieved, then the project is a failure.
So he would rather stay with the Blazers, work and build around what he has now, but does end by saying that his clock is ticking.
“I want to have an opportunity to win in [the Portland Trail Blazers]…We got an opportunity, asset-wise, to build a team that can compete. If we can't do that, then, you know, obviously, like I've said, you know, for months now, like then this is a separate conversation that we would have to have.”
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