James Harden reportedly expanded his list of preferred trade destinations to include the Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers. Whether or not Portland has the assets the Houston Rockets would consider fair for a Harden deal is yet to be seen. Nonetheless, Damian Lillard might be more than interested.
On the daily Locked On Blazers Podcast, host Mike Richman discusses why Harden listing the Blazers as one of his preferred trade destinations means that Damian Lillard is likely actively recruiting him to come to Portland.
Mike Richman: What I think is actually like the big deal that is sort of hiding under the headlines is that means Damian Lillard has changed his approach a little bit, between James Harden expanding his list of preferable acceptable destinations and… Damian Lillard doing some light recruiting on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Those two things make me think that for the first time in his career Damian Lillard is recruiting active stars to join him. I'm not saying that Lillard is driving the bus and saying, James, get traded here, I'll get rid of everybody for you. But I have no doubt they have spoken because why would James Harden include the list without speaking with Dame first, right?
Damian Lillard is 30 years old. He's entering season number nine in the NBA and he gets it. He knows that to win an NBA title his ultimate goal, you need two top 10 players on your team… Basically, the last 15 championships have been won by teams that have at least two top 10 players. It's the route forward, the Blazers neither have two top 10 players or the collection of high-end talent like that 2019 Raptors team, who also got some good injury luck around what happened with the Warriors. Damian Lillard has seen that and he knows the deal, so he has changed his approach. He is now actively courting players in my opinion.
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