Zombie Damian Lillard to request trade in coming days (nope, he's not.)

Sure feels like it. Making all the more of a plausible scenario while Dame is surrounded by his Olympic teammates. If it doesn't come from Haynes, Sham or Woj I'm not believing it. Problem is, those Laker, Knick, Sixer fans you mention don't know that so off they go to thirst land.

 

...kind of his one answer surly doesn't sound like he wants out. But just below that we have a notice to wait for this afternoon:

(Lillard will address a report about his future with the team following Team USA practice on Friday.)

 

It was literally 30 minutes ago.

 

yup, he's not gonna deny it altogether. but probably say he will cross that bridge later pending roster decisions.

 

Unless he re-posted it on Twitter, it was 27 minutes ago

 

Or he says, "If I've made any request, I've already made it to Neil." I could also see him talking some common sense like, "If I request a trade, I'm not making it public because I wouldn't do that to my team and lower the value they could get back for me."

 

If you really think dame is going to announce a trade request at a press conference then I don’t know what to tell you other than he is not going to do that. It would be classless…and dame is not classless

 

no it was from 9AM pacific today, after abbott's article came out three hours prior.

And this wasn't "Haynes piece." It was Dame calling Haynes to do some damage control.

 

Playing devil's advocate, I don't think Abbott has a reputation as someone who spreads around fake news. Why are people writing him off so quickly? He has been around for a long time.

 

I hate this offseason.

 

i have the utmost respect for HA, but he spent half that article pouring over Dame's lyrics trying to read tea leaves.

 

Or the piece was already written and scheduled to be released at a later time and Dame had him pull the trigger with the little note about speaking after practice today. Either way, it's clear Dame influenced the timing.

 

ya fucking toxic man. i wanted to step away from the team for a break for a few months after that Denver debacle, but it's like one hit right after another.

my friends who are bandwagon laker fans have become insufferable adding to my misery.

 

It's because all of the things that Neil should have done over the past four years are now all coming due at the same time. He's the ultimate bag holder. He should have fired Stotts after the Pels series. He should have traded CJ when it became painfully obvious that the Dame/CJ pairing wouldn't work. He didn't do those things, so now things are blowing up in his face.

 

Yeah, that's when it was posted, but that's not when the interview was conducted. Important distinction. Haynes can't add words to Dame's mouth after the interview.

My guess is that he conducted the interview yesterday and he talked to Dame early this morning about the Abbott speculation, and Dame stated that he would address it after practice.

 

Sean Highkin between his BS Olshey reporting and that analysis above has lost me as a follower.

 

Also, easily read between the lines:

Regardless of whether a trade demand is officially made, Dame is not fully on-board unless he sees there are significant changes. "Show me you're committed first."

 

Hopefully Neil isn't approaching Dame the same way he's approaching the drama about Billups. Ignore it and hope it goes away.

 

Bottom line is he's wrapped up in a supermax deal for 4 years. Got to treat this like Green Bay and Rodgers if he asks to be moved. There's no urgency to make a quick deal to remove the distraction if it comes to that. I'm not sure at what point the player leverage in the NBA go so out-of-wack.