The Portland Trail Blazers have quite the distraction on their hands, but it has Boston Celtics fans listening.
Beyond the recent firing of longtime general manager Neal Oshey amid a workplace investigation, rumors that star point guard Damian Lillard wants out have gotten much louder.
Despite Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer reporting Tuesday that Lillard was interested in playing with defensive-minded wing Jaylen Brown, and the obvious rumors around a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Trail Blazers are making their best effort to squash speculation.
"The Portland Trail Blazers have made clear to the 76ers that All-NBA guard Damian Lillard is not available to be discussed in trade talks and franchise has no interest in moving him," ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday reported via Twitter.
Wojnarowski followed that up with another Tweet:
"Lillard has repeatedly expressed his commitment to want to remain in Portland on his current long-term contract, and interim GM Joe Cronin has also expressed a strong commitment to continue building the franchise around the All-NBA guard."
With everything Portland has on its plate at the moment, they've publicly denounced these trade rumors for now. But there's a lot of moving parts here. Lillard is on the first year of his four-year, $176 million supermax extension that he signed in 2019.
And with the season he's strung together so far, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he's a bit uninspired.
