Damian Lillard To the Milwaukee Bucks In Three-Team Trade

I knew it was coming but it still hurts.  Damian Lillard is my favorite all-time Trail Blazer and beyond hope I wanted him to retire in Portland.  Lillard now goes to the Bucks where he'll team up with Giannis Antetokounmpo.  At my core I don't like trade requests but it's part of the game.  Also at my core I'm glad he'll go somewhere where he can compete for a title and play with a great like Giannis. I hope he does great and gets that ring.

Portland's haul isn't bad but not great.  Sounds like Jrue Holiday will not be with the team long since his age (33) doesn't match up with the teams young core.  But Holiday should bring back something good. He's still an excellent defender and can shoot the three.  The definition of a 3 and D guy.  Something a contender would covet.  Deandre Ayton is probably the prize catch here.  He's only 25 and averaged 18 and 10 last season.  That said I'm not big on him, but we'll see if I can get behind the big man in a Portland uniform.  The Draft picks will probably be fodder in the future for another trade down the road.  It's not the haul Brooklyn got for KD but it good and much better than anything Miami could come up with.  What they get for Holiday could really make this look even better.  As is I give it a B+.

Portland receives: From Milwaukee, guard Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee's unprotected 2029 first-round pick, the right to swap first-round picks with Milwaukee in 2028 and 2030, From Phoenix, center Deandre Ayton, and forward Toumani Camara from the Suns in the deal.

Phoenix receives: From Portland, center Jusuf Nurkic, forward Nassir Little, and guard Keon Johnson,  from Milwaukee, wing Grayson Allen

Damian Lillard Requests a Trade

Dame has officially requested a trade.  This hurts.  While not completely a surprise I still held out hope when he didn't ask for one early last week when meeting with the team and a trade request didn't come out of that.  Lillard is my favorite Trail Blazer of all-time.  It's easy to have recency bias but I am truly a big fan.  I hope all the best for him.  I know Portland will try to maximize their return.  Not often a top 10 players is traded.  They need something that will set them up for success.  That can happen in different ways so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.  No matter how it turns out I doubt I'll be happy for a while.

COMC Damian Lillard Pickups

Damian Lillard:  I had a COMC purchase shipped earlier this year that included cards from across the card realm.  I had been saving the cards up for over a year before hitting the purchase button.  Today I'll show off my Dame cards.  Lots of good ones here.  He's having another good year but needs to get his shooting percentages up to get back to elite.  This NBA City card comes from the 18-19 Hoops set.  The dark colors work well with the Rip City uni he's wearing.  Sharp looking card.

I love me some Contenders and didn't hesitate grabbing these.  I really like the look of all three of these.

From the 17-18 Prestige set these Stars of the NBA cards are the base and Rain parallel designs.  The rain parallels really look good.

Going horizontal allows for some nice photos we don't always see on cards otherwise.  This Courtside from 18-19 Hoops is a nice photo of Dame turning the corner.

I like the "Kings" cards that Donruss does and this design is a good looking one.  Their All-Star set was plenty colorful but works for the most part. Looks like a photo from the actual game so I'd prefer seeing all of the in-game photo but I'm good with it overall.

This Court Kings doesn't have the classic feel to me but they can't all be winners.  Panini seemed to like the alternative unis which is fine with me.  All of the Portland jerseys have a good look to them.  We'll end it with another Contenders card.  I like that big logo.