Damian Lillard is being traded by Portland to play alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, a person with knowledge of the agreement said Wednesday, a deal that ends his 11-year run with the Trail Blazers and a three-month saga surrounding his wish to be moved elsewhere in hopes of winning an NBA title.
The seven-time All-Star — a player so elite that he was selected to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team — goes from the Trail Blazers to the Bucks in a three-team deal that sends Jrue Holiday from the Bucks to Portland, Deandre Ayton from Phoenix to Portland and Jusuf Nurkic from the Blazers to the Suns, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because none of the involved teams had announced the agreement.
As with all trades, it cannot be finalized until NBA attorneys review the terms and approve the deal.
It became known on July 1 that Lillard asked the Trail Blazers for a trade, which he was long speculated to be considering given his desire to play for a contender and Portland not seeming to have much of a chance with its current roster.
He wanted to go to Miami and made that clear. Portland decided not to accommodate that request, and instead, it’s the Bucks who now have an incredibly strong 1-2 punch of Lillard and Antetokounmpo heading into the new season.
Lillard was asked on Twitter in May 2022 to pick one current player he’d want to help him reach the playoffs. He gave a one-word answer: “Giannis.”
Also included in the deal: Nassir Little, Keon Johnson and Grayson Allen are headed to Phoenix, and Toumani Camara goes to Portland. There is also draft capital that will be involved, the person said. Trading Ayton means that Devin Booker is now the lone player from the Phoenix team that played Milwaukee in the 2021 NBA Finals still on the Suns’ roster.
The trade continues the Bucks’ dramatic offseason makeover in response to their surprising first-round playoff loss to Miami.
They followed that by firing coach Mike Budenholzer and replacing him with Adrian Griffin, who spent the last five seasons as a Toronto Raptors assistant. Now they’ve traded away the two-time All-Star Holiday to acquire Lillard, a seven-time All-NBA selection.
The acquisition of Lillard comes after Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP, told The New York Times over the summer that he wanted to see how committed the Bucks are toward winning another championship before deciding whether to sign a long-term deal to stay in Milwaukee.
Antetokounmpo’s contract runs through the 2024-25 season, with a player option for 2025-26.
Bringing Lillard to Milwaukee certainly suggests the commitment is there. It also keeps the high-scoring guard away from Miami, one of the Bucks’ biggest Eastern Conference challengers.
“Yo, NBA, man, y’all need to look into the Bucks for tampering,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said in a video posted to Instagram shortly after details of the trade became known. “Y’all do. I’m just gonna put that out there.”
When Lillard’s request was made public by the Blazers, general manager Joe Cronin said he would do “what’s best for the team” while grudgingly seeking to facilitate his wishes. One of the assistants on Griffin’s staff in Milwaukee is Terry Stotts, who was Lillard’s head coach in Portland from 2012-21.
In the end, the deal with the Bucks is what Cronin and the Blazers deemed best for all involved. It took a massive package to make the trade happen, especially because Lillard is owed a ransom over the next four years. He will make almost $46 million this season and could make as much as $216 million over the next four years if he exercises his option for the 2026-27 season.
It will be a large, and possibly very worthwhile, investment because acquiring Lillard figures to make the Bucks even more of a title contender. He averaged 32.2 points this past season, has averaged at least 24 in each of the last eight seasons and has an offensive ignitability that few players in the NBA possess.
He became just the seventh player in NBA history to score more than 70 points in a game when he finished with 71 against the Houston Rockets on Feb. 26. The other names on that list are Wilt Chamberlain (who did it five times), Kobe Bryant, David Thompson, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor and Donovan Mitchell.