The Portland Trail Blazers are looking to wrap up a long-term extension with their superstar, Damian Lillard, which is shaping to be a four-year deal.
While other teams are angling for free agents, the Portland Trail Blazers are working to keep their prized player, Damian Lillard, off the board for the foreseeable future.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Blazers and Lillard are working toward a contract extension that would see the All-Star paid at a supermax premium. According to league sources, the extension will be a four-year, $196 million deal.
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is working toward agreement on a four-year, $196 million super maximum contract extension, league sources told @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2019
It is important to note that the Blazers had time to wait to try to work out an extension with Lillard. He’s not due to become an unrestricted free agent until 2021, but Lillard has long maintained that he would like to play out his career in Portland, despite rumors that he was growing frustrated with the direction the Blazers were heading.
Lillard has much reason to be optimistic about Portland’s future.
The Blazers are coming off the most successful season of the Lillard era, winning 53 games and making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, with Lillard rising to the occasion and putting on a spectacular performance. Although Portland was swept by the Warriors, it cemented to Lillard that the future was looking bright in the Pacific Northwest.
That feeling is mutual in the Blazers front office, and even though the Blazers had time to work out a contract extension, it made a lot of sense on both sides to get a deal done to ensure that Lillard would continue to dazzle in a Blazers uniform.
While some on Twitter believe that Portland is overpaying Lillard, I beg to differ. Lillard is very much worth every penny the Blazers give him. It’s what the front office builds around him that will be future question marks.