We’re looking at two very ends of a spectrum. On one hand, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder. They followed up 68 regular season wins with a championship. Shai won MVP. There was a parade and everything. Going into next year, they will be the favorites to win a championship again.
On the other hand, it has been a rough couple of months for Damian Lillard. He ended the regular season with a blood clotting issue. Despite this condition typically meaning you would be sidelined for months, Lillard came back in the playoffs on a remarkably short timeframe to try and help the Bucks over the Pacers. Unfortunately, Lillard then tore his Achilles. His likely absence next season was probably the root cause of the Bucks deciding to waive him and stretch his contract.
Lillard will clear waivers today, in all likelihood. That gives him the option to sign with whatever team he wants. (He can also stop playing basketball forever and make $22 million a year for the next five years.)
So, since Lillard is good at basketball and free to go to whatever team will have him, you might not be surprised to hear that various fans from around the league are starting to get excited at the possibility of Lillard joining their squad.
There is an important thing to keep in mind, however. Damian Lillard has publicly stated that he has no intentions of joining superteams. Regarding joining the Golden State Warriors, his hometown squad, he said:
"I can’t be a part of that. They’ve won four championships… Like what I look like going to try to do that and say oh I’m joining my home team. Like no. Somebody who played my position behind LeBron, the best player of this era. It don’t even make sense. I never do nothing like that. I lose every year before I go.”
If this is still how he feels, then we might be able to cross a few teams off his list. Oklahoma City immediately comes to mind as the first to cross off.
It would be a big change of character for Damian Lillard to join the Oklahoma City Thunder
That’s the kind way of saying that all evidence up until this point indicates that Damian Lillard does not want to be considered a front-runner. If he’s going to get a ring, he wants to feel like he’s earned it. He wants to feel like his presence could be the difference between a championship or not.
OKC, as they displayed by winning the NBA Finals, do not need Damian Lillard to win the NBA Finals. They already have a lead guard in Shai who, once again, was last year’s MVP. Lillard and Shai are very different players, but they both very much like the ball in their hands.
It’s hard to believe that it would be Shai making the big adjustments to Dame’s style of play, rather than the other way around. And, if that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine the Dame we’ve known up until this point blending into OKC’s style of play. That’s not to say he can’t or wouldn’t, just that
What’s going through Dame’s head now might be entirely different than how he was feeling back in regard to joining Golden State. Maybe, now that he’s a bit later in his career, his priorities have shifted.
But that’s kind of the point, a Dame that would join OKC is a different Dame than we’ve known throughout his career. I’m not sure he’s going to break character now.