Blazers deal Damian Lillard to Bucks in blockbuster trade, Giannis and Bucks jump to Title Favorites

After many years fighting to bring a championship to Portland, Damian Lillard had enough and requested a trade earlier in the year. Well, yesterday Damian Lillard got his wish when the Trailblazers sent him to the Milwaukee Bucks to play with arguably the best player in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo alongside a very well-built team that has everything to compete for the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the Eastern Conference. The blockbuster trade also saw Jrue Holiday go to Portland along with DeAndre Ayton, Toumani Camara, Milwaukee's 2029 unprotected first-round draft pick, and unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030. The Suns also received compensation in the three-team trade; Phoenix received Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson as part of the trade package.

Jrue Holiday was moved to the Trail Blazers in the league-altering trade and is in talks with Portland to be traded, as Portland looks to build a young core, and with Holiday in his 30s he will aim to be traded to a contender. Contending teams in both conferences, like Boston, the Clippers, the Toronto Raptors, Miami, and the Lakers, will look to secure the services of the 33-year-old point guard, who was a star for Milwaukee and was instrumental to Milwaukee's championship run in 2021, on both sides of the ball.

As of this moment, there are no intentions for Portland to look for trade partners for DeAndre Ayton. Ayton for himself needed a fresh start himself just as much as Phoenix did. Ayton and Phoenix had a great time together, but towards the end, you could see that Ayton no longer wanted to be in Phoenix and wasn't in top form either. Ayton could benefit from a fresh start in Portland.

After 11 seasons with Portland, Damian Lillard leaves the team after being selected to seven All-Star and seven All-NBA teams, leading the team to the playoffs eight times, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2018–19. In terms of points, 3-pointers, and assists, he holds the top two spots in franchise history. Lillard stayed true to Portland for as long as he could, not choosing the easy way to a championship. However, all great things come to an end. Dame led the Blazers to the playoffs multiple times and hit unbelievable shots to push them through the playoffs multiple times, like the game-winning shots against Houston in 2012 and the "bad shot" heard around the world in 2019 to send the Oklahoma City Thunder into a full-scale reset. The heroics of Damian Lillard will never be forgotten in the city of Portland as he prepares and is excited for the new chapter alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.

In the 2023 NBA season, Damian Lillard, who turned 33, had a career year last season, averaging 32.2 points and 7.3 assists per game, but Lillard only played 58 games as he sat out due to a calf injury that forced Portland to shut him down for the final month of the season. The highlight of Lillard's 2023 season came Feb. 26 against the Houston Rockets, when he scored 71 points. The 2023 season was just another story in the book of Lillard's time in Portland-a statistically great season leading mediocre squads that didn't go very far.

Dame and his 32.2 points per game are the most for a player to have change teams the following season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The Blazers failed to make the playoffs for the second straight season despite Lillard's 32.2 points and 7.3 assists per game, the first time that happened during Lillard's time as a Trail Blazer. There had been no budging from either party in regards to parting ways. Portland drafted Scoot Henderson in the most recent NBA draft as the organization transitions into a different era of basketball, with a very young and talented core of Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons, and now Deandre Ayton.

The Bucks emerged as the consensus favorite to win the NBA championship after the blockbuster trade, with odds around +375. Before the trade, Milwaukee had been listed as the fourth favorite, behind the defending champion Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics and, the Phoenix Suns.

Giannis and the Bucks had the ultimate triumph of an NBA championship in 2021, but the years following had fallen short, and despite having a great team each year, they kept falling just short in each year's playoffs. In 2022 they fell short to Boston in 7 games due to their inability to shoot the ball and Miami in 2023 in 5 due to Jimmy Butler's outstanding play and Giannis' injury, but that is neither here nor there. The 3 team trade that saw Milwaukee acquire Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers will add a whole entire new level of basketball to the Milwaukee Bucks who had championship aspirations even before the trade but they have even more of a determination now since acquiring Lillard, the plug player and add water equals championship hasn't worked for any team since 2019 in Toronto with Kawhi Leonard but when a player of Dame's caliber who averaged 32/7/4 joins the best player in the world in Giannis Antetokounmpo who averaged 31/11/6, when those 2 dominant players join forces they're bound to dominate league, a point guard like Dame and a dominant force like Giannis are bound to dominate the league. The Bucks are looking forward to the 2023-24 NBA season as they aim to bring a second championship to Milwaukee.