Hiram Moreno
Damian Lillard has been in the eye of the storm in recent NBA campaigns after the player expressed dissatisfaction with the situation of his team, the Portland Trail Blazers, but beyond those comments the Oakland, California native, showed his desire to stay with the franchise by signing a contract extension.
This was announced by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, who mentioned that the contract extension is for two years and 122 million dollars. With this, Damian Lillard will be under contract with the Trail Blazers until the 2026/27 season.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks also made public that the final year of Lillard’s contract includes a USD 63.3 million player option, and his earnings could be adjusted based on changes that occur in the salary cap in the 2025/26 season.
Thanks to this, Damian Lillard, who will turn 32 next July 15, has the chance to stay with the Portland Trail Blazers until the final stages of his career, being the franchise with which he debuted in the NBA in 2012. However, will Lillard want to stay with the team in his current situation?
Damian Lillard is secure, but who will join him?
Portland has already done part of the homework by securing its star player for the upcoming campaigns, but now the job is to build the roster around him for the future.a task more than necessary after the departure of CJ McCollum, who was the main backup of Damian Lillard, in February to the New Orleans..
This departure, along with the fact that Damian Lillard was only able to play 29 games in the previous campaign, was one of the reasons why the Trail Blazers finished the season with a 27-55 record, missing the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2013 .
In Lillard’s absence, young Anfernee Simons stepped up and proved he could be Lillard’s perfect companion for the future, so Portland took it upon themselves to re-sign him after the player entered free agency. In addition, the Trail Blazers signed Jerami Grant from the Detroit Pistons in June and selected Shaedon Sharpe as the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Will this be enough or will they go all for a big name in this off-season? With someone like Kevin Durant available, surely management will make the attempt. Realistic? Not much, but anything can happen.
