Dame Dolla playing for the Boston Celtics? It will likely never happen, but we appreciate the bold vision of a new trade proposal coming from Andy Hughes of Hardwood Houdini.
Such unlikely trades have materialized in the past — one only has to look at the rosters of the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets to see examples — but franchise core players rarely move between teams given how hard it is to get the right sort of value back given at least one of the teams involved is usually over a barrel.
Here however, Hughes makes a decent case that clear-headed minds ought to see that the Portland Trail Blazers simply won’t have the horses to get their superstar guard Damian Lillard a title.
Mike Zarren on Ranked Choice Voting: how it works, why we need it https://t.co/bkzYJ37rzA
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 18, 2020
There are too many reasons to note why this may not matter anyway, but the short version is not every franchise owner is looking to compete for titles, and even among those that are, there are sometimes players so popular that dealing them away represents its own set of problems.
Lillard may well be one of those players given how much he loves Portland as much as that city seems to love him back.
The trade proposal offered up by Hughes sees Boston’s Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart along with picks No. 14, 26 and 30 packaged with the Celts’ 2021 first-rounder.
This wouldn’t be legal due to the rules governing trades requiring a team to control a first-round pick at least every other season, but is probably in line with what a front office without the emotional attachments might want.
Enes Kanter has a new cause he supports – and it involves your lunch https://t.co/OcNGEIwP3k
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 18, 2020
The problem however, is that it seems very unlikely Portland will be operating in such a way — particularly given they’ve just tendered him a supermax deal.
Said supermax might also be a deal-killer on the Celtics’ end, given the longer-term potential impact it would have on the team’s ability to field a contender once it’s kicked in — and the repeater tax arrives.
Creative minds nimble with the CBA might be able to find a way to “rent” Lillard for a season, then deal him away for multiple players easier to move longer term, but any time there’s this many “ifs” required to make a deal work out for both sides, it’s probably a non-starter in reality.
