Multiple teams calling Portland about Damian Lillard

In the wake of Portland’s steady purge of veterans over the past few days, multiple teams have called the Trail Blazers to try to engage them in Damian Lillard trade talks before Thursday’s 3 PM ET trade buzzer, league sources say.
Source: Marc Stein @ marcstein.substack.com

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Dave McMenamin @mcten
A laughable loss for the Lakers here in Portland tonight. They fall 107-105 to a Blazers team that had no Dame, just traded C.J. and didn’t have any of the C.J. trade return haul in uniform. LeBron 30p 7r 7a 3s 6tos; AD 17p 7r 6a 5b; THT 14p; Stanley 11p 6r. LAL is 26-30 – 12:18 AM Jamie Hudson @JamieHudson_
Dame so happy for his cousin right now. Blevins!! 👌 That was awesome – 11:46 PM Mike Prada @MikePradaNBA
Sometimes I watch the Cavs and wonder how I missed them trading for Damian Lillard. Then I remember I’m actually watching Darius Garland. – 11:12 PM Jamie Hudson @JamieHudson_
Dame and Melo catching up before tonight’s game #RipCity pic.twitter.com/waeUACNx1D – 9:21 PM Sean Highkin @highkin
Dame and Melo pic.twitter.com/P8wSsr8ec6 – 9:19 PM Henry Abbott @TrueHoop
Are the Blazers really building around Damian Lillard? Free for all (and due to look stupid as the trade deadline upends everything so please read immediately). truehoop.com/p/are-the-blaz… – 5:43 PM Jamie Hudson @JamieHudson_
“Me & him literally talked about it happening, the possibility of it & it was likely and stuff like that, & I still woke up this morning sad. It’s actually done. When I’m seeing “CJ To The Pelicans” —Dame told Casey
Great article from ⁦@Casey Holdahl⁩ nba.com/blazers/forwar… – 4:39 PM StatMuse @statmuse
Most 20-point quarters by an active player:
35 — Steph Curry
24 — James Harden
20 — Damian Lillard
17 — Devin Booker
(Submitted by @itschar1ie) pic.twitter.com/7JndcuYygc – 4:08 PM CBS NBA @CBSSportsNBA
NBA Star Power Index: Is Ben Simmons Brooklyn bound? Damian Lillard hangs over wild week of Blazers trades
cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-s… – 4:03 PM Jamie Hudson @JamieHudson_
Blazers Injury Report:
Nickeil Alexander-Walker (not with team), Eric Bledsoe (left Achilles), Keon Johnson (right ankle), Lillard (core muscle), Little (left shoulder), Didi Louzada (left knee; recovery) and Tomas Satoransky (not with team) are out for tonight’s game vs Lakers. – 4:03 PM Casey Holdahl @CHold
Nickeil Alexander-Walker (not with team), Eric Bledsoe (left Achilles tendinopathy), Keon Johnson (right ankle), Damian Lillard (core muscle recovery), Nassir Little (left shoulder recovery), Didi Louzada (left knee) and Tomas Satoransky (not with team) are out vs. Lakers. – 3:59 PM Brad Botkin @bradbotkincbs
I think I’m completely flipping my “Lillard is gone” stance to “the Blazers might be doing gods work here” on the fly. – 3:22 PM Sirius XM NBA @SiriusXMNBA
“You could see the writing on the wall”
Former #Blazers Shooting Guard @Bonzi Wells tells @talkhoops and @ReggieTheus why Damian Lillard could be next to go in Portland #RipCity pic.twitter.com/mTRadqjj3t – 3:00 PM Emiliano Carchia @Sportando
Lillard to McCollum: Hurt my heart to know shit won’t be the same but the love gone always remain sportando.basketball/en/lillard-to-… – 2:40 PM Kellan Olson @KellanOlson
Dame/Blazers gotta believe they are getting one of Harden, Beal or LaVine, right? – 2:32 PM Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
📅 On this day in 2018, the @Portland Trail Blazers Damian Lillard scored 50 points in just 29 minutes in a 118-100 win over the Kings.
Lillard is one of four players in NBA history to record a 50-point game while playing less than 30 minutes. Klay Thompson is the only one to do so twice. pic.twitter.com/VlVgfxsnN2 – 12:01 PM Kurt Helin @basketballtalk
Lillard says goodbye to McCollum on Instagram, “Grateful for our brotherhood” nba.nbcsports.com/2022/02/09/lil… – 10:27 AM Tom Haberstroh @tomhaberstroh
🏀 HABERSHOW w/ @Amin Elhassan 🏀
The sneaky signal of the CJ McCollum trade — What it means for Damian Lillard and the rest of the NBA. Big changes are happening 👁
🍎: https://t.co/YxFfFtasYw
: https://t.co/1DKFeAe6RE pic.twitter.com/iAJgAiKHB8 – 7:54 AM

More on this storyline

The rising expectation from the outside is that Lillard is unlikely to return from abdominal surgery this season with the Blazers clearly playing for draft position now. Harder to forecast is what happens this summer, with Lillard still faithfully pledging his loyalty to the organization and the city while potential suitors continue to tune out those proclamations in hopes that he will eventually ask to be traded, -via marcstein.substack.com / February 10, 2022 This is the current understanding of Lillard’s thinking about Portland. He won’t demand a trade because he won’t run from the grind. The logic felt strained over the summer, to the ticking clock of his prime years, and his urge to win a championship. Now–barring another big deal before the trade deadline—with the Blazers talking about lottery picks and youth, a search of the word “Dame” on Twitter mostly turns up stuff like this: It’s almost as if Blazers management were begging Lillard to force his way out. A theory going around the NBA: that’s exactly what they’re doing. -via TrueHoop / February 10, 2022 After Tuesday’s surprising trade of CJ McCollum to the Pelicans, one theory emerged in phone calls to executives around the league: Perhaps, as the theory goes, Lillard doesn’t want to be part of it. Perhaps the Blazers and their star do want a divorce, but neither wants the bad press of being seen as the instigator. Some sources told me they are sure this is the case. (Amin Elhassan shared the same theory on the Habershow.) -via TrueHoop / February 10, 2022