Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks on Sept. 27th in a three-team trade.
LAS VEGAS — When it comes to old-school musical acts finding their renaissance in the modern era, there’s no place like Sin City.
Usher is currently starring at the MGM Grand. Garth Brooks is headlining at Caesars. Even Britney Spears hopped on the Las Vegas stage recently — albeit in a very different sort of fashion — in the Victor Wembanyama slap-gate saga.
Advertisement
But if the folks who run the NBA’s premier summer league want to really capture the mood of the moment and give a not-so-subtle nod to the James Harden and Damian Lillard storylines that appear destined to dominate the offseason, it’s time to give Guns’ N’ Roses a call and offer a spot as the next halftime act. “Patience,” as their 1988 smash hit was dubbed, is desperately needed right about now.
In both superstar situations, the early July fireworks that came with their respective trade demands have been followed by a fizzle. And as the summer drags on without either player reaching his desired destination — Miami for Lillard and the LA Clippers for Harden — the question now is whether the front office executives leading the way in each case have the temerity to take this tough negotiating tone all the way into training camp in October.
It’s one thing to preach patience now, as both Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin (publicly) and Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey (privately) have been doing. So long as the aggrieved player doesn’t go public with his frustrations, there’s an out-of-sight-out-of-mind reality that comes with this time of year, which allows the respective teams to play the waiting game as they wait for better offers. But as the season nears, the human dynamic will surely grow more uncomfortable and, presumably, play a part in each team’s calculus.
With Harden, we’ve already seen how messy it can get when his trade request isn’t being granted as quickly as he would like. During those final weeks of his Houston era, when Morey had already left his Rockets front office post for Philadelphia and Harden had decided in November 2021 that it was time to move on, he showed up to training camp late after partying in Atlanta and Las Vegas, causing all kinds of consternation inside the locker room once he arrived. The later stages of his Brooklyn experience had similar vibes, with Morey using Harden’s unhappiness to his advantage in negotiations with the Nets before that February 2022 trade to Philadelphia.
Advertisement
Yet despite all that relevant history, and in spite of the fact that Morey may know Harden, and all of his complexities, better than anyone in the NBA, rival executives with whom I spoke at summer league were universally convinced that the Sixers are now attempting to keep Harden. Discontent be damned.
The sluggish trade talks between the Sixers and Clippers about Harden would seem to support this stance. Morey is known to be asking for the kind of return that — as of Tuesday afternoon — left the strong impression that he had no genuine interest in getting a deal done anytime soon.
Harden’s stance has not changed, a source close to him told The Athletic. He still wants to leave Philadelphia. He’s still upset with how Morey handled his situation heading into possible free agency last month. And even with the recent revelation that Harden attended the same NBPA party as Sixers co-star Joel Embiid and former Sixers owner Michael Rubin in Vegas, he’s still determined to start next season in a Clippers jersey.
In Miami, meanwhile, Heat officials who so badly want to land Lillard can certainly relate to the stagnant state of affairs. But the Heat’s dilemma is different from that of the Clippers, who could roll the ball out with this roster next season and still feel reasonably good about their road ahead. The Heat already said goodbye to Gabe Vincent (the Lakers) and Max Strus (Cleveland) in free agency after their Finals run, meaning the idea of losing key contributors like Caleb Martin, or young talents like Nikola Jović and Jaime Jaquez Jr., would only further limit their title-contending prospects.
That’s where the slow pace of the Heat-Blazers talks has made it even harder to reach a deal point. Miami has already missed out on so many affordable free agents who might have come its way had the Lillard addition already been made — like Taurean Prince, for example, before he went to the Lakers. In light of that, there’s even greater internal interest in retaining as many role players as possible. As has been widely reported, a Heat deal would likely include Tyler Herro (who would likely go to a third team) and Duncan Robinson.
Advertisement
Yet unlike Harden, Lillard has never been in this sort of sensitive situation before. He has remained publicly quiet to this point, but that could always change as training camp nears and he grows more restless.
Cronin was known to be spending summer league getting a fuller understanding of the market for Lillard, including among teams that might make a play for him despite his well-known Miami wishes. But the pressure will grow in the coming months, when the spotlight surrounding Lillard and Harden brightens yet again and their impatience inevitably grows along the way.
Oh, the songs they might sing if these superstar stalemates continue.
GO DEEPER
Joe Cronin Q&A: The Trail Blazers GM on the future of Damian Lillard
The Warriors and their point guard insurance
Remember when I wrote recently about how Chris Paul always knows what he’s doing? He’s among the smartest, most deliberate and occasionally calculating players the game has ever seen, and that reality should always be considered when analyzing his words and deeds.
So when he pushed back against the idea that he would come off the bench for the Warriors this season during his introductory news conference in Vegas on Sunday, it’s safe to assume that he knew precisely what he was doing. Regardless of what comes next, it’s quite clear that Paul is holding out some hope that there’s a way for him to start (and no, people, not in replacement of Steph Curry and/or Klay Thompson, but with them in a small lineup).
There’s been no discussion between Chris Paul and Steve Kerr about Paul coming off the bench. “It’ll be a conversation when camp starts. Me and Steve have talked, but that ain’t something where it’s, ‘What up, man? You starting or coming off the bench.” pic.twitter.com/JYSO9hcHqE
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) July 10, 2023
As our Anthony Slater detailed, there are ways in which Paul could potentially start while also spending most of his court time leading Golden State’s second unit. But the larger takeaway here is that Paul, at 38 and on the verge of his 19th season, isn’t about to fall in line with the Warriors’ wishes at every turn without making his voice be heard. This should surprise no one, of course, but that moment was a public confirmation of that fact if ever there was one.
The same logic surely applies to the Warriors’ discussions over managing his minutes as well. As a historical reference point, I direct you to the story told about Paul’s first meeting with Oklahoma City Thunder officials after he was traded there in the summer of 2019.
Advertisement
As they all sat inside the Creative Artists Agency offices in Los Angeles, where Thunder general manager Sam Presti and his staff shared data about how best to manage his aging body, Paul pushed back in the same kind of way that he would in his initial Warriors press conference four years later.
“They showed me a PowerPoint presentation of what other players had been like at the age of 34 and 35,” Paul told me then while laughing on the phone. “I was just sitting there watching. They’re showing me what Steve Nash was like, J-Kidd, Chauncey Billups and what all these people looked like, and their numbers and all that stuff. And I sat there. They told me, ‘We only look at you playing maybe 60 games, this and that, you know?’”
He would play 70 games that season, all while leading the young Thunder to the playoffs. Three productive seasons with the Suns followed, including one in which he played a pivotal part in Phoenix’s Finals run (2020-21) and another in which he led the league in assists (2021-22). Injuries have certainly been an issue along the way, but that doesn’t mean his mentality has changed.
GO DEEPER
Steph Curry, Klay Thompson offer their first thoughts on Chris Paul trade
On a lighter note, the Warriors’ renowned media relations man, Raymond Ridder, had the punchline of the press conference. As Paul discussed his latest team change with reporters in a small room inside of the Thomas & Mack Center, a woman who was seated not far away apparently fell off of her chair. Paul heard the commotion, then stopped to ask if she was ok.
Ridder, with perfect timing, shouted, “State Farm!” in reference to Paul’s longstanding business partnership. Laughter ensued.
If Paul can stay healthy enough to provide the kind of point guard leadership that was lacking behind Curry during the Jordan Poole era, this will be the insurance policy the Warriors were hoping for when they made the trade to acquire him.
Adam Silver and Las Vegas expansion
When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave his latest update on the possibility of expansion on Monday while speaking at the Associated Press Sports Editors event inside the Flamingo hotel, there were all sorts of reasons for the locals to feel optimistic about the idea of Vegas finally getting a team. (Seattle, not surprisingly, was also prominently mentioned.)
Advertisement
Silver made no promises, but he clearly outlined a likely timeline for the league to expand (after a new media rights deal is done in the summer of 2025) and raved about the Vegas market all along the way.
He deemed summer league the NBA’s “31st franchise,” but that’s hardly the only professional hoops event being held in these parts. There’s the G-League showcase in the winter, the forthcoming NBA in-season tournament (semifinals and finals) that will be held here in early December and the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces team that moved here in 2018 and has been well received en route to becoming a dominant franchise (they won the title last season and are currently a league-best 19-2). I joined our Marcus Thompson in the crowd at my first Aces game on this trip (an 89-82 win over Dallas on July 5), and it was an impressive experience in terms of crowd support (a sellout at Michelob Ultra arena) and overall vibe.
As a short and related aside, the $2.3 billion MSG sphere on the Vegas strip that was the pet project of Knicks owner James Dolan is nothing short of spectacular. The league wasted little time using said sphere to its marketing benefit when it had NBA business to promote.
Vegas' Billion-Dollar Bauble
Just when we thought Las Vegas had exhausted every ostentatious gimmick imaginable to attract overindulgent spenders and starry-eyed tourists, they surprise us with this gargantuan disco ball, the MSG Sphere. And the appropriate response, I suppose,… pic.twitter.com/eEITXT0inJ
— Oliver McCann (@OliverZMcCann) July 9, 2023
But to hear Silver speak so glowingly about the league’s relationship with Vegas was to realize how far this market has come. Back in 2007, when then-Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman hosted the NBA’s All-Star event that he would later call “a disastrous weekend,” it seemed inconceivable that these wounds would ever heal. The strip club shooting involving then-NFL player “PacMan” Jones had nearly popped the NBA’s trial balloon all by itself, with that situation sparking so much chaos in the aftermath of the All-Star game.
Fast forward 16 years, with the NHL’s Golden Knights being founded in 2017, the Aces arriving in 2018, the NFL’s Raiders coming to town in 2020 and the MLB’s Athletics likely on their way, and the pro team landscape is vastly different. Make no mistake, the Vegas possibility seems more real than ever for the NBA.
(Photo of Damian Lillard and James Harden: Rich Schultz / Getty Images)