[Amick] With Dame, I think the Harden-esque escalation wouldn’t happen unless he were dealt to a team like, say, Toronto, where he clearly doesn’t want to be.


>With Dame, I think the Harden-esque escalation wouldn’t happen unless he were dealt to a team like, say, Toronto, where he clearly doesn’t want to be. And for everyone who cites the Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard trade as an example of a team winning the risky bet on a player who wanted to be elsewhere, let’s not forget that Kawhi was only one season away from free agency at the time.
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>Lillard, by very significant contrast, has four very expensive seasons left on his contract (including a player option worth $63.2 million in 2026-27). It’s one thing to roll the dice for a season and hope it works out, and quite another to take on a deal worth $216 million and brace for the potentially disastrous fireworks that might unfold from there.

[https://theathletic.com/4883753/2023/09/22/nba-lillard-harden-trades-load-management-training-camp/](https://theathletic.com/4883753/2023/09/22/nba-lillard-harden-trades-load-management-training-camp/)

29 comments
  1. It would be so fucking funny if we traded for him. It’s like the one scenario in recent times where being the disgruntled superstar acquisition that brought his new team to the promised land would be a retread, and he would constantly be compared to Kawhi.

  2. If he goes to Toronto then in 2024 they’re going to potential have 2 Supermax players in Dame and a Siakam. That’s not happening, everyone. Toronto wants Herro, is my guess, and is just a part player in the larger deal.

  3. I’ll never understand why the ~4th largest city in North America is treated by players like it’s OKC or something. They’re obviously afraid of starting a .ca website

  4. Everyone worried about Dame’s contract if he goes to Toronto, but not if he goes to Miami. If Dame gets traded to Toronto, he will report, he will play – too much money to lose. The fans will love him and he will love the City. There will no fireworks.

  5. Yup, this is what I’ve been saying anytime this is brought up. Kawhi had just 1 year left. If it failed, all that it cost Toronto was moving on from Demar which, let’s be honest, everyone thought they should do anyway at the time since that team had a clear ceiling.

    Dame can do what he is doing now to Toronto if they trade for him. He can do it again in a year. He can be like a harden, or Durant or Kyrie. Make life hell for the team, for the fans.

    It’s not in any way the same as the Kawhi situation.

  6. This guy’s a fucking idiot… sign a massive contract with a team you don’t want to play for then demand a trade out to only one team. CBA hopefully cracks down on this superstar bullshit.

  7. Kind of funny to posit Lillard as a better person than Harden because he won’t escalate the situation (unless he’s sent to one of the 28 teams he doesn’t want to go to).

  8. Every one of these is like “Dame is a professional. But if he were traded to, to pick a totally random example, THE TORONTO RAPTORS, he would assemble the infinity stones and rewrite reality so that he never picked up a basketball.”

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