The Brooklyn Nets have training camp starting in less than one week from now and after the events of Wednesday, now live in a world where superstar Damian Lillard is now a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. There was another report that came out Wednesday about seemingly what could have been.
According to a post by Marc J. Spears of ESPN and Andscape, Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, told the Nets in private on Sep. 17 that Lillard would be interested in a trade to Brooklyn. What makes this news interesting is that when Lillard first requested his trade from the Portland Trail Blazers, he essentially had the Miami Heat and Brooklyn on his wish list.
A short time after news broke of the teams that Lillard would prefer to be traded to, reports came out that he only wanted to go to the Heat, essentially limiting his trade market to Miami. The change in heart appears to stem from the fact that the Heat were reportedly not meeting Portland’s expectations when it came to trade negotiations.
The news by Spears also indicates that after all of the reports that have come out over the past few months that Brooklyn still had a shot at trading for Lillard. It is unknown what the desired trade package would have looked like, but given that the Trail Blazers are rebuilding at this time, the deal would have most likely included some of the Nets’ young players and high-leverage draft picks, such as their own picks and the ones from the Phoenix Suns.
Sources to @andscape: With Miami talks going nowhere, agent Aaron Goodwin privately told the Bucks and Nets 10 days ago that Dame would be interested in a deal there. The Raptors were a real contender to land the ex-Blazers star, but ultimately Bucks got it done per Woj report.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) September 27, 2023
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