It appears Damian Lillard has played his last game for the Portland Trail Blazers.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne reported Saturday, citing sources, that the seven-time NBA All-Star officially has requested a trade from the franchise that selected him No. 6 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft.
The Athletic's Shams Charania also reported the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets are among the leading suitors to acquire Lillard in a trade this summer.
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The trade would solve one of the biggest mysteries to the 2023 NBA offseason.
Lillard is the Trail Blazers' all-time leader in points and 3-pointers. He led Portland to eight playoff appearances in 11 seasons and advanced to the 2019 Western Conference finals before being swept by the Warriors.
Lillard averaged a career-high 32.2 points and 7.3 assists last season. He turns 33 on July 15 and is set to make more than $44 million next season, making him one of the league's highest paid players (currently tied for 10th in salary with the Clippers Kawhi Leonard).
NBA
The highlight of Lillard's 2022-23 NBA season came in February when he scored a career-high and franchise-high 71 points in a win over the Houston Rockets. Lillard's big night included a personal best and a Blazers franchise-record 13 triples along with six rebounds and six assists.
The performance was good enough to place Lillard at No. 8 on the list of highest individual scoring games in NBA history.
Now that Lillard's trade request finally has been submitted, the next question to answer is where he'll end up.
