The Portland Trail Blazers are about to sign Chauncey Billups as their new head coach. This causes displeasure among some fans and could also ensure that franchise star Damian Lillard wants to force you into a trade.
The hiring of Billups and the question marks whether Portland will be a serious contender in the future, according to Chris Haynes (Yahoo Sports) Factors that the loyal Lillard could possibly think of a trade after all. Haynes has a particularly good relationship with Lillard, possibly he is Yahoo-Reporter here something like a mouthpiece for the point guard.
Lillard’s loyalty is said to be primarily with the fans of the Blazers, but the 30-year-old has been attacked several times on social media over the past few days because of the rumors about Billups. According to Haynes, Lillard was not involved in the coaching search, other sources claimed the opposite and named Billups as one of Lillard’s preferred candidates.
Laut Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN) and Shams Charania (The Athletic) a deal is imminent between the current Clippers assistant and the Blazers, Portland has already announced that the new coach will be announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
Lillard: “Don’t support such things”
In addition to the former Pistons Guard, Mike D’Antoni and Becky Hammon were also interviewed, but the assistant coaches from Brooklyn and San Antonio received nothing. As in the case of the Dallas Mavericks, however, the employment of Billups is controversial because they had to deal with administrative allegations in 1997. The then-Boston Celtics player was never convicted, instead a financial settlement was reached three years later.
Lillard, who has a good relationship with Billups, recently said on social media that he was unaware of this incident. “I didn’t read the paper when I was seven or eight,” Lillard wrote on Twitter, adding, “I don’t support things like that.”
The six-time All-Star has played for the Blazers since 2012 and has been the undisputed face of the franchise since LaMarcus Aldridge left six years ago. Portland reached the playoffs in eight of the nine years, but five times it was already over in round one.
The Blazers only marched into the Conference Finals in 2018, but had no chance against Golden State (0-4). A year later, Lillard signed his Supermax extension, which will bring him around $ 176 million from August this year until 2025.
.
