Is Jayson Tatum still recruiting Damian Lillard to the Boston Celtics?
In a recent interview with the Oregonian’s “Sports by Northwest” podcast, Andscape’s Hall of Fame NBA reporter Marc J. Spears related that Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard may have another force pulling him eastward from his current ball club in the league’s Western Conference.
Per Spears, while Lillard remains focused on trying to get himself to another team ahead of the start of the league’s 2023-24 season in what Spears has called “a calculated risk”, All-NBA Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum “has called him, try to get in his ear, but his focus is definitely on Miami.”
Spears has reported on Tatum’s push to convince his former Team USA teammate to join Boston previously, before the start of the 2023 free agency period.
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Whether this is a return to that specific incidence of the St. Louis native attempting to bring Lillard onto what was then a different iteration of the ball club or represents a sustained effort by Tatum to pitch Lillard on the Celtics, any such move would require a substantial offer from Boston to pull off.
With the Blazers star earning $45.6 million this season, an offer built around one of Malcolm Brogdon or Derrick White plus additional contracts to make the swap CBA legal could conceivably be assembled.
But with Boston unlikely to want the years on Lillard’s current contract and Portland what the Celtics have to offer, we wouldn’t hold our breath on this trade or something like it happening any time soon.
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