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NBA: “Today was the day that I was able to cross over that 100,000 mark." Damian Lillard explains the journey behind reaching 100K made shots this week after setting the goal for himself last year! (via @trailblazers)
Luckily for him, there's no shortage of wisdom and guidance, as he has plenty of figures willing to help him. That includes 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Damian Lillard and another FIBA star in Deni Avdija, both of which have been teaching him not only about basketball, but in adapting to life being in the league. "As a foreign player coming over, there were a lot of things that were unfamiliar to me. Being in another country, I had to adjust to many things, especially the language and everyday life," he reflected.
Damian Lillard: My high school coach as a sophomore at St Joes broke these #s down to me and asked me if I thought I would be one of them… I was on the bench that whole season and he told me I prob wouldn’t be on the team the next year. I said yea and he smiled and chuckled right in my face … true story … you just never know 🤷🏽♂️
Dejounte Murray: You can't focus on other people. Obviously, you got fans and media and all these things that come with being a professional athlete, or an athlete in general. But the moment you start focusing on whether people are sleeping on you or they're saying great things about you, when you focus on those things, you lose automatically. It's over. Nobody should impact how your day goes or dictate what you're gonna be or anything. For me, it ain't never about proving nobody wrong. It's really just proving myself right. So, of course, I'm human. I got hurt; I tore my Achilles. Like, I think it should be celebrated how hard we work to get back on our feet. When I was watching Dame [Lillard] and Tyrese [Haliburton] and Jayson Tatum's process, as well as mine, it's like, nah, we're human. But that's the thing that comes with being a pro, being in the NBA. It's like you don't get looked at as a human. You're above a human, which is crazy.
Team Lillard B-Ball: A memorable weekend in Salt Lake City! Shoutout @Dame_Lillard and good luck this season 💪
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Jeff Teague had the same reaction that probably every person on the planet had upon hearing Monta Ellis’ claim. Ellis, the former high-scoring Golden State Warriors guard, controversially declared on Sunday that the Warriors would’ve had the same success had he replaced Steph Curry. Teague, Ellis’ teammate with the Indiana Pacers in 2016-2017 wasn’t exactly buying it. “Imma keep it real with you. He was never better than Steph Curry,” Teague said during a live recording of “The Club 520 Podcast” before saying there was another star guard who he could have seen perhaps replicating the Warriors’ success with Curry. “…If you said ‘We’re going to take Steph Curry out of there, and put Dame Lillard, then I would be like ‘Okay I could see them get the same results.”
During the 2026/27 league year, only one NBA player will have a formal no-trade clause in his contract. That player is Damian Lillard, who negotiated a no-trade clause into his deal with the Trail Blazers last summer. LeBron James and Bradley Beal had no-trade clauses in their respective contracts in recent years, but Beal gave his up when he agreed to a buyout with the Suns during the 2025 offseason, and James no longer has one after his contract with the Lakers expired this summer. LeBron would have been eligible for a no-trade clause if he had rejoined the Cavaliers or Heat in free agency, but since he hasn’t played for Philadelphia before, he couldn’t add one to his new contract with the Sixers.
And now, Yang Hansen is comfortable enough to reflect, in his second language, on all of it: the struggles of adjusting to the physicality of the NBA as a rookie, the pressure of living up to the expectations of hundreds of millions of Chinese fans who haven't had a player of their own to root for in years, and his excitement about playing with Damian Lillard next season. "I'm more used to the situation now," he said as he squeezed his 7-foot-1 frame into a small couch in a side room of the lobby of the hotel.
NBA Courtside: Grant Hill on Jaylen Brown not being on the USA team: “When I announced then team, there were certain guys that I called before Woj and Shams broke it. And I called like Lillard, I called Jimmy Butler, I tried to call everybody because you never know when they’re going to break it. And you want to give guys the respect to hear it from me. I called Jaylen. We had a great conversation. Unbelievable conversation. And so something got lost there. And the implication that like a shoe company like to me that, look you guys can criticize my leadership. You can criticize the ability to put together a roster. When you’re in a role that I’m in, you open yourself up to criticism and I accept that. But to imply that like a shoe company told me what to do. Now you questioning my character, and that was the things that was weird.” (Via @RoadTrippinShow)
Herro was involved in plenty of trade speculation throughout his seven seasons with the Heat. Whether it was for Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, James Harden or Antetokounmpo, Herro was essentially part of trade rumors during every offseason of his Heat tenure. “That’s part of it,” Herro said. “I think, I’m sure there will still be rumors in Miami somewhere for someone. I’ve said it though, Miami is an organization that wants to win championships and they want to compete. We’ve obviously almost got there, and we’ve had years where we’ve lost in the first round, we’ve had years where we didn’t make the playoffs. So it’s like, I’ve been through every ending of the season. And it makes sense for them to want to get a fresh start, get someone like Giannis and build from there. So, it’s understandable.”
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Chris Haynes: Longtime NBA offensive guru Jay Triano has agreed to join the coaching staff of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Micah Nori and reunite with franchise star Damian Lillard, league sources say
“He’s excited to be on a team with vets like Dame and Jrue, and he loves the young talent of Deni (Avdija), Scoot, (Donovan) Clingan, (Toumani) Camara … I mean, he mentioned them all by name,” Nori said. As they left the restaurant, Nori asked Morant what he needed from him. How could he help? “He just said, ‘Make sure I get some Trail Blazers gear as soon as possible so I can start wearing it,’” Nori said.
That leads to the unspoken part of this trade: more deals are on the way. Have to be. The Blazers now have four point guards — Morant, Lillard, Jrue Holiday and Henderson — so unloading one or two seems likely. If I was to guess, I would imagine Holiday, because of his contract and because of his skill set, is the more likely candidate to be traded next.
The Blazers are still in the market to make another deal. They want more big-man depth and realize they have a logjam of four point guards with Morant, Lillard, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson, but the team does not feel it is essential to unload one of its guards. The Blazers believe the four guards can co-exist, in large part because the team believes Holiday can alleviate the redundancy by playing him off the ball as a shooting guard or small forward.
