Report: Damian Lillard Would Have Been Interested In Joining The Warriors Before The Chris Paul Trade

The Damian Lillard sweepstakes continue on unabated, as Lillard wants out of Portland and prefers a move to Miami, even though the Trail Blazers don’t seem to be all that interested in whatever the Heat can put on the table without bringing in another team. As such, reports indicate that Portland’s front office is willing to look around and see if what they can get from other teams.

It stands to reason that the Golden State Warriors aren’t able to get in on the Lillard sweepstakes, as the team already pulled off a big deal this summer by acquiring Chris Paul from the Washington Wizards for Jordan Poole. But apparently, if they waited to make a Poole trade, Lillard would have been very interested in heading to the Warriors, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

“They had another choice: They could have waited for Dame,” Shelburne said. “Dame is from the Bay Area, I know he was interested. If he got to the point where he was gonna ask for a trade and the list was given, the Warriors initially would have been on that list. But I think now it’s not possible, right? Because of the moves they made, they sort of locked in. They could have waited, I think they did a smart thing by trading for Chris Paul when they did, preserve that optionality, plus they get a really good player.”

Lillard, of course, is from Oakland and maintains deep ties to the Bay Area, and if he wants to compete for a championship, a good way to do that is to join the team that has won more of them over the last decade than anyone else. Even though it stands to reason that Poole would have presented a lot of the same problems that Tyler Herro apparently does in talks between the Blazers and Heat, Golden State could have theoretically sweetened the pot with guys like Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, if they wanted to go in that direction. But in the end, this is nothing more than an NBA what if … unless the Warriors, by some miracle, can somehow figure out a way to acquire Lillard.