Add in three-time All-Star Khris Middleton and Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Brook Lopez, and the Bucks just put themselves in position to be the favorites in the East. The Bucks now have two of the six players leaguewide who scored at least 30 points per game last season. Lillard just put together an All-NBA Third Team season, where he proved that he can still perform at an elite level with 32.2 points and 7.3 assists per game. The seven-time All-NBA guard will immediately become the best player that two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has shared the floor with and immediately form the Eastern Conference’s most dangerous duo. Quick How Lillard boosts the Bucksįor the Bucks, Lillard represents a major swing for the fences. This will always be a bitter day for Blazers fans, as Lillard was beloved, but a new and definitive course has finally been set in Portland.

With an all-out commitment to Henderson at point guard, it is likely the Blazers attempt to flip Holiday for an asset, enhancing the depth and quality of the roster. The Blazers’ core is young and dynamic, with key pieces Scoot Henderson (19 years old), Shaedon Sharpe (20), Anfernee Simons (24) and Ayton (25) still in their formative years, with Matisse Thybulle (26) and Jerami Grant (29) as veteran leaders. It will be a day that lives in infamy for the Trail Blazers franchise, as perhaps its greatest player has been traded, but this is a good haul for Portland and sets a promising direction for the future. The casuals won’t be addressed but the trailblazers fans and city of Portland that I love truly will be … and they will be addressed truthfully. Lillard was the 2013 NBA Rookie of the Year, a six-time NBA All-Star, an All-NBA selection seven times and was picked as a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team over his time with the Blazers. For Portland, it is the end of an era that began in 2012 when Lillard was selected with the sixth pick in that summer’s draft.

In Milwaukee, Lillard will join forces with one of the top players in the league in Giannis Antetokounmpo, making the Bucks an instant title favorite. A timeline of the saga that led to Damian Lillard's trade to the Bucks

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