Li Yishen:
The Blazers sent Damian Lillard a two-year, $122 million extension in advance. Lillard’s contract will expire in the summer of 2027. The Blazers must have a broken head!
1. Damian Lillard has lost a second-tier star from the first line: The Blazers started to reorganize (not rebuild) last season, the core is still Damian Lillard, the leader is still Lillard, the team leader is still Lillard, except for injuries, Lillard’s performance and image last season ( Especially in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the US team has dropped from a first-tier star to a second-tier star. The pioneers continue to use Lillard as the core leader, and it is difficult to turn over.
2. Alto is not even a playoff team: Alto was plagued by injuries last season, but there were problems with the team’s defense, coaches, combination, and tacit understanding. This is the bigger cause. A Tuo still did not start to rebuild and reorganize from the perspective of core, backbone, defense and team. Compared with the previous two years, this combination is almost the same, and it is very hard to fight for the playoffs.
3. Alto locks up his salary: NBA revenue and income have been increasing for three years. Maybe Lillard’s salary will not look so scary, but after three years, Alto’s salary structure will still be stuck by himself in the next three years. . Lillard still has a three-year contract that has not yet been executed, and there is no need to rush to renew it in advance. Lillard is not Curry, not Luka, and not Giannis. Alto is just burying himself in the graveyard by doing this.
Zhu Yanshuo:
The Portland Trail Blazers will give Damian a two-year, $122 million contract, which will make Lillard’s annual salary start in 2025. In fact, this is a super-sized pension contract, which is a kind of gratitude from the Blazers for honoring Lillard, for his contribution, and for his staying behind.
Many people may think that once this contract is signed, it is impossible for the Blazers to win the championship. That’s true, but can the Blazers win the championship without signing this contract? Don’t forget, the Blazers last won the championship game in 1992, and the last time they won the championship was 1977. What does that mean? It means that in this border city in the northwest of the United States, the NBA championship is unavoidable. You’d be hard-pressed to find top players here, and that’s the reality. It’s not that Portland has no money, it’s that money can’t buy people, so their owners actually have very low requirements for the team, can make the playoffs, have decent stars, can make money, and can explain to the fans. That’s it. This is not incompetence or resignation, but an ecological reality of the NBA.
So let’s understand one thing: It’s not that NBA owners set up teams to win championships. To them, Lillard is a high-quality employee. If a company does not know how to treat its high-quality employees well, what is the difference between a company that maximizes profits and is ruthless? What I find odd is this: Fans rave about the real-life companies that treat their heroes, but criticize teams in the NBA for keeping them that way. It’s a weird ideological divide. I think the pioneers did the right thing, it was their choice, nothing to blame.
HBK：
The Portland Trail Blazers renew Damian Lillard with a two-year, 122 million contract, which is really a sky-high contract! It is equal to the possibility of breaking the 60 million mark in the final season (depending on the salary cap at that time), which is undoubtedly the last approximation that the Blazers gave Lillard.
Lillard is already 32 years old, including the three-year contract he already has. When this contract is over, he will be almost 37 years old. He is already at the age to retire. At the twilight stage of his career, his competitiveness is definitely not as good as before. It also means that at that time he was a super-high salary, but could not play the stage of superstar influence.
Such a huge salary will of course have a great impact on the future layout of the pioneers and the improvement of their combat power. If Lillard is not at the peak of his career to fight for a championship in the past two years, then in the next few years, before Lillard retires, the pioneers. The chances of winning the championship are really not high, the challenge is too huge.
Being able to give such top-level treatment to their own totem stars is actually something that local fans will be happy to see. Of course, everyone knows that this approach is likely to drift away from the championship, but seriously, it is meaningful for the city of Portland. of! Because Lillard is likely to become the team’s most iconic one-man-one-city legend.
Portland lacks such legends, Clyde Drexler unfortunately does not, Terry Porter, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rasheed Wallace and other classics also do not have such a chance. representative totem.
Sometimes championships are not everything, and if Lillard can fulfill his promise to former owner Pual Allen, that he will never give up on this team until the end of his life, it will be a beautiful thing! However, the degree of this kind of emotion is really far from being comparable to that of Reggie Miller, Dirk, Stockton, Kobe. After all, this contract is so big that it is difficult not to stay.
Now, it will test whether Lillard will apply for a trade because the team is not going well in the next few years? If there is such a move, it will definitely break the hearts of Portland fans and make this signing very meaningless.
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