The Portland Trail Blazers are trading all-star guard and Weber State University graduate Damian Lillard to team up with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers and the Phoenix Suns are collaborating to make a three-team trade package including Lillard.
The Trailblazers will receive Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday; Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton; Phoenix Suns’ draft pick Toumani Camara and the 2029 unprotected first-round draft pick, and will have unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030.
The Phoenix Suns will receive Jusuf Nurkić via Portland, Grayson Allen via Milwaukee, Nassir Little via Portland and Keon Johnson via Portland.
The Milwaukee Bucks will be receiving all-star guard Damian Lillard from the Portland Trail Blazers.
This deal comes months after Lillard formally requested to be traded from Portland in early July. The Portland Trail Blazers decided to take a patient approach to get the best option possible for their superstar. Lilliard departs from Portland after 11 seasons with the franchise. During his time as a Trailblazer he made seven NBA All-Star appearances and made the All-NBA team a total of seven times.
Lillard made the playoffs a total of eight times for the Trail Blazers, including a Western Conference finals appearance in 2018-19. Lilliard ranks first in team history in both points and 3-pointers made, he ranks second all-time in assists as well.
While attending Weber State University from 2008-2012 Lillard had an incredible basketball career. As a freshman he was one of the top players in the Big Sky Conference. He played in all 31 games and started in 26, and averaged 11.5 points per game, best on Weber’s team and No. 12 in the Big Sky. Lillard was third in the conference in free throw percentage at 0.841 and finished ninth in assists with 2.87 per game.
As a sophomore Lillard led the Big Sky in scoring at 19.9 points per game. Scored 617 points, No. 8 best in Weber’s men’s basketball history for a single season, and had 29 double figure scoring games in 31 outings. At the end of his sophomore year, Lillard got injured in the second half of the game against the University of Tulsa. Suffering a foot injury that forced him to miss the rest of the season.
In his junior season Lillard led the nation for the most points per game and finished second in the country with an average of 24.5, the best single-season average in Weber’s history. That season he scored 784 points which ranked him as the third most for a single-season in the Big Sky.
Lillard did not play at Weber for a senior season and in April of 2012 decided to enter the 2012 NBA draft. He was drafted by Portland with the sixth overall pick.
Finishing his college career Lillard scored 1,934 points — second in school history, and fifth in Big Sky history. He played in 103 games as a Wildcat and started 98 of them. He is Weber’s leader and the 6th best in the Big Sky with three-pointers at 246, free throws at 520, a free throw percentage at 86.7, and is second for assists with 362. He was a two-time Big Sky MVP and earned All-American honors his junior season, and was a two-time Weber State Male Athlete of the Year winner.
