The Damian Lillard blockbuster deal caught a lot of people off-guard. One NBA player who admitted that the Portland Trail Blazers - Milwaukee Bucks trade stunned him was Lillard's former backcourt partner, CJ McCollum.
"I was stunned. Obviously, Dame is my guy... we kind of knew something was going to happen. I didn't expect Milwaukee; I don't know that he expected Milwaukee... Milwaukee makes a lot of sense. If you really think about what he said, his goals and aspirations were in terms of winning a championship. But I will say, just like the rest of the world, I was shocked and I was interested in seeing who was involved in the deal," said McCollum, who played for the Trail Blazers since 2013.
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McCollum, now with the New Orleans Pelicans, was one of the many personalities who suggested that Lillard would leave Portland in June when he appeared on ESPN's "First Take," Bleacher Report reported.
"The market will dictate what happens here. ... If I was a betting man, I would say this is the last that we've seen of him [in Portland]," the 32-year-old said at the time.
The Lillard-McCollum duo was considered one of the best backcourt tandems in the league before. Now that Portland has broken it up, the Trail Blazers find themselves in a rebuilding phase.
Lillard not blaming Heat for the failed attempt
As for Lillard, it doesn't appear he is blaming the Miami Heat for coming up short in acquiring him. The camp of the 33-year-old guard believes the Blazers had planned all along to ship Dame to any NBA team other than the Heat, Shams Charania of The Athletic claims.
"I believe Damian Lillard and his camp believe that Portland just did not have any interest in fulfilling his wish, and that's trading him to the Miami Heat," Charania said on the Pat McAfee Show" via SI.com.
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