Pelicans GM David Griffin Peeled Back The Curtain And Gave Some Pretty Interesting Insight Into The Damian Lillard Trade Drama

Andy Lyons. Getty Images.

No matter where you look, basketball fans everywhere have a Damian Lillard take. NBA Twitter, TV talking heads, sports radio shows, you, me, all of us have weighed in at some point during this Dame drama. The thing is, we're all on the outside. I'd say 99.9% of us have no idea what actually goes into these situations, but that's certainly not going to stop the take machine from doing its thing. We all need something to talk about right?

Well, you know who does know what this life and challenge is like? David Griffin. It wasn't too long ago he had to deal with his own franchise superstar who wasn't exactly shy about wanting to be traded to a singular team. As annoying as all this Dame drama might be, at least he never did this

What an all time lie that was. So outrageous you have no choice but to respect it.

So if there's anyone who can provide real insight into this situation, I'd say Griffin is a pretty good option. 

Advertisement

Now that was cool. I always find it fascinating to hear how these GMs really think and how they navigate trade demands like this, especially around the idea of creating the illusion of leverage. Heat fans and Heat media have tried to push the idea that the Blazers need to accept a bad deal just because, and when you have Joe Cronin coming out the other day and say this shit could take months until they get something the Blazers like combined with Griffin basically confirmed to everyone that the biggest thing as a GM in this spot is to not take a bad deal, something tells me these two have talked. Maybe Cronin reached out for advice seeing as how Griffin just went through this, but that felt informed to some degree.

I also found it interesting how Griffin talked at the beginning of the clip about how it doesn't really matter how true a certain package rumor might be, what's important is that someone says it and throws it out into the universe. I think we all sort of knew that was the deal, but Griffin basically confirming this is what GMs like Cronin want is interesting. When the player himself tries to kill the market, of course on the team side they are going to try and create the idea that there actually are other options so that the Heat up their offer. If you remember back to the AD trade, there were real reasons to think Danny Ainge was about to go all in on his white whale. it got to the point where even AD's Dad had to come out and say his son wouldn't stay in Boston because of how they treated Isaiah Thomas. My guess is that leverage from the Celtics helped the Pelicans get more assets out of the Lakers. 

At the end of the day, I think we all know how this is going to end. Dame is going to move down to South Beach. If there was a better offer out there from someone else at the moment, he'd be on that team by now. The question now is mostly if Joe Cronin can scare the Heat enough that there are other options out there to the point where they find a way to put forth an offer that Cronin thinks makes sense. I think you're being a little naive if you think Dame is going to end up somewhere else given that's not really how these things work in the NBA with star player demands, and I think Griffin's experience only confirms it. Once the Pelicans got an offer they felt was worthy, they pulled the trigger.

While I don't think the Blazers are going to get that same type of AD package in return, it's clear they're holding out for something better than whatever is currently on the table.