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THE CARMELO ANTHONY EFFECT IS SLOWLY HAPPENING TO DAMIAN LILLARD

Damian Lillard has made it publicly and privately adamant that he wants to remain a trailblazer and thinks the Blazers can win a championship. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with Dame believing in his team, and as he should. There’s not even anything wrong with staying with one team your whole career obviously, it's just very rare nowadays so there’s always going to be rumors on if "Dame wants out". Hearing what Dame has been saying over the years has reminded me of Carmelo's early career and his current stage in his career and how he got here. 

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DAME'S AS LOYAL AS THEY COME

As we know, Dame is very loyal. He's a rare breed. Has said PO even feels like his second home. He's stated he believes Portland has enough to win a championship and that he does not want to leave. Again there’s nothing wrong with that and its no knock on Dame. But he is 31 years old, as great of a point guard and player Lillard is he can not win a championship "on his own". Especially in the tough western conference as good of a player CJ McCollum is you’re going to need a better 2 option to win a championship. What made Dame believe he could win a championship with Portland even more, was seeing Giannis Antetokounmpo lead the Milwaukee Bucks--another low market team-- to a championship.

“But when I watched Giannis, he was really looking around like, ‘Damn, what if I really left Milwaukee? This was worth it.’ So for me, I put myself in his shoes. Sometimes it seems like this is impossible and it’s never going to happen, and I’m sure he was there before, too.

“If I was to get that championship for Portland, I would cry, bruh. Bruh, on the spot. I would really cry, bro. I want to win a championship here. And because of how strongly I feel about that, I don’t know how rewarding it would feel for me at this point if I won somewhere else. Winning it here would be a lifetime achievement for me.”

As we know just keeping it real, Giannis Antetokounmpo is a better Basketball player than Damian Lillard. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But more importantly the Milwaukee Bucks front office and organization is better than Portland's front office and organization. Much better i'd add. Giannis won his first championship, at just 26, with two former all star teammates in Jrue Holiday and Kris Middleton. Damian Lillard has never played with an all star teammate, obviously with CJ being the closest.  Then it really reminded me of early Carmelo Anthony, for some reason.

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THE SIMILARITIES 

Many, many people forget that early in Melo's career with Denver he was leading them to playoff appearances. His rookie season Denver was the 6th seed in the Western conference. In 2009 he even lead them to the Western Conference Finals against the LA Lakers. Carmelo always gets the notion of just a "scoring machine" or an "empty stat guy" but when he was with Denver, he was a proven winner. Now his time in New York Melo led them to the playoffs times as well but he never achieved the big goal of an NBA Championship. Melo specifically had two chances to get out of his bad situation in New York and go and compete: that being Chicago in 2014, and Miami in 2011. No one would’ve faulted Melo for leaving New York, at that time they were an incompetent front office and did never really put enough pieces  around him to contend for a championship. But specifically both times, Melo will never admit it, but he chose the money over the potential uncertainty. He trusted in the Knicks organization to put enough pieces around him. As for him potentially going to Chicago, it was very close.:

"I was going to Chicago. Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah. I was there, right? I was there. And then I started getting whispers behind the scenes. “Yo, look, this person ain’t gonna be there. It ain’t really right. This and that.” And it was all of that started to come up in the midst of my decision-making. I wasn’t going to let anything cloud that. I met with New York last. They was the last team I met with, because I knew that I was ready to move on from that situation because of what I was dealing with and going through in New York. After that, I met with New York the last meeting and said, “Tell me what you’re going to do for the organization, for us to put a team together to go compete and try to win. That was my conversation with them. There was a lot of things that was promised, a lot of things that was said. And I said, “You know what? Because I belong in New York, I’m going to roll with you. I’m going to roll with you.”

At that time, the most the Bulls could offer was $16 million a year over four years, to keep the teams salary together. The only way they could give him more was to trade off contracts like Carlos Boozer. Ultimately, Carmelo chose to trust the Knicks organization and chose the money, landing a almost $130M dollar over five year contract with the Knicks opposed to possibly teaming up with a star studded Bulls team. 

As for Melo's situation with the Miami Heat and potentially joining two great friends in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, it all started from draft night. LeBron and Wade specifically signed shorter rookie scale extensions in 2006, making them both free agents in 2010. Melo said they urged him to do the same, but he decided to stay longer with the Denver Nuggets. Had Melo take the three year extension he would have been apart of Miami's big three, instead of Bosh.

"We didn’t know that that was going to happen. It was just conversations at that point in time. We always said we wanted to play with each other – USA teams, world championships. We always said that, coming into the NBA as well. We don’t know that was going to come into fruition. We didn’t know even how that was going to happen. At that point in time when they brought that to me, it was just an idea.

The Miami situation, that was just an idea. That was just at the idea stages. And I was about to sign shortly after that conversation."

There’s nothing wrong with taking the money over the potential uncertainty. Thankfully Carmelo is still in the league and is currently on the Lakers trying to compete for a championship, but it isn’t a peak Melo, its a 37 year old Melo who is still a great knockdown shooter but obviously not at his best. Several factors into Melo finally joining a contender, but one main factor I want to point out is awareness. Melo at age 37 realizing he shouldn’t have, ironically, stayed in Portland with Dame and CJ --who pushed and got him back into the NBA-- and chose to go compete for a championship. Knicks Melo would not have joined a team of LeBron and Anthony Davis. He would have took the money and trusted a poor managed organization such as the Knicks, at that time. 

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THE SMALL MARKET BEAUTY

Now in Dames defense, I am sure he really wants to stay in Portland the rest of his career. Being drafted by a small market team does wonders for players and specifically in this context nba point guards. Think of all the top NBA point guards in the NBA. Stephen Curry, Ja Morant, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Trae Young, Russell Westbrook, De'Aaron Fox, Jamal Murray etc. They all have one thing in common: being drafted by a small market team. They didn’t have the pressure with the players such as a Lonzo Ball or D'Angelo Russell  with the LA Lakers, Frank Ntilikina with the Knicks, or even  Markelle Fultz with the 76ers. Dame the following summer of losing to the Denver Nuggets, even met with LeBron James just to get his advice on everything and his current stance.

Bron asked what I was thinking with my situation, and I told him what I’m telling you: that I just want to be in a position to win it all,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports. “He painted the picture to me that if I were to leave, the situation could look like this. He didn’t tell me to come to L.A., and he didn’t say anything to me that I didn’t already know other than what it could look like. I told him, ‘I know if I were to play with y’all, I know it would work out because of my skill set,’ and who I am and who they are. “I was just saying, I don’t know if this is the route I wanted to go,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports. “And that was pretty much how the conversation went.”

“The whole time I knew I was a Trail Blazer, but obviously coming off that playoff loss, I was like, ‘We got to do something to show we’re actually trying to win it,’ ” Lillard told Yahoo Sports of his conversation with management. “There are so many teams in the league where some want to tank; some teams just want to be a playoff team and see if they can make things interesting; and then there are a few teams with the mindset of winning a championship.

“So for me, I was in that position where I was wondering if we’re actually trying to win a championship. I want to be a part of something where winning a title is everybody’s mission. I was asking my team, ‘Is that what we’re really trying to do? What are we doing to show that’s what we really want?’ Those were my questions, and I presented them that way. Like, ‘What are we doing? How are we honestly saying we want to win it all? What steps are we taking?’ I just had a decision to make.

BUT the one difference in those small markets and Lillard's Portland, is the lack of consistent good pieces to put him in a position to win and compete for a championship in the west. Dame knows no one would knock him if he ever did leave Portland, it was never ultimately his fault. If you’re a low market team and a starting point guard you need that team built to your weaknesses and built well around you. Steph Curry has his Klay Thompson. Trae Young has his John Collins. Ja Morant has his Jaren Jackson Jr. Though obviously it did not work out Westbrook. CJ McCollum is a good basketball player obviously but he does not necessarily complement Lillard's weaknesses, both being to average at best defenders and CJ being undersized at his position. Again I have no problem really with Dame being loyal, I actually love it and respect it. But if he wants to win a championship with Portland he's going to have to put pressure on the front office, which still seems to be a mess. Dame's four year, supermax extension puts no pressure at all on the Portland front office. A prime example is Bradley Beal, who only signed a two year extension putting a lot of pressure on Washington and currently they are one of the best teams in the east and at the least, definitely worth staying. If Dame is going to choose the money over potentially winning or competing for a chip, I love it but I wish he did it with a different organization. Specifically one that backs his words and surrounds him with championship like competence. I don't want to see Dame at age 37 or whenever his contract ends now try to go and compete for a championship when he is not in his prime like he is right now. Its a tough situation, maybe a year or two from now Dame realizes Portland is not backing him up enough to really compete and goes somewhere where he can. 

*All quotes via Yahoo Sports