Is it Dame Time in Boston?

    

    On July 1st NBA Insider Shams Charnia broke a league altering move in which the Milwaukee Bucks WAIVED super star point guard Damien Lillard and his remaining 113 million dollar contract to make room for defending eastern conference champion Myles Turner. Two quick points on this move, the Bucks are incredibly desperate, the Dame Giannis experiment was terminated after 1 season, the only rationale of this move is retaining Giannis. Antetokounmpo had to have been displeased with how things were going with Lillard and must have told them, to figure something out and figure it out quickly or he will be leaving in free agency. It reeks of the Irving and Durant Nets team where the super stars were holding the franchise hostage their entire tenure. 

    If I am Haliburton I am destroying things in the lockeroom, the Pacers make it all the way to a winnable game 7,  Super Star Tyreese Haliburton blows out his Achilles, and then the number 2 option on the pacers gets signed by their rival Milwaukee Bucks. The Pacers did not just take a step back they took a leap back, and it is sad to see because coming from a Celtics fan... the Pacers had a joyous style to their game. A lot of speed a lot of cutting and athleticism a lot of transition buckets, there was joy to their game and its a shame to see them crumble the way they have once the clock struck midnight.

    What does it mean for Boston? Damien Lillard has a list of 3 potential destinations that he would move on to for the next chapter of his career. The short list goes as follows in no particular order of preference, the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Boston Celtics. The huge part of acquiring this player is you are adding a super star talent, while not paying a super star salary. Due to the Milwaukee Bucks waiving Lillard, they have his contract on their books just to not have him on their team.  While the Bucks eat that super star salary, you get the player on your team at a team friendly value.

    What needs to change for Dame? It is definitely true that the Bucks gave up on it way too fast, the tandem of Lillard and Giannis should have been money. The truth was neither were willing to make the sacrifices of their own individual stats and numbers to make the other better. Their play style was your turn my turn basketball while disregarding defense, something we used to see a ton of from Tatum and Brown. When the Celtics won the championship in 2024, Mazzula ball was in its prime, the ball was alive and it was swung all around the court, minimum 3 passes a possession. The Celtics lost that a bit in this last playoff run, mainly because of the injuries. 

    If the Celtics pursue Lillard and eventually acquire him it is essential that he buys in to the playstyle. He can shoot it just as good as anyone in the league, but it is not his team, he can't dribble it into the ground for 15 seconds on the shot clock, the ball needs to be alive and everyone needs to guard their man, no player is above the team Those are the sacrifices that he and the other Celtics need to make if they want to make some noise in a shattered Eastern Conference.