Damian Lillard trade to the Boston Celtics proposed by NBA executive

Just two months ago, if someone were to have told you that the Boston Celtics were going to thrust themselves into the legitimate playoff contender conversation prior to year’s end, you would have called them crazy.

Constantly finding themselves submerged under a .500 record whilst losing big lead after big lead, this C’s team legitimately seemed to be on track to endure yet another disappointing campaign, similar to the pedestrian one we witnessed last season where they went 36-36 and were trounced from the first round of the postseason via gentleman’s sweep.

Alas, however, since the New Year Boston has managed to turn things around in a big way, going 20-9 from January 2nd on and, in turn, now boast an overall record of 37-27 on the year, placing them sixth in the standings out in the Eastern Conference.

As a result of this resurgence, the shamrocks have set themselves up rather nicely for some truly big things, not just in this season but, also, for this coming offseason.

At this year’s deadline, President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens, managed to accomplish two very impressive things with his bevy of transactions: he managed to bring on a couple of quality players in Derrick White and Daniel Theis to help better fill out this year’s rotation while also simultaneously getting the team under the luxury tax line.

While the former was a move that was viewed as a way to help the Boston Celtics in the immediate future, the latter was one that could wind up benefiting the ball club in the longer term, as it cleared up just enough cap space so that, should the opportunity arise this summer to potentially strike a trade for a high-profile player, they could realistically find themselves in the mix to land that highly coveted third star.

Now, at the moment, the concept of this front office seeking out a blockbuster deal this coming summer is absolutely nothing more than a hypothetical scenario–after all, we still have just about two more months to go in the 2021-22 regular season.

That said, their newly-established salary situation does leave the door open for such a scenario to potentially take place and, should they opt to pursue such a high-profile player, one anonymous NBA executive believes that Damian Lillard could be this team’s main target.

According to a recently published article by Adam Taylor of Heavy.com, a league executive told the site that they believe the Trail Blazers star point guard (has missed a large chunk of this season due to an abdominal injury) is an ideal trade option for a guy like Brad Stevens:

"“Brad has a soft spot for him, I know. He is a favorite of his. Small college guy, such a hard worker. They have put themselves in a position to make a move like that."

The executive would then go on to float the groundwork for a potential trade package the Boston Celtics could propose to Portland, with the meat of the deal looking like so:

Though Taylor would go on to question whether or not such a package would be able to land the All-NBA talent in eastern Massachusetts, the nameless NBA Executive seemingly believes that, if this were to be a real proposal by Stevens and co., the Blazers may not be able to find a better offer for their aging point guard:

"“I don’t know that Portland could do better than what Boston could offer if it comes down to that. I mean, Lillard is 31 now, and with the injuries, he is not going to get the superstar package he might have drawn in the past. If you can get a couple of guys like Smart and White and some picks, you might have to do that if you are Portland.”"

What say you Boston Celtics fans? Do you believe this proposed deal (or something like it) would be enough for the Trail Blazers to part ways with their franchise cornerstone?

More importantly, do you believe this kind of deal would be worth it for the C’s to even execute?

Whatever your thoughts are, go ahead and leave your comments in the space below!