Blazers’ Lillard to Lakers? Rumor seems plausible — but is it based in reality?

While Americans celebrated the July 4 holiday, the NBA blogosphere was agog over a rumor that the Los Angeles Lakers were eyeing the Blazers’ Damian Lillard.

Who wouldn’t want Damian Lillard on their basketball team? The Portland Trail Blazers’ franchise player is an All-Star, an All-NBA First Teamer and an all-everything ambassador for the sport. Show me a team that doesn’t want Lillard, and I’ll show you a team that doesn’t know anything about hoops.

But just because it would be good if a player could be gotten doesn’t mean that player can be gotten, ya dig? NBA teams can’t just reach out and grab someone; this isn’t pick-up basketball at the local Y. There are all sorts of limitations — contractual, financial, legal, cultural.

Which is why the Lillard-to-Lakers rumor that continues to spread like wildfire across the interwebs this week makes my head ache. (That and the fact that July 4 fell on a Wednesday this year. Ugh.)

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Let’s delve deeper, yo.

Rumor

Every article I’ve seen on the topic of Lillard-to-Lakers is based on a single paragraph from a Monday, July 2, piece published by Chris Sheridan of GetMoreSports.com:

"A number of trade options are being considered by Lakers executives Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, and names that are being bandied about include Damian Lillard, Kevin Love, DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal, and John Wall … among others."

Sheridan doesn’t cite a source for this information — not even a generic “league executive” or “Lakers employee with knowledge of the ongoing discussion” or anything like that. (Compare and contrast this to when Sheridan broke the news that 2017-2018 would be LeBron James’ final season in Cleveland.)

So — right from the get-go — this is an unsubstantiated rumor. It may contain a kernel of truth — again: who wouldn’t want Lillard? — but there is no way for a reader to judge the veracity of the claim other than the feeling that it might be true.

But that didn’t stop the rumor from gaining traction — so much so that Lillard himself responded to a question about it on Twitter. (More on that in a sec.)

Wildfire

Lots of NBA writers grabbed this rumor and ran with it. Blazer’s Edge published a piece on Tuesday, explaining on Twitter that they “were extra-careful in the write-up to never imply that there were ongoing negotiations or any hint of interest from Portland.”

John Canzano of The Oregonian/OregonLive followed up with his own take on Wednesday. He doesn’t acknowledge the lack of sourcing in the original Sheridan piece, although he does write that Sheridan “has covered the NBA for years.”

Other writers across the NBA web spectrum offered their own takes on the rumor — and as I mentioned, they all point back to that original unsourced Sheridan piece. (I asked about sourcing on Twitter, but did not receive a response.)

Lillard

Rumors with a sheen of plausibility are the ones most likely to go viral. Even Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports Radio is talking about it — albeit as part of a larger discussion about the Lakers’ future.

And once a rumor has legs, it starts running like it’s Forrest Gump or something.

Just look at what happened after Lillard was asked about it:

To me, this sounds like a totally reasonable response — a way of saying that Lillard understands the NBA is a business and will be at peace with any decisions made that are beyond his control.

But you wouldn’t know that from reading some of the responses to that tweet. One piece which exemplifies what I’m talking about was published on FanSided. While acknowledging that it’s “easy to read too much into a Twitter comment,” the writer suggests that “Lillard has invited speculation he’d be a ‘happy camper’ if the Trail Blazers traded him.”

That’s not exactly how I read Lillard’s comment, but your mileage may vary. Lillard, however, does seem to understand the machinations of a rumor mill gone wild.

Blazers-Lakers

A Lillard-to-Lakers rumor is good fodder for websites hungry for eyeballs. But let’s imagine for a moment that the rumor is undeniably true: The Lakers want Lillard, and they’re actively working on ways to make a trade happen. (Let’s also say that the Blazers want to make this trade, despite all evidence to the contrary.)

Would the Blazers and Lakers be able to make this trade happen?

In a word: Nope.

Have a go at the “NBA Trade Machine” and see what needs to happen to make a Lillard-to-Lakers trade work for both teams. And then — after you get that happy green “This Trade is Successful!” alert — ask yourself how realistic such a trade scenario is right now.

Look, it’s the summer. We’re all looking for NBA things to write about. But I think it’s important to remember that not all rumors are based in reality. (Not plausibility, mind you, but reality.)

Next: What to watch for as Portland tips off Summer League

Damian Lillard may not be a Trail Blazer for life, as much as we here in Rip City want that to be the case. He may even end up wearing the Lakers’ purple and gold before his career is over.

Like Lillard, we understand the NBA is a business.

But we also understand the importance of critical thinking.

Unfortunately, a bunch of articles ultimately based on a sourceless rumor only muddy the waters, making it more difficult to ascertain the truth when it does come swimming along.

Stay skeptical, my friends.