One of the biggest offseason storylines in the NBA revolved around star guard Damian Lillard and his trade request. But, it was former IU basketball forward OG Anunoby who may have stole the limelight just before Lillard was traded.
Lillard, who was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks last week, was getting courted by nearly every organization in the league. One of them was the Toronto Raptors.
So, to get a call or text saying he was traded to the Raptors wouldn’t have been a total shock, but it was the way in which he received one that caught him off guard.
During NBA Media Day on Monday, Lillard sat down with NBA reporter Chris Haynes to discuss some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories related to his trade and the days and weeks leading up to it. Somehow, Anunoby was right in the middle of it.
“Everything was up in the air and I was on the phone and got a random text from OG saying ‘Welcome to Toronto.’ He’s always messing around and joking (so I didn’t know),” Lillard said. We trained in the summer … so I called this dude to see. When I finally called him, he didn’t answer and then he called me back and was laughing. It just caught me off guard … he always plays like that.”
While Damian Lillard had been in the middle of trade talks, Anunoby is another player who has been a constant name circulating the leagues trade block.
He enters the last year of his contract this season without an extension, and likely heading to free agency after the year.
According to NBA reporter Marc Stein, the Raptors can offer an extension up to four-years and $117-million.
“I love Toronto so I want to be here,” Anunoby said at Media Day. He went on to say he will let his agents work on contract talks.
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri added to the trade talk with a consistent message.
“The time for those talks is now. We’ll see how these conversations go,” Ujiri said.
The 26-year-old wing averaged 16.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game last season. He also led the NBA with 1.9 steals per game last season and was named to his first All-Defensive Team.
Here is the full interaction from Damian Lillard and Haynes regarding the Anunoby story.
